Catholic Colleges/Universities

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My friends tell me that FUS doesn’t offer very many scholarships either. It seems that most of its graduates move on to low-paying jobs in ministry and there aren’t enough wealthy donors to fund scholarships. When I’ve been at conferences at FUS, they always solicit donations for scholarship programs (even at the young adults conference…which was mostly college students to begin with.)

But…what was that about FUS “telling” your parents how much their contribution will be? I was under the impression that your parents’ contribution was determined by the FAFSA formula, and that the university was required to offer you grants/government loans/work-study to pay for the rest.
maria29 said:
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:)
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ack said:
My friends tell me that FUS doesn’t offer very many scholarships either. It seems that most of its graduates move on to low-paying jobs in ministry and there aren’t enough wealthy donors to fund scholarships. When I’ve been at conferences at FUS, they always solicit donations for scholarship programs (even at the young adults conference…which was mostly college students to begin with.)

But…what was that about FUS “telling” your parents how much their contribution will be? I was under the impression that your parents’ contribution was determined by the FAFSA formula, and that the university was required to offer you grants/government loans/work-study to pay for the rest.
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FAFSA plays a role but i also believe that Franciscan targets you if you’re not from a large family. FUS does its own “audits” which you have to submit incomes etc.

I am an only child so FUS reasoning well we have kids here from 5 or more families they deserve the financial aid more than you. Government loans at FUS will cover about 4-6,000 depending on how lucky you are. After that they offer what is called the GATE loan…A bit of advice DO NOT USE THIS OFFER…you are better off going with a private lender. The gate loan which thus run by American Education Services does NOT ALLOW Deferments or forebearances on your loans like normal government loans. Or help your child out by taking a PLUS parent loan out, if you have horrible credit (my parents had just filed bankruptcy) and you the parent are denied the PLUS loan then your child is automatically eligible for that extra 5,000 a year.

Student work or SWOP (or as we call it a FUS indentured servant) is basically this…
they give you 500.00 off your bill each semester then you work it off until you reach that amount then you are able to keep the remaining amount after that.

I believe that if you are meant to be there at FUS the money situation will work out. Living off campus defintely helps quite a bit. My first semester there 3 girls and i shared a 3 bedroom house for 325.00 a month not including utilities.

Scholarships are very rare and very hard to get. It helps if you know a board of trustee memeber or someone else higher up.
 
I’m thinking Georgetown University, it’s probably really liberal though… so I’m considering William and Mary and just joining a Catholic student group. Any suggestions?
 
Take a hard look at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California. thomasaquinas.edu/

This most unusual of Catholic schools takes the position that if you want to understand where Western Christian civilization came from, you have to study it from the words of the people that created it. As such, you study the “great books”.

Everyone takes the same classes, everyone studies the same material in a true “Classic Liberal Education”.

The classes are not lecture style, they are socratic, with a tutor directing coversation as the students wrestle with the reading material and the ideas presented.

It is a fascinating and truly “Catholic” education that offers the successful student a higher education unequaled in the United States to be sure.
 
johnnyjoe said:
Take a hard look at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California. thomasaquinas.edu/

This most unusual of Catholic schools takes the position that if you want to understand where Western Christian civilization came from, you have to study it from the words of the people that created it. As such, you study the “great books”.

Everyone takes the same classes, everyone studies the same material in a true “Classic Liberal Education”.

The classes are not lecture style, they are socratic, with a tutor directing coversation as the students wrestle with the reading material and the ideas presented.

It is a fascinating and truly “Catholic” education that offers the successful student a higher education unequaled in the United States to be sure.
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sounds like a great school if you only want a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts degree since that is all that they offer.
 
Scapularkid8- I will be completely honest- if I were in your situation I would go for that second option. I looked at Georgetown myself and I could barely discern that it was a Cathaloic University based on the tour and information session. Also, look into what happened when Cardinal Arinze spoke at graduation a few years ago. The university disgusted me with their behaviour and comments.

When I was looking at schools last year, I wanted a prestigous university, but my Catholic faith meant so much to me- I also wanted to attend a Catholic affiliated college. I decdided on Boston College (waitlisted at Notre Dame) even though I knew that it was a somewhat liberal campus, I figured I’d be able to find plenty of individuals with orthodox beliefs and values. It is more difficult than I expected, and most students take their faith for granted. The hardest part is dealing with professors or even members of the religous community who teach outside of the Church’s positions. The moral of the story is don’t trust a college completely with your faith even a Catholic one, except maybe the schools mentioned on these boards and EWTN such as FUS, St. Thomas Aquinas or Ave Maria.

