<p>scottj – I wasn’t deriding schools, just stating a fairly well known fact that the four Catholic colleges I mentioned are almost universally more highly regarded than four randomly mentioned “secular” schools. I could just as easily picked Washington College or Rowan University but they are harder to spell than Quinnipiac.</p>
<p>“So Holy Cross, Boston College, Notre Dame and Georgetown are not as highly regarded as Suffolk University, Middle Tennessee State, SUNY Potsdam and Quinnipeac University?”</p>
<p>Tut, tut, is that the best they can do?! I am sure that if you examine the issue more you will find any number of “name” colleges whose academics are only ‘less than or equal to’ the three esteemed Jesuit colleges named above, and the other one located in Indiana! (no offense ND, it’s just that the educational heritage of the Order of the Holy Cross is no match for that of the Society of Jesus).</p>
<p>leanid – Not sure what you are responding to. I was responding to the poster who said this:</p>
<p>"This is a really silly thread. ALL of the religious-affiliated colleges are not as well thought of as secular colleges, for all kinds of reasons. It just is. "</p>
<p>Leanid, ND is more selective and more highly regarded than any Jesuit school. Georgetown is probably the closest. People overrate Jesuit school considering most of them are poor to average.</p>
<p>Holy Cross is very good. BC is pretty good. Fordham has a good law school. Loyola - MD and marquette are okay. Beyond that you have several less respected colleges trying to draw student through their Jesuit affilitation . Scranton and St. Josephs are below average schools. For example, St. Joseph has one of the highest acceptance rates in the country. There are a few good Jesuit colleges (3 out of 22) but many poor ones.</p>
<p>The Jesuit education is a myth. Georgetown has gained academic acclaim by moving away from the Jesuit traditions and by secularizing the university.</p>
<p>TominVt, you make some pretty broad claims in post #24. What is the basis of your claims? Have you dealt with Jesuits much? It’s easy to find out that there are 28 Jesuit colleges in the US, and you got that wrong. I’m wondering if maybe your other info is wrong too.</p>
<p>During the last nine years of his life, Ignatius (founder of the Jesuits) opened 33 schools. Within a century 300 Jesuit colleges dotted Catholic Europe in “one of the great extensions and consolidations of Renaissance humanism”. His innovations were perpetuated by his followers so that two centuries later Jesuits operated 740 Jesuit schools (survivors of over a thousand which had been started) and taught in eleven other state schools. Jesuits were called the schoolmasters of Europe during these centuries, not only because of their schools but also for their pre-eminence as scholars and for the thousands of textbooks they composed. Christopher Clavius, S.J., for example, whom Descartes and Leibniz acknowledged as a source of their inspiration, wrote a standard geometry text used throughout Europe. </p>
<p>Today there is an extensive network of Jesuit schools educating one and a half million students. There are 90 Jesuit colleges in 27 countries. Here in the United States the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities have over a million living graduates. There are also 430 Jesuit high schools in 55 countries. In these schools the Ignatian system of values has attracted exceptionally competent faculty as well as highly qualified students. They form a Jesuit network, not that they are administered in the same way, but that they pursue the same goals. </p>
<p>from: [Jesuit</a> Educational Tradition](<a href=“http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/se/sjedtrad.htm]Jesuit”>http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/se/sjedtrad.htm)</p>
<p>Okay, so 3 out of 28 are very good schools. A couple more are good. The rest are average or worse. </p>
<p>Notice how Princeton Review or US News give the religious affiliation for colleges. Most catholic colleges report “Religious Affiliation: Roman Catholic” but the Jesuit Schools all say “Religious Affiliation: Jesuit.” I think it is a marketing gimmick.</p>
<p>TominVt,</p>
<p>Are you aware that the University of Scranton has one of the highest acceptance rates to medical school among Pa colleges and Universities? (compare to Lafayette, Lehigh, Carnegie Mellon, Penn etc.) Pre-med is well respected at U Scranton. So much so that they were encouraged by the colleges of the state to build their own medical school. I am not a graduate of Scranton, but I think it is a fine school.</p>
<p>The Jesuit schools are not a myth, they are among the best schools in the country.</p>
<p>No I’m not “aware” of that and I don’t believe it. </p>
<p>What do you mean by highest acceptance rate? How many people apply (do they need approval by the administration?)? LaSalle used to claim this too and it was because the pre-med majors were not given the university’s endorsement if they were not likely to be accepted. Also which medical schools are they being accepted to? Johns Hopkins or some unknown osteopathic program? </p>
<p>BTW, the average SAT for a Scranton student is an 1120 and their average high school gpa of 3.36. Somehow these kids miraculously become better candidates for medical school than the kids with a 1300 - 1400+ and a 3.9 from Lehigh, Lafayette, Villanova, Bucknell, Swarthmore, Penn, Haverford, Gettysburg, Franklin and Marshall, CMU, etc. (That was 10 better schools in PA just off of the top of my head.) Jesuits must be magic!</p>
<p>If you seriously are gullible enough to believe that Scan-tron is sending as many graduates to major medical schools as Penn, Lafayette, and CMU, etc. I am not surprised that you would believe in the mythical Jesuit education.</p>
