<p>I believe a better question is 'how do Catholic colleges compare to secular schools in academic quality?'</p>
<p>Places like Loyola U of Chicago, Creighton U, Boston College and Georgetown compare quite favorably.</p>
<p>Khipper said: "Looking at the schools that made the Newman Guide, those schools (are) for Catholics who aren't pre-Vatican II, but pre-Council of Trent"</p>
<p>IMO this comment insults those interested in schools where students and faculty practice the Catholic faith as taught by Rome. Why mock those who want to be faithful to today's (yes, today's) Catholic church? Many religious vocations are coming out of these schools.</p>
<p>BTW, there are only 3 Catholic liberal arts colleges ranked in the top 100 in US News: Holy Cross, Thomas Aquinas College (CA), and St. Johns U. (MN)</p>
<p>A further aside to the above posting, but has anyone noted how few Catholic LACs get top-tier rankings from U.S. News & W.R.? With the exception of the Jesuit, College of the Holy Cross (#33), the only other Catholic LACs in the top half of national LACs are: St. John's U. - MN (#75), Thomas Aquinas College (#83), St. Mary's College - IN (#91), St. Michael's College (#106), College of St. Benedict - women's coordinate college of #75 SJU (#106), Stonehill College (#106) and Siena College (#122). The great majority are relegated to the bottom half. Why is there only one Catholic LAC among the top 74 ranked LACs?</p>
<p>I believe that most of the oldest and most prestigious Catholic schools eventually became universities. Holy Cross is rare in that it dates to the earliest days of Catholic college foundings in the US (it is the oldest in New England) yet retained its LAC status. My perception is that the vast majority of the Catholic LACs are relatively young, founded in the 1900s and don't have the tradition and history of Georgetown, Notre Dame, and Holy Cross which were among the first.</p>
<p>exploring--I notice I missed St. Mary's at #91. My mistake.</p>
<p>Also, of 276 Phi Beta Kappa chapters, only 20 are at Catholic colleges or universities, and 12 of these are Jesuit institutions: BC, Fairfield, Fordham, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Loyola College - MD, Loyola U. - IL, Marquette, St. Joseph's U., Santa Clara, St. Louis U., and Xavier - OH. The 8 non-Jesuit institutions: Catholic University of America, U. of Dallas, Notre Dame, U. of San Diego, College of St. Catherine, St. Michael's, Trinity U. - DC and Villanova. The C.U.A and the U. of Dallas are Newman guide recommended and their 21 recommended schools, unlike many top ranked but non-Newman guide recommended Catholic institutions, do not undermine Catholic values or doctrine.</p>
<p>Hold on a minute! Not all Jesuit colleges are in the "Liberal Arts Colleges" ranking. Some are in regional masters colleges and do very well. Some are in the toughest national university rankings: BC, Georgetown, St. Louis University and Fordham. Fordham is also ranked in the Kaplan "Hottest School" rankings. Fordham is ranked number 67 in the National University ranking and is rising rapidly. </p>
<p>I did forget Creighton and I apologize. Creighton is a great school in Omaha and has a storied past. Creighton Prep produces some real smart kids. One kid from Creighton Prep attends Fordham with my kid. He scored a perfect 2400 on his SAT and is a Presidential Scholar. </p>
<p>Lake Washington makes an excellent point of comparing Jesuit schools to other secular schools. Every college has strengths and weaknesses in various departments, but I also think the Jesuit ethics and ethos is worth the price of admission. </p>
<p>I do not favor pitting one catholic college against another for orthodoxy. if someone desires a truly orthodox catholic education, they can seek that out and there are many choices to pick from. Some may not be seeking orthodoxy and may instead by seeking something else entirely...and in many cases, they are not even Catholic and merely want a private college that engenders a warmer and smaller atmosphere than a big secular state school. However, even among the Jesuit schools, some of them are more Jesuit than others with more Jesuits teaching and in the administration.</p>
<p>Fordham, for what it is worth, is nationally recognized for its American Catholic Studies Program. But I reject any notion that a Fordham graduate is more Catholic or Jesuit than someone who went to BC or Holy Cross or Xavier or Georgetown. At any Catholic college you can be as religious or irreligious as you desire. And I embrace anyone with a Jesuit education in particular or a Catholic university education in general. Even Notre Dame! LOL.</p>
<p>The presence of Catholic institutions among the U.S. News national university rankings is acknowledged, but even here only 10 schools make the top tier and yes 6 of these 10 are Jesuit (*): Notre Dame (#19), *Georgetown (#23), *BC (#35), *Fordham (#67), *St. Louis U. and *Marquette (both #82), U. of San Diego (#107), *Loyola U. Chicago and U. of Dayton (both #112) and Catholic University of America (#122). Yes, many others do head the regional master's university lists: Villanova, *Loyola, and *Fairfield among others.</p>
<p>Georgetown, Holy Cross, and Notre Dame are the 3 Catholic schools that have been residential colleges for well over 150 years in contrast to the vast majority of Catholic schools that were mainly commuter schools until 30-40 years ago. Holy Cross has also played Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown and other Ivies in football, baseball,and basketball for over 100 years. ND and HC also have very strong alumni networks that are comparable to the Ivies and Williams and Amherst-alumni giving rates>50%.</p>
<p>Scholarship, it seems, has never been a priority for many Catholic colleges.
