@preppedparent I mentioned some very conservative Protestant schools that might be poor fits for progressive students. Then there are the St Olafs which would. I was trying to pay a compliment to the Catholic universities that welcome Catholics, Protestants, agnostics, etc., all in the name of education.
We visited just about every school in the southeast. Texas A &M was horrible. It was like exhurbia on steroids. Ugly architecture and felt like you would have to walk miles from class to class. Major roads surrounding campus made it feel even more austere. Texas Austin was cold and felt like it did not have a campus. Not much different than how NYU feels in that regard. Too citified. Homeless camped out right by one of the student buildings. Both schools we cancelled tours.
Iâm Catholic and teach in a Catholic high school-- one I would describe as âVery Catholic.â Thereâs a Catholic presence oozing from every corner of our school-- itâs one of the many things I love about our school.
Someone looking for a school that is less involved in its faith would do well to look elsewhere.
I would hope that the same is true of many Catholic colleges. My personal bias is that thereâs no point in BEING a Catholic school if Catholicism isnât a central part of your identity. You can be a wonderful private school without being Catholic, but being a Catholic school should, in my opinion, mean that youâre faith based and it shows.
Oh my, everyone. I didnât realize that my thoughts on Providence College as a 17-year-old in 1988 would start such a conversation!
I ended up attending a Jesuit college. The school was/is most definitely Catholic and Jesuit in its identity. But the dorm rooms did/do not have crucifixes above each bed and there wasnât/isnât a religious tapestry in the cafeteria as I had seen decades ago at Providence. For whatever reason, the level of visual Catholicism was was key criteria for me as a 17-year-old.
S19 is currently a junior at a Catholic high school. He will no doubt have different impressions of various Catholic colleges than I did. Canât wait to see what school he unexpectedly discovers is his least favorite. And what level of visual Catholicism he tolerates compared to his mother. LOL!
re post #1022. Some types of Catholics are much more interested in academics and intellectualism (Jesuitsâ reputation) than they are in the so called religious aspects. They started top notch learning centers, not just places to showcase religion. I was raised Catholic and was able to keep up my church going at the liberal Catholic center near (of course not ON campus) at my public flagship. Medical school in another city where facilities were still on a Catholic campus broke me with the attitudes at the Catholic center. I never knew how liberal my home church area was until I encountered the ways of other towns.
Being Catholic (means universal, btw) is very different to different people. How you view what it "should " be like depends on where you were raised. Those Jesuits have been threatened by the higher echelons of the Catholic church for how they conduct their universities. Open thought et al. Thinking, not spouting dogmaâŠ
And things have certainly changed from the old Baltimore Catechism daysâŠ
Not that I donât love a good theological discussion but as one not fully versed in the Catechism, this is all lost on me. Most of my friends were kicked out of Catholic school for things as innocent as repeatedly not tucking in their shirts, or spending their pagan baby money on cigarettes.
If you promise to get back to besmirching the names of the great edifices of higher learning, I will promise to confess my sins.
Amen.
I think of Georgetown as one of the less âCatholic dogma focusedâ of the Catholic schools, more focused on social justice for instance. Many non Catholics go to Roman Catholic schools and thrive there. The Jesuits focus on social justice, as does St. Olof, a liberal Lutheran school. I know quite a few Jewish students who go to any of the Loyola Marymount campuses, unrelated to each other, in New Orleans, LA etc. They do fine there. Muhlenberg College, is nominally Lutheran but now is dominated by Jewish students. Its in PA and offers solid programs in liberal arts, theatre and dance.
Some East Coast Catholics, in particular NJ/NYC, often do not know the rules and regs, and have no qualms about not following rules, whereas midwestern Caltholics seem to follow the rules more closely.
Roman Catholic liberal arts colleges offer more merit than other similarly ranked options.
âSome East Coast Catholics, in particular NJ/NYC, often do not know the rules and regs, and have no qualms about not following rulesâ
The Catholics in the first group might say that they are prioritizing the rules of loving thy neighbor as thyself and looking to Jesus as a model.
âWe didnât really start until son was 17. Ok, a couple of visits just before but no decisions made until he turned 18.â
That method would have been a problem for us, lol. DD turned 18 her first week at college. Any kid with a birthday in the late spring or summer is going to have to make decisions before they turn 18.
