Going to a "Christian" University when you are not raised with religion?

Our household is kind of religion neutral. I was brought up Catholic and fell away from it and never really raised my children with religion. My ex is atheist I guess; the girls are pretty much agnostic (or they don’t know). Would going to a Christian university be too much of a culture shock? Any experiences?

How Christian? There are quite a few church-affiliated schools that, other than the presence of a chapel, some prayers at big events, and an active campus ministry, don’t seem religious at all. Students can partake–or not–as they see fit without any sort of evangelizing as a result. And then there are schools where Christ is front and center in just about everything.

@ordinarylives I am not really certain… and how would we gauge such a thing? Do you think a visit would do it?

I agree it depends on the school. Ave Maria, BYU-Idaho, Liberty, Bob Jones? No. Other religious schools are very welcoming to all, and it depends if the student wants to be accepting of the mission and philosophy of the school. Most of the Jesuit schools, for example, will have a requirement for a religion or philosophy course (or 2), and a service requirement, but the students will have a ton of choices to meet those requirements.

My daughter is looking at Waynesburg U outside Pittsburgh for BSN. The literature says it is a Christian school but I don’t know how Christian is Christian.

A quick peek at the website (I clicked on admission) says that they

  • offer 150+ campus faith events per year
  • consider a student's interest in Christian service as part of admissions

I would guess that an agnostic would not be happy there.

AH-- perhaps she wouldn’t! Thanks

Jesuit school welcome everyone. My S went to one for HS and 1st year of college. Never any pressure to participate in RC activities.

@toomanyteens if one’s faith is considered in the admissions decision, it may not be a good choice for you. I had one attend a Catholic school, no pressure, and another at a Methodist, again no pressure. Granted, a religion course was required as part of the gen ed, but there were many offerings. And there were daily or weekly worship services on campus, but again, no pressure to attend. But I think that yes, a visit would help you determine how much emphasis there is on worship. Denomination may also play a role. Schools affiliated with very conservative denominations (LDS or Reformed, for example) may expect quite a bit of involvement in Christian activities.

I was impressed with Duquesne in Pittsburgh. There is such a huge medical presence in Pittsburgh. There seem to be lots of opportunities for getting involved in whatever area interests you. They’re Catholic (not Jesuit), but their mission seemed appealing, even to those of other beliefs.

I wouldn’t hesitate to go to a Jesuit school. My atheist son applied to Georgetown. Didn’t get in though! They were apparently the first campus in the US to have an imam as part of the campus ministry. Georgetown requires a theology course, but their definition of theology is pretty broad. Our tour guide had taken something like “Existentialism and France’s Third Republic”. I would not want my kid to go to one of the “Christian” universities that doesn’t believe in evolution.

@sylvan8798 I would love to let her do that, but I am quite sure it is beyond our budget

I attended Catholic schools from prek through college. After high school most Catholic schools have Mass, other opportunities such as teaching catechism in the community, and special events. No one rousted students from bed on Sunday am to attend Mass, and back in the day, there was meat in the cafeteria. The students who attended my college and weren’t Catholic said they had no difficulty attending a Catholic college and graduated. Your children knowing you were raised Catholic may find a Christian school interesting.

Now about Christian colleges. Some I would attend, particularly if they were mainline Protestant or Jewish. I would be concerned if there was pressure to convert which you may find at some Mormon and Christian right or evangelical. One way to find schools that may be uncomfortable have an employment requirement for membership and participation in their denomination.

Or check if they have a statement of faith requirement. If the uni doesn’t require that then it becomes all about fit: classes, profs, students, location, price.

@toomanyteens :
Waynesburg’s mission is to help students grow into Christian leaders and professors are recruited based on Christian faith, so it wouldn’t be hospitable for an agnostic/atheist kid.
To figure out if a university is Christian as in “service, values, religion classes and/or crosses in the classroom” vs. “making students into leaders for Christ”, check out the university’s mission and, if you can find them, the gen ed requirements. It’s a bit hard to dig, but typically mandatory chapel services, mandatory biblical studies, having to sign a creed to enroll or teach there, are all good indicators the students are first and foremost meant to consider college as an opportunity to grow in their faith to become true servants of Christ.

As for your daughter: depending on stats, check majors then run the NPC on Gannon, Elizabethtown, UScranton, UDayton, Wittenberg, John Carroll, St Vincent, Moravian, LaSalle, CBS/SJU, Capital OH, Susquehanna, Augustana IL, Luther, Augsburg, Concordia Moorhead, Finlandia (very small, almost all health related), Alma, Arcadia, Blackburn, Wooster, Davis&Elkins, Illinois College, Lindenwood, Maryville TN, Earlham, Guilford, Otterbein, Adrian, Albion, Allegheny, Baldwin Wallace, Simpson College, Hamline, Cornell College, McMurray, UIndianapolis, McKendree, Illinois Wesleyan, Randolph Macon, Ferrum, Virginia Wesleyan, Emory&Henry, Randolph, Pfeiffer, Brevard, Lindsey Wilson, Rust - all open to relatively non religious students as long as the student is fine seeing crosses on walls and interacting with faithful students. Midwestern colleges have fewer young people applying due to demographics and can thus offer very nice financial aid packages if they think students are interested.
If she’s got a 28-30 ACT, Gustavus Adolphus, if 30+ St Olaf, are both possibilities (depends on whether you’re seeking merit, low cost, or financial aid).
*Low cost: UMaine Fort Kent has discounts and scholarships even for modest scores
https://www.umfk.edu/nursing/tracks/bsn/
with an ACT 24 and either top 30% HS rank or 3.0GPA she has an automatic $5,000 scholarship per year (basically, automatic half tuition). COA is 22K so that’d make 17K, hence if you subtract 3K in student earnings and 5.5K in federal loans leave about 8.5K for you to pay… not sure whether it’s doable but it seems relatively cheap (especially consiering $1,600 can be removed if she can remain on your health plan, and $1,000 have been budgeted for books which, if you rent/buy used, can be decreased too).

If the Christian university or college requires all of its students to attend chapel a certain number of times per week, that is usually a good sign that it is a pretty conservative campus. Other signs that would clue you in to it being a very conservative place are certain things in the student honor code like no drinking alcohol on OR off campus, no sexual relations on or off campus, dress codes prohibiting certain styles of clothing, noise rules prohibiting students from listening to anything but religious music.

For example, Liberty University in Virginia and Azusa Pacific University in California have very strict rules like the above.

If the student is atheist/agnostic but the school requires them to sign any sort of document that pledges abstinence, faith, etc, then that’s not the school for them.

“Christian” is especially something you must consider in nursing ( which you said was your daughters planned field).

Education in vital issues like reproductive , women’s health and end of life may be affected and in a way different than your daughters values.

My daughter is an atheist and we toured Saint Vincent College in PA, which is a Benedictine college with classes literally taught by robed monks. For that reason alone I thought she would hate it, but she definitely did not and she loved the monks. In the end she decided not to apply due to the strict rules; she was raised with few rules, and she figured it would drive her nuts quickly. For a non-religious student who was raised a bit more sheltered, it would probably be a great school. On the other hand, she quickly dismissed Duquesne as they seem to weave religion into all of their courses, and as a STEM major she wasn’t a fan.

@MYOS1634 thank you for that great list of suggestions – her stats are okay, not great. She has a 3.45 unweighted GPA and her best score on the ACT so far is 24 - she just finished prep class and takes it again on Saturday. She is the 5th student so our pocket books are hurting! She is trying to find a direct entry nursing program as she is worried about competing for a spot as an upper classmen.