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SHU AT A GLANCE

FACTS-AT-A-GLANCE

Founded in 1963 by the Most Reverend Walter W. Curtis, Bishop of Bridgeport

  • SHU is the second-largest Catholic university in New England and was the first in America to be led and staffed by lay people.
  • The Princeton Review includes SHU among the Best 368 Colleges: 2009, while U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges 2009
    ranks SHU in the top tier of Master's Universities in the North in its annual college rankings. The University’s John F. Welch College of Business is also included in the Princeton Review’s 2009 Best 296 Business Schools. SHU also ranks 11th in the nation on Intel's 2005 Most Unwired College Campuses.

  • Approximately 6,000 students attend the University; the Fall 2008 headcount included 3,520 full-time undergraduates, 754 part-time undergraduates and 1,684 graduate students
  • The top four states in which first-year undergraduate students and their families permanently reside are New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
  • 40% of the Class of 2011 had a high school GPA of 3.5 or higher.
  • In acknowledgement of its outstanding efforts to serve and support students from first-generation, low-income, and otherwise underserved backgrounds, SHU has been included in the inaugural College Access & Opportunity Guide, the first comprehensive college guidebook dedicated to promoting college opportunity for the traditionally underserved.

Alumni

  • More than 30,000 degrees have been awarded to over 28,000 alumni.
  • SHU alumni can be found in nearly every state in the U.S.

Faculty

  • Over 80% of the University's full-time faculty members hold the highest degrees in their field. 
  • The student-to-faculty ratio is 13:1, with an average class size of 20.5 students.

Academics

Technology

  • Upon enrollment all full-time undergraduates receive their choice of a Mac or PC laptop computer included in the cost of tuition, which is replaced after two years. Students keep this laptop upon graduation.
  • The University is fully wireless — indoors and out — and ranked 11th in the nation on Intel's most recent list of “Most Unwired College Campuses.”

Athletics

  • Nearly 800 students participate in the University's 31 Division I athletic teams.
  • For the 2007-2008 season, Sacred Heart University won its first Northeast Conference Commissioner’s Cup, awarded to the top-performing athletic program in the conference.
  • SHU offers a wide variety of competitive club sports for the undergraduate student body.  There are currently 18 active club sports teams that provide students with the opportunity to compete against other schools and universities, improve athletic ability, and make new friends.

Financial Aid

  • More than 90% of all full-time undergraduates receive financial aid, representing a University commitment of nearly $30 million annually.
  • In spring 2008, the University announced that full-time undergraduate students with family income below $50,000 who are admitted to SHU from Fairfield County high schools will be provided a tuition-free education.

Community Service

  • SHU's Habitat for Humanity campus chapter has earned a place in the top five collegiate chapters among more than 500 in the nation.
  • More than 1,200 students and members of the faculty and staff volunteer in excess of 31,000 hours each year largely within the City of Bridgeport, but also regionally, nationally, and internationally.
  • Sacred Heart University has earned public recognition from the state of Connecticut for its volunteer service efforts in twelve of the past fourteen years.
  • In Spring 2008, SHU finished third in the nation in the “ONE Campus Challenge” - a campaign that seeks to raise public awareness about the issues of global poverty, hunger, and disease.

Campus Housing

The Campus

  • Sacred Heart University is set on 65 acres in suburban Fairfield, Connecticut, ranked in the top place to live in the Northeast and #9 in the country in Money magazine’s 2006 list of “Best Places to Live.”  Fairfield is 90 minutes from Manhattan and 150 minutes from Boston
  • The University maintains branch operations for working adults in Stamford, and Griswold, Connecticut.

SHU Abroad

  • SHU has the only American-accredited MBA program in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and a residential study-abroad program in the Irish-speaking community of Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland.
  • International experiences are available to SHU students worldwide and through our varied study-abroad programs located at the American University of Rome, in Italy, the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle, Australia, and the University of Granada, in Spain.

SHU Annual Report

©2009 - SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY
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