Providence College

Date: Jun 08 2004
Major: History/Histories (art history/etc.) (This Major's Salary over time)
Providence College is perhaps the most conservative Catholic university in the United States. This was underplayed in the printed admissions materials, website and during orientation and campus tours. Heaven help you if you go to PC and are not Catholic; not SUB-WUMC (suburban-white-upper-middle-class); not from the Northeast; are lesbian, gay or bi; or consider yourself a left-wing liberal. PC is making some strides to diversify itself but they have gone about it in the wrong manner. Most minorities on scholorship are African-Americans and there seems to be a total absence of Latin-Americans, Asians, Middle-Easterners and African-Africans. I myself am a protestant male and encountered strong prejudice among some PC females about dating a non-catholic. Homosexuality is strongly condemned by the social atmosphere and gay slurs are part of the vernacular of most PC students. Unfortunately there is also real socio-economic racism at PC, something I had not encountered at my midwest public high school. My best advice for the prospective student: if you are catholic,conservative, white, and considered yourself cool in high school you will fit in fine at PC, otherwise you might feel outside of the social scene.

The academics are about average for catholic schools. The course offerings in the humanities deal primarily with western civilization. The DWC program is underappreciated but does provide all PC students with an above average liberal arts education (although it is entirely western). PC has strong connections with many large businesses in the northeast and most students find employment in one of them after graduation. I found the majority of PC students were going to college to land the fortune-500 career and return to the suburbs from whence the came. Finally, PC is one of the smallest major conference Division 1 schools in the country. Sports are important to the alumni, administration and atheletes. Most students were indifferent to the success of the teams so long as there

was an after-hours party. Athletes received academic, social and disciplinary privilages. In my opinion, the PC athletic department was an unnecessary financial and academic burden on the college, but then again, I was not an athlete. I would give Providence College a C overall and be skeptical about hiring certain PC grads in the future.