<p>I found a reasonable number of conservatives during my time at MIT (at least in my program) and there are also a reasonable number of conservatives at Harvard - but Cambridge may be the most liberal city in the world and both school’s definitely lean left. Brandeis and BU are definitely liberal. BC has a solid conservative population. I also second that the conservative nature of the service academies. </p>
<p>I can speak from experience that USC is an elite institution that definitely trends conservative, but it is obviously west coast.</p>
<p>Of the “prestigious” Eastern schools, it is difficult to categorize any of them as conservative, with the exception of Washington and Lee. Hamilton and Colgate (and I would say to a lesser extent Bowdoin and Middlebury) are more mainstream, in that you will find a mixture of liberal and more mainstream kids (i.e. preppy), but the liberal ethos still predominates. I think the trick is to find a secular school with a strong (although likley very small) Christian community and support network. In my opinion, Wesleyan is one of the most aggressively left institutions in the country. Our tour guide spoke of how great the school was because of it’s openminded nature and highlighted a supposedly campus recognized “S&M” club as evidence. My child attends one of the other highly ranked liberal (but probably not as far as Wesleyan or Oberlin) schools and the Christian community is close to non-existent.</p>
<p>In terms of personal conservatism, these labels are not that helpful. I know lots of politically vocal conservatives who think nothing of spending an entire weekend binge drinking before sobering up in time for classes Monday morning. They call it, “playing hard and working hard”. I also know lots of leftists who think seriously about what they imbibe or otherwise put into their bodies and hesitate before abusing them. There’s a vast “middle” out there, socially speaking, that is the same anywhere you go. </p>
<p>OTOH, if you are asking where the political line of scrimmage lies at a place like Wesleyan (which, after all, doesn’t ask anyone to list their political beliefs before reading their application), I would say, Republicans are in the minority; some conservatives are able to turn that into a badge of honor while others may find it stressful. It depends on how you’re put together.</p>
<p>Wesleyan and Vassar are very similar, and both fairly liberal (I’m honestly shocked you heard Wes was conservative). As JW said, you will find a mix of personal habits at a place like Wes. There is a Christian community (esp. among African American and Asian/Asian American students), and a couple of program house options that might appeal to Christian students (Lighthouse - a Christian house, Interfaith House, Well-being house), but it’s fairly small (not nearly as large as the Jewish community, for instance). If you don’t want to send her “too far to the left”… well, Chestergrover’s “supposedly campus recognized “S&M” club” is real, for what that’s worth.</p>
<p>I agree that Washington and Lee might be a good LAC to look at for a more conservative student, though there is a lot of drinking there, at least according to my friend who attends.</p>
<p>If you are willing to expand your search and venture out to the west coast, there are several great conservative christian colleges. Chapman University in the city of Orange California has a great law program, film study, and a very competetive sports program. Biola University in La Mirada California is a smaller campus with great religious studies and a very diversified student body. Azusa Pacific is one of the finest christian universities in the nation and ranks top 10 every year.</p>
<p>All fine schools, none of which 90% of Christians, in discussing “Christian colleges,” would include. These are fine schools of Catholic heritage. Many orthodox, life-believing, creation and cross Believing Catholics might even want to debate their “Catholicity.”</p>
Maybe 90% of posters on this forum. The majority of the world’s Christians that are Catholic, however, might disagree. Saying 90% of Christians wouldn’t call a Catholic school Christian is ridiculous.</p>
<p>I know enough about Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Boston College to disagree with you here. They do not distribute birth control or condoms, in alignment with Church teaching (Notre Dame is fairly strict on gender mixing in dorms, I believe). They are pro-life institutions (the Catholic Church being the largest and strongest pro-life organization in the world), and many of their students march, protest, organize, and are activists for the life and dignity owed every human being (be they unborn, poor, disabled, vulnerable, on death row, soldiers, et cetera). They are officially Catholic, have campus ministries, have many priests as professors, and educate many future members of the clergy.</p>
<p>Yes, they are not completely Catholic in their student body, but was it not Christ who preached love of thy neighbor and to be welcoming and tolerant of those who are different? To behave otherwise would be to further the exclusion of the devout Christian community from the nation at large.</p>
