Catholic Colleges/Universities

  • Thread starter Thread starter THutch04
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

THutch04

Guest
I thought this would be a good place to put this topic, since it’s that time of year where kids have to start looking at and applying to colleges. I figured it’d be nice if some posters could share their experiences or knowledge about good schools, particularly Catholic ones, since I’m sure some of the parents on here will be going through this process soon. Things that could be discussed could be:

What you like about the school
What you dislike
How good is it for young Catholics
And I’m sure many more.
 
Great…I cant wait to hear from people…I will start this process next summer:eek: and would love to hear what people think about certain schools!
 
Go to

www.ncregister.com

Somewhere you will find summaries of schools that are in line w/ the teachings of the Church.

Dh and I graduated from Univ of Steubenville (before it was Franciscan Univ of Steub!). When our daughter applied 2 years ago she was offered a paltry scholarship. Rather disappointing.

She also looked at DeSales in PA and liked it very much. Theologically we had heard good things about the school. Again, not much scholarship $$.

She ended up at a small, local school she can commute to. Their scholarship offer was WAY better than the others. She was a transfer commuter student, and they don’t normally tend to get much in the way of financial aid. Villa Julie was quite generous and dd is very happy there.

So, I guess my advice is, don’t limit yourself to just Catholic schools. While that was dd’s first choice, she would have graduated w/ ALOT of debt. We felt it was more responsible of her to choose a local school that gave her a good financial aid package as opposed to a Catholic school that would put her into serious debt. —KCT
 
KCT said:
Go to

www.ncregister.com

Somewhere you will find summaries of schools that are in line w/ the teachings of the Church.

Dh and I graduated from Univ of Steubenville (before it was Franciscan Univ of Steub!). When our daughter applied 2 years ago she was offered a paltry scholarship. Rather disappointing.

She also looked at DeSales in PA and liked it very much. Theologically we had heard good things about the school. Again, not much scholarship $$.

She ended up at a small, local school she can commute to. Their scholarship offer was WAY better than the others. She was a transfer commuter student, and they don’t normally tend to get much in the way of financial aid. Villa Julie was quite generous and dd is very happy there.

So, I guess my advice is, don’t limit yourself to just Catholic schools. While that was dd’s first choice, she would have graduated w/ ALOT of debt. We felt it was more responsible of her to choose a local school that gave her a good financial aid package as opposed to a Catholic school that would put her into serious debt. —KCT
Click to expand...
KCT-
Do you think that the level of education offered at a local school is equal to what the catholic schools offer?
Cost is one concern for us, but the level of education/academics is a big one…also what about the enviroment, is going to a non Catholic school a good thing if you want to keep the kids in the Church and not drive them out or have them stray?
 
My little sister (okokokok she’s 18 so she’s not “little” anymore…) goes to Franciscan University of Steubenville. I applied there for grad school (in the end I decided not to go…got married and then got pregnant instead :)) and was surprised to recieve a good amount of scholarship money, and I know my sister recieves some sort of financial aid…I’ve also heard of people being able to write letters of hardship.

Anyways, she adores it. My mom and I just got back from visiting her during parents and alumni weekend and I could tell she was really enjoying it. I’d visited there many times before, but each time I am struck by the unique environment. There is something very awesome about encountering the friars and sisters (all in full habit of course!) while walking on campus, beginning each class with a prayer, a crucifix in every classroom, 24/7 Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Blessed Sacrament Chapels in each dorm. I could go on and on…I think something like 97% of the student body attends daily Mass, and 98% say a daily rosary…in the bathroom on my sister’s floor there is a huge banner that reads “Happy the woman who imitates Our Lady.”

The only “reservation” I have about the school is a personal one…it is definately a more charismatic enviroment, and FOR ME, that’s not my personal spirituality, I’m definately more of a Tridentine Latin Mass kind of person, but my sister leans more charismatic, and there is definately nothing wrong with that. The school offers such a challenging environment, not where your faith is being challenged for validity (like the public university I attended) but challenged to grow in a very nurturing but acedemically challenging environment. That’s not to say that if one goes to a public university their faith will be challenged so much it will be ruined…for me it eventually made me want to learn more about our Church so I could defend it…but it took a lot of mistakes and such before I got to that point, by around the end of my sophomore year.
 
