Student religiosity and class size/offerings at small school

Not a lot of activity here, but hoping some folks can help me out. I have a couple questions about Carroll College.

Firstly, my knowledge of Catholic educational institutions is limited, but I’ve understood that non-religious students can fit in fine, and be perfectly happy at them. Would this be true at Carroll? Like, for example, in searching for anything I could find about Carroll, I came across a pro-life student group. Would a pro-choice student have a lot of conflict there? I get that it’s a Catholic institution, so how much tolerance for divergent opinions is there? I think my son would be fine with others being religious, but it would be a bad situation if he were a pariah.

Secondly, looking at data on how many students within each major graduated, I see where there are 1, 6, 20 students graduating in many majors. How does that work? Like, for example, who would be in the most advanced physics classes besides physics majors just about to graduate? So, would a student be the only one in a class? That may sound stupid, but I’m not getting how else it could be.

Thank you for any insight you can provide, especially from people knowledgeable with Carroll College, but also by any others who may have thoughts.

Can anyone respond to at least my second question? You wouldn’t have to know anything about Carroll college in particular, but rather just about very small (<2,000) schools. Thank you.

Hi, Thought I’d respond, although it’s not based on first-hand knowledge of Carroll. I attended a Catholic university and we’ve toured a number for my DD (including Carroll). I would think that at a school like this, which doesn’t seem super conservative, a non-Catholic would have no trouble fitting in. My non-Catholic best friend in college commented that while she felt the religious overtones, it wasn’t an issue. There are Religious Ed course requirements but they can be fulfilled from a broad range of general religion classes. Positive or negative, most Catholic colleges are still fairly liberal. On our various tours, the student guides seemed very open to answering questions like this.

On the second question, we’re also looking at small schools and I hadn’t thought of that question. I’m guessing the upper division classes would have both juniors and seniors, so in small majors, there would at least be a few in the class. Also, students with other majors might be minoring in Physics and thus in the class?

Good luck with your search/decision!

Thank you for your response. I appreciate you taking the time.

I asked my son what his responses would be to your questions. We are Catholic, but he said, “People who are non-religious or have religious beliefs besides Catholicism definitely fit in.”

Regarding your question regarding course size, he wasn’t quite sure if he was understanding your question correctly, but he will be taking physics even though he’s not a physics major, so I guess he’s thinking that even though there may be only a limited number of actual physics majors, there will be other students pursuing other majors who will be in classes that are also required as part of their required courses.

I hope that helps.

For what it’s worth, Carroll has been an excellent school for our son. He’s a Biochemistry-Molecular Biology major with med school aspirations. He was able to transfer all of his College in the High School and AP course credits, which we were really happy about! Unfortunately, he got mono the first couple of weeks he was at school, but his professors and the student Health and Wellness Center (located right in the residence hall) were GREAT! The academics are very challenging, but he’s adjusting well and seeking out office hours, study groups, and help from the Academic Resource Center (the ARC), and seems to be confident in his ability to handle the courses and stress as we support him in his adjustment to independence. He was a 4.0 student in high school, so the pressure he puts on himself is high, but we also want him to have a life. We feel like he’s been supported well in making the adjustment to college.

I hope your son finds his college soon and has a wonderful experience wherever he lands!