<p>Here’s a funny link: [Which</a> are the best pre-med schools in Pennsylvania? - Yahoo! Answers](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/question/index?qid=20080731081418AAOa4qY]Which”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/question/index?qid=20080731081418AAOa4qY)</p>
<p>I had nothing to do with the Scranton comment.</p>
<p>As a final comment, I am not trying to say Scranton is a bad school. Scranton is fine. What I am trying to say is that the majority of Jesuit schools are average. There are a few that are very good, like georgetown, that rival other esteemed universities like Duke, Penn, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, etc. But the majority of the Jesuit schools are not on that level. Each college stands on it’s own merit and a Jesuit affiliation does not make Wheeling or St. Joseph’s the equivalent of Georgetown or Holy Cross. Too many people buy into that Jesuit marketing gimmick.</p>
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<p>Tom: Why are you setting up a strawman? Who beleives that St. Joe’s is the equivalent of Georgetown? Do you have any proof? Or, are you just venting/bashing for fun?</p>
<p>No, I’m not bashing at all. I am responding to comments such as this one: </p>
<p>“no offense ND, it’s just that the educational heritage of the Order of the Holy Cross is no match for that of the Society of Jesus.” </p>
<p>I was raised in a non-religious family (and I remain that way) but I was raised around a lot of catholics. I know the way some of them act in relation to the Jesuits. I also have been privy to the Jesuit Myth. Don’t pretend it doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>^^I can’t say I’ve ever heard of it, as it relates to US colleges (there is a theory in France)…but, of course, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. In your opinion, what exactly is the “Jesuit Myth”?</p>
<p>btw: how do you know that the quote below is not just some fun-loving, trash-talking between competitors/big rivals, such as UMich-Ohio State, Cal-Stanford, USC-UCLA, Duke-Carolina? (Note, even while trash-talking, its usually done in great respect.)</p>
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<p>I am not talking about any weird conspiracy theory. I am talking about the idea promulgated by the Jesuits that they are the academic elite.</p>
<p>We’ve seen a lot of Jesuit affiliated schools in our college search process, did our on-line research as well (like everyone else), and we were never left with such an impression from the schools themselves - that the Jesuits considered themselves “academic elite” in a negative sense, as the previous poster hints.</p>
<p>Either the school was a good one, or not, based on other criterion of an academic nature all of us on this end considered and reviewed, and the Jesuit ideals and involvement at the school could be viewed as an additional positive (or negative) item, depending on one’s perspective, to the overall package of what a college offered to a student.</p>
<p>The fact that Jesuit schools simply list themselves as one of 28 educational institutions (in the Jesuit category) of higher learning didn’t leave us with such an idea that they were elitist or even arrogant in that regard.</p>
<p>most of these people are clearly biased. if you look at the rankings BC is mid 30’s in the national universities rankings, and holy cross is mid 30’s in the liberal arts school rankings. they are very close in reputation and ranking despite all of these people’s opinions. so choose depending on what you want to study and which college is stronger in that program, what your looking for in a college, and which school you feel most comfortable at, just in case you change your mind about transferring or are unlucky in doing so. they are both great schools and if you are successful your first year at either one, you should be able to go wherever you want</p>
<p>I am currently a high school senior awaiting admission to several colleges and universities around the U.S. Therefore, I lack a lot of knowledge about life and people in general. That being said…I just wanted to say Schmaltz straight up dropped some knowledge on the OP in a big way. I truly believe there is some truth in what he said for all of us…</p>
<p>I would recommend Holy Cross as a better spring board for transfer. BC, for the school if you want to stay there or as a back up in case you can’t get out. It’s easier, IMO , to write that transfer essay from a small school and wanting to go to a bigger one like Cornell. Colleges like to see good reason for a transfer and do not tend to take transfers from like schools. A kid unhappy at BC is not going to see much different at Cornell, instance, whereas a student doing well at an intense LAC like HC, wanting a larger school and out of that location to a school like Cornell is a more understandable request. You can’t say what you really want which is you wan to be in an Ivy or a more highly rated school as that would be a death knell for transfer requests.</p>
<p>I think the biggest difference between Holy Cross and BC is simply the size of the schools. HC has less than 3000 total students (all undergrad). BC has over 9000 undergrads plus several thousand grad students for a total of over 14,000 students. [Enrollment</a> Statistics - Office of Student Services - Boston College](<a href=“http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/offices/stserv/enroll.html]Enrollment”>http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/offices/stserv/enroll.html)</p>
<p>Hmm…this thread is more than three years old. Whatever the OP’s decision, he or she is on their way to graduation now. Why re-post on this?</p>