Brescia University (BU)

Students describe Brescia as “a Catholic liberal arts university with a small class room size and hometown feel� with a focus on “helping students become all that they can be in a small class atmosphere where learning, morality, and servant leadership are encouraged.� The “intimate� environment is “wonderful for students who want individual attention� and provides students with “the chance to succeed academically, socially, and spiritually.� Students gave high marks to the professorial staff, reporting that they “have your best interests at heart,� “are always willing to help you whenever you need their help,� and are “focused on making successful people out of the students that come through Brescia.� Students did complain that the “degree offerings are fairly narrow.� However, most students felt that the education they received at Brescia left them “a little more aware, a lot brighter, and a whole lot more prepared for life.�

With a little over 450 students, Brescia is definitely on the small side. However, students say that despite it’s size, it “respects all of its students� and gives them “a chance to experience other cultures.� Although 81% of the student body is reported as Caucasian, students say that “the school makes a real effort to foster ethnic and cultural diversity on campus� and that “there are a LOT of foreign students.� “I frequently interact with students from other cultures, especially Asia and South America,� said one student. Brescia is a Catholic university, and “there is a modest, and open-minded emphasis on Catholic faith with a subtle, and gentle evangelistic tone.� However, students say that “there are many students who are not Catholic� including who “comfortably engage in the social and intellectual life of the school.� As might be expected at a religious school, the campus has a more traditional ideological bent, with students warning that “some more liberally minded students might find the student body a little on the conservative side.� Nevertheless, independent of their religion or ideology, “everyone has the same goal: to learn.�

Located in Owensboro, KY, Brescia is not known for its big-city lifestyle. However, “Student Government and other campus organizations sponsor numerous social activities to compensate for the small amount of fun offered by the city,� such as “free ice skating, midnight bowling, dances, and parties.� Students say that they have “opportunities to see traveling Broadway shows at local community venues at steep discounts and free admission to any local philharmonic orchestral concerts,� and there are even opportunities for travel abroad (which, of course, is “educationally focused and credits earned are applied to student's transcripts�). Another large part of life at Brescia is the sports program, which has been described as “the most important thing here.� Says one student, “there is no one who doesn't pay attention to sports.