Are practicing Catholics welcome at prominent/traditional Southern colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So tired of all of the stereotypes and ignorance about the South on this forum. Grew up Catholic in NC, graduated Wake in early 2000s. Was commonly known that there were more Catholics on campus than any other single denomination. This was not a big deal to anyone.

+1!!

Sort of like the thread about Georgia Tech by the hysterical OP who thought she would see Confederate Flags on every rooftoop

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of practicing Catholics all over the South. I am interested in what type of prejudice you experienced.

NP. I didn't exactly experience prejudice per se, but it was obvious that Catholics weren't exactly held in high regards. When I responded with "Oh, we go to X Parish" to the age old "where do you go to church?" question (lost count how many times I was asked that) their eyes kind of fell and they answered, "Oh."
Or when my kids were asked "Are you a a Christian?" by other kids and they answered, "Yeah, Catholic", they were told, "Oh, well you're not really Christian then..."

Just little things like that that...

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:South Louisiana is prominently catholic. They have parishes instead of counties, for example. Sheesh. Get your facts straight.

+1 Clearly, more than a few posters on this thread don't understand the history of Louisiana and the background of the early settlers there, as in French and Catholic.

And some are so uninformed they don't know the difference between a civil parish and an ecclesiastical parish. Others don't know that the French sold Louisiana to the United States a long time ago. Some don't know that Eunice, LA is about 100 miles (as the crow flys) from New Orleans.

To all those uniformed posters, I'd ask that you refrain from questioning another's life experience until you have walked in their shoes. It's possible many Catholics are comfortable in the Bible Belt circa 2014, but some are not.

Why are you talking about Eunice? None of the colleges suggested here are there, plus Eunice is at least as Catholic as New Orleans, if not more.

Not PP, but Eunice was the site of KKK activity earlier this year. Though the "modern" KKK targets blacks, the KKK is a derivative of the "Know Nothings" - an anti-Catholic group.

[Anonymous]

I am a practicing Catholic, grew up in New Orleans, and went to Tulane Law School. Growing up we went to church on the Tulane campus. Your child will find a lot of support there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a practicing Catholic, grew up in New Orleans, and went to Tulane Law School. Growing up we went to church on the Tulane campus. Your child will find a lot of support there.

Those who keep bringing up Tulane and New Orleans as representative of how Catholics are viewed/ treated in the south are really clueless.

[Anonymous]

My son is a student at Rice -- it's a very friendly and welcoming community, and there are many Catholic students, including a significant Latino population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is a student at Rice -- it's a very friendly and welcoming community, and there are many Catholic students, including a significant Latino population.

Rice is about 12% Hispanic in a city that is 35% Latino

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is a student at Rice -- it's a very friendly and welcoming community, and there are many Catholic students, including a significant Latino population.

Rice is about 12% Hispanic in a city that is 35% Latino

Rice draws students from all over the US and the world; in light of this, you can't expect the student population to mirror Houston's. That said, Rice has a much higher percentage of Latino students than its peer institutions. Moreover, Rice is commited to diversity in a way that goes much deeper than numbers. We are on our 3rd time around in the college admissions process and Rice is the only school we have toured where students and faculty talk about the quality of interaction among students of different races, ethnicities and religions. As a family of Latino and Asian heritage, this means a lot to us. It's our DD's first-choice for this and many other reasons.

[Anonymous]

Texas is Texas, not part of the old south. Those who haven't spent time down there have no idea how big the state is. The drive from Houston to El Paso is like the drive from DC to Chicago. There are places in Texas where Catholics are a majority and places where Catholics are not especially welcome, but there are few places where Catholics would feel as uncomfortable as they might in Ga.,SC, parts of NC, AL, MS and Northern Florida.

[Anonymous]

Catholics make up about 22% of the US population overall. Going to a school that is just 5% Catholic will be uncomfortable for someone who was reared in a predominantly Catholic community. Some want to get to out of the comfort zone, but just be aware that that IS what you are doing at most southern schools.

[Anonymous]

Grew up at the University of Georgia and attended a wedding at the Catholic Center. The only ignorance I ever heard directed toward Catholics was at Athens Christian School.

Went to Duke. Thriving Catholic community. It's diverse -- we had terrific hallway discussions among Episcopalians (me), Muslims, Jews, agnostics and even some easygoing evangelicals.

You'll want to avoid Liberty University, Bob Jones or anything else that exists as an evangelical propaganda mill. Everywhere else, you should be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I am a practicing Catholic, grew up in New Orleans, and went to Tulane Law School. Growing up we went to church on the Tulane campus. Your child will find a lot of support there.


Those who keep bringing up Tulane and New Orleans as representative of how Catholics are viewed/ treated in the south are really clueless.

Really you are clueless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Catholics make up about 22% of the US population overall. Going to a school that is just 5% Catholic will be uncomfortable for someone who was reared in a predominantly Catholic community. Some want to get to out of the comfort zone, but just be aware that that IS what you are doing at most southern schools.

+1 Things have changed to be sure, but there is no question that the comfort zone is greater outside the South.

[Anonymous]

Most of the really well regarded Southern schools draw faculty and students from around the US. Anything that's a top 50 or so school isn't going to be terribly representative of the area in which it is located. It's going to be much more diverse than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the really well regarded Southern schools draw faculty and students from around the US. Anything that's a top 50 or so school isn't going to be terribly representative of the area in which it is located. It's going to be much more diverse than that.

It's true that top schools draw from around the country, but far from true that faculty is not going to tilted toward the geographic location of the school. In the Northeast people move among the small states regularly, but I'll guarantee you that Texas is vastly over represented among the faculty of Rice and the south is over represented among the faculty of UNC or Georgia Tech.