<p>Yes, they are not as conservative as Liberty U or BJU, but examine the views. There is social conservatism on abortion, very strong in fact. Some of them may be more welcoming of homosexuals, but again, Jesus preached to love and welcome all. The barbaric times of the Old Testament when gays were stoned to death are OVER, and rightfully so. Let us rejoice in loving all humanity. If you are referring to their economic liberalism (which varies greatly amongst the students), ask yourself, was it not Christ who said, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven”? Was it not Christ who told us that the poor man is blessed and the rich man is not, that we must always endeavor to help the poor at every turn? Then reexamine why you may think economic liberalism is not inline with Christianity.</p>
<p>You included “creation… believing” in your description of Catholics you think wouldn’t like these schools. If you mean to question whether the Catholics running these schools believe that God created Man, the Earth, and the Universe, let me assure you that they do. If you mean that God created all in 7 days on Wednesday, October 26th, 4004BC, at around 9 in the morning, then yeah, there won’t be a lot of belief of that there. These universities teach biology, physics, and history in addition to philosophy and theology. All great fields of higher learning are taught.</p>
<p>So, as a devout Catholic (“live-believing” and “cross believing” as you put it), I can assure you, these colleges are Catholic. Thus, they are Christian, as the Catholic Church is the largest and oldest main branch of Christianity. You may not like them, but do not throw doubt on their Christianity, as it is legitimately established.</p>
<p>We’re on the same page calling these all “Catholic colleges.” And you might be correct that over half of the world’s Christians are Catholics (isn’t it interesting that you feel the need to differentiate. btw, and this is an honest question …what is Catholicism? Is it a denomination of the Christian religion? Is it a different religion? Help me to know how orthodox Catholics reconcile that. Is it a theological deviation of Presbyterianism? Why do Catholics depict Christ on the cross when virtually all Christian faiths buy into the notion that the cross could not nail Him? I really am interested to know. Can you help? What I do understand is that the great apologists of orthodox Christianity don’t concur on the position of the pope, praying to Mary and many other significant theological issues.)</p>
<p>And you might be right in your speculation that thanks to that alleged majority of Catholics in your defined Christian pie would call Georgetown, Marquette, Notre Dame “Christian colleges.” But that same crowd would be quick to note …Catholic colleges. Which again leads to a problem with this one.</p>
<p>But in the end …our linguistical differences … are meaningless. For anyone who would make a decision based upon yours or my definition …ought to be considering alternative campuses. For sure there are many Catholics who’d attend a Wheaton or Grove City or Messiah (and do!) because they are deemed Christian colleges. But conversely, 90% of orthodox non-Catholic Christians would not choose one of those fine institutions because they’d see them as “Christian colleges.” Religious perhaps.</p>
<p>You’re missing the point and the context here, I’d venture to say. Call it what you will …But get anyone of them to shed the “Catholic” and just call them Christian in the catalog or anyplace else. Now that would be fun to sit in on that Board meeting, don’t you think. Nah, I’ll stick with my own speculation that 90% (probly higher) of the world’s non-Catholic Christians …and a whole bunch of Catholic educated and educators …who in attempting to define these categories, and within the context of these traditional labels, would never refer to them …exclusively …perhaps anecdotally …as Christian colleges. </p>
<p>So …now to more important things. How many angels do YOU think can sit on the head of a pin?</p>
I am surprised at the ignorance that many Protestants hold about Catholicism. I spoke of Catholics because that was the section of Christianity under question. If I was giving an amount of Eastern Orthodox Christians, I would say “X% of Christians are Eastern Orthodox.” Catholicism is not a deviation from Presbyterianism. Technically, Presbyterianism and all other Protestant churches are a deviation from Catholicism (read about the Reformation). Catholicism is the oldest, largest branch of the Christian religion. I’m not trying to put down your church, so don’t put down mine. I wouldn’t say that virtually all Christians buy into something that Catholics don’t, as such an assessment would include the little over half of all Christians that are Catholics. So technically, you can’t even say that most Christians don’t believe in something Catholics do. As for Christ’s depiction on the Cross, it is to show the sacrifice that God underwent for Man, the love God has for Man, and what Man did to God. As for praying to Mary, that isn’t worship. “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our deaths.” It is asking the human who is closest to God to pray for mankind. But again, I do not want to argue theology here, merely assert that Catholicism is a Christian church (and it has been the Christian Church historically), from which the Protestants sprung (Reformation for Lutherans, Henry VIII’s divorces for Anglicans, etc).</p>
