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Winter, 2010
In this paper, CARA analyzes data from a longitudinal survey of college students provided by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). These data include 14,527 students at 148 U.S. colleges and universities and were collected from students as freshman in 2004 and again to these students as juniors in spring 2007. CARA's analysis focuses specifically on Catholic students and we find that previously estimated negative effects of attending a Catholic college have been overstated. Catholic colleges and universities appear to be doing no harm–certainly in comparison to other types of higher education institutions–and at a more subtle level may be increasing their student's Catholicity. However, it is difficult to disentangle these positive effects from self–selection. The survey results indicate more broadly that Catholic students at Catholic colleges and universities remain profoundly connected to their faith in their junior year with 87 percent saying that seeking to follow religious teachings in everyday life is at least "somewhat important" to them and 86 percent saying their "religiousness" did not become "weaker" in college.
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