<p>I was thinking about applying to some Catholic schools such as Boston College, Georgetown, and University of Notre Dame. My GPA and SAT’s are around the mid 50% of all admitted students, possibly a little lower. However I am NOT Catholic, so are my chances significantly affected? Is it much harder for me to be admitted? </p>
<p>Thanks for any input!</p>
<p>All three of those do not favor Catholics over other applicants in admission and thus it will have no real impact. As a matter of the usual applicant pool, there will be more Catholics applying and thus more admitted than any other religion. In any event, I would probably avoid expressing any anti-religious concepts in your essays but you do not have to exude religion.</p>
<p>No, your chances are not affected at all. While colleges can discriminate on religion, the vast vast vast majority of colleges pledge to not discriminate base on religion, race, or gender. The ones that do are NOT the big schools like the ones you’ve mentioned. If it makes you feel better, you can leave the religion field blank.</p>
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Yep, here it is. Non-Catholics aren’t discriminated against, and all religions are respected (they’ll help you find a church, mosque, temple, whatever nearby). Being agnostic or atheist won’t hurt, either, as long as you don’t bad-mouth religion or anything.</p>
<p>At Georgetown, ~50% are Catholic (double national average). At Notre Dame, ~85% are Catholic, and it plays a bigger role in campus life, but there are still organizations and respect for other religions. These percentages are also reflected in the applicant pool, as the admit rate is not noticeably different*. As long as you don’t have a problem with Catholics, they won’t have a problem with you.</p>
<p><a href=“*There%20are%20factors%20that%20might%20provide%20for%20some%20variation,%20including:%201.%20Catholics%20are%20more%20likely%20to%20be%20poor,%20and%20the%20poor%20do%20worse%20in%20admissions.%202.%20The%20vast%20majority%20of%20Hispanics%20are%20Catholic,%20and%20they%20receive%20a%20URM%20boost.%203.%20Legacy%20admits%20are%20likely%20to%20be%20Catholic,%20and%20they%20receive%20a%20boost.%20Therefore,%20even%20if%20there%20were%20minor%20variations%20in%20admit%20rates,%20there%20would%20be%20reasonable%20explanations.”>size=1</a>[/size]</p>
<p>Georgetown is a wonderful place to go to school.</p>
<p>However, Notre Dame may be too catholic for you.</p>
<p>I have read they have a bunch of masses each day.</p>
<p>And strict rules about visiting members of the opposite sex.</p>
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Each dorm has a chapel, and there’s Mass every night. However, it isn’t required, there’s no pressure to go, and people are understanding.</p>
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You can’t be in the room of a member of the opposite sex after 2am (12am on week nights). You can, however, be in the 24 hour dorm lounges, or go elsewhere.</p>
<p>Other than that, you can visit members of the opposite sex all you like.</p>
<p>“You can’t be in the room of a member of the opposite sex after 2am (12am on week nights). You can, however, be in the 24 hour dorm lounges, or go elsewhere.”</p>
<p>And if you can’t close the deal before 2:00, you shouldn’t be at a school like ND! :)</p>
<p>And I wonder if a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster would get URM status?</p>
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</p>
<p>I’m willing to bet that the vast majority of elite schools would discriminate against anyone claiming this as their religion.</p>
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</p>
<p>And there are many completely secular schools with similar rules.</p>
<p>Actually im going to have to disagree with CC posters on this one. I am catholic myself and I am a very active member in my church. I know people who go to catholic schools. One catholic school in my state got the most people accepted for Georgetown (I think it was 25). However, Georgetown and Boston College are as radical with their religous affiliation. Although Georgetown was the first catholic college in America im pretty sure. Notre Dame is very very very very very catholic. I stress that a lot, one of their questions of their supplement regarded praying. Notre Dame does prefer Catholics most likely. However, if you are top of the application pool obv your going to get accepted even if you were buddist or something. The only think with Notre Dame is that, if you are not catholic you may feel slightly out of place. It would kind of be like a catholic or some other religion going to one of those christian schools down south (im not trying to create a religous war!) im just stating a point. Catholicism in my opinion isnt as radical so it would be easier to adopt. However, dont be discouraged to apply to ND, your shot at BC or Georgetown would be better though if you are not at the top of the application pool.</p>
<p>Also, idk if someone posted that many hispanics are catholic? I thought I saw it here, and poor too, unless I read it wrong sorry. However, I have to refute that. Roman Catholicism is perdominitly white, but hispanics also make up Catholicism in other countries. FYI Western Civilization. Catholism once ruled Euopre, and was the religion of the royal family until 1501 when they broke away from the church because they didn’t like how much power it held.</p>
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You only have to answer 3 of the supplement questions, so you get to choose. And the year I applied, there was nothing about praying.</p>
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They have explicitly stated that they do not discriminate based upon religion. Being Buddhist would not play a role, unless you wrote an essay on your spiritual journey, in which case it might reflect positively upon you.</p>
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I said most Hispanics were Catholic, on an aside about acceptance rates. And about 95% of Hispanics are Catholic (thanks to those Europeans you mentioned). Many Hispanics are also white, by the way, as “Hispanic” denotes ethnicity, not race.</p>
<p>Well last year a question on the supplement had to do with praying. It said something about some shrine their and praying and quiet time, and it asked where do you spend quietness to reflect or something like that. I’m just saying it’s a very catholic/jockey school.</p>
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Yeah, it asked if there was somewhere you went to be alone and reflect on things. Even people who don’t pray can do that… Plus, you didn’t have to answer it; I answered three others.</p>
<p>As for “jockey”? Yeah, lots of sports stuff. 77% of the entering freshman class played varsity sports in high school. Here’s to us in the 23%.</p>
<p>Do you attend notre dame?</p>
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I’m going this year, so hopefully the information I give is reliable. It’s basically all directly from the school itself.</p>
<p>Oh. I was thinking of applying for class of 2016, However I saw how much it caters to men and sports and I know its a good school but It seems they focus on males there more</p>
<p>Tons of girls are in sports, too. The gender is a little skewed towards men, but that’s because it’s right next to a women’s college (St. Mary’s), so a lot of women go there instead.</p>
<p>Is ND one of those sorority/ frat schools too on top of the jocks?</p>
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Notre Dame, like most (all?) Catholic schools, has NO fraternities/sororities. However, everyone gets a close-knit community, in that you’re placed in the same dorm for all four years (unless, of course, you want to switch, which is allowed), and there are a lot of dorm bonding activities. They’re very supportive communities, from what friends tell me.</p>
<p>Oh I thought they had those “secret” ones, almost like Harvard.</p>