Every campus tour I give is different – not everyone laughs at my jokes, some tour groups are more awake than others, but one element is always the same, prospective students and their families always comment on how uniquely beautiful LMU’s campus is, and every place visited has a story to tell.
As you prepare to make your final college decision on May 1, determining where you are going to spend the next four years of your life, I am sure you are all wondering, “Why LMU?” To me, this reason is readily apparent, illustrated in the “LMyoU” banners that began to pop up around campus a couple weeks ago. This campus has a romantic glow that radiates outwards, pulling you in. The question isn’t “why,” but “where else?”
Where else can you have class in the former top-secret headquarters of Howard Hughes and Raytheon? Where else can you walk to your evening class and see the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean? Where else can you take a 10-minute walk down to the Ballona Wetlands to conduct research on plant and wildlife for one of your science courses? Where else can you take a journalism course taught by the Entertainment Editor of LA Weekly magazine? Where else can you enroll in a theology class that combines a critical look at the criminal justice system, exposing one to alternative forms of criminal punishment, guest lectures from Jesuit priests working in the criminal justice system, and community service related to the criminal justice system? Where else can you attend class at Google in nearby Silicon Beach through the Business school’s dynamic M-School? Where else can a curriculum that encourages professors to teach based on their own academic findings mean your whole class getting invited to the Costa Rican jungle to participate in ground breaking research? Where else can you study atop a quiet oasis known as the bluff, but have the hustle and bustle of one of the most diverse and lively cities in the world at your fingertips? Nowhere else but Loyola Marymount University; anchored in Los Angeles but deeply connected to the world around it.
I say all of this, not to brag about where I go to school, but to point out that I cannot stress enough that there is something here for everyone, and that is something I have taken for granted in the past. The above are things I wish I had known three years ago when I was struggling to make my college decision like most of you are right now. LMU has a plethora of opportunities, hidden gems that it is my job as a tour guide to reveal to prospective students. As you make your final decisions, know this: LMyoU is here for you, and we want you! Because, “where else?”