@cameron121 The other half is Catholic. 
Not to be picky, but Villanova is not Jesuit. St. Joes is the Jesuit college in Philly and then thereâs Scranton in upstate PA.
Check out the other thread going about Jesuit schools for non-Catholics. Iâm a big fan of Catholic and especially Jesuit schools regardless of the kidâs religious beliefs. The education, community, service, ethics is good for all kids.
Thereâs only about 500 Catholic colleges in that part of the world, so its hard to recommend any particular ones without a little more data about what you are looking for.
B+ and 27 ACT may not cut it at Nova. 29-31 ACT middle 50% range.
@zoosermom the Catholic schools or all?
I attended both Villanova and UScranton back in the day. While I was raised Catholic, I was not at all religious and havenât set foot in a church (other than for weddings and funerals) since the day I left my parentsâ house. I didnât think either of those schools (one Augustinian, one Jesuit) pushed religion or would be uncomfortable for one who is not a Catholic. The only religion course I had to take was at Villanova, and I chose an extremely interesting comparative religion course that was not at all focused on Catholicism. I think both institutions stress ethics and service, but you donât need to be religious, or interested in organized religion, to value those.
AStern, anything you would care to share about either group.
The issue is not whether youâd feel welcome at a Catholic college, but whether you would benefit from the education. If you, the student, will be open to the philosophy and the mission, youâll benefit but if you will be fighting it for 4 years, why would you want to go there?
With a few exceptions (Ave Maria, Stuebenville, some of the tiny schools in the midwest) the Catholic schools want a diverse student body, want open discussions of ideas. They arenât going to change their core values, but are open to new ideas. They arenât going to change their âhardâ rules; if you are not catholic yet want to get married in the chapel because it is so pretty, too bad. If you donât want to take a required religion class, too bad.
Ok @zoosermom
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St. Michaelâs - stellar location, lovely campus, zippy, preppy, well dressed kids, friendly everywhere, new library, new admin building, new student center, free skiing at Smugglers Notch, free buses throughout Burlington. Burlington is the best college town in the East. Close to 20,000 students. The order is Edmundite, very small order. The priests wore their black shirts with jeans and sneakers. When we there there was an organic farmers market in the quad. We were wandering around on a day without any planned events and a professor invited us up to sit in on Freshman Seminar. We did sign in at admissions and within 48 hours the local admin person set up an interview in October at a local Starbucks.
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St. Anselm. Very good location in the Nashua - Concord Corridor only an hour from Boston. Very serious environment, outstanding food, lovely campus with an upper and lower quad. 60% female due to the nursing program. We had a great interview and then a private tour in a golf cart by two students. Within a week we received handwritten thank you notes. More old school than St. Mikeâs. The New Hampshire Institute of Politics is there so everyone has been there and the CNN debates are there. It is reminiscent of Holy Cross. We met a Monk who warned us about the workload at the school and that A grades were really A grades. Very strict on visitation, which is fine with me. I really liked it but it is a bit more traditional.
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Siena - It is much larger than the others and location is very good. The area around the school is upscale and attractive. The campus has a beautiful quad filled with mature trees. We visited the day before classes started and the RAs and athletes were there. It is a D1 school so more jocky than the others. The Friars are more visible but they are very casual. One hugged my wife and daughter and gave each a kiss on the cheek as we departed. With the added size it has a more hefty feel. It is right off the NY State Thruway and easy to get to. The facilities are very nice, the student center has outdoor fire pits and it is brand new.
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Providence - Much more bouncy and judging by the kids we know there, much heavier on the party side. I personally donât like the location but the campus is nice except the food, terrible, It is well known and solid academically.
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Fairfield & Stonehill - Nice but overly affluent. Fairfield is strong academically but something about it just rubbed me the wrong way. I got the feeling many of the kids were rejected by BC or Holy Cross and went there instead. Very very preppy. Stonehill sort of the same. Stonehill was entirely forgettable.
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St.Bonaventure - I didnât mention this one because we did the trip in February for the Winter Open House and the game against Virginia Commonwealth. My daughter plays basketball and the womenâs team is very strong. She could never play there. It is a very old school with tons of history and lots of famous people. We met Joe Bidenâs personal physician at the event and the CEO of Delta Airlines who are alumni. We also met a Pulitzer Prize winner from AP. Location is not great but it has a lot of heft to it. It is rather cheap too. They beat VCU which was nationally ranked and 10,000 people stormed the court. It was on ESPN. Doubtful it will be on list but only due to location.
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Ursinus, Juniata, Susquehanna, Allegheny. So this is the whole point of my thread. All nice, Ursinus best location by far, campuses all nice, people all nice but no hooks. All are good academically but they are just very generic and I continue to confuse them. They lacked zip, they lacked spirit and were forgettable but not negatively so. Hard to explain.
If I had to bet, St. Michaelâs is in first place followed by Siena and Ursinus. We will see what happens with Villanova but it is a reach.
The Catholic schools just have a feeling the kids are there for more than just going to school.
Great summaries, @AStern! Curious what your thoughts were on Villanova.
Ds2 is areligious and raves about the Jesuit influence at his school. I think itâs one of his favorite things.