Many Catholics colleges and universities had as their priority creating a middle class out of first and second generation Americans; I site my alma mater, Duquesne in Pittsburgh, as a example.</p>
<p>I find interesting that there is no Catholic equivalent to Smith or Wellesley or Mount Holyoke or Bryn Mawr. Most Catholic women's colleges turned out teachers or nurses or were finishing schools where rich Catholic girls could spend four years waiting for the boyfriends to graduate from Notre Dame or Georgetown.</p>
<p>If there had been an 8th Seven Sisters College, it would have been Trinity College now Trinity U. in Washington, D.C., but it is a much different school today. If you believe the U.S. News ratings, the top Catholic women's LACs are: St. Mary's College - IN (#91) across the street from Notre Dame and College of St. Benedict - MN (#106) across the street from St. John's U. - MN.</p>
<p>The only two Catholic women's colleges with Phi Beta Kappa chapters are College of St. Catherine and Trinity University - DC. In 1937, the College of St. Catherine became the FIRST Catholic higher education institution to be awarded a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. The current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi graduated from Trinity in 1962. The Trinity Phi Beta Kappa chapter was established in 1971.</p>
<p>Pelosi went to Trinity? Oh goodness........</p>
<p>Well....if you want to compare Holy Cross to Fordham....in football.....Vince Lombardi graduated from Fordham. Fordham has a storied history in football...then fell on hard times...and has been revived in recent years....and was this year's Patriot League Champion, beating Holy Cross I might add, Colgate, Lehigh, URhodeIsland, Lafayette, Columbia, and some others. Fordham plays the Ivy League teams in many sports, including soccer, water polo, cross country, baseball and sometimes basketball. </p>
<p>As for Catholic Women's colleges....you might note that many colleges in the United States were gender restrictive and the women went to women's or teachers colleges. Fordham was all male until the late 70's, as was much of the Ivy League. Now women frequently outnumber men at most private colleges and reportedly have higher admissions standards because of their high number of applications. Schools like the Seven Sisters (Mount Holyoke, Smith, Wellesley) etc were started with MONEY from wealthy industrialist families and frequently denied admission to catholic girls as the Ivy League also discriminated for years against catholic men....in fact, Fordham was considered a candidate for the new Ivy League when it was formed and was voted out of "the club" by the protestants at Princeton and other schools. Princeton started as a Presbyterian Seminary and still today is a top school for Presbyterians in the United States. </p>
<p>In the masters regionals, I know that Santa Clara, Gonzaga and Seattle University rank very high in the Western States Regional.</p>
<p>Yes, and she along with the senior Senator from Maryland Barbara Mikulski, attended the 160 year old, all-girls, Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore city where Pelosi's father was mayor. Mikulski attended the all-female Mount St. Agnes College that later merged with Loyola College. Yes, they are both products of all-female Catholic schools in Maryland.</p>
<p>Brown was the first college in our country to accept students regardless of religious affiliation; from Brown Admission's website: "As the third oldest college in New England and the seventh oldest in America, Brown was the Baptist answer to Congregationalist Yale and Harvard; Presbyterian Princeton; and Episcopalian Penn and Columbia. At the time, it was the only one that welcomed students of all religious persuasions (following the example of Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island in 1636 on the same principle). Brown has long since shed its Baptist affiliation, but it remains dedicated to diversity and intellectual freedom."</p>
<p>I live near Rockhurst College (in Kansas City, MO)....my mom, aunt, and uncle all went there. I think that it's a good school, but it itsn't really well known at all. Schools around here like UMKC and William Jewell are much more well known and it seems as if they are more respected institutions.</p>
<p>Chocolate: Go where you will be happiest and thrive and dont worry about reputation or prestige. If you do well in college...you will do well in life. And I can tell you that the older people get, if they are normal people and not superficial, they are less impressed with prestige and more impressed with performance and integrity.</p>
<p>I didnt know that Brown was an ol Baptist school. Interesting. But the Ivy League was definitely anti Catholic....which is how most Catholic colleges got started anyway....to ensure Catholic kids got into a college and could practice their faith openly.</p>
<p>As for Mikulski.....no comment. As for Pelosi........no comment.</p>
<p>Trinity is also the alma mater of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who graduated four years after Speaker Pelosi. Sebelius, like Pelosi, is a congressman's daughter.</p>
<p>As for an Eighth Sister, I could make a better case for such secular schools as Goucher, Scripps, Mills and the religious oriented Agnes Scott.</p>