Faith and service are woven into almost every aspect of campus life, creating exciting opportunities for you to explore your deepest beliefs and highest aspirations.
A Spirit of Service
One of our founders, Mother Rosalie Clifton Hill, RCSJ, understood faith as a light which illuminates our search for ultimate meaning and purpose. This was the faith she hoped students would come to discover at the University of San Diego. Her dream is very much alive today.
The faith that animates USD leads us outward, compels us to engage the world in an openhearted way and requires an education that reaches below the surface to examine the very heart of things. In the classroom, around campus and out in the community, while you’re at USD, you will develop an awareness of the needs of others, the most urgent challenges facing our world today and the reality of our interconnectedness.
This spirit of service may take you into our local neighborhood, to downtown San Diego, across the border or to far-flung corners of the world.
By the Numbers
#8
Best Catholic Colleges in America
11
Retreats Yearly
416,341
Community Engagement Hours Yearly
16
Masses Weekly
There are many facets to our faith community: As a Catholic university, we welcome and include students from every background and faith tradition, creating a caring community where all can belong and grow in their spirituality. Masses, prayer services, retreats and faith sharing groups are offered year round. We give students abundant opportunities to serve with compassion, practice changemaking and address humanity’s urgent challenges. In all that we do, we inspire and challenge our students to see the world, and themselves, with new eyes. Our Catholic identity and all that it entails help to provide many ways that faith and service enrich students' experience at USD.