Saint Xavier University

On Tuesday, August 26th I visited Saint Xavier University. SXU is the closest university to Morgan Park Academy, with it's main campus situated on 103rd between Pulaski and Central Park. SXU is a relatively small school, enrolling over 5500 people, 3300 of which are undergraduate students. SXU has 35 different majors to choose from in 5 different colleges; (Business Management, Arts and Sciences, Nursing, Education, and Continuing Studies). Below is a map of their 75 acre main campus. There are additional campus location in Orland Park and downtown Chicago.



I was fortunate to have my very own tour guide, Jen, a junior from Oak Lawn. Jen isn't a regular tour guide but she has been employed in the Admission Office as a student worker for the past couple of years, so she did a fine job. Most on campus employment at colleges and universities is considered work study, a form of financial aid. At Saint Xavier more than 90% of the student body receives some type of financial assistance.

Saint Xavier University is a Catholic institution, but as with the other Catholic schools we have seen, (DePaul and Loyola), SXU welcomes students from every religious background, be they Catholic, Chrisitian, or otherwise.


Here is Saint Xavier, himself.





One of SXU's best programs is its School of Nursing. Students are not admitted directly into the school of nursing, but are admitted as preclinical nursing majors. Provided they complete their first semester with a GPA of a 2.75 or better and received no final course grade lower than a C, students are then admitted into the School of Nursing. Once admitted students must continue to do well in their classes, particularly in the sciences, in order to continue on to clinical nursing courses.


Saint Xavier University is actually the oldest Catholic college in Chicago, opening in 1846, decades before Loyola or DePaul.


This is the main entrance of the Warde Academic Center, the largest, oldest, and most widely used building on campus. Warde houses all student services and student affairs offices, the main cafeteria, the library, an art gallery, and many classrooms. There is an information desk as soon as you enter the building.





One of the major changes at SXU is how residential it has become. After existing as a commuter campus for most of its history, SXU has evolved into a predominantly residential campus. While the bulk of SXU students still come from the Chicagoland area, the university now gets students from all over the country. These beautiful new residence halls, replete with their own quad, serve upper division students.





Here is Lake Marian, a man made lake which abuts some of the residence halls and serves as a lovely water feature in the center of campus. It also attracts a variety of water fowl.


Regina Hall is one of the two halls for freshmen students on campus.











Here is a Mac lab. There are several computer labs available on campus.








This is the rec center. All students have a membership here. The SXU mascot is the Cougar. SXU athletes compete in the NAIA Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference. For listing of SXU's teams, see here.








This is a view of the library in Warde.





SXU owns a bar across the street from campus. Gilhooley's is the site of a lot of fun events for SXU students. Underage drinkers beware, however, as getting caught at Gilhooley's during restricted times could result in expulsion from the university!


One of the most unique features of SXU, and one of the ways that it is similar to MPA, is its diversity. 1/3 of its student body are students of color, including 16% of its students who are African American. SXU was ranked in the top ten of most diverse colleges and universities in the midwest. For more information like this see here.

Saint Xavier University employs a rolling admission process. To apply see here.

Like Wheaton, applicants to SXU are distributed among the admission counselors alphabetically by last name, so MPA does not have a specific counselor working with our students. To find out more about the admission staff see here. To schedule a visit at SXU, see here.
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