I could have handeled the fact that a secular school would be liberal, and it would probably have only maid my faith stronger. I think the good thing about a place like William and Mary is it will give you a great education while allowing you to connect faith with reason on your own. The faith can grow within great college Catholic groups/clubs. Just be very careful and avoid Catholic Universities that will not respect your unabashed Catholicity.
 
ThomasFrancis said:
I think the good thing about a place like William and Mary is it will give you a great education while allowing you to connect faith with reason on your own. The faith can grow within great college Catholic groups/clubs. Just be very careful and avoid Catholic Universities that will not respect your unabashed Catholicity.
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That’s basically what I arrived upon with my own logic, I just wanted a third opinion (one besides my family!). I am in a position similar to the one you said you were in. I’m going into the International Relations field, so of course I’m going to have to get a degree from a somewhat respectable institution. I considered majoring in Philosophy in Ave Maria Univ., but I want to keep up on my Spanish (my strongest moticator for pursuing International Relations), and as far as I know, they don’t offer any Spanish courses… at least they aren’t advertised on the website. Hmmm… I might contact them and see because Ave Maria has had my attention for quite some time now…
 
Four of my children attended Jesuit universities. I don’t know about all of them, but I would say the following:

Georgetown is prestigious and expensive and gives little student aid. It ought to be sued for fraud for representing that it is a Catholic University.

St. Louis U. is less expensive, not prestigious, but well thought of in the midwest. Not especially Catholic, though there are exceptional teachers here and there.

Rockhurst University. Much better. Less expensive. Fairly generous with aid. Well thought of in the midwest. Occasional bad apple in the faculty barrel. I will confess that its rival, Benedictine, has a better reputation for fidelity to the Church. But I could recommend Rockhurst, perhaps alone, of Jesuit universities.

I know nothing about Ave Maria U. However, two of my children attended the Ave Maria School of Law, and I cannot say enough good things about it. If the undergrad is anything like the law school, it’s very Catholic, and probably generous with scholarships.

Between going to some of the old, established “Catholic” universities that have lost their way, and going to a public college with a decent Newman Club, I think the latter would definitely be preferable, and not just because of the massive difference in cost. One of my children transferred from a Jesuit univerisity to a public college and was relieved, finally, not to have to hear the Catholic Church put down all the time. When you hear more anti-Catholicism in a “Catholic” school than you do in a public school in the South, that’s a very bad sign.

Finally, I strongly recommend reading the college advertisements in The National Catholic Register. They don’t advertize the bad ones. My children who attended Ave Maria School of Law have talked to a lot of students from those and other Catholic universities, and have definitely come away with the belief that those like Franciscan of Steubenville, Thomas Aquinas, University of Dallas and, yes, Benedictine are the ones to take seriously.
 
I agree completely with Ridgerunner- It is so difficult to deal with anti-catholicism from a catholic school. This problem is very prevalent in History courses and some Theology courses depending on the profesor.

Let me stress a couple of other things. I do not want to offend anyone by being to general, because I have met some very good Priests and people at Boston College in my experience and I would expect that it is the same at other catholic schools. However, overall the bad drowns out the good and knowing who and what to believe becomes nearly impossible. I will also say, now I realize prestige isn’t everything and extremely expensive private schools are a bit overrated. I did the math it equals about 100 dollars per hour of class. Don’t get caught up in the whole competition for prestige; it is much more important to find the best school for you then just the best school you get into.

Skapularkid8, you are obviously inteligent in order to be even looking at those colleges and you seem to have a really good approach to this process. Put your faith number one and your education will be a great complement to it, and just be careful not to end up in a situation where your faith identity is put in jeapordy.

If I had to do it over again I probably would have applied to FUS and Ave Maria, I also would have definitely given more consideration to a strong public college with a good Newman Program.
 
THutch04 said:
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
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I am a graduate of Franciscan University. As many have commented, it is a very charismatic university, but in a good way. I tend to appreciate the Latin Mass and more traditional ways, than the charismatic movement. At first it was a little awkward and strange for me surrounded by such a charismatic flavor. However, I learned that FUS does offer Masses and experiences for those who prefer the more traditional aspect. For instance, there is a Latin Mass once a month, FUS has a Schola Cantorum choir and the early Masses [such as the 6:30 am] tend to be more subdued. Once you know which Masses you prefer, and get to know others who prefer the same type of worship, it becomes alot less awkward.

