How religious is Loyola Marymount University?

LMU has a student population that is 50% Catholic and a faculty population that is 25% Catholic. I'm not sure how many other Christian students or faculty either attend or teach there but I would imagine when you add it all up the majority of students are Christian and a good portion of faculty are as well.

If you are Catholic, then this is a good thing because LMU is ranked 9th as the best Catholic college in America. If you are not Catholic, perhaps another type of Christian, agnostic, an atheist perhaps or another religion, then you may find it challenging in certain aspects of your college experience both in the classroom and outside socially as well.

One hurdle I couldn't come to terms with when I was looking at colleges was that some of the better ones like Notre Dame or Boston College have a religion course requirement. I don't mind learning about religion but I would prefer it to be taught by someone who is purely an academician who isn't a devout anything. At LMU you have to take 2 religious classes to graduate as part of the core requirement.

https://academics.lmu.edu/corecurriculum/about/corerequirements/

The other thing that I didn't want for my college experience is to be in an environment where social or lifestyle aspects were not dictated by the hive mentality of the majority of students based on their religion. I thought about this a lot. Would I be comfortable attending a college where the overwhelming moral behaviour was dictated by the Vatican? Would I want to be at a college for 4 years where anyone who wasn't straight was living in sin? Or where the majority of students may be against the use of contraception or be against women having the right to decide what form of reproductive healthcare is right for them or if they did get pregnant at college that they wouldn't be shunned if they chose not to keep the fetus. This is a lot to unpack for your average 17 or 18-year-old but I thought it best for me to only apply to colleges that had no religious affiliation or one that really was non-evasive like SOKA University in Aliso Viejo, CA. Now that school seems to be up and coming and while the main campus in Japan is run by Buddhists, the US Campus is very chill and open-minded. I think I would much rather go there than your LMU or Santa Clara if I weren't a Catholic.

One of the things that might happen in college that don't happen necessarily in HS is certain life experiences. For instance, if you are on zoom calls for 3/4s of your 11th and 12th-grade years, you might have missed out socially like having a boyfriend or girlfriend or going to parties, dances and other socials. I think lots of incoming Freshmen look forward to perhaps their first loves, first hookups, first etc.... so I think it's easier to be at a college that has more students that think the same way. Don't get me wrong, if you are Catholic, then attending a Catholic college makes a lot of sense. But non-Catholics might not get the same level of satisfaction out of that environment.

Take what I say with a pinch of salt. And good luck with your choices.