Need some college input

[The_Murray]

Yeah I was really surprised to hear others talking about Georgetown like that. Not only is the school stellar in terms of academics, but the atmosphere is pretty conservative (it is in DC) and from what I was told, it’s like the oldest Catholic university in the US.

Depends which school you go to at Georgetown I suppose. Their law school seems pretty uber-insane liberal.

 

[UbiCaritas]

The Murray

Some people today look at College as a glorified trade school. Nothing wrong with trade school but don’t look at college that way.

I don’t think you are doing that incidentally.

When you go to a University you want to prioritize growing in your faith. Then getting a great education.

Ave Maria would be an excellent choice.

Consider TAC or Wyoming Catholic College as well. Franciscan University of Steubenville would also be very good.

Objection: But I am a physics major!

Answer: As you yourself said: “but I’m not too concerned about wether or not the school is science oriented as I plan on going directly to graduate school”.

The important thing about “education” isn’t what you learn (yes this important but there is more), so much as it is teaching you HOW to learn and teach yourself the rest of your life. This is a lifelong joy/endeavor.

You can take a few summer school classes at a major university, or do a post-baccalaureate (post-bac) year afterwards if you have difficulty getting into your grad school. Lots of people at Thomas Aquinas College (TAC) for example have gone on to Medical School. TAC does not offer many Med school prerequisite courses (but the students fill those pre-recs by doing some summer school or a post bac year).

This is my suggestion if you REALLY want to get into the Catholic culture, have a great education, then do the grad school thing. I suspect you will not regret carrying out these suggestions.

Interesting side note. Several people (almost all at once) were asking me advice on this years ago. I told them there is a 50-50 chance they’d meet their future spouse and 100% chance they will meet a LOT of great people. 60% of them met their future spouse there.

Praying for you.

God bless.

Cathoholic

One thing re: Wyoming CC. They sound solidly orthodox, which is awesome. It makes me extremely uncomfortable from a personal safety aspect, however, that they don’t allow cell phones on campus. Yes, I understand their thinking; yes, I know it’s the middle of nowhere. Bad things can still happen, though, and it seems to me to be deeply irresponsible to have a policy wherein one can own a gun and carry it while on campus, but you can’t have a cell phone to call for help as an intermediate step between “I’m uncomfortable with this situation” and “I need to shoot someone to get away.” Seems like being able to call a friend, at least, and say “Hey, there’s kind of a creepy guy following me, I’m stopping at the coffee shop, could you meet me here and walk me back to my dorm?” is rather more responsible than potentially forcing a confrontation involving a gun when it’s just not necessary.

Do bear in mind that I’m not attacking gun rights here; I’m about as libertarian on guns as anyone you’ll meet. What I think is that it’s morally irresponsible to not allow a student to have a perfectly useful tool* that can help them avoid a very bad situation. Leaving aside anything else, Wyoming features a Whole Lot Of Nothin’, and I’d be seriously not okay with a daughter of mine (really, a son too, but women do have some considerations that guys don’t) deliberately not having a means to call for help for 50 miles of a time of road while going to and from school.

Lastly, most schools–if anything, some secular schools much more than Catholic schools–will have an active Catholic student group on campus. I suggest broadening your search to include major universities, and then do a bit of research on what the student faith life is like there. As others have mentioned, Texas A&M, for example, is rather famous for sending off a lot of students to seminary and various forms of religious life each year. The church there which caters to the students is located next to campus, and is semi-jokingly referred to as “St. Mary’s Seminary of the South” because of the massive numbers of solid vocations coming out of there.

*And if the argument is that a gun is a tool, and it’s the owner’s responsibility to use it well, why doesn’t that argument apply to a tool that is still less likely to lead to someone dying?

 

[Xantippe]

One thing re: Wyoming CC. They sound solidly orthodox, which is awesome. It makes me extremely uncomfortable from a personal safety aspect, however, that they don’t allow cell phones on campus. Yes, I understand their thinking; yes, I know it’s the middle of nowhere. Bad things can still happen, though, and it seems to me to be deeply irresponsible to have a policy wherein one can own a gun and carry it while on campus, but you can’t have a cell phone to call for help as an intermediate step between “I’m uncomfortable with this situation” and “I need to shoot someone to get away.” Seems like being able to call a friend, at least, and say “Hey, there’s kind of a creepy guy following me, I’m stopping at the coffee shop, could you meet me here and walk me back to my dorm?” is rather more responsible than potentially forcing a confrontation involving a gun when it’s just not necessary.