<p>
You wish for them to stop calling themselves “Catholic colleges”? Would you ask Southern Methodist to stop being Methodist, and just be nondenominational? Would you ask BYU to drop Mormonism? Would you ask Presbyterian College to drop Presbyterianism?</p>
<p>You keep saying what Orthodox Christians would say, but Orthodox Christianity is much closer related to Catholicism than to Protestantism. You should further amend your statement, as I did initially, to “90% of US Protestant Christians on this forum of this website don’t like Catholic colleges.”</p>
<p>I am evangelical protestant, and I went to an evangelical Bible college for part of my undergrad years; and I went to a Catholic college for grad school (St. John’s in Queens).</p>
<p>The heart of God breaks when his people bicker over stupid stuff.</p>
<p>One clarification. “Micro-evolution” is adpatation and natural selection. Evolution is one species becoming another, not unlike being “beamed up.” There is not a single observable example of either a rhino becoming an elephant …nor a gnat becoming a flea, either living or dead. Not a single “missing link” be it micro or macro. And the longer time moves on, the more extensive the fossil record, the more troubling for the die-hard evolutionists. (now moving from life to the here-after? that term becomes evermore real and ever-less religion or philosophy, it seems.) Darwin confessed that absent proof that was more than theory, with th passage of time, his brainstorm becomes ever problematic. Seems ever’s becoming never with each passing day. Where oh where is that proof …</p>
<p>On a different note, I’d guess God gets a good laugh about the idea that some think words and beliefs make no diff. As he said, the Way is narrow. Try as we’d like, ain’t no doubt that Catholicism and Christianity are not synonymous. As Martin Luther discerned … and a whole bunch of others.</p>
I suppose if you adopt a “the world is my desk” mentality…</p>
<p>
Incorrect. Unless a human being feels that he/she can understand the divine, fully predict the actions of God, and is equally omniscient, saying that overwhelming scientific evidence is incorrect is rather odd.</p>
<p>
That’s not how evolution works. It’s not that rhinos and elephants evolve into each other; rather, it’s that they had a common ancestor. All Earth life-forms have a common ancestor. In fact, that can provide a clean moment for the creation of all life, if you like.</p>
<p>Or you could go with the 4004 BC thing.</p>
<p>
Catholicism is a section of Christianity. I like how you didn’t address any of the facts I brought up. Lutheranism is not synonymous with Christianity, either. It is a section of it. However, if you would like to be a Protestant-supremacist, feel free. I will be content in knowing what Catholicism is, and feel sorry for your misinformed state.</p>
<p>Don’t know whether this is the forum for my lament/question. My son now wants to attend a local (Cinti Christian University) Bible college not far from home instead of attending Bowling Green State, Wabash (IN) or College of Mt. St. Joseph where he’s already been accepted (all 3) last fall (all great schools), but now he’s being influenced by a local non-denominational “Pastor” (not Presbyterian like we are) to attend CCU.
I’d rather my son attend one of the other 3 colleges where he has scholarships, & ideally be a residential (live away from home) student. Now he really has “cold feet” & wants the Christian vibe, but he didn’t want to apply/attend Hanover (IN) which is Presbyterian. I’m beside myself as a parent (what to do??). Should I allow him to go to a school (CCU) which I’m not crazy about? I’m a Miami University (OH) grad, & late husband was Univ of Cinti grad. My son’s ACT wasn’t very good, so probably Wheaton would be a “reach” & it’s getting late in this year’s Admissions’ cycle. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Well, we’re not Presbyterian, but my oldest goes to Covenant College in GA (right outside of Chattanooga, TN) which is Pres (PCA) and loves it. It most definitely has a Christian vibe and rolling admissions. His ACT is probably more in range for there (mid 50% is 23 - 29). Getting scholarships at this late of a date might be tricky.</p>
<p>As a parent, I’d be reluctant to pay for a college without a good rep in a desired major. I have no idea if CCU has that or not for your circumstances.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to or can’t financially consider another school, my guess is that he’d love wherever he went once he gets there.</p>