Consider orthodox Catholic college

My husband and I have nine children. The oldest is in college and the second oldest is a senior in high school. We live on my husband’s modest income alone and have a tight budget. Our college student attends a Catholic university and our high school senior is applying to Catholic universities as well.

In this season of college applications for students finishing high school, I encourage students and parents to consider applying to orthodox, Catholic institutions of higher learning. The National Catholic Register, on their website under “Resources,” has a helpful guide of 32 Catholic colleges that have made public and official their commitments to keeping the Catholic faith in their academic and theological courses. I highly recommend this guide. Many Catholics feel that the cost of a private education is prohibitive. It is true that high achievement in high school is helpful, but most people do not realize that Catholic schools, particularly the smaller ones, have very generous financial aid packages compared to public schools.

Often student who do not qualify for full scholarships get partial packages that reduce their overall loan amounts to levels equal to borrowing amounts for public schools. Most Catholic schools also have low or non-existent application fees.

I encourage all students and parents to try applying to orthodox, Catholic colleges and universities. I think they will be pleasantly surprised at how affordable it actually is.