Do bear in mind that I’m not attacking gun rights here; I’m about as libertarian on guns as anyone you’ll meet. What I think is that it’s morally irresponsible to not allow a student to have a perfectly useful tool* that can help them avoid a very bad situation. Leaving aside anything else, Wyoming features a Whole Lot Of Nothin’, and I’d be seriously not okay with a daughter of mine (really, a son too, but women do have some considerations that guys don’t) deliberately not having a means to call for help for 50 miles of a time of road while going to and from school.

Lastly, most schools–if anything, some secular schools much more than Catholic schools–will have an active Catholic student group on campus. I suggest broadening your search to include major universities, and then do a bit of research on what the student faith life is like there. As others have mentioned, Texas A&M, for example, is rather famous for sending off a lot of students to seminary and various forms of religious life each year. The church there which caters to the students is located next to campus, and is semi-jokingly referred to as “St. Mary’s Seminary of the South” because of the massive numbers of solid vocations coming out of there.

*And if the argument is that a gun is a tool, and it’s the owner’s responsibility to use it well, why doesn’t that argument apply to a tool that is still less likely to lead to someone dying?

The cell phone thing is bad.

 

[lax16]

Just about to finish up 2 years at my local community college and was looking to transfer to a 4 year school.

I have guaranteed admission to the University of Virginia, The College of William and Mary, and Virginia Tech. However, after living in Richmond’s VCU area for the past 2 years, I’ve come to the conclusion that I really don’t want to go to a secular school. Joining Catholic groups and being involved is great and all but I really desire a strong overall Catholic culture. Thus why I’m here.

I have a perfect GPA and stellar scores, acceptance isn’t really an issue; with that said here are the short list of my schools.

-Georgetown University (seems far too secular, but has stellar academics)
-**Ave Maria University **( seems to be lacking the academic prestige I’m looking for but definitely has the culture I desire)
-St. Anselm College (I know absolutely nothing about its catholic culture -or even its existence. Just familiar with its academics).
-The College of The Holy Cross (from what I’ve read it has a vibrant Liberal Catholic Culture along with stellar academics)

Also, I’m majoring in Physics but I’m not too concerned about wether or not the school is science oriented as I plan on going directly to graduate school (just in case anybody had that question). And price; I worked on an oil rig for a couple years prior to attending community college, I have money. I’m far more concerned with finding a school with a strong academic and Catholic culture than worrying about price or school academic focus.

So… Any advice! I don’t know too much about the culture of many of these schools so it’d be great if somebody had some info to fill me in. The websites make it seem like they’re all vibrantly Catholic, but I get the feeling that just aint so (see georgetown).

I’m not just relegated to these school’s either, just the short list I came up with through some basic research.

Have you thought about Christendom College? It’s in Front Royal, VA and is a very orthodox Catholic liberal arts school. It is very small - not sure if you are looking for a small school.

And I also would add Texas A&M - there Catholic community there is awesome! They even have Catholic dorms!

 

[1990Domer]

Again; how I wish I could get into ND. Where’s the crying emoji?

What about grad school there? My uncle graduated with a physics degree. They have a dedicated nuclear physics building.

 

[1990Domer]

I might recommend Hillsdale College in Michigan. It is NOT a Catholic institution but has a very very strong Catholic community, with the addition of excellent academics. No Jesuit malarky, no Notre Dame “Vagina Monologues”… good solid education, at a relatively reasonable price, with academic panache.

So many of the “Catholic” colleges are, as y ou know, hardly Catholic at all, and basically just liberal indoctrination zones.

I’ll pray for y ou.

ND stopped that when a bunch of alum stopped giving them $$$. They wised up.

 

[HouseArrest]

It seems like you are interested in staying in the east, for which I would suggest Catholic University of America, but also check out Benedictine College in Kansas and The University of Dallas.

They are all Newman Guide schools with great Catholic cultures that have a Physics major. I would say BC has a better environment than CUA does, but in both I think you will find what you are looking for. I have heard UD has a great atmosphere but I have no personal experience with the school.