@hanna
You had to drag us back into a Catholic college discussion! Iâll absolve you this time but I want you to think deeply about what youâve done. Do 10 hail college confidentials.
I think Brown University has gotten off pretty easy. When I visited as a teenager it seemed the most dreary school I had ever seen. Even Syracuse seemed cheery by comparison. My impression was so bad that I avoided it on my daughterâs college trip.
My friendâs son got into Brown a few years ago. When I called him to tell him what college my daughter had chosen he told me that allowing his son to go to Brown was a terrible mistake (not really a knock on Brown). He and his spouse had not eaten out in years and when his wifeâs car broke down he replaced it with a clunker. His son got sick his Sophmore year and the logistics of dealing with his illness cross country was draining.
I think that expenses went up several thousand dollars between freshman and junior years, which is something most people donât consider (or want to).
My daughterâs tuition has gone up $2000 every year, including the first year ($2000 more than the price listed in all brochures), so this year, her senior year, tuition is $10,000 more than when we first looked at the school.
My other daughterâs tuition has not gone up $2000 total in the 4 years sheâs been there.
COA at my college seniorâs school has increased 3.5% per year since he started. I am only looking at tuition, room & board costs. I expect the same from younger sonâs school.
Bryn Mawr. If only the insides of buildings matched the outsides. The outside had the whole Harry Potter vibe. Stunning. Then, in the 3 buildings we went in, everything looked like it was years too old - especially technology. We saw OVERHEAD PROJECTORS in many rooms, for crying out loud.
I donât believe the Jesuits have the market cornered on social justice. Many, many schools are progressive on that front. The issue seems to be that if the Jesuits are not making Catholicism dominant visually (they donât) or make the practice of it attractive (they donât) or offer intellectual reasons why humans should be drawn to the Catholic faith (they donât) then there is no need to claim it is a Catholic institution. As I said, progressive politics and/or charity towards others are not exclusive to any faith. Nearly all the other higher learning institutions which began with Protestant Christian roots, including the Ivies, have jettisoned ties to their respective sects. I find that more honest.
From my reading and visiting and speaking to affiliated people, Georgetown is a very interesting secular humanist university in which Jesus is but one of many models on whom the human should look to for inspiration. One would be hard pressed to find an administrator or priest there who would believe that " at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." ( St. Paul) They donât profess that. They donât teach that.They donât care if students believe that. So Iâm wondering what bang they get for the buck slapping âCatholicâ on any of their marketing materials? Maybe they no longer do. Perhaps they should incline toward promoting themselves without any mention of it being âCatholicâ.
âAn intellectual, international university in the Christian humanist traditionâ would be an accurate description.
As an aside, I have met many alums from Georgetown and most left the Catholic faith behind afterwards. The ones who stayed were Catholics who attended devotions rarely, if ever, but were nonetheless âgoodâ people who liked to help financially or with their time the various charities of the Church.
Have you looked at Georgetownâs essay questions lately? They are definitely pulling for students who have a spiritual bent.
@mtmcmt @preppedparent Youâre verging on mortal sin on this thread. Havenât you read the threadâs commandments? Commandment threeâŠthough shall not compare the relative religiosity of Catholic Colleges.
Isnât there a Catholic College thread suitable for these discussions?
While all are welcome, youâre converting the pagans and that cannot be tolerated!
LOL. I know! I thought about that after I posted!
Iâm an âold parentâ too and this is my last rodeo- Iâm a bit more daring now!
I just looked on the 2017/18 list of questions and I saw nothing about spirituality. I saw very reasonable questions in general , i.e., why one would like to study at the business school, what global problem one would like to discuss, etcâŠ
I wouldnât think it should matter to Georgetown whether or not anyone has some âspiritualityâ as a spiritual life in itself doesnât make one a good or bad student.
Jesuit schools are the equivalent of Brandeis University. Academically great schools like Georgetown could cut and paste the âABOUTâ tab on Brandeisâs website and substitute âJesuitâ in place of âJewishâ and not have to change anything else.
Where as other Catholic institutions would be like Yeshiva University which incorporates Jewish studies and beliefs into its curriculum, itâs student life and the like.
Oldest attended BC for UG, and Brandeis for PhD. She was raised in a good atheist home and didnât have any problems.