<p>As Lenny Bruce said, Catholics are honorary Jews. Or maybe it was Italians…can’t remember. Same difference, LOL.</p>
<p>I am a Catholic who has had many Jewish roommates. My favorite roommate in college was Jewish…we roomed together two years in a row and had a total blast. I still chuckle over those fond memories.</p>
<p>I agree with other posters. There is a certain affinity between Catholics and Jews. Can’t explain it, but it’s definitely there. Especially WRT Italian Catholics. I’m half-Italian, and people often assume I’m Jewish. (Some think I’m Greek…I guess it’s just that Mediterranean look or sumpin’.)</p>
<p>levirm – Certainly not questioning your own personal experience, but I noted you said many years ago. Certainly there is plenty of questioning both in class and demanded of the administration at my daughters’ Jesuit school.<br>
Now having said that, I do think the Catholic universities do tend to have a larger percentage of more conservative, preppier kids, so if OP’s D is crunchy/granola, she will have to make her own assessment of the campus feel.</p>
<p>If this thread is to survive, it’s best to reply to the OP’s request for information to help her either add to her list of schools to visit (smaller Western private schools with MERIT AID to offer…) or comment, as she asked, upon any first-hand experience re: Jewish students attending either Catholic or Christian-based colleges.</p>
<p>D, a Protestant, attends a Midwestern, urban, Vincentian Catholic school (not Jesuit) that is known for being fairly liberal (i.e., has an active LGBT association on-campus). At least one religion class is required for graduation, but said requirement can be fulfilled with a variety of classes.</p>
<p>In fact, D fullfilled the requirement with an “Introduction to Judaism” class that she loved. She still thinks about conversion…</p>
<p>Thank you paying3tuitions.
At this point while she may apply to some east coast, midwest or even southern schools. I highly doubt she will go east of New Mexico or Colorado.
Would love some imput of Jewish students at Oregon and Washington private schools. She is really all over the map and what she wants is constantly changing. She visions herself eventually settling in a rural area but is thinking she would like to consider city living for college. She goes back and forth on whether she wants equestrian opportunities nearby. She definitely is considering staying local for her first two years or even 4. Homesickness and horsesickness are big concerns. She will most likely go to Grad school so staying local for undergrad doesn’t concern me.
Politics are liberal. Likes to have a few good friends, not overly social. Definitely would not be a match for a heavy greek school.
She is also exploring OOS publics that offer tuition exchange in states she finds interesting.
Major will probably be psychology.
Her Dad is heavily pushing Cal Poly. It is a few hours from home and relatively inexpensive. My D’s concern is that it is a bit conservative, the campus not attractive to her and that if she wants to change majors it is difficult. But she will definitely apply.
Concerns about LMU- is it rich, white and conservative? From our area it tends to attract a party crowd who liked USC but didn’t get in.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen Cal Poly’s campus, but I think that San Louis Obispo is a lovely town!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, at the Catholic institution where I taught, the problem has not stopped - there are many recent examples. </p>
<p>Whether you realize it or not, if you are Jewish, whether or not you are religious at all, you have centuries of Talmudic tradition behind you. This means discussing, arguing, interpreting, disagreeing as part of the culture. Everyone is expected and encouraged to have an opinion. There is not an authority structure and no one is infallible. When there is a “Beit Din”, or a court of judgement on an issue, the minority opinion is also considered valid and applicable. Rabbis are teachers, not representatives of God. They don’t get “called”; they decide that they like the role. Your faith does not really matter; your behavior does. Judaism is not faith based; there are plenty of Jewish atheists or agnostics who practice Judaism traditionally.