Some of the other schools on the NG list do not have a Physics major, namely Christendom (they have a math major and physics minor), Wyoming Catholic (liberal arts degree, one major for everyone), Thomas Aquinas College (again, I believe it’s the same liberal arts degree for everyone). The idea is that they are not focused on job training, rather a traditional liberal arts education. Do those students go on to be nurses, physicists, journalists, engineers, teachers? They do, but have to take some pre reqs usually to get into grad school. The environment at these colleges is wonderful. I can say through personal experience there is nothing “creepy” about Christendom or TAC. I think academically, though, your plans might be derailed, or at least be extended further than you might want. You would probably have a lot of catching up to do on your history, philosophy, theology.

Benedictine College, Catholic University, Franciscan, Ave Maria, UD and I believe all the others have degrees you would expect to see at a secular school, but still have a Catholic culture and liberal arts degree requirements to graduate. If you compare the four year plan for engineers at CUA vs. a state university, for example, you are going to find less Gen Ed requirements at state u, plus you will be able to fill those with courses like Acting 101. There is nothing wrong with Acting 101, but it’s not history or philosophy taught with a Catholic perspective, either.

As for Georgetown and some of the others, go to the Cardinal Newman Society homepage and type in the name of the school. Articles concerning Catholic Identity will be listed, and you can see what each has been up to in the past few years. The following has been noted about Georgetown:

In fact, in 2012, Cardinal Wuerl’s Archdiocesan newspaper wrote in an editorial that at Georgetown University today: “leadership and faculty find their inspiration in sources other than the Gospel and Catholic teaching,” and that “the vision guiding university choices does not clearly reflect the light of the Gospel and authentic Catholic teaching.”

Georgetown is probably the school with the most complaints about its Catholic identity.

Finally, I have to laugh at some of the A&M claims. St. Mary’s sounds wonderful, it really does. But I have heard that they have more Catholic students than UD! Imagine, more Catholics at a public school than at a Catholic school… until you realize there are about 55,000 students total at A&M, 2,800 at UD. Of course there are more Catholics…

Good luck with your search!!

 

[1990Domer]

If you go to (virtually) any Catholic school in New England, you will be greatly disappointed unless you are looking for a school that is nominally Catholic. “Orthodoxy be damned” is pretty much the battle cry.

My daughter graduated from College of the Holy Cross in 2009. As an Economics major, she had Socialists, centrist and center right profs within that school. For the rest of her classes–with one exception in four years–the faculty were leftists, regardless of school.
Her religion classes were heavily based on Latin American Liberation Theology. She had some feminist profs in Religion and Philosophy that advocated openly in class and on campus for abortion, LBGT rights, etc.

HC is NOT the school to attend unless you are seeking a progressive catholic education. The student body is comprised mostly of smart, East coast preppie liberals, children of upper middle class, nominally Catholic themselves. Naturally, there are a few exceptions to the rule–but the are just that–few.

I graduated from Notre Dame in 1980. Back then ND was FAR more centrist and conservative than it is today. In my dorm I was a coordinator for our lone CSC priest (among several CSC brothers). Our Sunday evening masses were always standing room only–even for those in a robe or sweats. 85% of our dorm attended Sunday mass.

My niece is ND’11 and she was a Theology major. She attended mass about half the time. She said that was better than most. There is still a fairly strong Catholic moral character at ND, although it is reflected more culturally. There are still problems with drugs, alcohol, premarital sex, etc although not remotely close to secular schools.

My son is a sophomore in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Kansas. For a state school, it is very Catholic friendly. There is a parish adjacent to campus with priests and nuns whose mission is to spread the gospel to college kids. There is also a Lutheran church and an active Jewish service club within walking distance. In my experiences there it appears that the kids respect those who choose to worship. I think midwesterners generally are a little more conscious of their faith life than those on the coasts, for whatever reasons.

To the OP: as you said, you probably want to go to grad school. Make sure you research and visit (and overnight on campus when possible) before you make a decision, wahtever that may be. You want to be happy for those two years.

What dorm? ND is heading in the right direction. 1 in 8 students attended the March for Life in DC. As a '90 grad, masses were also standing room only, and many non-Catholics joined. Often, many fellas took their girlfriends to their dorm’s mass.

 

[1990Domer]

There are several. I am one of them.

A&M is awesome. And yes, it has a very strong Catholic center/parish for students. It turns out many seminarians and religious vocations. St Mary’s.

