^ Fair enough. How about this? - “For my wife and me, both practicing Catholics with a combined 30 years of Catholic schooling under our belts, the overly Catholic atmosphere at Notre Dame felt over the top particularly compared to all the other universities (Catholic and otherwise), that we visited over a four-year long college search, which all seemed to be emphasising diversity”
@londondad ^Excellent!
@me29034, we toured Fordham in June and religion was only talked about in that the guides let us know that it wasn’t really emphasized. They also mentioned that the school would provide transportation to any church/synagogue/mosque for students.
^Same. Loved Fordham - D did not like the overbearing core curriculum. Freshman cannot even choose their elective first semester of Freshman year. Its chosen for them.
For the record, The Gatekeepers was published 14 years ago, so who knows how long before that that “story” took place. Don’t think it’s fair to throw Wesleyan under the bus and suggest it might be the “heroin story” college. (I have zero connections to Wes)
Weird is subjective and not out of line with all the other posts, IMO. Remember that all these posts are subjective. Do your own visits, form your own opinions.
Speaking of religion at colleges, one of the things that shot Muhlenberg up in relation to some other schools on D17’s list was that they’re an openly religious school (Lutheran) with a lot of subtle religious symbolism on campus—well, subtle except for the chapel being pretty much front-and-center prominently placed on the campus—but the religious emphasis is very much directed toward supporting students in the development of whatever religious philosophy they might decide for, whether it’s Lutheranism or some other Protestantism or Judaism or Islam or a complete rejection of religion or not really caring too much about religious questions one way or the other.
At the other extreme among campuses we visited was St Thomas (Minnesota), which requires a series of Catholic theology classes—I thought myself that they did a good job of using them to support the curriculum rather than preach Catholicism, but D17 felt like the specificity of Catholic theology was a bit much for her taste.
Chiming in to agree that while you can generalize about Jesuit schools being religiously tolerant, non-Jesuit Catholic schools are all over the map. Non-Jesuit DePaul U not only embraces different religious traditions, they have a prominent and official LGBT support and gathering center in the student facility. At non-Jesuit Catholic U of America, the LGBT ally group can’t even get official recognition. The bottom line is that you can’t assume that a Catholic university is more conservative or overtly Catholic in practice because it isn’t Jesuit.
@dfbdfb “the religious emphasis is very much directed toward supporting students in the development of whatever religious philosophy they might decide for, whether it’s Lutheranism or some other Protestantism or Judaism or Islam or a complete rejection of religion or not really caring too much about religious questions one way or the other.”
Well said. That was more or less the impression that Georgetown gave us regarding religion, particularly when we met the Muslim Iman who is resident in one of the freshman dorms.
Three pages on “too much Catholic”? Might be time to move on.
I don’t think I’ve visited a private college or university that didn’t have a chapel more or less front and center. They were almost all religious at founding, after all, even if not at all now. Often the chapel is a gathering space for speakers and concerts and whatnot.
I’m sure there are exceptions but I can’t rally think of any offhand.
Amen to that, @Middleman68. It seems some people can’t express enough how too-Catholic they found some Catholic institutions to be.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: OK, let’s move on from the Catholic comments, please.
Moved up: College of William and Mary. We visited and loved Colonial Williamsburg 10 years ago and the college didn’t disappoint. The info session was friendly and lively; none of the “you’re not good enough to get in here” vibe at all. The admission counselor made a point of saying that much of his advice was good for other colleges as well. The student intern who interviewed DS was warm and welcoming as was everyone else; we did a self-tour since the only interview time we could get was at the same time as the tour. The campus is beautiful and even though it was a summertime Saturday morning we managed to talk to a few students and to a professor in the business department, all of whom were helpful and informative.
DS had the impression that it’s a “high end” school (his words) and is wondering about applying ED to give him a boost since we’re OOS.
ONE LAST TRY: Let’s please get back on topic so I can keep the thread open. Deleted a bunch of posts.
My kid is going into her senior year in college - but spent some time at another school this summer, and I thought I’d share - Babson College in Wellesley MA. Never on our radar during college search b/c it is business focused, and D is an arts girl… but the campus is the home to Commonwealth Shakespeare - and offered housing for her internship with them this summer. Anyway - WOW, what a great looking campus! I was blown away when I helped her move in. Gorgeous dorms, and SUPER helpful campus staff/security people, who made a point to come around to summer interns, introduce themselves, makes sure the kids would know how to find them etc.
Also in the random side note category… while going to visit D this summer in Boston, we spent the night in Saratoga Springs, and took a walk around Skidmore. Also gorgeous, and Saratoga is a new gold standard for quaint, upscale small town
And once we got to Boston, I didn’t like the MIT campus at all 
Just dropped D17 off at Tufts yesterday, so I’m finally ready to share my list:
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Tufts (obviously) up - Smart, collaborative kids, and an admissions office who, through their blogs and info sessions, really seem to care about looking beyond the numbers and choosing kids who will fit in well. So happy she’s there.
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Wesleyan - down - Worst run info session and tour I’ve been to. Way too many people (granted it was a school holiday, but they should have staffed up). 50 people per tour guide? Waste of time. Also, weirdest interview question - “if you could uninvent something, what would it be?”
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Boston College - up - Looked like the quintessential college experience (also helped seeing it on a Fall Saturday during a home football game). Everyone was out and about in maroon and gold, and I loved the architecture. After Wesleyan, had to laugh when BC emphasized how “diverse” they are, with three white guys and one white girl on the student panel, and 9/10 white tour guides (the other was Asian).
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Colgate - down - I loved it, but D hated that it was in the middle of nowhere. The last hour of the trip was a single lane road with no phone reception. And the town of Hamilton is super small. Shout out to the ice cream sandwiches they give out at the end of the tour. They come from the dairy next door and are amazing!
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Clark - down - This only stayed on as a “Parents Choice” school. I really liked it, thought it was a diamond in the rough, and thought she would have great opportunities there. She couldn’t get over the surrounding city (“gritty”), especially because the campus was so small.
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Fairfield - way up - This was one of her safeties and shot to #3 behind BC. Beautiful campus, great location, and they seem to be making a lot of infrastructure investments. We visited twice and the vibe both times was really positive.
There were some others, but these are the ones that standout. Now on to S19!
^^^^
Were you worried about the surge in Tufts apps? Why wait?
I kind of like that one. Atomic bomb comes to mind instantly (and I bet a lot of kids choose that) but with a little thought that could be tied to some interesting things about the kid. As a written supplement better than an interview question I guess.
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+1 to that question. 
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@mjrube94 can you tell us a little about the positive vibe at Fairfield? I’d really like S18 to like it as a safety but when we went he was underwhelmed–it seemed nice enough but nothing stood out and he was already thinking of it as the school that’s a destination for the lower half of the kids from his high pressure Catholic HS.
The impression was unfortunately reinforced by the tour (guide was cute and perky but didn’t seem at all intellectual) and his interview. We’d practiced interview questions; the books and websites we looked at all said not to mention as a favorite book one assigned in class, but the interviewer didn’t get that memo and asked him what was his favorite book that he’d read in class.
Quirky interview question from William and Mary: “What accomplishment are you proud of that you wouldn’t want on your resume?” Not quite as quirky as their q from last year, which was “If you were a kitchen appliance, which one would you be?”