As far as your education is concerned, attending a TRULY Catholic college like Franciscan Univ., Thomas Aquinas, Christendom, Ave Maria, Magdalen and Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, is an unforgetable experience, because your faith is not meant to be taught separately from your knowledge, but it is to be infused and interwoven in every aspect of your education, thoughts, and life.

God bless!
 
I am a librarian at a “Catholic” college and from my experience I would like to warn parents to look into the religious character of the Catholic school you are considering sending your son or daughter to. Don’t rely on the self-descriptions in the literature they give to prospective students and their partents. You could for example go into the bookstore and look at the books used in religion courses. You also could try to find out the affiiliation of those who teach religion. The head of our “theology department” for many years was a Hindu and the leading teacher for scripture is a liberal Protestant.
From what I know, most of the schools recommended here are good, but several of the ones posters praised may very well harm your child. When students start in college, in some ways they are still children and to some extent not entirely set in their beliefs. Why put them in a bad religious environment? I think that it would be far preferable to send them to a state college than to such a school.
 
Karin said:
sounds like a great school if you only want a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts degree since that is all that they offer.
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An interesting observation.

It begs the question, what exactly is the point of an “upper” education. If you believe the current system, it is to provide a piece of paper that acts as a “vocational training certificate”. Once you pay the cash and “pass” the tests, you are certified to become an “accountant” or “businessman”.

It is a poor replacement for a real classic education that grows and sharpens the mind to see the culture for what it is, and how the Great Minds of the far and near past forsaw the current decline. Very little of the errors of today are “new”. More importantly, this kind of education trains the student in important critical thinking skills.

For those who need or seek a vocational degree, education inflation has made it necessary for virtually all “professional” jobs to require a Masters degree, so many TAC grads go on to their chose specialty fields at the graduate level.
 
scapularkid8 said:
That’s basically what I arrived upon with my own logic, I just wanted a third opinion (one besides my family!). I am in a position similar to the one you said you were in. I’m going into the International Relations field, so of course I’m going to have to get a degree from a somewhat respectable institution. I considered majoring in Philosophy in Ave Maria Univ., but I want to keep up on my Spanish (my strongest moticator for pursuing International Relations), and as far as I know, they don’t offer any Spanish courses… at least they aren’t advertised on the website. Hmmm… I might contact them and see because Ave Maria has had my attention for quite some time now…
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Hi ScapularKid8!

I have to put in a plug for Ave Maria U. My oldest is a sophomore there and it has been a wonderful place for her. I do know for certain that they have Spanish because she almost took the class this year. It’s a good course for them to have, since they have priests and nuns there from Hogar de Madre, “Home of the Mother”, an Order that was founded in Spain not long ago. My daughter just can’t say enough about her classes this year. They are challenging and are expanding her mind, heart and soul. If you’d like to be in touch with a student there, send me a private message and I’ll have her contact you!

God bless you in your college search!
 
mdgspencer said:
I would like to warn parents to look into the religious character of the Catholic school you are considering sending your son or daughter to. Don’t rely on the self-descriptions in the literature they give to prospective students and their partents.
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That is a good point, because it is easy to be fooled. Even if the student thinks he/shee can avoid the bad stuff and find the good, being able to make the distiction becomes a frustrating task when one is caught off guard by this task. It takes a lot of energy to remain on guard at all times, and with all the required school work and distractions sometimes it is easy to let down the shield. It is dangerous to go to a Catholic school less faithful than the actual student.
 
I knew eventually I’d have to come in here and say something good about Duquesne! It’s certainly not right for everybody, but I’ve had a great experience there. A lot of people have an issue with the fact that we have a large non-Catholic population. However, the reason for that is most likely because Duquesne has such fabulous programs that people of all faiths go there because of those programs. That doen’t mean we have unfaithful Catholics though. I’ve been to all of the Masses at Duquesne, and they’re all full.

There are many ways to get involved in the various ministries on campus. A group of us chant Compline every Tuesday night in the chapel, we’re working on getting more Adoration times, and this coming week we’ll be praying the Rosary at the Grotto. It’s a place that you can be an orthodox Catholic.
 
Before online distance learning became a real entity, I earned my degree through what is now Excelsior College (formerly Regents College at the University of New York, Albany).

