I think of it like as Silicon Valley Villanova. Solid, but not elite. Favorable location. Upper middle class kids who may be in a "bubble" but fully expect to have jobs on graduation. Less likely to write a screenplay, have a substack, or get a PhD in philosophy. Very likely to be making 200k by the time they're 30.

Like all things college, any information from the 20th century is not relevant.

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and: I'm so confused!

It’s a fantastic school, underrated, good job placement, attractive campus. Some like to party, some don’t. Lots of private school kids. I think most students would have a good four years there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was a safety for my student last year. Not a STEM kid. My student was accepted RD with 7500/year merit. 3.9 UW and 4.3 W with high rigor in DCPS and with a 1490 SAT (near perfect verbal). Just weighing in to say they give merit but not much. My student is elsewhere.

I am in DC but a CA native and agree it is well regarded in CA, but below Stanford, Cal,! UCLA and USC. Great location for internships.

OMG! don't listen to this person. I'm a californian of 40 years. It is NOT well regarded "but below Stanford". nononono. party school

You must not be in Silicon Valley. I am and am a lifelong Californian. It is very well-regarded here, which is why it has such good job placement.

It also isn’t remotely a party school. Weird comment.

It is a regional school. Very few people outside CA have heard of it

I guess I'm one of the very few!

I really don’t get the PPs who are fixated on trashing the school? Maybe they resent the connection the school has to high tech or something. Idk. Weirdly aggressive posters, in any event.

In any event, it’s a solid school with a very strong pipeline to high tech and strong STEM offerings. The campus itself is pretty enough but the area around it is pretty boring and tedious. Housing nearby is very expensive. It isn’t a party school in part because there really isn’t any place to party, for better or worse. It’s become a lot more competitive in recent years so while it offers merit aid, the packages are smaller. It’s a Catholic school and there is a religious presence on campus.

One specific note if applicable: it has an excellent track record for Latino graduates in STEM. It has many years of taking in bright Latino first-gen students and placing them well in STEM graduate school. The school recruits specifically for this cohort and has a record of success in this that far exceeds most other STEM programs, and they also pushed this initiative long before diversity became a buzzword. So, if your child is a first-gen Latino interested in STEM, it would be a welcoming place.

Anonymous wrote:Anti-semitic as all get out, like the rest of the CA schools, just fyi.

I find this very hard to believe of a Jesuit school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was a safety for my student last year. Not a STEM kid. My student was accepted RD with 7500/year merit. 3.9 UW and 4.3 W with high rigor in DCPS and with a 1490 SAT (near perfect verbal). Just weighing in to say they give merit but not much. My student is elsewhere.

I am in DC but a CA native and agree it is well regarded in CA, but below Stanford, Cal,! UCLA and USC. Great location for internships.

OMG! don't listen to this person. I'm a californian of 40 years. It is NOT well regarded "but below Stanford". nononono. party school

You must not be in Silicon Valley. I am and am a lifelong Californian. It is very well-regarded here, which is why it has such good job placement.

It also isn’t remotely a party school. Weird comment.

It is a regional school. Very few people outside CA have heard of it

Yeah, right. That’s why it is getting so much space on a Washington DC parents’ forum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and: I'm so confused!

I think that there are plenty of people on DCUM who want to look down on any school that hasn't been elite since 1935, or doesn't have a single digit ranking.

My understanding is that Santa Clara is a well regarded school that is not at the very top, but offers a solid education, and has many happy students and successful graduates. Like many schools in that category, it has a few programs that are particularly notable, particularly its CS department and connection to Silicon valley.

If you look at it's USNWR rankings, it's ranked similarly to CWRU, Northeastern, Brandeis, GWU, RPI, Syracuse, Miami and Villanova, other midsized private research institutions that offer a solid education without being super selective and elite. A student can absolutely go to one of these schools, including Santa Clara, and get a fine education and go on to a solid career.

That's helpful thank you. Though I bet someone will chime in right about now to disagree and bring up vaccines.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was a safety for my student last year. Not a STEM kid. My student was accepted RD with 7500/year merit. 3.9 UW and 4.3 W with high rigor in DCPS and with a 1490 SAT (near perfect verbal). Just weighing in to say they give merit but not much. My student is elsewhere.

I am in DC but a CA native and agree it is well regarded in CA, but below Stanford, Cal,! UCLA and USC. Great location for internships.

OMG! don't listen to this person. I'm a californian of 40 years. It is NOT well regarded "but below Stanford". nononono. party school

You must not be in Silicon Valley. I am and am a lifelong Californian. It is very well-regarded here, which is why it has such good job placement.

