<p>I would have been wary of a school with more than a nominal religious affiliation. Growing up an atheist in the Bible Belt makes you suspicious of these things. Had I been interested in such a school on its merits, though, I wouldn't have rejected it out of hand.</p>
<p>Religious affiliation may impact availability and cost of health care on campus- birth control may not be available unless you are married, GLBT students may be harrassed when they go for care .</p>
<p>So I can't think of any school we looked at more than casually for either daughter that had a strong presence of the church on campus.</p>
<p>Reed does have religious study embedded into the freshman curriculum however. At least St Augustine .</p>
<p>It should be obvious but has not been stated yet that religious affiliation can have an effect on campus culture - what kind of students would and would not be comfortable.</p>
<p>I think it also worth noting that while some colleges have historic roots that are religious (even Harvard does), many of these places are now secular. Others, such as Pepperdine and Georgetown (or BYU or Balyor) are avowedly non-secular. </p>
<p>It is the non-secular group I hope we are talking about.</p>
<p>Of course. Eons ago I was Catholic and avoided those, then I also knew I didn't want to spend my time telling others of different Christian denominations how wrong they were. Now I have learned better and can point out how ALL religions are wrong in their insistence of being the right way to do things. I also notice that people take for granted a Judeo-Christian, with a token nod to Mulisms, take on life. Of course people with strong non-religion of the college beliefs should take this into consideration. The dominant beliefs of students at even a secular/public school permeate a place (one reason a Jewish student can feel more comfortable at some schools than others- not just the deli food). This is a reason to pick where one lives, not just goes to college- there are many Bible Belt places that subtly ignore the laws of separation of church and state in how they handle public education et al. BTW, many religious based schools wouldn't admit those with my beliefs, that's another consideration (Notre Dame, for example, is known to strongly favor Catholics). Sometimes it is easier for people totally outside the box, eg Hindus, to be in religious based schools- they can totally ignore the religion aspects where those with subtle differences rail at them. One has to watch out for what is stated in the literature and what the actual tone of the campus is. A school may have a mission statement that sounds tolerant, but the students and professors may negate this by their assumptions about their way of life being universal or the best way to do things.</p>
<p>The person who encouraged S to look at Catholic colleges because they provide an excellent education was his social studies teacher. She was Hindu, and she was right.</p>
<p>I don't think anyone here is doubting the quality of education that some Catholic colleges offer. Rather, to me the issue is whether one can support a certain religion whose beliefs are contrary to their own (or whose beliefs would actually condemn them), through payment of tremendous sums of their money, without feeling like a hypocrite or worse. I don't think I can do it. Perhaps I would feel differently if my kid received a full-ride scholarship or FA, because in that case the money would belong to my kid and not me.</p>
<p>I had no problem with Catholic colleges, but my D. refused to apply to them based strictly on a fact that they are religious. D. is a religious person, much more than I am and some of Catholic colleges had program that she was very interested. I did not argue about it, it was up to her. If a kid does not mind, why not visit and get a feel. I talked to some Catolic colleges graduates of a different faith that were very satisfied with their college experience and thought that religion part of it was very minimal.</p>
<p>Bay - so what I hear you saying is that you will assist your child financially in the pursuit of higher education, but only if you approve of the school?</p>
<p>^Yes. Otherwise, my child can pay for it him/herself.</p>
<p>With DS, he applied to a variety of religious (e.g. St. Marys of California) and non-religious schools (e.g Berkeley). There were a few schools on his initial list that he did NOT apply to because they were overly controlling for him in their regulation of student life. So while it was a factor, it was really more about the individual school and the degree to which religion was imposed on student life that matter to him.</p>
<p>
[quote]
^Yes. Otherwise, my child can pay for it him/herself.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Okay - do you tell your kids what to study? where to shop? where to live?
just curious.</p>
<p>To each his own, it is your money. As for myself, I wouldn't care as long as it's a bonafide college. I also don't tell my kids what to major in.</p>
<p>D. a Notre Dame legacy, refused to consider any Catholic schools for the reasons stated in Bay and emeraldk's. She was very much offended by the birth control policy (you can get if if you lie and say it's for your complexion; planB, however, is not available - - even at BC and G'town), as well as the parietals and restiction on opposite-sex guests, including siblings. </p>
<p>Students and parents will insist that these rules are not enforced, but the rules still appear in the handbooks - - presumably for a reason.</p>
<p>So long as my kids are minors, I do feel it is my job to help guide them in everything they do. Once they turn 18, pretty much every decision they make is their own. (Unless it involves my property).</p>
<p>With respect to college, every parent rightfully has their own parameters for spending money on an education. I suppose some parents might hand over $200,000 and let their kids do anything with it, and that is fine, I don't have a problem with that. I just won't do it with my own money. My kids can go to college anywhere they want, but I will not pay for it unless I think it is worthwhile to spend my money on.</p>
<p>Catholic universities are not income sources for the greater Catholic church. Quite the contrary. Catholic universities need every penny they collect in tuition and donations to support their university programs. IMO, you need not fear a tuition payment to a Catholic university is trickling upstream to support the greater church agenda.</p>
<p>I'm with IntheBiz. For us, we looked at religious and secular schools and plenty religious in name only ones, but for us the issue was: Is there a critical mass of Christian students? Were the Christian groups on campus active and large enough to provide significant fellowship?</p>
<p>Weirdly, we found that at a non-religiously affiliated school much more so than at some that were still church-supported. You can get an idea from the website, even more from talking to some student leaders on campus (there are almost always contacts in the campus life section - just find an extracurricular group that sounds like you'd like it and give them a call or an email), but the very best way is to visit! Look at the bulletin boards to see what kind of activities are posted. Ask lots of questions. Some campuses were very, very different on campus than they were on paper/internet.</p>
<p>Greta - Read completely the link I posted in #15, all the way down to the bottom of the page, then tell me that tuition payments are not "trickling upstream to support the greater church agenda."</p>
<p>Well Bay, we will have to respectfully disagree on this topic. I read your Georgetown link. I stand by my statement in post #34.</p>
<p>Greta - if it is any consolation to you, I don't get what Bay is seeing either. Especially when I read to the bottom of the page.</p>
<p>Another disagreeing with Bay.</p>
<p>My conclusion that the "greater church agenda" is indeed supported by tuition payments rests on the assumption that the 7 on-campus chapels, the on-campus living accommodations for the Jesuits, the profs of the 8 courses in Catholicsm and the Catholic Studies Program and Catholic research program, the costs of holding Mass, and the outreach programs, guest speakers on Catholicism, etc. are all paid for by tuition. If this is not the case and all of these are paid for separately by the Church, then I stand corrected.</p>