A&M as a whole is conservative, it is totally acceptable to be a practicing Christian, and has rock solid academics. I’ll hold the Aggie network up against ND’s too.

We were at A&M for my class reunion a couple of years ago (we won’t mention which # it was) and it was over a Labor Day weekend, so all the beginning of school “join our club” booths were out. There were bible study booths, Aggie Catholic booth, Baptist booth, prayer group booth… And on and on. My husband just says, “I wish I could have gone here.”

It is NOT hostile to faith life, in fact tons of people go to church every weekend, Catholic or not. Oh, and the Coalition For Life (founder of the 40 Days for Life) came from… Yes, Texas A&M students. And yes PP no longer operates there thanks to them!

Derailed thread…we took care of Texas for you…ok, back on topic.

 

[1990Domer]

There are several. I am one of them.

A&M is awesome. And yes, it has a very strong Catholic center/parish for students. It turns out many seminarians and religious vocations. St Mary’s.

A&M as a whole is conservative, it is totally acceptable to be a practicing Christian, and has rock solid academics. I’ll hold the Aggie network up against ND’s too.

We were at A&M for my class reunion a couple of years ago (we won’t mention which # it was) and it was over a Labor Day weekend, so all the beginning of school “join our club” booths were out. There were bible study booths, Aggie Catholic booth, Baptist booth, prayer group booth… And on and on. My husband just says, “I wish I could have gone here.”

It is NOT hostile to faith life, in fact tons of people go to church every weekend, Catholic or not. Oh, and the Coalition For Life (founder of the 40 Days for Life) came from… Yes, Texas A&M students. And yes PP no longer operates there thanks to them!

My apologies for not knowing much about A&M except Johnny Football. Sorry, not a fan of his.

 

[1990Domer]

There are several. I am one of them.

A&M is awesome. And yes, it has a very strong Catholic center/parish for students. It turns out many seminarians and religious vocations. St Mary’s.

A&M as a whole is conservative, it is totally acceptable to be a practicing Christian, and has rock solid academics. I’ll hold the Aggie network up against ND’s too.

We were at A&M for my class reunion a couple of years ago (we won’t mention which # it was) and it was over a Labor Day weekend, so all the beginning of school “join our club” booths were out. There were bible study booths, Aggie Catholic booth, Baptist booth, prayer group booth… And on and on. My husband just says, “I wish I could have gone here.”

It is NOT hostile to faith life, in fact tons of people go to church every weekend, Catholic or not. Oh, and the Coalition For Life (founder of the 40 Days for Life) came from… Yes, Texas A&M students. And yes PP no longer operates there thanks to them!

I know A&M’s science, math, engineering are really good. Hub considered them for a stats doctorate.

 

[1990Domer]

There are several. I am one of them.

A&M is awesome. And yes, it has a very strong Catholic center/parish for students. It turns out many seminarians and religious vocations. St Mary’s.

A&M as a whole is conservative, it is totally acceptable to be a practicing Christian, and has rock solid academics. I’ll hold the Aggie network up against ND’s too.

We were at A&M for my class reunion a couple of years ago (we won’t mention which # it was) and it was over a Labor Day weekend, so all the beginning of school “join our club” booths were out. There were bible study booths, Aggie Catholic booth, Baptist booth, prayer group booth… And on and on. My husband just says, “I wish I could have gone here.”

It is NOT hostile to faith life, in fact tons of people go to church every weekend, Catholic or not. Oh, and the Coalition For Life (founder of the 40 Days for Life) came from… Yes, Texas A&M students. And yes PP no longer operates there thanks to them!

And I did not want to imply it is hostile to Catholics or Christians for that matter.

 

[1990Domer]

Notre Dame is one of the most beautiful campuses I have ever seen.

South Bend is super depressing though, isn’t it?

Sadly, yes, because of the lost of Bendix brakes and the Stueudbaker empire (manufacuring was based there). ND is now South Bend’s largest employer. But they really, really try to give as much as they can back to the community. There’s always that town and gown friction.

My biggest disappointment…I don’t want it to compare itself to Harvard, Stanford, MIT. I want it to be its own elite Catholic university.

My son wants to go to seminary there. I could handle that.

 

[1990Domer]

Norte Dame is the ultimate school for Catholics, IMO, but I have a family member who is attending Georgetown and says it’s a wonderful Catholic university. Beautiful campus too.