It is almost impossible for people who are not part of Jewish culture to fully understand what I mean by all of this. But for these reasons, a Catholic or Christian college, or sometimes even having a Catholic or Christian boss could seem like an alien world to a Jewish student. </p>
<p>Culturally, I agree that Italian and Greek families have a lot of humor, animated conversation and family closeness, and the emotional responses to family events and religious services can appear to be similar. But the paradigms are way different.</p>
<p>And, as far as the horses go, I know that you want the west coast, but I think that Goucher has an equestrian program, Jewish students, and merit aid. [Goucher</a> College: Financial Aid and Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.goucher.edu/x37633.xml]Goucher”>http://www.goucher.edu/x37633.xml)</p>
<p>I like Lewis and Clark. Portland would also be a great city for her. She is considering it but she is concerned about size. She thinks she would prefer a school with over 2000 students. Ideal in her mind is 4000-8000 which is hard to find. Also not sure how much merit aid she would get from Lewis and Clark. We have not visited a small school yet. </p>
<p>She did an intensive visit to a huge midwest public where her sibling attends. She had a great visit but felt like she would like something smaller. I think she will be fine at any size school. When asked she will tell you she doesn’t want classes of 300 but she also does not want a class of 12-18.
Levirm-A Jesuit or any Christian school would not be our first choice. Unfortunately on the west coast there are not a large number of secular private schools. The Claremont Colleges and Occidental give little or no merit aid. Plus they are small.
I will have more to go on after she takes the SAT later this month. Her gpa is around 3.5 with an upward trend. She is hoping for above a 700 in the reading and hopefully close to that in the writing. Hoping to get above a 600 in Math. Once we have the scores we will have a better indication of where she stands for getting merit aid.
Cal Poly’s campus is like many Ca public schools. The buildings are all in different styles of architecture based on the era they were built. UCSB is similar while a beautiful location the buildings range from interesting to ugly. My D is one who is swayed by the pictures of brick buildings with green lawns and trees with cherry blossoms.</p>
<p>Sample of one: Non-practicing Catholic mother, non-practicing Jewish father. Grew up Catholic for a few years (attended parochial school), then not much of anything until adulthood, now Reform Jew and have raised my kids accordingly. I always have gravitated towards Catholic friends in a way that I never tended to gravitate towards Protestant friends). There is a way of looking at the world that I can’t quite describe that is a shared commonality between Catholic/Jew but not Protestant. Maybe later I’ll try to articulate.</p>
<p>My neighbors growing up were catholic. After they asked where our horns were and realized we didnt have any, they became friends. we used to joke that we were alike because one religion was good at doling out the guilt and the other was good at taking it. We used to flip flop as to which dished it out and which took it.</p>
<p>^ oops-- meant to bold the last 2 sentences **This means discussing, arguing, interpreting, disagreeing as part of the culture. Everyone is expected and encouraged to have an opinion. **</p>
<p>@OP, I have a friend who has a family member at Wake Forest. They joke around that he was a diversity candidate for being Jewish, but they’re probably not far off the mark. His freshman roommate was bible-belt Christian and forgave him “in the name of Jesus” for a certain escapade. Not sure how stunned, offended or amused the Jewish kid was. I have to say, I can’t imagine a Catholic kid using phraseology like that.</p>
<p>Someone brought up contraception. I suppose it goes to “fit” but consider your daughter’s options in that area and how they will be curtailed because of official Catholic policy. Don’t forget that Georgetown U (not the Catholic U of America - in the same city) kept the city of Washington DC in court for 10 years challenging their law about not discriminating against sexual orientation. Why? Because they didn’t want to list a gay student organization in their booklet of official organizations. Of course, that was all over in the 1990’s but I found it shocking and rather petty.</p>
<p>Then again, you and your D may prefer to go to a school that doesn’t offer a big bowl of condoms in every student lounge! My D seriously considered a Baptist school because she liked the “dry campus” idea. I’m sure your D may have interesting insights when you visit a place. The Jesuit educational tradition is strong and worth a look and surely welcomes the whole “Judeo-Christian” tradition.</p>
<p>To answer OP about LMU and the party-school rap… yes, there is that element there, but that is so not my daughter (a junior). She had some trouble adapting in the freshman dorm-- she said most of the girls on her floor were shrieking party girls. But she found a great group of friends who are more down-to-earth, and she’s had a very good education thusfar and loves her program (education).</p>
<p>As for this question:
<q>“we Catholics and Jews share a similar cultural-approach-to-religion upbringing and understand each other well!”