It also isn’t remotely a party school. Weird comment.

It is a regional school. Very few people outside CA have heard of it

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and: I'm so confused!

I think that there are plenty of people on DCUM who want to look down on any school that hasn't been elite since 1935, or doesn't have a single digit ranking.

My understanding is that Santa Clara is a well regarded school that is not at the very top, but offers a solid education, and has many happy students and successful graduates. Like many schools in that category, it has a few programs that are particularly notable, particularly its CS department and connection to Silicon valley.

If you look at it's USNWR rankings, it's ranked similarly to CWRU, Northeastern, Brandeis, GWU, RPI, Syracuse, Miami and Villanova, other midsized private research institutions that offer a solid education without being super selective and elite. A student can absolutely go to one of these schools, including Santa Clara, and get a fine education and go on to a solid career.

OP here, and: I'm so confused!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:60% acceptance rate $60k tuition per year (plus the rest).

It's not highly regarded in CA, it's considered middle-of-the-road.

Parent with kids in CA high schools now, looking at colleges.

>>It's not highly regarded in CA, it's considered middle-of-the-road.<<

Does it have something else going for it? For example a good co-op program or dedicated teachers or some unusual study model? Just trying to find a sensible reason to like it, aside from the fact that it's easy to get into and CA.

I disagree with this as well. Obviously it’s not in the same league as Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA. It’s most similar to USC, except smaller, undergraduate focused and Jesuit. 52% of students come from private schools. Diverse but it also has a bro culture which is rare in California.

I live in WA state. My kid is at a school with a huge group of parents who were born and raised here, went to Santa Clara, and came straight back. It’s where rich graduates from our private school with good but not awesome grades aspire to go. I think the school offers a lot of opportunities but most of the kids I know who go there are most comfortable in a little bubble and want to do something business-y.

Yup, PP you are responding to, and I agree!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:60% acceptance rate $60k tuition per year (plus the rest).

It's not highly regarded in CA, it's considered middle-of-the-road.

Parent with kids in CA high schools now, looking at colleges.

I’m in California and I disagree with the bolded entirely. You say you are a parent with kids in CA high schools now. Where, and how long have you been here?

For CS it’s extensively recruited from by SV companies.

Why the shock? Obviously nobody is asking for home addresses, but the PP saying she is a parent of kids in CA high schools sounds pretty out of touch? I could see someone who is in, say, rural Northern California being a little out of touch with hiring in SV, or someone who hasn’t been in California long.

I have no connection to the school whatsoever but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask the PP those questions.

Multiple posters have agreed its a mediocre school. You don't need anyone's credentials. And stop sock puppeting, it's not allowed.

Okay crazy. You are too nuts to engage. Are you one of the weirdos from the other thread who says they trash schools on DCUM because of a high school grudge? That would track.

OP, just understand that some of the people in this thread are quite obviously insane (see above). Also, just to be clear, I have no connection to the school.

Anti-semitic as all get out, like the rest of the CA schools, just fyi.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:60% acceptance rate $60k tuition per year (plus the rest).

It's not highly regarded in CA, it's considered middle-of-the-road.

Parent with kids in CA high schools now, looking at colleges.

I’m in California and I disagree with the bolded entirely. You say you are a parent with kids in CA high schools now. Where, and how long have you been here?

For CS it’s extensively recruited from by SV companies.

Why the shock? Obviously nobody is asking for home addresses, but the PP saying she is a parent of kids in CA high schools sounds pretty out of touch? I could see someone who is in, say, rural Northern California being a little out of touch with hiring in SV, or someone who hasn’t been in California long.

I have no connection to the school whatsoever but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask the PP those questions.

Multiple posters have agreed its a mediocre school. You don't need anyone's credentials. And stop sock puppeting, it's not allowed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:60% acceptance rate $60k tuition per year (plus the rest).

It's not highly regarded in CA, it's considered middle-of-the-road.

Parent with kids in CA high schools now, looking at colleges.

I’m in California and I disagree with the bolded entirely. You say you are a parent with kids in CA high schools now. Where, and how long have you been here?

For CS it’s extensively recruited from by SV companies.

Why the shock? Obviously nobody is asking for home addresses, but the PP saying she is a parent of kids in CA high schools sounds pretty out of touch? I could see someone who is in, say, rural Northern California being a little out of touch with hiring in SV, or someone who hasn’t been in California long.

I have no connection to the school whatsoever but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask the PP those questions.