WHAT IS A JESUIT EDUCATION?
A Jesuit college is an institution founded by and is run by members of an apostolic Roman Catholic community known as the Society of Jesus (a Jesuit order). There are 27 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States whose mission is to educate students through a focus on spirituality, social justice, and service to a global society. The first Jesuit school was founded in 16th-century Sicily and today there are roughly 200 Jesuit universities worldwide.
Jesuit Colleges are members of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) and are united by a set of key shared values:
- Strive for excellence in everything you do.
- Care for others.
- Fight for justice.
- Belief in Christian Humanism and Ignatian Spirituality
- Recognizes the dignity and uniqueness of each person.
- Development of the whole person.
- Close collaboration among students, faculty and staff.
- Research and education that assist in the alleviation of poverty, the promotion of justice, the protection of human rights and respect for the environment.
- Cosmopolitan education: international in its scope and in its aspirations.
- Exchange and collaboration with the world-wide network of Jesuit universities.
DO I NEED TO BE CATHOLIC TO ATTEND A JESUIT COLLEGE?
No! Although a Jesuit education is likely more appealing to someone familiar with and receptive to Catholicism, Jesuit colleges welcome students from all religious and faith traditions. Boston College, for example, is home to more than 15 student groups celebrating a range of faith traditions. While Jesuit colleges have made an effort to be welcoming and inclusive when it comes to different cultures and backgrounds, campus ministries are focused on Christian prayer and community building.
WHAT ARE THE BEST JESUIT SCHOOLS?
Some of the top-ranked universities were founded in the Jesuit tradition. However, there are a wide range of schools to consider for students of all abilities interested in a Jesuit education.
Here are some of our favorites:
Georgetown University
Year Founded: 1789
Location: Washington, D.C.
Undergraduate Enrollment: 7,400
Acceptance Rate: 13% (Class of 2027)
In Their Own Words: We’re a leading research university with a heart. Founded in the decade that the U.S. Constitution was signed, we’re the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university. Today we’re a forward-looking, diverse community devoted to social justice, restless inquiry and respect for each person’s individual needs and talents.
Boston College
Year Founded: 1863
Location: Chestnut Hill, MA
Undergraduate Enrollment: 9,900
Acceptance Rate: 15% (Class of 2027)
In Their Own Words: Boston College, the first institution of higher education to operate in the city of Boston, is today among the nation’s foremost universities, a leader in the liberal arts, scientific inquiry, and student formation. Grounded in the ideals that inspired our Jesuit founders, Boston College urges students to look inward but always to reach out—to develop their minds and talents to the fullest and use them in service to others.
Santa Clara University
Year Founded: 1852
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Undergraduate Enrollment: 5,500
Acceptance Rate: 42% (Class of 2027)
In Their Own Words: Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara University blends high-tech innovation with a social consciousness grounded in the Jesuit educational tradition. We are committed to leaving the world a better place. We pursue new technology, encourage creativity, engage with our communities, and share an entrepreneurial mindset. Our goal is to help shape the next generation of leaders and global thinkers.
Fordham University
Year Founded: 1841
Location: New York, NY
Undergraduate Enrollment: 9,600
Acceptance Rate: 50% (Class of 2027)
In Their Own Words: We’re a Jesuit, Catholic university. Our spirit comes from the nearly 500-year history of the Jesuits. It’s the spirit of full-hearted engagement—with profound ideas, with communities around the world, with injustice, with beauty, with the entirety of the human experience.
College of the Holy Cross
Year Founded: 1843
Location: Worcester, MA
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,900
Acceptance Rate: 21% (Class of 2027)
In Their Own Words: It takes courage to choose hope in this world. To remain uplifted, eyes forward, driven toward the ideal of a brighter tomorrow — and our place in it. At Holy Cross, we overcome. We challenge the status quo. We approach the world with intention and a dedication to serve. We’re voracious learners. Steadfast activists. Passionate seekers of a better way. And if there isn’t one? We’ll create it. By leaning into creativity, embracing flexibility and believing wholeheartedly. With hope, the whole way through.
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Loyola Marymount University
Year Founded: 1911
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Undergraduate Enrollment: 6,700
Acceptance Rate: 41% (Class of 2026)
In Their Own Words: Founded in 1911, LMU is a top-ranked national university rooted in the Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount traditions. We are committed to fostering a diverse academic community rich in opportunity for intellectual engagement and real-world experience. We enroll an academically ambitious, multicultural, and socioeconomically diverse student body. We recruit, retain and support a diverse faculty committed to excellence in teaching, research, scholarship and creativity. Our three campuses are rooted in the heart of Los Angeles, a global capital for arts and entertainment, innovation and technology, business and entrepreneurship.