researching - I am curious about what this means. Please elaborate.</q></p>
<p>Others have answered, but since I started it, I should weigh in. I don’t know if I can articulate it well, but it’s something to do with growing up with your everyday life being so informed by your religious heritage. I haven’t been a practicing Catholic since I left for college 35 years ago, but I’ll always be a Catholic, just like my good friend Bob, who hasn’t been a practicing Jew since he was bar mitzvahed, will always be a Jew. </p>
<p>That’s just a little bit of it. I’m not sure completely why, but it’s true.</p>
<p>Researchingemb- thank you for that honest view of the freshmen dorms. I know my D would not like living with a bunch of party girls. Unfortunately tolerant is not a word I would use to describe my D. Her first choice would be to not even live in a dorm. LMU has some positives in location, distance from home, not huge but not small and some good strong programs.
Any similar feedback for Seattle University?</p>
<p>I believe that would be me. Our daughter was raised in a very secular interfaith home. She LOVED her four years at Santa Clara. She knew students of all faiths there. Yes, there is a religion course requirement but there are over 100 courses from which to choose (my daughter actually LOVED those courses…engineering major so they were a good diversion from math and science).</p>
<p>SCU, however, is expensive and their merit aid goes to their top applicants. The do give need based aid as well, but they do not meet full need. If finances are a significant issue, you would need to consider this.</p>
<p>thumper1- considered Santa Clara as we have heard great things about the school. But it would probably be a reach for her and I highly doubt she would get merit aid.
Tonight she was expressing concerns about being ready to go away from home. She said she would hate for us to spend all that money and for her to want to come home after the first week. I said it is a bit early to worry about that. She can always apply and decide next May. Better to have choices.</p>
<p>p3t’s post #14 was particularly well-expressed, regarding the transcendent, ineffable, internalizing of ancient ritual in both traditions. (Heavy with symbolism, and anywhere from minor to major connection to ancient languages.) And someone else spoke of how the religion, in each case, permeates the identity of the person. Ditto.</p>
<p>levirm and jym brought up important differences in the attitude toward opinion/authority. This is very important. Clearly, though, it is of critical importance should one want to major in religious thought/tradition at such a place. (Doubt that this is being suggested in this case.) Anyway, the trend at Catholic U’s for awhile has been to require theology profs to teach strictly according to what’s officially recognized by Rome, which can be a particular problem for us scripture scholars, who are as open about text as many literature profs are. (See jym’s description.)</p>
<p>I have a theory about why, in particular, Jewish men and Catholic women make especially compatible couples. Not exclusively, just especially. Anyone who’s interested can PM me. ;)</p>
<p>Hi. Thought I’d chime in. I am the only (to my knowledge) Jewish faculty member at Rockhurst University in Kansas City. Since I have been there - 12 years - I can count the number of kids I knew who were Jewish on 2 hands. Certainly there may have been more, I may have just been unaware. Mine is not a religious family. However, my son is very much a Jewish entertainer type (creative, quick-witted, quirky, etc.). Since he can go to pretty much any Jesuit university for free-tuition, he will.</p>
<p>I suspect that a Jewish person at a Jesuit university will encounter more geographic differences than religious differences. I feel that Rockhurst is VERY midwest. It’s a fantastic school and I would have no hesitation sending my kids there at all. However, I would suspect that Fordham and Santa Clara have very different feels despite also being Jesuit.</p>
<p>I will encourage my son to head to one of the coasts, just because I think it would benefit him to be around people with various cultural upbringings. I also think he will encounter more other Jewish people in those locales. Should he end up at Rockhurst, though, I will not be at all disappointed and I think he would be perfectly fine with it. No one forces students to go to mass.</p>
<p>We are an interfaith (jewish & secular christian) and our D has similar selection criteria as OP. Her list includes Santa Clara, U Portland, and Gonzaga. We don’t expect the religous environment to be a problem for her at any of these schools. I believe the actual % of catholics at UP is around half of the student population.</p>
<p>Can someone clarify for me the difference between Jesuit and non-Jesuit universities and why Notre Dame and Peppedine were listed as Non-Jesuit and therefore, less likely a fit for a Jewish student (as I read in an earlier post on this thread).</p>
<p>(Son applied to both law schools though yet to hear from either and has many more schools to consider, but am interested as neither of these schools may be right for him based on this topic.)</p>