Soka University of America Top Questions

What is your overall opinion of this school?

Jaroslav

It provides me with an environment that helps me determine my direction, which I feel with my heart I want to follow.

Torry

Well, SUA is kind of like the perfect little community--that is of course fully aware that no community is perfect.. no. Our classes are reeeally small, and the attention we receive is reeeally focused on our progress and success. I love the professors here: it's almost as if their main goal is to reduce the gap between students and teachers to make us feel comfortable to think, speak, and write. The founder of the university, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda build this place with the idea in mind of providing us with everything possible for us not to have to worry about aaaaaanything but our academics.. nice, huh? The dorms are cleeean and quite comfortable. We have either double or single rooms, but you'll NEVER share a room or a restroom with more than one other person. Yes, our dorms are co-ed.. rooms are not! haha Also, the first floor of every building has a laundry room and a multi-purpose room (aka MRP) w/ a flat screen tv, either a pool table, ping pong table, or a piano depending on the building, and a pantry with a fridge, microwave, etc... it's nice! In my opinion, this place is beeeatiful and super comfortable. It is totally worth it to take a tour of the university... www.soka.edu to reserve it =)

Aarushi

We have: 1) a super diverse student body: over 30 countries, so its pretty much very international. 2)you have the opportunity to learn about different perspectives since you have access to first hand occupants of different countries and products of different cultures. 3) Student Professor ratio is 9:1. 4) the profs actually know your name, your face and your personality. 5) there is no hierarchy between students and professors. 6) we are able to talk to them informally and as peers. 7) the campus atmosphere puts you at ease. so you can concentrate on the main things in life. 8) super strong social and moral support system going on. 9) easy to make friends. 10) exposure to different personalities of different people. So, that helps you learn more about yourself and how to deal with certain people.

Jerry

The best thing about Soka is its student diversity. Students come from over 23 US states and 30 countries. I get to meet so many students from around the globe in this small campus environment so I get to visit them during my school breaks :) I've been to Wisconsin, San Francisco, Yosemite, Japan (Osaka and Tokyo) and I plan to visit India, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Las Vegas, England, Nepal, Tanzania and more! In a sense, it means free accomodation wherever you go traveling. People usually have several cultures as part of their identity too. For example, I'm a Japanese-Australian. Also, I have a friend who's Japanese, but grew up in Venezuela (so she's fluent in Spanish, English and Japanese), and my best friend is Japanese too, but she was born in Hong Kong, and grew up in Japan, Bangladesh, France, Switzerland, Nepal, and England. My friend from Germany is liberal, down-to-earth and open-minded, therefore being a master at the Chinese-language. I also get insights into different perspectives and cultures, so everyday is an interesting day. People are always surprised when they hear that Study Abroad is a graduation requirement here. The study abroad program helps students take a break from their studies and reflect on their interests and future. It's also about being a global citizen: placing oneself in an unfamiliar environment and seeing things from a different cultural perspective. People are always surprised when they hear that Study Abroad is a graduation requirement here. The study abroad program helps students take a break from their studies and reflect on their interests and future. It's also about being a global citizen: placing oneself in an unfamiliar environment and seeing things from a different culture, and a different perspective. We also have something called Learning Cluster, where students engage in an interdisciplinary 3-week research. We only take the one course for the month and people get to engange in experiential learning. In my freshmen year, I took "Building La Escuela Freire" (learning about charter schools and the politics of education). As a class, we took several fieldtrips to Santa Ana to conduct naturalistic observation of the community and the schools. This year, I had the opportunity to take "women leadership education and empowerment." LC is always a chance to learn something that is not part of the Soka curriculum. Taking both of the LCs, I had a life-changing experience. Learning Clusters are great opportunities to widen on'es perspectives, and for some people, a great opportunity to travel. Funding for LCs has improved over the years. This year, many students went to India, Korea, Panama, Guatemala, Peru, and China. Those who stayed back had great encounters with leaders across the nation.