Thank you. I got mad at GT when they covered up their crucifixes when Obama visited.

 

[1990Domer]

I can’t speak to the academics at CUA, but the Shrine at CUA is AMAZING.

nationalshrine.com/site/c.osJRKVPBJnH/b.4719297/k.BF65/Home.htm

My son’s former babysitter did very well there, as did my cousin.

 

[1990Domer]

All this Notre Dame talk just makes me more and more depressed

Anyway, as somebody mentioned above, I am looking for a school that has Catholicism engrained deeply into every aspect of campus life (like ave maria or Notre Dame). From what you all have posted, that’s not Georgetown or Holy Cross.

If I were to go to a secular state school I’d probably just go to William and Mary as they have a pretty active Catholic population, and If I were to go to a secular private school I’d probably go to Cornell (New York rich Catholics ).

I would say from what people have posted Notre Dame is the winner; Alas… ND’s transfer policy.

It’s depressing hearing about Holy Cross, I thought I’d found a good bet.
And I’d never really looked into BC but it sounds like that’s a bad bet also.

How does Church affiliation with these schools anyway? It sounds like the Bishops don’t exercise much control over them anymore if they’re allowing all this worldly filth to penetrate the schools. I’ve read somewhere the Church was considering revoking affiliation with Georgetown?! Why? I thought they had control over Georgetown. Why not clean up the house a bit? I think it’s been demonstrated through Notre Dame that a -semi- conservative university adhering to catholic values does not harm its academics.

Let me say one thing about ND…either you love them or you hate them (so I found). I have never seen so many people rush to Mass after a football game…or visit the Grotto. Sure, like any school, they have their faults, but unless you are plugged into the campus life and the service they insist their grads share with those less fortunate–as an undergrad and an alum–it is truly amazing. But ND will always get trashed. Our unofficial motto: Embrace the Hate.

By the way, my dorm’s nickname was the Virgin Vault. In retrospect, so glad it was my dorm!

 

[1990Domer]

Well, do the bishops write a lot of checks to Georgetown?

He who pays the piper calls the tune.

Both ND and GT are run by religious orders. They are not under the local bishop. Rather, the report to their superiors who report to the Pope himself.

Although Bishop Jenky is from ND. He was elevated after I graduated.

 

[1990Domer]

I thought the piper would be the Catholic Church. I thought the Church owned the univ.
My lack of understanding pertaining to Catholic education is immense.

No…the only Catholic University the Catholic Church “owns” is Catholic University of America. The rest were founded my religious orders. Whole different ballgame.

 

[1990Domer]

I am pretty dubious about a lot of “Catholic” universities nowadays.

I will also confess to being a 'regionalist". I consider myself a southerner, and live in the Bible Belt. I’m very familiar with Bible Belt religion, its merits and flaws.

One quick story. My son went to a Jesuit University, but became disgusted with the dissident professors. After a year and a half, he transferred to Missouri State University so, in his words “…I won’t have to listen to anti-Catholicism in the classroom anymore.”

And he didn’t, either.

It certainly isn’t as if Mo State is a Catholic university. It isn’t. But it’s in the Bible Belt and notwithstanding a lot of the students were Southern Baptists or evangelicals of some sort, there were nevertheless a fair number of Catholic students from St.Louis. Why the latter? Because Mo State is fairly inexpensive.

Later he went to Ave Maria School of Law, and found it a very Catholic institution. He’ll be grateful forever, he says, that he attended Ave Maria.

So, things are often not quite what they seem or how they’re billed. Who is the greater threat to one’s faith, a nominally Catholic school full of dissidents or a state school full of southern fundamentalists?. Without hesitation, I would say the former.

We will not allow our son to attend a Jesuit University. They are practically atheists in training. Notre Dame is Holy Cross, as is Kings College and the U. Of Portland.

Joking, but it’s rather an insult when people ask me if ND is Jesuit. I cringe.

 

[1990Domer]

How I would love to go to Norte Dame!! I currently graduated from a small university with a BA in criminology yet I kinda changed my mind and want to go the engineering route!! I believe great things are happening in this vast field. Only thing is the money so I’m considering the military route. I’ve always wanted to serve and I hear they can pay for school. I hope to do a little here a litter there while being active duty. We shall see how it goes.

Grad school? They offer stipends and free tuition.