April 24, 2017
10,000 Ojai Road
Santa Paula CA 93060
Contact: Anne Forsyth, Director of College Relations
(805) 525-4417
Hi-Res photos

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Thomas Aquinas College Recommended in 
10th Anniversary Edition of The Newman Guide

SANTA PAULA, CA—April 24—Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California, is among 29 Catholic colleges, universities, and higher education programs recommended in the 2017-2018 edition of The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College. Inclusion in this publication of The Cardinal Newman Society is reserved for those institutions that demonstrate excellence in faithful Catholic education.

Highly regarded for its rigorous academic program, Thomas Aquinas College is also respected for its strong Catholic identity and alumni loyalty, second only to Princeton according to rankings published last fall by U.S. News World Report. Due to rising retention rates and growing interest in the college’s unique Great Books curriculum, enrollment on its California campus is the highest ever at 389. Contingent upon approval from the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, it plans to open a branch campus in New England in the fall of 2018.

Thomas Aquinas College’s profile in the new guide explains that when the school was founded in 1971, it was “the first in a wave of new Catholic colleges born from the crisis of Catholic identity in American Catholic higher education.” It goes on to say that while the school “has encouraged the emergence of other faithful Catholic colleges, including some that share its emphasis on the Great Books, [it] still has the distinction of being the only Catholic college in America that teaches exclusively from these classic works of Western civilization.” It further remarks that the college “provides a strong Catholic liturgical and sacramental environment conducive to spiritual growth, with rules of residence that support the good moral order appropriate for the pursuit of truth.”

Says Director of Admissions Mr. Jon Daly, “We are always happy to see a new edition of The Newman Guide — and to be included in it. It is a wonderful tool for prospective students and their parents because it highlights the unique qualities that distinguish these 29 faithful institutions from each other.”

Thomas Aquinas College is also highly ranked by secular organizations such as The Princeton Review, U.S. News & World Report, Kiplinger, and USA Today. 

About Thomas Aquinas College

A four-year, co-educational institution, Thomas Aquinas College has developed over the past 46 years a solid reputation for academic excellence in the United States and abroad and is highly ranked by organizations such as The Princeton Review, U. S. News, and Kiplinger. At Thomas Aquinas College all students acquire a broad and fully integrated liberal education. The College offers one, four-year, classical curriculum that spans the major arts and sciences. Instead of reading textbooks, students read the original works of the greatest thinkers in Western civilization — the Great Books — in all the major disciplines: mathematics, natural science, literature, philosophy, and theology. The academic life of the college is conducted under the light of the Catholic faith and flourishes within a close-knit community, supported by a vibrant spiritual life. Graduates consistently excel in the many world-class institutions at which they pursue graduate degrees in fields such as law, medicine, business, theology and education. They have distinguished themselves serving as lawyers, doctors, business owners, priests, military service men and women, educators, journalists and college presidents.