Suggested Catholic Colleges?

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I am a sophomore in high school and I am being bombarded with college’s e-mails because I am in the top 16% of my class.

It’s encouraging to know that colleges are eager to get me, but I really want to go to a good catholic college, especially sense I really want to discern what it is God wants me to do. The priesthood seems like a good fit for my life, but I have no clue where to start on such a journey, or what majors/minors I should consider.

If anyone could suggest the best catholic colleges around the USA that’d be great, but I’d prefer them be in the middle region. (I don’t know if I should say where I live lol)

Thanks.
 
Notre Dame is in the middle region. 😃 I don’t know how “Catholic” they are, but I love how their basilica looks like.

I heard there are many seminarians in the Catholic University of America.

Ave Maria in Florida is probably a good one.

Franciscan University of Steubenville might be good if you’re into the whole LifeTeen/Charismatic thing.

Maybe you should ask your parish priest for suggestions.
 
St. John’s University in Collegeville is excellent!

There is an Abbey right on campus - it is Benedictine.

www.csbsju.edu
 
You do not have to be into the whole “LifeTeen/Charismatic thing” to enjoy Franciscan University of Steubenville.

I am definitely not charismatic, but I adored my time there, got an excellent education, really strengthened my faith, etc. It is a wonderful school. They have gotten away from a lot of the charismatic stuff in the last 10 years or so. There still is some, but it’s more that you have to choose to be involved in it if you want to be.

Excellent school, FUS. Class of 2004 here, biology with a minor in chemistry.
 
How aboout the one in Omaha? I won’t try to spell it, I know I’ll get it all wrong. But it’s one I dream of going to if I were to ever have the chance. If I remember correctly, it’s run by Jesuit priests. Or, at least there is/was a lot of them associated with it.
 
Christy_Beth said:
How aboout the one in Omaha? I won’t try to spell it, I know I’ll get it all wrong. But it’s one I dream of going to if I were to ever have the chance. If I remember correctly, it’s run by Jesuit priests. Or, at least there is/was a lot of them associated with it.
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You mean Creighton? Yes, they’re run by Jesuits. I don’t know how Catholic they are, but I’ve heard good things about their academics - ditto for Loyola University in Chicago.
 
My advice may be a bit biased, as I am currently a student at one of the schools I’ll give a plug for, but for what it’s worth, here you go:

In Atchison, KS there is a small Catholic college called Benedictine College. It is an extremely conservative Catholic school and does a good job fostering strong Catholic friendships. It is very small (less than 2,000 students) and the majority of students come from KS, NE, MO, and surrounding states. Since the school is small, they do not have a great deal of variety in programs offered, so depending on what you want to major in this may not be a good choice. However, if you are looking solely for discernment purposes, I have heard Benedictine is very good with this. I have friends that currently attend or have graduated from Benedictine that are very well-rounded in faith and seem to have a good grasp on where God wants them to go in life. For further information check out www.benedictine.edu

In Omaha, NE there is a small Catholic Jesuit university called Creighton University. There are about 4,000 undergrad students here and 3,000 graduate students. It is definitely not a conservative school, but I promise if you are looking for strong Catholic professors and friends they can be found. To prove my point, I recently helped start a new group on campus, the St. Peter Canisius Society, whose sole purpose is to bring strong Catholic students together for faith and fellowship. We also have weekly adoration, multiple daily masses, a rosary club, a pro-life club, Catholic Medical Students Association, and Knights of Columbus on campus. There are also discernment groups and spiritual direction available if you want to seek it out. For its size, Creighton offers a wide variety of programs and is very good for students who are still unsure of their major/future path. Creighton is very strong academically, and many of the students go on to a post-graduate program (again to prove a point, I am now studying in pharmacy school). Creighton is strongest in sciences (many graduates go on to medical school, pharmacy school, dental school, etc…), preparation for law school, and business, so if you’re looking at these, I’d recommend looking at Creighton. For more information go to: www2.creighton.edu

Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me with any questions about Creighton. I’ll tell it like it really is 🙂
 
Some folks put a lot of stock in the Newman Guide which is now available online (though they do seem to have a thing against Jesuit colleges/universities).
 
