Just how important is religion to schools like Villanova, Boston College, and Fordham? I was raised Jewish and don’t want to feel like a fish out of water but was accepted to each of these schools.
@MorganFishman I don’t have any personal experience with how important religion is at Villanova but you can check some past threads because that question has been asked before. We visited campus and spoke to some students and some students do go to mass but no one feels like they are pressured in any way. Students do have to take some required religion classes. Not sure to what extent.
It’s more a question of comfort than religious worship. Close to half of the students at the schools you mentioned went to Catholic high schools, the substantial majority of the other students were raised Catholic. Many Jewish students believe they won’t fit in at a school unless there are a critical mass of Jewish students.
Atheist Nova Student here. There is a catholic presence, but so long as you mind your own business, you don’t have to worry about it. The only weird thing was during orientation, everyone attends catholic mass and did the rituals (i just kept quiet because I had no idea what was going on). After that, it’s like a normal college experience except the president of the university is walking around with a robe because he is a priest.
Also, you take the ACS class, but that’s basically your standard freshman writing seminar with the exception that you need to read some part of Confessions by St. Augustine.