Catholic colleges for safeties?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For less conservative Catholic schools, the Jesuit ones are your best bet. Boston College is a good choice...my daughter went there..but you are right to look at safeties as it is increasingly competitive to get in. Georgetown is less conservative, but an even harder admit. Catholic University in DC is the only school somewhat tied to the Vatican, so, tho, probably the biggest safety, it is the least conservative.. May I ask, however, why you want Catholic? Villanova, Providence, Fairfield, Dayton...all good schools...none liberal. No Catholic school is Liberal really. They promote service and duty, but they also promote traditional values. So maybe save the Catholic school spots for those who truly value it and just go to your preferred liberal school.

OP here...we are Catholic. We attend a very liberal, service-oriented parish. DD's faith is important to her (probably more than it is to DH and me), and she's more hopeful than her parents that the Church will catch up with the times. The social justice aspect of Catholicism especially resonates with her, and that's partly why Jesuit schools are her top two choices.

What was your daughter's experience at BC like? Not just academically, but campus environment, other students, etc. I'd just like to find out what the actual student experience is like at some of these schools, regardless of the school's rep as more liberal, mainline, or conservative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Catholic colleges have intense, time sucking gen eds. Great for a liberal arts kid who loves philosophy, theology. Providence students are required to invest two years completing Western Civilization. BC, Nova, Fordham also heavy on gen eds. Fordham registers freshman 1st semester. They can only select one choice in the theology, philosophy menu. They have a math placement exam for first years. Quite a few AP's will only count toward electives and not place them out of core classes.

They are mostly liberal arts colleges so of course they have a wide range of courses in philosophy, history, ethics, religion. I found these courses interesting and refreshing after attending a public high school which was very light on content. My favorite course was Women in the Christian Tradition taught by a former hippy nun. We read the Handmaid's Tale and had some of the best class discussions. My friend went to PC and loved the two-year course you mentioned. I had to take math and FL placement tests and they worked. They placed me where I belonged instead of just looking at my HS transcript.

[Anonymous]

My friends who are graduates of Jesuit colleges, with all their theology, philosophy, gen-ed requirements really show the benefits of that broad liberal arts education. They have the perspective to be informed Catholic citizens. I sound like a college brochure, but that really is my experience. For a student who's a committed Catholic, I think that broad Catholic+liberal arts education is enormously valuable as they contemplate the Church in the world today. They did take rather heavy course loads to get all their requirements in. I say all that while recognizing that when I was choosing a college, I would never have made that choice, because I hated being told what to do and because I had a particular field I wanted to specialize in early; I wanted to take fewer subjects in more depth. All that is to say, I would not let the requirements dissuade a student like your daughter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St. Joe's in Philadelpia. A more liberal and urban option is Loyola Chicago.

St. Joe's is struggling financially and looking to merge with another school.

St. Joe’s is not struggling financially. https://www.inquirer.com/education/saint-josephs-university-merger-partnership-health-care-20201109.html

[Anonymous]

DePaul might be a good one to check out. My understanding from friends who teach there is that because it's a big, urban school and fairly diverse (in terms of race and ethnicity) it's not as much of a bubble as other Catholic colleges and universities. St Catherine in St Paul would be similar in terms of diversity and less selective, so a true safety.

[Anonymous]

My daughter absolutely loved BC. She actually liked that there was no greek life as it made the bonds within each class very strong. She is now at ND getting her masters. Cannot really compare the two because of Covid, but her take is she liked the BC vibe better because of its proximity to Boston and City life. She really misses being able to find a cafe to study, as there is not much to South Bend. Service is a huge part of BC, as well as ND (my son went to the latter for undergrad), really at any Catholic school I would imagine.

[Anonymous]

Carlow University in Pittsburgh. It is small, liberal, Catholic and right by Pitt and Carnegie Mellon, so lots of college social life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Catholic colleges have intense, time sucking gen eds. Great for a liberal arts kid who loves philosophy, theology. Providence students are required to invest two years completing Western Civilization. BC, Nova, Fordham also heavy on gen eds. Fordham registers freshman 1st semester. They can only select one choice in the theology, philosophy menu. They have a math placement exam for first years. Quite a few AP's will only count toward electives and not place them out of core classes.

Note that the bolded is also the case at most highly-selective universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Catholic colleges have intense, time sucking gen eds. Great for a liberal arts kid who loves philosophy, theology. Providence students are required to invest two years completing Western Civilization. BC, Nova, Fordham also heavy on gen eds. Fordham registers freshman 1st semester. They can only select one choice in the theology, philosophy menu. They have a math placement exam for first years. Quite a few AP's will only count toward electives and not place them out of core classes.

Note that the bolded is also the case at most highly-selective universities.

Sorry, I meant that often core requirements cannot be dispensed by APs. (Placement is an entirely different matter, as almost all universities allow advanced placement in math and FL for sufficiently high AP exam scores.)

[Anonymous]

John Carroll in Cleveland. I know several people who attended and liked it. My dd visited and liked the campus and the people. She ended up getting into her first choice early so she did not apply. They are close to Case Western for social purposes.

[Anonymous]

Mercyhurst University in PA

[Anonymous]

OP, the Jesuit schools offer the Jesuit Experience Tour (JET) which my DD found to be helpful. You just missed the November one but here's the website in case they are doing others. You could always contact them and see if another JET is planned. My DD has settled on Santa Clara as target and LMU in California as safety.
https://www.ajcunet.edu/jet-tour

[Anonymous]

Most of these are catholic in name or tradition. If she really wants to practice her faith, maybe check out state schools with strong Newman centers. Or check the Newman guide to see which Catholic schools are actually catholic in practice and are not teaching against the church. These would be Christendom, Franciscan, Benedictine, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St. Joe's in Philadelpia. A more liberal and urban option is Loyola Chicago.

St. Joe's is struggling financially and looking to merge with another school.

My kid is at St. Joe’s. Every institution is struggling financially, even those with endowments over $1B. My DC is there, just returned home from first semester freshman year. The president gave a very poor interview, but I would not let that dissuade an application. They managed Covid extremely well, with in-person classes, outside activities and social pressure to mask and distance. And as to OP’s question, St. Joseph’s University is a Jesuit institution with a strong focus on social justice in the surrounding Philadelphia neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Villanova