Deleted - was covered extensively in posts above.
I agree with everything else in this post, but I wanted to note that Cru is a conservative evangelical organization that may not be a comfortable environment for a Catholic student. I think you would find some Cru members (not necessarily all) teaching that Catholic students need to take additional steps, including a specific statement of faith in Christ, to become fully Christian.
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^ true. Cru is like former-Hillsdale club in my mind 
Based on OPs replies I think Newman would be the ideal environment - and thatās really ideal because almost all colleges will have that, from Carleton and Amherst to StOlaf and Rhodes and Creighton, LMU, and Santa Clara, toā¦ any state university.
Recently I was looking up sth for a Catholic student and I found that at UMN the student mass welcomes 1,000 students! 
UPortland, Whitman, UPugetSound, and USeattle may all fit the bill in addition to LMU and Santa Clara. All different environments and selectivity.
@lucyyyy : would your parents agree to take you on college tours?
You could pick 1 safety and 2-3 targets from those.
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Totally agree - I think a Newman Center is exactly what OP is looking for, and fortunately there are hundreds and hundreds at universities across the country.
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Iāve been a Nazarene, Quaker, Evangelical Free, and now a Presbyterianā¦ and none of those denominations require a person to profess their faith publicly. Itās commonly believed that thatās between a person and God.
When we take communion, thatās a low-key way to profess our faith. Teen or adult baptism would be another way to proclaim faith. And certainly there is no rule against proclaiming Christ (vocally) in church. But it isnāt necessary for salvation, in those denominationsā eyes anyway. Iād like to know if there are any denominations that require a public announcement ā that isnāt biblical.
The closest thing Iāve seen would be in the membership confirmation process at the Presbyterian church ā you come up before the congregation, the pastor reads some basic tenets of Christianity, and you confirm them. But you only do that if you want to be an official member of the church. People attend their entire lives without becoming official members, and it is not required ā has no bearing upon ā whether a person is a Christian.
So if Cru is requiring a public statement to prove oneās salvation, thatās not good. It isnāt biblical.
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Have you heard of Saint Maryās College in California?
With your stats, you will likely get a non-need based fee waiver to apply. School is not top ranked, but is decent and generous with merit based aid.
A co-worker picked it over UCI for pre-med because with scholarships, her total COA was still less than in-state costs for UG.
Basically, if you get to apply for free, you really have nothing to lose.
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Agreed - I didnāt say that a profession of faith must be public, for Cru or any evangelical denomination. As you suggest, thatās not generally the case. Public profession may be encouraged (and sometimes needed to become a full member of a particular congregation) but wouldnāt be required for Christian salvation in any faith group Iām aware of. Perhaps the confusion arises because I used the term āstatement of faithā rather than the common evangelical phrase āprofession of faithā in the interest of making the point more accessible to a non-evangelical audience.
My point is that for most evangelicals, full membership and participation in a church on that churchās terms (Catholic or otherwise) is not sufficient to be considered Christian - one is expected to make, or at least to have made at some point, a specific profession of personal belief in Christ, typically involving a prayer of repentance. Iām not espousing that view, just noting that it is very much the view of evangelicals (and a reason why Catholic students might not be interested in such a group).
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Macalester is not a place to go if you want a religious atmosphere and to protect your Christian faith from being ācorruptedā. It often lands on the ācolleges with the least religious studentsā lists.
It would likely alter, challenge, and diversify oneās faith, but wouldnāt leave it āuncorruptedā - It is liberal and an athiest/agnostic stronghold 
I personally think that to strengthen oneās faith one should be willing to test it, roll around in the muck with it, and hold it up against other world-views, belief systems, and philosophies. If exposure to other ideas in college is seen as ācorruptionā then IMO it is too fragile to withstand the real world.
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I personally think thereās absolutely nothing wrong with a religious person wanting to go to a religious school. We donāt ask atheists to test their beliefs by attending Baylor or BYU.