I just did a tour of Catholic Universities with my daughter. Steubenville was by far the best out of the three we have been to so far. They care about your spirituality. They invited us to mass which the others did not do, and the students were very friendly. You could tell they were living out their faith. We followed the Newman Guide for suggested Universities.
It gives an in-depth explanation why certain orders, and certain Universities are not on their list, and where they can improve. They specifically list the Universities that support the Ex Corde Ecclesiae document, which is the Apostolic Constitution (Pope John Paul II) On Catholic Colleges and Universities. Steubenville in very reasonable as far a tuition, as well.
 
Isn’t there a brand new Catholic college just north of Atlanta somewhere? Like within the last 5-7 years I think…

Let me do some googling…
 
Steubenville MAY be “very reasonable” in tuition compared to someplace like Notre Dame, but their financial aid is virtually nonexistant. I have heard there is a cute college in I think NH called Belmont Abbey, perhaps you should look into that, or as another poster suggested look at the Newman guide.

I have said this before and will say it again, in my experience Benedictine College is a waste of time and money for a Catholic place of higher education: their students are bigoted and mean, and have nothing better to fill their time with than spreading malicious rumors. Sorry, Padres Miller and Rolling, your students are nothing better than pathetic excuses for Catholics.
 
As good as it feels to be “bombarded” by colleges don’t get too puffed up.

In this economy they aren’t handing out scholorships like they used to.

Top 10% maybe, top 5% yeah. But I’ve heard of Saludictorians and valedictorians of decent sized schools having to look for ways to pay their ways through. I work in a Community College and we’re seeing a HUGE influx of extremely bright students who would of gotten acedemic scholorships 2 or 3 years ago but didn’t get them now. Again, I’m talking top 10% of their class. With voulenteerism, music, arts and sports participation, and everything else.
 
I’m a proud alumnus of Saint Louis University in St. Louis, MO. It’s Jesuit.
 
My daughter attends St. Louis University (in St. Louis). She is not Catholic. She’s finishing her 5th year as a physical therapy student–1 more year to go!

It is hardly a traditional Catholic college. There are some extremely liberal professors that drove her and the practicing Catholics nuts. And there’s a lot of drinking and partying among the underaged students. (Perhaps some might say, "That IS traditional Catholicism! Well, I hope not.)

But there are also some very conservative, orthodox Catholic professors, and my daughter loves them.

If you want to practice Catholicism you can do so enthusiastically at SLU. It is known throughout St. Louis as a “volunteer” mecca–lots of SLU students get involved in charitable projects all over the city, often among the poorest of the poor. Even people who aren’t Catholic admire the volunteerism of the SLU students.

There are some very serious Catholics in the student body. My daughter’s best friend at SLU is a strict Catholic who attended daily Mass throughout her student years. She got married last summer and my daughter was her matron of honor. This girl taught my daughter lots about real Catholicism (she and her husband were theology majors.)

One hint–if you visit SLU and apply, do so BEFORE December! If you apply for scholarships before December, you will be eligible for the FULL RIDE (tuition) scholarship. But if you wait until after December, you will not be eligible for the full ride, but only the partial scholarships!

There are many MANY Catholic parishes in St. Louis, and the beautiful Basilica is about a mile down the road from the college.

Best wishes to you!
 
The University of Dallas is an excellent school. My parochial vicar graduated from there (of course, he was at Holy Trinity seminary) and he is perhaps the most orthodox priest in our diocese (and the best homilist). It is faithful to the Church.

I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. However, during College night at our local community college, my PV asked me if I wouldn’t mind sitting at the info table for him since he had a vigil for the deceased. He gave me his University of Dallas packets and I managed to pick up about three or four recruits, just on his recommendation, example and reading the material. He was pleasantly surprised.

