For this special guide, the Register and Faith & Family magazine put tough questions to Catholic colleges to find out what parents want to know.

Parents looking to send their children off to authentically Catholic universities and colleges may feel confused about which institutions are truly Catholic — and not just Catholic in name only.

After all, recent studies show that students are, if anything, more likely to lose their faith at Catholic universities than at secular ones.

In 2003, Catholic World Report and the Cardinal Newman Society commissioned a report on students at 38 Catholic colleges from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles. The Institute analyzed data on students who were surveyed in both 1997 as freshman and in 2001 upon graduation.

In 1997, 45% of incoming freshmen at Catholic colleges said they supported keeping abortion legal, with 55% opposed. After four years at Catholic colleges, the numbers switch sides: 57% were pro-abortion, 43% pro-life. Student support for homosexual “marriage” went from 55% to 71%. Approval of casual sex increased from 30% to 49%.

In 1997, more than two-thirds of Catholic freshmen at Catholic colleges attended religious services frequently, while the remaining third attended occasionally. By senior year, 13% stopped attending services altogether, and nearly half attended only occasionally. (See the full article at www.CardinalNewmanSociety.org)

No parent wants to spend a lot of money at a school that could have disastrous consequences for a child. So we sent a survey to colleges to find out.