AStern, I really canât thank you enough. Some of the schools on your daughterâs list (and my sonâs) are a bit off the beaten path, so your insight is unique and much appreciated. You are the only person I have ever encountered who has visited St. Anselm, which has really caught my sonâs eye. I also didnât know any of those things about St. Bonaventure and Siena.
My kid graduated from Santa Clara UniversityâŠand loved it there. So did we. These colleges all seem to be. The right size. Also, I would suggest looking at Jesuit schoolsâŠas my impression is these schools have higher education well honed.
@zoosermom If your son does not mind the visitation times at St. Anselm then he should have no issue with the school or location. The Institute of Politics is very unique. They said every President in the last 50 years has spoken or debated there and almost everyone running for President. The CNN debates are held in the hockey arena. There are amazing pictures of past Presidents holding the St. Anselm banner. The Institute is always active with speakers. If your son is on the serious side, he will like it.
@LucieTheLakie Villanova has everything she wants but getting in is another story so we donât talk about it much.
I am hoping Muhlenberg goes well do we have another good non-religious choice.
Thanks, @AStern. Villanova is being discussed in another thread, so I was curious to get your thoughts!
I think AStern answered her/his own question about how the student would fit into a Catholic school in the description of the receptions while visiting. Appears the schools welcomed the student and didnât even care about the studentâs religion.
@AStern we visited Muhlenberg last year and liked the atmosphere, they prided themselves on being friendly and responsive and that was the vibe we got. The son of a business acquaintance graduated from there and had a very positive experience. It looks like they do well in terms of sending students on to grad school and professional programs.
Siena definitely has a religious presence, I happened to meet the president at my Dâs school when he came to give a presentation and as Consolation says he was wearing the traditional Franciscan monks robes as seen in medieval paintings.
I was surprised to hear that Juniata and Ursinus were just blah, expected better since theyâre on the Colleges that Change Lives list.
Just dropped a kid at Georgetown and, as a Catholic, didnât get any Catholic vibe. At Convocation there was a hymn sung in Latin, a prayer given by a (woman) Rabbi and a Benediction given by the Protestant Chaplaincy Director (male). If you understand Latin or remembered the English version of the hymn you would have heard mention of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, otherwise, unless the Rabbi who used some Hebrew (which I donât understand) referenced God, there was no mention of God at all that I heard. References to blessings were made. The line in the sand was during a parent meeting when they commented: âOur hospital pharmacy will not fill your daughtersâ (plural, possessive) birth control prescriptions.â They also mentioned that there were 19 different religious persuasions represented at the school. They have an LGBTQ organization. They have specific facilities for Muslims. They had a bagel brunch for the Jewish students and families, a Protestant Worship and breakfast, a Muslim Brunch and a Catholic Mass. I guess the fact that they had all these religion separate events means they want to be inclusive but it also means that they think the students have some religious identity. In contrast, and in my non-exhaustive experience, non-religious colleges donât reference religion as a factor in the lives of the student body. My feeling (fwiw) was that many (NOT all) of the new students did not, in fact, feel a religious identity. Time will tell.
This is only one school, perhaps some other parents will chime in with their experiences.
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Would the Catholic-Light schools have a strong culture of community service even if they donât practice the few conservative Catholic principals?
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I would sayâŠabsolutely. Community Service is a common theme amongst all or nearly all Catholic univs.
Regarding Siena, my S attended CTY there for four summers, so we made 8 visits. Of course, the CTY program had nothing to do with Siena itselfâthey were just renting the facilitiesâso I canât speak to the schoolâs academics or administration. I did get an intimate look at a number of the dorms, which were unimpressive concrete block barracks, but S said the girls had the good ones with A/C. 
The only time there was any overlap between our presence and Siena activities, it was a ROTC/military recruiting event of some sort.
I found the physical campus and the surrounding area bland and characterless in comparison to the other LACs with which I am familiar, but it is fairly pleasant.
@consolation If you found the area around Siena bland you would say the same about the area around Villanova, Radnor, PA and Drew, Madison, NJ. All three areas are very similar. I was surprised after the Siena visit because most upstate NY schools are not in such affluent enclaves. Loudonvilleâs average household income is close to 100k a year with average household net worth of over $625k. Education levels are very high with 29% of adults having a bachelors and 24% having a masters. The backside of campus is a very nice country club.
The school is not that old so you are right, there is less character to the architecture.
@crepes Yes I was surprised myself. They didnât have the character at all of other schools. Certainly pleasant and nice but sort of vapid and ordinary. I am not commenting on the academic quality just the feel. Not a lot of identity.
My thoughts:
Iâm sure your D would get a great education at Villanova and she would not feel pressure from the school or course requirements to be ultra Catholic. But I believe it is close to 80% Catholic in students and you have to consider that. It means that the other kids will throw around things like going to Mass or other Catholic things and your D may feel conspicuously different. Not saying that for sure, but there will be the assumption that she knows all the ins and outs of being a practicing Catholic.
Muhlenberg is actually a Lutheran school, but the student body is pretty diverse in terms of religion. One third Jewish, one third Catholic and one this protestant. (What about the atheists? asked my non-believer D!) Itâs got a great vibe, I liked it much more than Ursinus.