From an academic perspective, I’m very interested in attending Georgetown, specifically the SFS. My SAT/GPA/extracurricular make it a mid range school for me.
My main reservation about the school is that it’s Jesuit, and I’m afraid that the culture won’t be inclusive/just awkward for a non-Christian like myself. Can anyone who’s gone to Georgetown or has some connection to the school speak to this?
My ds is agnostic but has attended a lot of different kinds of religious services there. I would imagine a Jesuit would find much comfort there, but a non-Jesuit will feel comfortable as well.
From wikipedia … “Although it is a Jesuit university, only 41% of the student body identify as Roman Catholic, while 22% identify as Protestant as of 2009.[127] Georgetown employs a full-time rabbi, as 6.5% of undergraduates are Jewish.[127] It was the first U.S. college to have a full-time imam, to serve the over four-hundred Muslims on campus,[128] and in 2014, they appointed their first Hindu priest to serve a weekly community of around one hundred.[129] Georgetown also sponsors student groups for Bahá’i, Buddhist, and Mormon traditions.[130] The student body consists of both religious and non-religious students, and more than four-hundred freshmen and transfer students attend a nonreligious Ignatian retreat annually, called ESCAPE.”
It will only be awkward if you are bothered by Catholic iconography or have a prejudice against Catholics.
I’m not a student there yet (class of 2020!) but what I’ve heard from most students is that the religious aspect is what you make of it. There’s a two-semester theology requirement (but if you look online, the courses actually look interesting and educational, not like they’re indoctrinating you with Catholic beliefs) but after that you won’t really be bothered by the religious aspect unless you care about seeing some crosses around campus. (This is coming from a technically Jewish but really atheistic person)
I’m not religious and it’s not an issue whatsoever. There are certainly religious people at Georgetown, but they’re not exclusively Catholic or Christian and they are very much just about love of others and spirituality, not indoctrination.
Current freshman here. What’s great about Georgetown’s Jesuit identity is that it actually brings together people from all backgrounds, religious and non-religious. Jesuits are not your typical Catholics. I’m from a very Catholic city, so I noticed an immediate contrast. Values like Women and Men for Others, Community in Diversity, and Cura Personalis are very real on campus, and values like these unify (rather than divide) the campus. I don’t know anyone who’s had an issue, and my best friend who’s agnostic loves the Jesuit influence probably more than I even do!
And as for the religious classes you are required to take, the variety of professors teaching the religion classes means that you can take from a professor that is in your comfort zone.
However, part of the point of college is getting out of your comfort zone! So don’t be afraid to take a religion course taught from a totally different perspective or about a totally different tradition! None of them are intended to proselytize or assess your adherence to dogma, regardless.
Jesuits are famously open minded. I know some Jesuits and they joke that they are far more liberal than Georgetown students! So don’t worry. Georgetown isn’t an evangelical Christian university like Liberty or Oral Roberts!
@dzleprechaun Exactly right. What really appealed to me, as a parent, was that at orientation we were told that if the student is religious, then GT wants to challenge those religious beliefs; if you are atheist, GT wants to challenge your atheism; agnostic, the same. I really respect that.