Fairfield University
Year Founded: 1942
Location: Fairfield, CT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 4655
Acceptance Rate: 44.9% (Class of 2027)
In Their Own Words: We are a Jesuit University, rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions, with more than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from the U.S. and across the globe enrolled in the University’s five schools. Fairfield embraces a liberal humanistic approach to education, encouraging critical thinking, cultivating free and open inquiry, and fostering ethical and religious values. Fairfield is located in the heart of a region where the future takes shape, on a stunning campus on the Connecticut coast just an hour from New York City. Fairfield University prepares students for success. With an emphasis on innovative, experiential learning and a focus on developing the whole person, we produce graduates who are future ready.
Loyola University Maryland
Year Founded: 1852
Location: Baltimore, MD
Undergraduate Enrollment: 3,977
Acceptance Rate: 76% (Class of 2027)
In Their Own Words: We believe a Jesuit education acquired at Loyola University Maryland best prepares you for academic achievement, the new world of work, and a balanced, flourishing, and purposeful life. From our strong academic programs to the thoughtful mentorship and guidance from faculty, coaches, and mentors, Loyola will help you discover your true potential. You’ll graduate ready for anything—and ready for everything.
Gonzaga University
Year Founded: 1887
Location: Spokane, WA
Undergraduate Enrollment: 5,300
Acceptance Rate: 90% (Class of 2026)
In Their Own Words: Gonzaga University is home to the Della Strada Jesuit Community, a residence for Jesuits living and working in the Spokane region. Jesuits are members of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola. They are best known for their educational and missionary work, and their contemporary mission includes a commitment to intellectual rigor, faith that does justice, care for the poor, discernment, collaboration, and reconciliation with God, human beings, and the environment.
Marquette University
Year Founded: 1881
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Undergraduate Enrollment: 8,400
Acceptance Rate: 70% (Class of 2026)
In Their Own Words: We’re a transformative, Catholic, Jesuit university located near the heart of downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Students come here to cultivate the knowledge, skills and sense of community they need to build meaningful careers, lead purposeful lives and reshape the world around them.
Loyola University Chicago
Year Founded: 1870
Location: Chicago, IL
Undergraduate Enrollment: 11,819
Acceptance Rate: 77% (Class of 2026)
In Their Own Words: Our faculty, staff, and students come from all faiths and backgrounds, but together, we strive toward the same goal, being men and women for and with others. But what makes a Jesuit university different? Our students receive an education that stresses the importance of knowledge, curiosity, global perspectives, and cura personalis, which translates to “care for the whole person.” Our Loyola community isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty cleaning up neighborhood parks and gardens—or use its expertise to mentor girls interested in STEM programs. They research local food deserts and volunteer with our student-run farmers market to make healthy food more accessible. Here, we don’t talk about making the world a better place—we get to work.
Saint Louis University
Year Founded: 1818
Location: St. Louis, MO
Undergraduate Enrollment: 9,700
Acceptance Rate: 70% (Class of 2025)
In Their Own Words: Saint Louis University — located in St. Louis, Missouri, with a campus in Madrid, Spain, is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic universities. Founded in 1818, SLU is recognized for world-class academics, life-changing research, compassionate health care, and a strong commitment to faith and service. Guided by our enduring Jesuit mission, we offer our nearly 13,000 students a highly rigorous and deeply transformative education that helps them develop into bold, confident leaders. Rated among the nation’s top research universities, SLU boasts 15 graduate and undergraduate programs ranked among the top 50 in the country by U.S. News & World Report. Academically, ethics, spirituality and compassion take center stage, while outside the classroom, members of the SLU community provide more than 1.6 million service hours each year — just one reason we’re among the nation’s top colleges for making an impact. In fact, more than 150 of SLU’s courses integrate community engagement into academics.
University of San Francisco
Year Founded: 1855
Location: San Francisco, CA
Undergraduate Enrollment: 6,700
Acceptance Rate: 71% (Class of 2025)
In Their Own Words: Like the city that surrounds it, the University of San Francisco offers you energy, optimism, and opportunity that you won’t find anywhere else. USF is a climb up Lone Mountain. USF is the poem you write for an engineering project. USF is small classes with professors who know their stuff and know your name. USF is late nights in Gleeson. USF is why? And why not? And says who? And what if? It’s ice cream with friends in the Mission. It’s boba at Baker Beach. It’s a ride on Muni. It’s an internship downtown. It’s shadowing a nurse in a neighborhood clinic. USF is a practice job interview with your career coach. It’s playing basketball in the fall and watching baseball in the spring. USF is an open door. USF is a place at the table. USF is you in the heart of the city that invents tomorrow, surrounded by people who care, working to change the world for the better.
Liz graduated Magna Cum Laude with high honors from Dartmouth College and earned her MA and PhD in Art History at the University of Virginia, where she taught undergraduate courses, earned the All-University Graduate Teaching Award, and received a Fulbright Research Grant.
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