Religion, and/or lack thereof

<p>Which schools have the highest population of religious students, and also which schools have the lowest? In the highest, disregard actual religious institutions, since those are givens. But, say, does anybody know which schools that aren't tagged as religious actually tend to be (and I don't just mean Christian--Brandeis, for example, doesn't call itself so, but more than half of their students are Jewish). And does anybody know which schools have largely atheist/agnostic students?</p>

<p>I would tend to think for atheist agnostic, some of the liberal arts colleges would best fit the bill, ie Reed Pomona Vassar Wesleyan Grinnell Swarthmore and University of Chicago.</p>

<p>Brandeis now has less than half of its undergraduates who are Jewish. That said, that doesn’t mean that they are necessarily religious people. While there certainly are religious Jews at Brandeis–there are even more secular Jews. The fact is that the percentage and religiosity of Jews at Brandeis is not all that much different that what you will find at Penn, Harvard, Tufts, BU or GWU. Brandeis is a non-secular university that was founded primarily by Jews as a reaction to the quota system and other discriminatory practices then common at many top universities. It is not a religious institution. </p>

<p>The distinction between belonging to a religion and being religious is also true at many catholic affiliated universities. Boston College, for example, may have 60% of its undergraduates identify themselves as Catholic–but that doesn’t mean that most go to Mass every day or otherwise consider themselves particularly religious. Some do, but most do not. </p>

<p>The schools that tend to have a high proportion of very religious students include BYU and conservative fundamentalist Christian institutions such as Liberty University. Very religious Jews are more likely to attend Yeshiva University than Brandeis.</p>

<p>Calvin, Wheaton, and SMU are also very heavily religious</p>

<p>Just to be clear, that’s Wheaton College in Illinois, not Wheaton College in Massachusetts.</p>

<p>SMU is not heavily relgious at all. We don’t have to take a relgion class, or a chapel. What exactly do you mean by heavily religious?</p>

<p>Here’s the Princeton Review list of “least religious students.” It’s obviously flawed (and as one person I know pointed out, seems to mainly mean “least Christian”), so I wouldn’t say that a religious person necessarily needs to steer clear of these schools. But someone who ISN’T religious almost certainly will find many like minded people:</p>

<p>[Least</a> Religious Students](<a href=“Colleges with Least Religious Students | The Princeton Review”>Colleges with Least Religious Students | The Princeton Review)</p>