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Macalester has an excellent location and a collaborative culture but also non religious students indeed. So, @lucyyyy would need to email the college chaplain to discuss faith and being a Catholic at Mac, to figure out whether youād like it there.
Thinking about the location, I thought of Case Western Reserve. A bit bigger than what you have mentioned so far (about 6,000 students) but a 9:1 student:faculty ratio that guarantees small classes and personal attention (which matter most to you I think). Excellent for science and music, serious students.
Theyāre also one of the founding members of a university consortium which facilitates elite college access to students from small towns (I think youāre in this situation).
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Thank you! Do you have any advice on how to determine if a school is āout of reachā for you?
Oh yes my parents would for sure take me anywhere that I wanted to tour. How do you suggest that I should decide which schools that I want to tour? Also I feel like I should tell you that I got an email from Williams College to apply for something called Windows on Williams which is basically like touring their campus, so I applied for that. Similarly, I got an email from Swarthmore about something similar that their school offered, so I applied for that too.
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Thank you so much, this is really helpful! I have Case Western Reserve on my list too, Iāve heard a lot about it and I think that it seems like a good option. I do not think that I would count as being from a small town, as I live in a suburb of LA with about 80,000 people in my city, but I will definitely think about this school nonetheless!
Santa Clara has already been mentioned. What about University of San Diego? Or Loyola Marymount?
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St. Louis University is another Jesuit school that could be worth looking into. They have a strong spiritual orientation and also offer a Medical Scholars Program, with early admission to their med school, that might be of interest. If you hope to continue with Spanish (fluency in Spanish being extremely useful and highly valued for medical professionals), SLU has its own campus in Madrid, where students can do traditional semesters abroad or even spend their first two years of study. There are a variety of merit scholarships available.
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Not reading the entire thread deeply but thereās unlikely a college in the country where you cannot practice your faith and I donāt see how it would be corrupted. And as a future doctor diversity of all things is your friend.
You are labeling high level schools - they are expensive unless you get aid.
Just perusing I see you are catholic. Iām guessing thereās been lots of mentions of schools from Notre Dame to Holy Cross to Gtown to SCU and LMU and Gonzaga, Providence, Portland, Creighton, etc.
Iād be worried about 8 years of school - the cost and less about my religion. Many go to religious schools but donāt practice their religion. Many go to public schools or private non religious and do.
You might find a public with Honors or a high merit school to keep your cost in check.
In many ways, short of required courses at some schools, your faith is personal and will be practiced as you determine.
Hereās an old chat - but maybe thereās some ideas missed. For some reason it keeps opening to message 21 so youāll have to scroll up to start at the beginning
I do see Alabama mentioned a lot - and so you know more than 1k from CA attend, they have the McCullough Pre Med Studies program and if you have a great test score, you might be $20k a year (lots of savings for med school). There are many other names as well - and some posts by continued posters.
Good luck.
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At this stage, you will be testing the waters with your with your applications to Windows on Williams and Discover Swarthmore. If you hear favorable news from either, that would be propitious.
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Study the Common Data Sets for colleges of interest. Williams, for example, reports a 25th percentile ACT score of 33. However, this may be somewhat less stunning than it would otherwise appear, in that only 60% of enrolled students submitted standardized test results. As other examples, Hamilton reports a 25th percentile ACT score of 32 and Amherst reports a 25th percsntule ACT score of 31.
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Local guidance could be very helpful. Through this you may learn at which colleges students from your high school ālike youā have been accepted in the past.
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To restate an opinion from earlier, even your reaches should be schools for which you are academically qualified by objective criteria.
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Not getting accepted into those programs is not necessarily a bad sign. My understanding is that the programs specifically low income students who might not be able to visit otherwise, even if other institutional goals may lead to someone getting an invite to apply.
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It means you may qualify for some fly-ins. There are more, that you could participate in after application. Iāll try and look for links when I have time later on today.
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These are three excellent match-range (low matches for OP probably) Catholic schools in the same vicinity. Excellent suggestions.
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