Guide
Which colleges count as Catholic here
A college is on this page when its IPEDS religious affiliation is Roman Catholic. That is one label, matched exactly. Other Christian traditions have their own pages. A college with no reported affiliation stays off even if a chapel is part of campus life.
The list includes Jesuit universities and Catholic colleges that are not Jesuit. Those are not the same roster. The table sorts by state. The fact column is the college's control, public or private. Every row is already Roman Catholic by the rule, so the column does not repeat that label.
- Schools
- 228
- States
- 39
- Median admit rate
- 80%
- 186 report a rate
- Median earnings
- $59,630
- 10 years after entry
The Roman Catholic label
IPEDS asks colleges to report a religious affiliation. This page keeps the rows that answer Roman Catholic. Notre Dame reports that label, so Notre Dame is here. Georgetown reports it too, and Georgetown is also on the Jesuit page because the Jesuit roster includes it.
The affiliation is an institutional report. It is not a count of Catholic students, and it is not a grade of how central the church is to daily life. Two colleges with the same label can still feel very different. The Scorecard numbers are what this site can compare.
Catholic, Jesuit, and Christian
The Christian colleges page is wider. It includes Roman Catholic colleges and many other traditions. Use it when you want that wider net. Use this page when you want only the Roman Catholic label.
Xavier University of Louisiana is Roman Catholic, so it belongs here. It is not the Jesuit Xavier. The Jesuit page uses Xavier University in Cincinnati and leaves the Louisiana university off. Notre Dame is Catholic and is not on the Jesuit roster.
How to compare inside the label
Catholic colleges run from small liberal arts campuses to large research universities. Control is mostly private nonprofit, but the size and price ranges are wide. Read those splits below before you picture one kind of school.
The state sort helps when you are building a list in one region. A national religious label is not a national campus. The city and state on each row are the campus location in the Scorecard.
Affiliation can be a sensitive label
Some colleges with a Catholic history no longer report the affiliation, and some that report it are more secular in practice than the label suggests. This page does not adjudicate that argument. It shows the reported label.
If you need a narrower rule, the Jesuit page is the US roster of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. It is a hand list of members, not every college with a Catholic label.
Where the schools are
These schools sit in 39 states. The largest groups are Pennsylvania (28), New York (20), Ohio (15), Illinois (13), and California (11). The rest of the roll is spread across the other states in the table.
Who runs them
Every school with a reported control is a private nonprofit college. Control is the Scorecard field. It is not a judgment about quality.
Predominant degree is the credential the campus awards most often. On this list it is a bachelor's degree at 190 schools, a graduate degree at 16 schools, an associate degree at 13 schools, and a certificate at 9 schools. A campus can still award other credentials.
How large they are
The largest undergraduate enrollments on this list are DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, with 14,090 undergraduates, Loyola University Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, with 11,737 undergraduates, Fordham University in Bronx, New York, with 10,512 undergraduates, Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, with 10,085 undergraduates, and St. John's University-New York in Queens, New York, with 9,477 undergraduates. Enrollment is the undergraduate figure. It is not a ranking, and it leaves out graduate students.
16 schools do not report an undergraduate enrollment. Those campuses stay off the size order. A blank is not zero.
2 schools are reported as online-only. The others are not marked that way in this file.
Admission
186 of 228 schools report an admission rate. The median of those rates is 80%. Schools with no reported rate stay out of the median. A missing rate is not an open door, and it is not a closed one.
The lowest reported admission rates on this list are University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, at 11%, Georgetown University in Washington, District of Columbia, at 13%, and Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, at 16%. A lower rate is harder entry. It is not a score for the school.
The highest reported admission rates on this list are Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan, at 100%, Saint Elizabeth College of Nursing in Utica, New York, at 100%, and St. Joseph's College of Nursing in Syracuse, New York, at 100%.
What they charge
Among 200 private colleges that report a sticker price, the median is $39,045. 28 other private colleges on the list do not report one.
Sticker price is not net price. Grants, waivers, and a service commitment can move the bill by a wide margin. Open a school for the net-price figures.
Earnings and graduation
Among 202 schools that report earnings, the median of those school-level medians is $59,630. The clock starts at entry, not at graduation. The highest reported medians on this list are Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, at $109,183, Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, at $103,937, and Georgetown University in Washington, District of Columbia, at $103,494.
Among 197 schools that report a graduation rate, the median rate is 64%. A blank rate is left out. It is not treated as zero.
Athletics in this file
47 report NCAA Division I athletics, 2 play FBS football, and 14 play FCS football. A blank athletics field means this file has no division for that campus. It does not prove the campus has no team.
Also on other lists
Some of these schools also meet the rule for another list on this site. The overlap is a second flag or a second classification. It is not a second ranking.
3 are also on R1 research universities. 13 are also on R2 research universities. 18 are also on liberal arts colleges. 42 are also on Hispanic-serving institutions. 9 are also on women's colleges. 10 are also on men's colleges.
How these figures work
Admission rate, enrollment, sticker price, earnings, and graduation rate all come from the College Scorecard. Earnings are the median 10 years after a student entered the school. Tuition for a public college is the in-state sticker price. Tuition for a private college is the published sticker price. None of these is net price after aid.
A blank field stays blank. This page does not turn a blank admission rate into an open door, a blank fee into a free application, or a blank earnings figure into zero. The table above is membership under the rule in this guide. Sort order is not a quality ranking.