<p>I think that if a large population of the students and/or teachers are religious and actually follow their religion (go to church, pray) then the school could be called “religious.”</p>
<p>I go to a private college. Secular.
But, because it is a large school, there are many clubs for people of faith to attend.
So, for me, a “religious” campus has to do with club options. Also, respect for ones belief by the general population.</p>
<p>At my school:</p>
<p>A) In order to graduate, you need to take 2 semesters of religion, and 3 of philosophy.
B) We have 18 Jesuits who live on campus, most of whom work for the school as well including teaching.
C) There’s Mass everyday.
D) The Campus Ministry Office is central and essential to the campus.
E) We get all the Holy Days off for Easter.</p>
<p>It’s definitely a religious school.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to distinguish a religious school from an evaluation of how religious the students are. I agree with gadadthat the test of whether a school is religious is the degree to which church doctrine and practice is incorporated into teaching and student life. But there may be some colleges where that isn’t really done at all, but most of the students are religious, and in particular, share the same religion. Looking at the mission statement of the school may not be enough (see, e.g., Brandeis).</p>
<p>Or, it may be in a part of the country where religiosity is worn much more on one’s sleeve. It may not be that the school mission itself is necessarily religious, but that it reflects a particular area where religion is more “public,” membership in a denomination is assumed, and one is a bit left out if not an active practitioner.</p>
<p>I think with the larger, well-known schools with a religious affiliation (particularly Catholic ones) there tends to be more religious diversity, mostly because the students chose to go there for non-religious reasons. I know this is especially the case at BC, where my dad and older sister went and my younger sister currently goes. Often times, kids who are into the name-brand thing didn’t get into more selective schools (Ivies, Little Ivies, etc.) will go there because it’s easily recognizable. In some cases they did get in but were more interested in a college that had a better social scene like BC has (these are the people I hope my sister stays away from!) I’ve heard people around here joke that BC stands for “Barely Catholic”. My cousin went to Notre Dame and it is pretty much the same thing there, just a giant party school really.</p>
<p>As for evangelical schools, I imagine things are quite different. I’m currently taking an upper level adolescent psychology course, where we looked at a case study that said the amount of sexual activity in evangelical schools is much lower than at public schools, yet at Catholic schools it is about the same. I come from a very Catholic background (though I am non-practicing) so I know pretty much nothing about evangelicalism. But I think it is safe to conclude that religion is a much stronger presence at those schools than at schools like BC or Notre Dame (either that or we now know what they say about Catholic school girls is true, right? Haha, kidding.)</p>
<p>Wow, that was long. But yeah, just my two cents.</p>
<p>Okay I wanted to edit to include this, but it isn’t letting me…</p>
<p>Often times the Ivies/Little Ivies will waitlist students who are academically qualified, but didn’t give a good interview. I know someone this happened to that got into the honors program at BC, which doesn’t even do interviews, and also someone who got into Harvard for the first time in my high school in 10 years. So yeah, if you’re interested in one of those schools, remember to do a good interview! Just a little tidbit of info for anyone interested!</p>
<p>And for the record, I’m not an expert. Feel free to correct me if I make no sense - I’m in a weird mood and just typing as I am thinking right now.</p>
<p>Tonight’s speaker on campus is Father Somebody and the topic is stem cell research. Fortunately, I doubt that my son will be attending. Well, at least it’s not quite as bad as a lecturer I noticed last year, who spoke on the rythm method. Do they really think they’ll attract students, most of whom are majoring in healthcare? (Sorry, but I just had to vent)</p>
<p>Have any of you noted that while it is possible to use CollegeMatchmaker and other similar search engines to find colleges and universities with particular religious affiliations, it is NOT possible to search for those with NONE?</p>
<p>Would-be applicants looking for a completely secular environment have a very great challenge ahead of them as even public (and presumably secular) institutions can still have highly religious student bodies as a result of the specific demographics of the region served by that college or university.</p>
<p>^Yes. The first time I used CollegeMatchmaker, I tried to select NO affiliation and found it was impossible.</p>
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<p>I don’t understand. Once you take the usual suspects off the table (evangelical U’s, Notre Dame / Georgetown / BC / Villanova et al), why wouldn’t most of the top universities be perfectly appropriate for someone who is completely secular? I assume completely secular means that you don’t <em>mind</em> if there’s a club for Catholics, Jews, Muslims, etc., as long as it’s completely cool if you don’t participate. Many historical affiliations are completely meaningless. Northwestern was historically Methodist, for example, but that has absolutely nothing to do with it today.</p>