Karin said:
KCT-
Do you think that the level of education offered at a local school is equal to what the catholic schools offer?
Cost is one concern for us, but the level of education/academics is a big one…also what about the enviroment, is going to a non Catholic school a good thing if you want to keep the kids in the Church and not drive them out or have them stray?
Click to expand...
Obviously I can’t compare, but we think she’s getting a good education. A benefit of commuting is that she is able to remain active in our parish and we have a fabulous youth minister 🙂 In that way her faith has stayed strong and she can still serve the parish while in college.

I can’t justify graduating w/ 20 or 30K in debt just to attend FUS. I know it’s a good school theologically, but still I just can’t reconcile that w/ the responsibility of all that debt.

Since you have time, look around. When we visited Villa Julie, I immediately felt at home and knew dd would do well there. It’s small, they give lots of personal attention and work hard to help seniors find jobs prior to graduation. Every student has to do an internship in his/ her field, so they make contacts even before graduation. For dd, it’s great. —KCT
 
I’ve heard wonderful things about Fransiscan (actually, a couple of friends and I are planning a road trip out there in a couple of weeks). I do wonder though, if someone who doesn’t necessarily have a charismatic spirituality would feel comfortable there.

It’s definitely a special school though. It’s great to have a place where young Catholics can get together and definitely be able to share their faith
 
Ok, seeing as I was educated there, I feel I need to make a plug for my alma mater.

Benedictine College in Atchison Kansas is a wonderful school. It is on the grounds of a Benedictine Monastary, and the Brothers still wear their habits. They teach classes, say masses, and are general friends of the students. There is also a group of Benedictine nuns, but they are unhabited and fairly liberal. They too participate in the college and in college life. There is a great dictonomy between the monks and the nuns, showing two sides to the spiritual life, and allowing the students to realize that even among religious, not everyone agrees.

In addition, Benedictine is one of the few colleges to be a mandatum college. That means that the professors of theology have signed a mandate stating that they will teach the Catholic Faith as true. That does not mean that they will not teach other faiths as well, there are classes on native american spirituality, world religions, islam, eastern spirituality, and protestantism. However, the Catholic church is seen as the true church, and the professors will not teach against it.

In addition to this Benedictine is a fairly small college with only around a thousand students. FOCUS (the Fellowship of Catholic University Students) was begun by Benedictine Alumni, and still remains strong.

I think one of the most important things about Benedictine is it is a school of conversion. At one point in the mid nineties, it was considered one of the top party schools in america. At that point in time the college thought about dropping theology as a major. Now only about ten years later, almost ten percent of the majors are theology majors. The school has done a massive turnaround. One good thing about this is that there is still an aspect of the “real world” at the campus. It may not be as bad as some state run schools, but you will be challenged in your faith, and in what you choose to do.

Benedictine is not a protective bubble for people to be sheltered, it is more of a training ground for real life. It teaches good theology, gives a chance to view the dichtonomy in religious life, and make well informed decisions on it, and even gives a chance to make friends with people you may not see at other Catholic colleges.

In my experiance, I wanted a good Catholic college, and was never a partier in High school. In fact, I extremely disliked anyone who I thought partied. At college however, I was given a completely different view, and even had some people who were “partiers” become close friends. I have grown in acceptance, and they have grown in morals.

All of this is part of what it means to be a good Catholic.

A lone Raven
 
I am glad to see this topic being discussed here. However, there are plenty of people who might prefer a good Catholic experience at other schools besides those listed in the NCR. Some of those schools are tiny and not applicable to those who might want to major in Information Tech or Accounting etc… So what about other schools that are not on the list but:
  1. Are not party schools
  2. Are not far-out liberal schools that have an anti-Christian bias
  3. Are Conservative
  4. Offer the Catholic students a solid Newman Club, Catholic Campus Ministry, FOCUS group etc…
  5. Catholic students that know the faith can feel at home
  6. Weekends in the dorm don’t revolve around every kind of immoral behavior known to mankind
 
Hey there

I’m considering going to University of Notre Dame… there’s gotta be someone here on the site that went there and can tell me about it. What’s it like there?

Thanks!
 