WHY? Flexibility. As a service person, I could take a course any place and have it “banked” against my BA. I could have my military courses evaluated for credit. The standards are still stringent, so that the diploma is actually a BA, not a piece of paper. The cost is reasonable. The work is tailored to the individual.

And with that kind of flexibility, a Catholic can go anywhere, including to Mass, then work in the morning before classes.

For those very reasons, I would also HIGHLY recommend CLEP and other subject exams; community colleges; accredited online courses; Robert Morris College, Illinois, ITT-Tech, University of Phoenix, AI College.

HOWEVER, if one insists on the “college experience” of a live-in campus and a Catholic atmosphere, I would recommend Texas A&M (Blinn College if needed), so that one could avail oneself of the nearby St. Mary Center. aggiecatholic.org/

I cannot recommend Loyola (shudder). I cannot recommend DePaul- although for catholicity, I would recommend DePaul over Loyola. I find Lewis to have a liberal element, but on the whole more orthodox than either “big” school. lewisu.edu But St. Xavier gets my vote, if I had a kid going today. sxu.edu/campus_ministry/default.asp

Dominican in River Forest is getting better, but still not quite there in my opinion.

dom.edu/student_life/universityministry.asp?nav_id=3307&tnav_id=1005

And University of St. Francis is trying to do better, too:
http://www.stfrancis.edu/missionandministry/
 
An authentic Catholic education is really the pearl of great price. It would be foolish to say that a person could not hold on to the faith without such an education, but given the constant, aggressive, and more often than not convincing attacks that the Church must face in the modern world, an authentic Catholic education is almost becoming a necessity.

Unfortunately, (though I am sure you are not hearing this for the first time) almost all of the nominally Catholic universities and colleges have ceased to offer an authentically Catholic education. You need a strong Philosophy core which not only teaches you St. Thomas and Aristotle, but that can later introduce you to the errors of modern and recent philosophy and where there errors are founded. You need a strong Theology core, courses on doctrine, Scripture, and moral theology.

To my knowledge, and from what I have been able to gather from friends, visits, talks with professors, etc., Christendom College is the best option for an authentic Catholic education. That is the reason that I applied there and only there, and that is the reason why I still love it to death now that I am a senior. (In fact, I love it so much at Christendom, that I have voluntarily decided to stay a fifth year.)

www.christendom.edu

I am more than willing to talk to anyone, no matter what the interest level, about Christendom. Just send me a PM or an email.
 
Is it so important to go to a Catholic university?

I go to a non-Catholic college because it’s very good for my field of study. It’s not considered a particularly spiritual college, however. I avoid the on-campus masses as much as possible because they’re terrible and the homilies are borderline heretical; I’m also not very active in the Newman Center on campus for various reasons.

Nevertheless, I’ve met some wonderful Catholics who really support each other in the faith, and I feel that I’ve been able to grow in my faith while in college.

Also, I have friends from many different faiths, and also friends who are atheists, and I think I’m beginning to learn how to talk to them about my faith.

So, I think there are benefits to attending non-Catholic colleges (especially insofar as academics are concerned, depending on what you wish to study). It seems that there are few genuinely good Catholic colleges left in the U.S., as well. I’d personally make academics my top priority when choosing a college; it tends to turn out that the more “academic” the student body is, the more respectful and charitable they are to those around them.
 
There is something to what you say. Bishop Sheen once said that it is better to go to a state school where you have to defend your faith than to a Catholic college where they try to take it away.
Personally I would look for a good Catholic school to attend, but it may be necessary to go to another kind of school if for example you have a field of study too specialized for the available Catholic schools or for other reasons.
Alterum said:
Is it so important to go to a Catholic university?

I go to a non-Catholic college because it’s very good for my field of study. It’s not considered a particularly spiritual college, however. I avoid the on-campus masses as much as possible because they’re terrible and the homilies are borderline heretical; I’m also not very active in the Newman Center on campus for various reasons.

Nevertheless, I’ve met some wonderful Catholics who really support each other in the faith, and I feel that I’ve been able to grow in my faith while in college.

Also, I have friends from many different faiths, and also friends who are atheists, and I think I’m beginning to learn how to talk to them about my faith.

So, I think there are benefits to attending non-Catholic colleges (especially insofar as academics are concerned, depending on what you wish to study). It seems that there are few genuinely good Catholic colleges left in the U.S., as well. I’d personally make academics my top priority when choosing a college; it tends to turn out that the more “academic” the student body is, the more respectful and charitable they are to those around them.
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