<p>I was accepted to the University of San Francisco. I love the location of the school, but am a bit apprehensive about going to a Jesuit school. I sustain no faith in God, and I am afraid I will feel out of place. Have any of you gone to USF? If so, can you tell me what percentage of the student population is religious and whether the students and professors are accepting of other points of view?</p>
<p>I don’t have any specific knowledge regarding USF, but a lot of schools that are officially one denomination or another, don’t really express that in any way aside from on their school crest. If you are concerned, check out to see if they require any religion courses. Also, check out the size of the student democrat party on campus. I don’t think you are interested in what percent of the population considers themselves religious, I think that you want to know what percent make decisions based on their ideology- to this effect, ask what attendance is like for bible study meetings or church services. I must say, this whole thing seems really off putting. I am not a practicing anything, but I have never been Christian, and i would be very apprehensive to join a student population of people for whom this is a major part of their lives.</p>
<p>I have a great deal of concern in general that religious orientations are antithetical to higher education and intellectual freedom, but those concerns are considerably lower for Jesuit institutions than for most other religious denominations.</p>
<p>The Jesuits promote a culture of service, of “being a man or woman for others”. The Jesuit campuses I have visited have programs like mentoring, tutoring, feeding the homeless, etc. that are extremely popular with the students. It is from a religious perspective, of course, but who could argue with the value of those type of activities?</p>
<p>I don’t know much about USF, but I have several friends who go there who aren’t very religious. They grew up in casually religious households but other than that, religion isn’t really part of their lives… so I don’t know that you’d be totally out of place there.</p>
<p>First of all, I’m not catholic, actually I’m not anything, and am going to a jesuit university. I go to a jesuit high school and more than stressing theology and catholicism, they stress being a man for others, doing community service, and being a good person more than going to church. Granted, you will have to take a theology course every now and then, but don’t worry about it, there will be tons of people who are in the same boat as you are.</p>
<p>The Jesuits run some of the higher ranked colleges in the country like Georgetown, Boston College, Holy Cross, Fordham. All of theses schools are highly regarded academically.</p>