Loyola Anthropology Major

Catholic, white, from around the area

There are definitely alot of culturally catholic students here, although I do not attend mass on a regular basis, I'm not sure how many are active in the Jesuit-Catholic tradition at Loyola. There are alot of caucasian students here, you might see greater diversity on the varsity sports teams. I was surprised when I started at Loyola how many students commute or go home on some weekends. That makes it more difficult to build community among the student population as they are frequently absent.

Loyola currently (Spring 2008) has a manageable population. They are pushing a big growth of each forthcoming freshman class to fund the gorwing university. I am not sure that Loyola has throughly thought out ways to grow in a sustainable way. Seems like we are just a few construction seasons away from all of our green space gone. But that may be one of the costs of going to school in the big city. I do applaud Loyola for building a second turf field just east of the largest freshman dorm, Mertz Hall, but then they do not allow organized activities on it - like practice of club sports teams. Loyola does not look kindly or help out club sports teams. And I frequently see the for-profit preschool kids running around on it. A sight that makes me smile as they run and play, but I wish the field would benefit the paying students more. Chicago is awesome. I would encourage anyone to come to Chicago in any capacity (whether through Loyola or not).

Every professor I have met in the Anthropology department has promoted learning in interesting ways and encouraged me to study topics that interest me. I have also been encouraged to go to an archaeological field school during a summer or the summer after I graduate (2009) and have it count for credit - another way to study in a different place. Sadly to say that linguistic anthropology is underrepresented here and there is no Linguistic major. The anthropology professors are all interesting and good people. My 300-level Anth classes are usually small (20 - 25) people, which makes it easy to discuss topics in the interest of human history. My favorite class this semester is Ice Age America (Anth 341) with Dr. Amick. This class is like nothing I expected and I learned so much about climate change, how modern humans populated the Americas, and how those populations have impacted the landscape. I also am an Economics major (in the College of Arts and Sciences, not the Business School), so commuting to the downtown campus for the upper level Econ classes is kind of a hassle. There is always a fight to get on the shuttle between the campuses, so the express or "L" train is what I use half of the time. I also attempted to be a Statistics major for 3 semesters and that was pretty difficult. The Math and Stats department was pretty uninviting and uninspiring (although I do not have a mathematical frame of mind).

If I am awake on a Tueday at 2 am, I am likely coming home from studying in the Library or the Information Commons. Or throwing the frisbee around on a dimly lit field (cause the Library and Information Commons both close at 2 am during the regular semseter [not during finals week]). Or I am wasting time on the internet before going to bed.

If I had to do it all over again, would I choose Loyola? I like my life here in Chicago and at Loyola (the people I have met, the activities I participate in) but none of it should credit the school itself. I like my life here because I made it that way. I do not think I would chose Loyola again for reasons of the school and because I know myself better.