Ave Maria is also pretty good. One of the priests, a Jesuit (believe it or not), Fr. Joseph Fessio, is involved at the University and was one of Pope Benedict’s grad students. He is also very orthodox.
 
I work in higher ed and I know some of these colleges, taught at or attended some.

First choice is: Christendom College, in Front Royal, Va. Solid academics, solid on the faith.

Belmont Abbey, University of Dallas, or University of St. Thomas in Houston would be good choices. All real Catholic schools, no Notre Dame/Georgetown nonsense.

Steubenville is next; good on the faith, weaker on academics. Reluctantly, I would have to say no to Ave Maria. Their faith is not in question, but it is a highly dysfunctional organization, cultish even, and they are not (last I checked) accredited. The whole Ave Maria thing was a great idea that was completely messed up. More I shouldn’t say.

Marquette might be okay, but ask lots of question about their orthodoxy.

I wouldn’t recommend many of the Jesuit colleges. St. Thomas in Minnesota is okay (there are solid students and faculty but also a ton of libs, gays, Catholic-bashers, etc.). I love the place, strong personal connections, but they recently tried to deny a campus venue to a pro-life speaker and they’ve tried to reduce the Archbishop’s oversight (he’s one of those…you know conservatives, like that guy in Rome, Bena-what?).

Someone previously recommended St. John’s in Collegeville Minnesota. Lovely place, some great people, but if it is a Catholic education you want, no. It pains me to say this because I attended the prep school for a year and I know people who teach there.

It is not Catholic but you might also consider Hillsdale College in Michigan. My cousin went there, met her future husband, both strong Catholics. Very family-values friendly, a strong Catholic presence, great academics.

JB
 
Jan_Bolbot said:
Someone previously recommended St. John’s in Collegeville Minnesota. Lovely place, some great people, but if it is a Catholic education you want, no. It pains me to say this because I attended the prep school for a year and I know people who teach there.

JB
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Well, I would have to STRONGLY disagree with you on this…I graduated from CSB and my DH from SJU. Both are very Catholic! In fact, it was BECAUSE of attending there that I became Catholic. Many of my friends now are people who graduated from there, and they are all some of the most devout, practicing, active Catholics I know!

The prep school is quite a different duck than the college. Us college students could never stand those bratty, insolent, irreverent preppies…
 
Not Catholic University of America. I went to school in DC, and CUA was widely regarded as the worst party school of the bunch, but you would be in a neighborhood full of great places of worship and religious houses. I took a few classes there and found religious dissent on the part of at least one professor. Christendom College in VA is orthodox, and the Shenandoah valley/mountains are very beautiful, as are the people who live there – friendly, down-to-earth.

If I were looking to be a priest, I’d probably major in philosophy rather than theology, and I’ve heard somewhere that at most Catholic colleges, the philosophy depts. are more orthodox than the theology depts.

There used to be a college in NH called Magdalen College which had all students doing campus jobs to defray tuition costs. I don’t know if this college is still around, but they were very orthodox.
 
Catholic90 said:
Well, I would have to STRONGLY disagree with you on this…I graduated from CSB and my DH from SJU. Both are very Catholic! In fact, it was BECAUSE of attending there that I became Catholic. Many of my friends now are people who graduated from there, and they are all some of the most devout, practicing, active Catholics I know!

The prep school is quite a different duck than the college. Us college students could never stand those bratty, insolent, irreverent preppies…
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I live an hour away from St. John’s and CSB. My advice…AVOID them!

Loras College in Dubuque, IA is getting pretty good. The best Catholic colleges in the Midwest are Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, and Benedictine in Atchison, KS. Other than those, I’d probably go with Loras…(they have better financial aid there too, if money is a factor). Loras is actively working on recovering their Catholic identity, and there are lots of orthodox, on fire kids there. The University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN is “OK”. Another Catholic college I love is Belmont Abbey near Charlotte, NC.

Texas A&M also is a great choice for those wanting/needing to attend a secular school. They have a fantastic campus ministry program there.

If you decide to look into Loras, shoot me an E-mail - I have some contacts there.
 
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