Academics
Students describe Brescia as “a Catholic liberal arts university with a small class room size and hometown feel” with a focus on “helping students become all that they can be in a small class atmosphere where learning, morality, and servant leadership are encouraged.” The “intimate” environment is “wonderful for students who want individual attention” and provides students with “the chance to succeed academically, socially, and spiritually.” Students gave high marks to the professorial staff, reporting that they “have your best interests at heart,” “are always willing to help you whenever you need their help,” and are “focused on making successful people out of the students that come through Brescia.” Students did complain that the “degree offerings are fairly narrow.” However, most students felt that the education they received at Brescia left them “a little more aware, a lot brighter, and a whole lot more prepared for life.”
Student Body
With a little over 450 students, Brescia is definitely on the small side. However, students say that despite it’s size, it “respects all of its students” and gives them “a chance to experience other cultures.” Although 81% of the student body is reported as Caucasian, students say that “the school makes a real effort to foster ethnic and cultural diversity on campus” and that “there are a LOT of foreign students.” “I frequently interact with students from other cultures, especially Asia and South America,” said one student. Brescia is a Catholic university, and “there is a modest, and open-minded emphasis on Catholic faith with a subtle, and gentle evangelistic tone.” However, students say that “there are many students who are not Catholic” including who “comfortably engage in the social and intellectual life of the school.” As might be expected at a religious school, the campus has a more traditional ideological bent, with students warning that “some more liberally minded students might find the student body a little on the conservative side.” Nevertheless, independent of their religion or ideology, “everyone has the same goal: to learn.”
Campus Life
Located in Owensboro, KY, Brescia is not known for its big-city lifestyle. However, “Student Government and other campus organizations sponsor numerous social activities to compensate for the small amount of fun offered by the city,” such as “free ice skating, midnight bowling, dances, and parties.” Students say that they have “opportunities to see traveling Broadway shows at local community venues at steep discounts and free admission to any local philharmonic orchestral concerts,” and there are even opportunities for travel abroad (which, of course, is “educationally focused and credits earned are applied to student's transcripts”). Another large part of life at Brescia is the sports program, which has been described as “the most important thing here.” Says one student, “there is no one who doesn't pay attention to sports.”