S is at Duquesne, the only Spiritan Catholic university in the world. Most students are Catholic, but as stated here, it will not be pushed upon you. You will, however, take some theology courses. Great little campus right in Pittsburgh, self contained. Preppy upper middle class SB, something like 25% of students have a family member who attended. You will get small classes and personal attention.
And community service is a requirement, a good thing IMO. Duq stresses service to others.
uh, no they are not.
Another vote for the Jesuit colleges, which are awesome.
Perhaps a supplement (Why xx is a good fit?) to Fordham might get their attention?
It’s not clear to me why a student in Baltimore (for example) would choose to pay $45K in tuition and fees to attend Loyola-MD rather than $11K for UMBC a few miles away. Less bureaucracy, maybe? Loyola might offer smaller classes and a little more faculty attention. A Jesuit professor may be more likely than your average professor to consider teaching a calling, not just a job. However, in some cases you could get some of the same advantages, at a lower net cost, from a private LAC. It depends on which specific schools you’re comparing, as well as your own circumstances and needs.
There is a culture of service at many non-Catholic schools. While service is part of Catholic orthodoxy, it is not really the differential doctrinal teaching that a religious Catholic would expect from a Catholic college. We tend to expect Catholic colleges to reflect the views of the Church across the board. Sometimes that means being willing to be unpopular with the press, the government or even potential students or faculty. I’ll not delve into the political spectrum here, but the more well-known Catholic colleges tend to be secular in their politics and weak in standing up for the principles of the Church.
BIG difference in look and feel, not only comparing a private to a public, but a Jesuit primarily residential college to a public which has a lot of part-timers (~25%) and commuters.
Sure, the class room stuff maybe similar, but the experience will be significantly different. Now, whether the extra costs is worth it is a family decision.
My Catholic friends and I asked a Protestant classmate why she chose a Catholic college. Her major. She chose the school because of the quality of the program in her major. Oh, the same reason why we chose the school. Precisely. The school had what we were looking for socially, clturally and academically. Cschools are not dreary places where students are constrained to chapels, locked dorms, curfews, etc. Where are many Catholic colleges students at Catholic schools on Sunday morning? In bed.
It would be difficult for a Catholic college or university to survive if its reason for being and its educational orientation was ensuring its students were practicing Catholics or became Catholic converts. Cschools have students of multiple religious affiliations or no affiliation. I suspect evangelical Christians (Christian right) would be very unhappy with a Catholic college. Otherwise, I think most kids would enjoy a Catholic institution if its students, programs and atmosphere met a particular student’s desires. Cschools do have chapels. Statues of the Jesus, the BVM and saints are located around the grounds. The University of Southern Maine had a wooden rhino and Iowa has Hawkeyes. Schools have outside decorations.
Jesuits are educators who prize academic and cognitive rigor, social justice (Pope Francis is a Jesuit) and…I always recommend Jesuits schools for an excellent education. I think there are about 25 across the US.
There is life past the Mississippi. Regis University is Denver is wonderful. St. Louis University is St Louis is Jesuit and fabulous! Even has a great medical school. Webster University in St. Louis was a Catholic women’s college taught by the phenomenal Sisters of Loretto. It was turned over to a lay board in the late 1970s. So three great schools in two great cities. Marists have a college in Hawaii. Tulane is located in New Orleans. Santa Clara both Jesuit and in California! My uncle was a great supporter of St. Mary’s in Maraga, CA. If those places aren’t to your taste, Creighton in Omaha and Gonzaga (SJ) in Spokane are really good schools. There are even good Catholic schools in Dubuque, IA where Bryant and/or Greg went to school and haven’t done badly in life. The University of Dubuque is a another wonderful school and the place where parts of Field of Dreams was filmed. Dubuque is lovely. It’s on the Mississippi and looks like the the pictures of French explores coming down rivers. These schools are in a consortium so students can take advantage of all three, but matriculate in one.
Catholic schools sort by the order or priests or sisters who started them. Great people and great teachers and great locations. They are colleges and have the same strengths and weaknesses of other institutions. Franciscans are a mendicant order who wear brown robes to identify themselves as and with Franciscans over the centuries. Otherwise, few religious orders require habits.
Except for Notre Dame, Catholic schools are not great in football. However, if you enjoy basketball…Catholic schools are well represented in the NCAA tournament and even win.
There are some Catholic schools, already named, that are religiously and politically conservative. I suspect those schools could be uncomfortable to non-Catholics and Catholics.
Few colleges are national football powers year in-year out. OTOH, Boston College competes in a power 5 conference reasonably well.
AStern, I PM’d you.
AStern, I have a DD who is a freshman at Muhlenberg. Its origins are Lutheran, but it describes itself as welcoming to all religions. All the doors are painted red on campus. That is a Lutheran tradition that means “You are welcome here.”
My DD (one of a pair of twins) knew Muhlenberg was for her within a few minutes of our first visit. She is now two weeks into her freshman year and absolutely beyond happy and content. She relates that one of her favorite things is meeting upperclassmen who still bubble with excitement over being a “Mule.”
My other DD is at Marist and also quite happy there. It’s right on the Hudson and gorgeous.
Other schools that my girls liked were Seton Hall, Fordham, Providence, Fairfield, and Holy Cross.
Thanks WWC4me. We live very close to Muhlenberg and will visit Lafayette, where we know a board member. We will visit soon.
But you found the same thing we did. Your girls liked a bunch of Catholic schools. We visted Clark right before Providence and Clark could not compare overall despite being a pretty good peer.
It’s interesting because we are also not a religious family and my children do not identify as Catholic, but most definitely they like the “feeling” of those campuses. Lafayette was another school that we visited and they enjoyed. It was fascinating to watch their journey from “I liked that school and its atmosphere” to “That school is the place for me.”
Villanova is Augustinian. Siena is Franciscan and Providence is Dominican. They are all good schools. A few Jesuit universities are St. Joseph’s, Fairfield, and Georgetown. They are, also, excellent schools. I have had several relatives who have attended Jesuit schools, and all are proud of their education. My son went to graduate school at Villanova and loved it. In none of these schools is religious ideology forced upon students.
Well last minute trip to University of Scranton for tomorrow with another family. Will report back.
Make sure to visit the science building at Scranton. It’s beautiful and the layout is really conducive to students hanging out and working together.
Yes we heard about the facilities, dorms and food.
@Inigomontoya Just returned from first visit to Scranton. Absolute gem of a school. Everything was impressive.
Revisited Ursinus on the way. Still same opinion but noticed the campus was much more tired and run down than before.
@AStern - My D is at Lafayette so if you have any questions about the school feel free to PM me. My S went to Fordham - Rose Hill and that might be worth a look as well.
@AStern We visited Scranton over the weekend. Great school - nice new science building and very friendly people!
A Stern- Son was going to consider Scranton but heard the school is great but the area is not. What were your thoughts about the area?