I even had an acquaintance in college, who left UCLA to go to FUS and came back to visit, tell our Catholic group about how we should do the same. We would serve the Lord better if we just quit our current “worldly” school and chase the dream at FUS. Luckily I didn’t listen and finished my real degree. That same guy went on to a charismatic order of priests, all pumped just like many FUS students are pumped, but the last I heard he left the order and was living with his parents in California. He’s like a living symbol for how the school works and for the kind of post-FUS stories I’ve heard which often involves not knowing what to do next and moving back home. This sounds crazy but it’s true. Oddly, I would point out, a lot of people actually walk away from the faith entirely once they leave FUS. Indeed it is arguable that the only semblance of faith they ever had was a specter generated by the intense peer pressure at FUS. There is even a blog about it on an ex-Christian website where alumni post their FUS stories and how they left the Church. FUS is not the guarantee or spiritual safe guard that people say.
The students are Catholic, mostly, and the theology/philosophy department is Catholic, mostly, but the school just is NOT on the whole what it says it is and it is definitely not academically rigorous.
I keep telling people to do this but it seems like no one actually checks: just look at faculty profiles for their different departments and you’ll see that most people working at the school are not passionate Catholics (outside theology and philosophy) or even very qualified to teach college. For the amount of money FUS charges that is totally absurd!