Sometimes schools maybe leaning liberally at a Catholic Insitution and have professors who teach many things not in line with church teaching. This is in my opinion generally true, sadly at many Jesuit institutions where many presidents seem to stress status over spirituality. I went to Marquette and certainly faced some liberal leaning profs against Catholic teaching, but also was thankful for the times the President, Fr. Wild stood up to pressures for a Student Planned Parenthood group and Vagina Monolouges. Unfortunately many priests you will find tend to have liberal leanings and be accepting of gay relationships and wishy washy on catholic morality. That being said, we had some great priests we could turn to who were strong in faith and built a community (had Catholic Houses… Catholics living together and practicing their faith together) that cultivated our spiritualities. I think if you can find that, you can overcome some of the negative things that frusterate you and besides, without good catholics at these schools, they will quickly become anit-Catholic. Just find a support group and things can turn out really well. I am glad I went to Marquette and would recommend it to anyone.
 
My daughter just graduated from Boston College this past spring. She loved it. In fact, the philosophy professor/priest who taught in her freshman year became a good friend. And when she married this summer, he flew here to Michigan to say her wedding mass.

Yes, there are the fair share of liberals at BC. In fact, when Condoleeza Rice was delivering a fantastic commencement speech last May, a group of the teaching staff stood up and turned their backs to her. They were the few. They were ignored.

We felt the positives outweighed the negatives. It’s not a school for everyone, but no school is. My daughter met friends she will probably have for life. She also was given an education where she was able to find employment in her field of study.
 
Scholastica15,

I am a Notre Dame graduate, and loved and still love it. I treasure the weekends that I am able to make it back to campus (like this coming weekend…GO IRISH! BEAT STANFORD!)

Notre Dame is different than a lot of colleges. All the dorms are single sex. They are very fraternal. Great brotherhood…or sisterhood. There are visitation restrictions for members of the opposite sex (parietals)…and they are strictly enforced. All dorms have their own chapels with daily and Sunday Mass schedules (and 10pm sunday Masses…which are very convenient). If a Catholic student misses Mass at Notre Dame, then they are just incredibly lazy. There are about 40 Masses on campus each Sunday, and 30 Masses celebrated on campus daily. As a matter of fact, attendance at Mass is very high among the students.

I have never had unorthodox professors, but there are some still hanging around. However, as time goes on, they have been and hopefully will be replaced with very devout Catholic professors. As a matter of fact, the university is investing a lot of $$$ in searching out devout Catholic faculty members in all academic fields. They want an even higher % of Catholic faculty than what they currently have. Their minimum requirement is 50%, but I have heard that they are striving for around 75%-80% for the future.

The student body is 85% Catholic. Some of course are more devout than others, but you will find that at all Catholic universities. However, you will find a large number of students who are very serious about their faith. I was one, and so were a large number of my friends. You will find smaller schools that are more devout as a whole, but among all the major Catholic universities, Notre Dame is by far the most orthodox (compared to the likes of BC, Georgetown, LMU, Loyala Chicago, Dayton, Xavier, St. Johns, etc…) Plus, you have the grotto (with daily 6:45pm rosary) and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (confessions…twice daily) right at your fingertips. And trust me, being a normal college student, you really come to appreciate and trust confession. This sacrament really expanded for me in college, and I’m very thankful for this.

It’s hard to beat the academics at Notre Dame…actually only 19 schools in the nation do beat our academics. Notre Dame currently ranks 20th in the nation, and first among all Catholic universities.

And…then there’s football. Hearing the band, seeing the Irish Guard, and watching the game as a student builds a comraderie like none other. You’ll understand what I mean at your first home game.

Best of luck! I love seeing devout Catholic students enter the doors of Notre Dame. We need to strive to keep Notre Dame a leading source in American Catholicism. Best of luck.

God Bless.
 
Um…I’ve heard good things about Texas A&M in many of these areas, but I’ve never visited…does anyone around here have any experience?
Journeyman said:
I am glad to see this topic being discussed here. However, there are plenty of people who might prefer a good Catholic experience at other schools besides those listed in the NCR. Some of those schools are tiny and not applicable to those who might want to major in Information Tech or Accounting etc… So what about other schools that are not on the list but:
  1. Are not party schools
  2. Are not far-out liberal schools that have an anti-Christian bias
  3. Are Conservative
  4. Offer the Catholic students a solid Newman Club, Catholic Campus Ministry, FOCUS group etc…
  5. Catholic students that know the faith can feel at home
  6. Weekends in the dorm don’t revolve around every kind of immoral behavior known to mankind
Click to expand...
 
