Passing Observation

Although most of them are pretty secularized and liberal, the Bay Area is a virtual Mecca of Catholic colleges and universities. Within San Francisco itself, there's the University of San Francisco and Campion College (aka the "Anti-USF"). Just across the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County, there's Dominican University. Over on the East Bay, there's Holy Names College and St. Mary's College. Down in the Peninsula and South Bay, there's the College of Notre Dame and Santa Clara University.

None of the above seven schools is probably more than fifty miles from each other (Campion is right across the street from USF). This is a pretty stark contrast to the number of Catholic colleges in all of Southern California, which probably has twice as many members of the Church than the Bay Area. Going north to south, there's Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, which is about 75 miles from Loyola Marymount University in Westchester (i.e., West Los Angeles). After LMU, you won't hit another Catholic college for about another 120 miles -- the University of San Diego.

Oh yeah, there are no Catholic colleges in all of Central California, although two are supposed to be in the works for the Sacramento region: the University of Sacramento and De La Salle University. How Catholic they will be is anyone's guess.