Add Texas A&M University to this list!

Please consider adding Houghton College, which is Wesleyan but has Catholic students on campus and is welcoming to them.

I agree that I’d love to see some more schools on this list.  While I respect this list majority of them are on the East Coast, and for people who live in the South, Midwest, or West Coast it would be nice to read about more than one option that is in your regional area.  Please consider looking at the different FOCUS campuses!

I currently attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a graduate student. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the atmosphere for a typical undergrad. I understand that the student body is pretty religion-indifferent, but everyone I meet seems very accommodating of other people’s beliefs, and we have quite a few churches spread out amongst the academic buildings.

All that being said, I did go through RCIA last year at the University Catholic Center here, and it was *amazing*. It was lead by a guy who teaches about the faith at a local Catholic school and is studying to be a Canon lawyer. I had a few friends in RCIA in other states, and hands down, I was blessed to be in a very rigorous, orthodox program that pulled no punches and presented the faith beautifully. The two priests here are amazing, and do a wonderful job offering the Mass. Daily Mass is offered twice a day, and has a good 40+ people regularly showing up. I don’t go to Alpha Omega, but when I’ve seen the group, it’s quite large, and they seem to be active in a variety of ministries. The entire church is about to undergo renovation to keep up with the demands of this growing group!

As for other things to consider, because campus is pretty much in downtown Madison, there are two other Catholic churches within easy walking distance, one of which offers perpetual Adoration and Tridentine Mass on Sunday mornings. Also, being Wisconsin, we have amazing fish fries just about everywhere year round.

We attend Christ the Teacher University Parish and Newman Catholic Student Center in DeKalb, IL.  Even though NIU’s reputation has taken a beating these past few years with several tragedies on campus, the Newman Center has recently graduated 5 young men who are joining the seminary.  Our priests are orthodox and continally make themselves available to the young people through a variety of activities.  After being a parishoner for 10 years, we have a theory that the bishop sends the best and brightest young priests to Newman.  Northern may be the only option for some because it is the only state school in Northern Illinois (except for one in Chicago).  I consider it to be a diamond in the rough!!

If you’re doing Illinois state universities, don’t forget my Alma Mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign! We have the largest Newman Center in the US and it’s very orthodox. The Masses are reverent and celebrated in the beautiful chapel. If you’re interested in Gregorian Chant, there are choirs for you. If you’re interested in Bible study, there are FOCUS missionaries who do that. Plus there are plenty of confession times and the chapel almost always has one or two people in it praying. It’s a great place to strengthen your faith. (And if you want to worship with a wide range of ages, there are three parish churches within walking/busing distance from the campus.)

Super surprised not to see Franciscan University of Steubenville (FUS) on your list. His experiences & spiritual growth there were beyond my son’s (class of ‘09) wildest dreams and he wasn’t even looking for a Catholic College!

If you want to include LaSalle University, I have a son there now.  They offer scholarships for liturgical musicians (even if you’re not a music student) and for community service.

I went to the University of Illinois in Champaign as well and had a major conversion there.  I quickly found that they have an AMAZING RCIA program, lots of talks about the faith, discernment groups, rosary groups, spiritual direction, social justice groups, etc. (just to add to Alice’s list). Daily adoration, a pro-life group, Koinonia retreats, and University credited classes on Catholicism taught by the priests and staff at the Newman Center.  It was justly described as “Catholic Wisconsin Dells” (with Steubenville being “Catholic Disneyland”) by one of the wonderful priests there.  So many students met Christ there and were transformed by Him to be fully alive and faithful Catholics.  I left there to be a FOCUS missionary and served for three years with FOCUS.  I saw lots of programs as a missionary and would suggest that University of Nebraska Lincoln also has an amazing Newman Center, and Benedictine University in Kansas was pretty great, too

I hope you are right! because that’s my son’s number one choice for college, I told my wife exactly what you said because I read it somewhere. We are very excited about it. The schools is the number two program in the nation in undergraduate computer science and the Newman center is suppose to be number one! Not to mention the football and lacrosse programs. Is a perfect fit for my son!