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I'm interested in spending a semester at Catholic sometime next year. My law school has an exhange program with them so my in state tuition can be applied there. My concern however is religious emphasis. Is there an emphasis? I'm not catholic. Should it be a concern, or is the school pretty open to everyone regardless of religion?

The Catholic University of America, as the "national university of the Roman Catholic Church and the only higher education institution founded by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops" is a school with a religious emphasis, but it tends to be pretty open to everyone irrespective of religion. Think of it as slightly more religious than, say, Georgetown or another Jesuit school, but certainly less religious than Liberty U and maybe more along the lines of Notre Dame. I think that you'll be perfectly comfortable (unless you find Catholicism repugnant).

I'm not speaking completely out of my butt, btw, my uncle went to CUA law

brittanybrooke wrote:I'm interested in spending a semester at Catholic sometime next year. My law school has an exhange program with them so my in state tuition can be applied there. My concern however is religious emphasis. Is there an emphasis? I'm not catholic. Should it be a concern, or is the school pretty open to everyone regardless of religion?

Are you joking? Have you ever known anyone in Catholic school at any level? I spent 8 years at Catholic school (high school and college), and nobody cared what religion anybody was (and these were in the Midwest Bible Belt). Catholic schools (generally) =/= hardcore Christian schools.

At Catholic U, this is even more true from what I hear from those that I know there. You'll see an occasional cross. Can you deal with that?

From what I've heard, same as Villanova/ND, ie not much.

Good to know! Thanks for the input!

I went to Catholic and found it to be oppressively conservative. Stay away!

NU_Jet55 wrote: Are you joking? Have you ever known anyone in Catholic school at any level? I spent 8 years at Catholic school (high school and college), and nobody cared what religion anybody was (and these were in the Midwest Bible Belt).

Hold on. While I've never met people from a Catholic school that deeply cared, you can't pretend that a Catholic institution isn't Catholic. While at different degrees, a person can't escape the Catholic influences.

I was almost dead set on Notre Dame, but had to make the personal decision that being surrounded by that culture and the influence it had on the administration wasn't right for me. There were many classes geared towards religion, and the professors all spoke about how their Catholic faith influences their understanding of the law. The Catholic values also causes certain student health services not to be available, and a host of student orgs that were important to be were kept from organizing on campus.

I didn't feel like I wouldn't feel welcomed, but I realize that it wasn't the best fit for me. Its something to consider though probably less important for a semester than a full 3 years.