Domer1997! Now I’m really considering applying there. You have helped me so much and I thank you!
-S15-
 
I always have to advertise Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy whenever something like this comes up.

What I like:
  • It’s faithful to the Magisterium of the Church.
  • Has a strong academic program.
  • Very faithful Catholics for staff, in the parish next door, fellow students, and in the general area.
  • It has small classes.
  • A fairly large library for the size of the school.
  • It’s inexpensive.
  • It is located in an absolutely beautiful area of Canada.
What I dislike:
  • It’s currently not accredited (Though it does have full-credit transfer agreements with Catholic universities in the U.S. - Franciscan University of Steubenville and Ave Maria University).
  • It’s got very limited space for students (Only a couple dozen students can attend it’s so small).
  • Snow! Lots and lots of snow! (Not so bad you think? Wait until you see all the snow!)
Something others may not like:
  • It’s in Northern Ontario (Which amounts to a big distance for most on these forums).
How good is it for young Catholics?
  • I would say very, very good. Even if you only go for two semesters.
Anyway, that’s my advertisement. Hope someone, somewhere finds it good enough to check the website.
 
I’ll always put in my plug for Benedictine College. Both my husband and I are alums and can’t say enough good things about it. There are so many opportunities for growing in one’s faith there from daily Mass to FOCUS Bible studies, social justice activities, fellowship, praise and worship sessions, adoration, I could go on and on. I have so many unique friendships from Benedictine with different staff, monks, sisters that formed my experience even beyond the friendships with other students. There is tremendous support there for discerning vocations as well, and a significant number of students have gone on to become priests and religious. And as another poster mentioned, there is a real-world element to the college as well. They have competitive sports teams and some students come for reasons other than the Catholic component, such as the science program or on a sports scholarship. Even then it’s been amazing - a couple years ago there were eight baseball players who went through RCIA at the college and joined the Church.
 
I went through the entire process of applying to colleges last year and I must warn you to be very careful. My dream school was the University of Notre Dame, but I was waitlisted so I attended the next most prestigious Catholic University that accepted me, Boston College. I am currently a freshman at BC, but I have been very disappointed in its lack of genuine Catholicity. Honestly, I think I would have been much better off at a less prestigious but true Catholic school or even a secular school in which I would not expect the professors and administration to promote behavior in line with church teachings. I came to college with a very strong faith, but it was very difficult even for me to deal with an exploring Catholicism teacher going against the Church and being so skeptical. History courses are also dangerous, because professors can assign reading overly critical of the church and actually lecture from a protestant perspective. It is hard to explain because I am right in the middle of the storm, but I do not recommend Boston College for most serious Catholic students. Granted there are several very good Priests/Sisters and students can find a couple of organizations on campus in line with the Church’s Magesterium. A school like Boston College has great resources, reputation, and campus- but there are more important things than them. The moral of my story is know who and what institutions you trust with your faith. Never become careless with it, and Beware of pseudo-Catholicism. I am seriously thinking about taking an immediate leave of absence to get out of the situation- please pray for me.
 
Karin said:
KCT-
Do you think that the level of education offered at a local school is equal to what the catholic schools offer?
Cost is one concern for us, but the level of education/academics is a big one…also what about the enviroment, is going to a non Catholic school a good thing if you want to keep the kids in the Church and not drive them out or have them stray?
Click to expand...
I went to 2 different colleges one was a local community college in Austin, texas and the other was Franciscan University of Steubenville.

First i enjoyed my community college experience but was hard to commute because of my major. (i was radio televison film)

When i transfered to FUS i had bit different experience because one i was considered a grad/non trad and could live off campus…which really helps with cost of living considering it so cheap!

But the financial aid was HORRIBLE!!! My parents total income together was 30,000 and FUS told me that my parents total expected contribution should be 13,000. I proably got about 10,000 in scholarships/grants and then the rest in loans…

Depending on what you major in is whether FUS should be the school for you. The theology department is good, but the question then becomes what are you going to do with a theology degree? I highly recommend double majoring there so you can fall back on a different degree to actual make a living.

I majored in Comm Arts which is pretty much considered the red headed step child at FUS:) Which is odd considering what Pope John Paul II said about media, but such is life.

I also highly recommend getting a job in Scholarships department so you can always now what scholarships are available…

Good luck with your search:)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top