La Salle is situated on a lovely wooded campus in the Olney district between Germantown and Broad Street. The historic center, train station, airport, shopping districts and sports complexes are just a subway ride away; public transportation is a real option in Philadelphia.
The faculty is competent and professors are obliged to have 10 office hours blocked weekly for the sole purpose of receiving students. Classes are fairly small and there are very few lecture hall classes, so students feel like individuals and note like numbers as in larger schools. The library is fantastic and the sports facilities are quite nice. Many educational and social programs are organized, and many sports and activities are available on campus to please most interests. Sensitivity is a must, as the predominantly white campus is in a predominantly black neighborhood; basic street smarts can go a long way.
The school is run by the Christian brothers, so a few religion and philosophy classes are mandatory. The positive side of this is that as adults at the college level, these classes are also designed to make the student look objectively at his or her own faith and reach one's own conclusions about one's relationship with God, instead of blindly following the doctrine one learns in one's home. This is a profound step in becoming an adult.
Two anecdotes can sum up the resident student experience. A friend attending a center city Philly university loved to "visit the 'burbs" to breathe the fresh air and see trees. Another friends attending a state university told me if I ever complained to her about the food, she'd hit me. These things may seem trivial, but mean a lot over a four-year college career. La Salle is one of the best things that ever happened to me; I would recommend it to anyone.
