When Pope John Paul II issued Ex Corde Ecclesiae in 1990, he called for Catholic colleges and universities to renew their commitments to the doctrinal teachings and intellectual traditions of the Church. The response has been slow, leaving many Catholic families bewildered as to where to find the best of Catholic education. There are in fact dozens of fine Catholic institutions of higher education in America—if one knows where, and how, to look for them.

The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College is the first college guide to show students where they can learn and grow in a genuine Catholic environment without the nonsense that has overtaken even some of the most well-known Catholic universities. It includes detailed profiles of schools, essential data on each institution, and practical advice from eminent Catholic thinkers on how to approach the college decision process. It also tells prospective pupils where to look to find an array of unique and specialized programs.

Based on two years of extensive research and hundreds of interviews, and with complete fidelity to the heart of the Church, The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College is an indispensable tool for students and parents looking to pursue a Catholic college education today.

In this first edition, we have chosen to identify over 20 Catholic colleges—about 10 percent of the Catholic colleges in the United States—where students can reasonably expect a faithful Catholic education and a campus culture that generally upholds the values taught in their homes and parishes. No such guide has ever been published, and the Cardinal Newman Society is uniquely qualified to provide the information and analysis entirely absent from typical college rankings and guides.

The Newman Guide will serve as a unique supplement to the traditional guides and promotional materials that are also an essential part of the college search process. Each profile highlights the college’s mission, governance, spiritual life, curriculum, residential life and extracurricular programs. We provide information that we consider to be most useful in making a college selection for students and parents for whom Catholic identity is an important criterion.

The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College will be published in late October 2007 by the Cardinal Newman Society and jointly marketed with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a leading publisher of college guides and other books.