<p>I know this may sound like an oxymoron, but what top colleges are known to have a active and committed Christian (Protestant) community? I'm guessing schools in the South like Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Davidson would fit the bill? What about the "WASPY" liberal arts schools?</p>
<p>Any Suggestions??</p>
<p>Nearly every college campus has at least one involved protestant Christian organization. It appears that you have some misplaced reservations about colleges in general.</p>
<p>I think active Christian student organizations can be found on most, if not all, college campuses.
My suggestion would be to narrow the list of schools first based on academic factors, then post this question on the college-specific forums. Most schools have great web resources describing the religious options available for students.</p>
<p>Agree w/siliconvalleymom. Develop a list of potentials based on academic and other factors, then check [Find</a> a Chapter - About Us - InterVarsity.org](<a href=“http://www.intervarsity.org/chapters/]Find”>http://www.intervarsity.org/chapters/) to see if they have a chapter on the campus. Each campus has a contact person who I’m sure would be happy to answer your questions. </p>
<p>You could also contact the schools to see if they have student ministries on campus; for example, a weekly worship service or regular bible study groups. Or, if you have a particular denomination in mind, contact their national or regional office to see if there’s a local congregation near the school. Most colleges have a number of churches nearby who minister largely to a student congregation. Despite what you may have heard, colleges aren’t heathen playgrounds.</p>
<p>I see you have received some excellent advice over in College Search. Parents might want to first read the excellent Post #3 there from ** tk21769** which covers a lot of territory, before replying here.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/915144-top-schools-w-thriving-christian-community.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/915144-top-schools-w-thriving-christian-community.html</a></p>
<p>Rhodes College
Eckerd
Arcadia
College of Wooster
Trinity
Macalester</p>
<p>[Association</a> of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities - APCU Member Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.apcu.net/memberschools.htm]Association”>http://www.apcu.net/memberschools.htm)</p>
<p>Do you have a preference for type of Protestant? (Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc)</p>
<p>Duke is Methodist so I would assume there is an active Christian community on campus.</p>
<p>Even very liberal colleges like Harvard have active Christian communities in various flavors.</p>
<p>Check out Messiah and Liberty. Also Cedar (somethingoranother) it might be Cedarville. DD is at Messiah.</p>
<p>exegesis, it would also probably help if you showed a few more cards about what you want. I don’t think at this point that there is ANY significant college that doesn’t have some kind of active protestant Christian community. (With an exception, perhaps, for colleges that are official institutions of another religion or denomination, like Catholic University, or Yeshiva University.) I’m sure most Catholic colleges have such organizations, some of them pretty vibrant, although obviously they won’t be the principal voice of Christianity at those institutions.</p>
<p>But the character of the protestant community, or even of the evangelical subset of that community, is going to differ from institution to institution. Places like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Chicago have established, respected Divinity Schools and/or adjacent Theological Seminaries that practically guarantee a significant community of committed protestants, but I suspect you would have a tough time finding a Biblical literalist among them.</p>
<p>Religious commitment of any sort is something of a minority position among 18-year-olds in higher education. Some of the most committed of them segregate themselves into explicitly religious (and denominational) institutions. For the rest, the smaller a college is, especially among those with high general (and generally secular) prestige, the less likely it is that there will be a critical mass of like-minded students for any specialized interest, including this one. I can guarantee that you would find what you are looking for at any decent-sized public university, including high-prestige ones like Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, UVa, UNC. But at Amherst? Bowdoin? You would really have to ask specifically. And you would also have to remember that student organizations turn over quickly – if you are in 11th grade now, and you hear about a really vibrant Christian group at some small college like Amherst, and if you apply and are admitted, by the time you show up all the people who built up that group, and all of its current leadership, would be gone, and it could be moribund or dead and gone.</p>
<p>It would help to know what your parameters are for “top school”. Pepperdine could be exactly what you are looking for – it represents an ongoing project to have a Christian institution that adheres to elitist academic values, sort of an Evangelical Georgetown or Notre Dame. But no one is going to confuse it with Harvard or Stanford just yet.</p>
<p>
You might be surprised. But it’s true, there won’t be that many. There may be quite a few people, though, who are more or less evangelical. As somebody else noted, a lot of these campuses have Intervarsity chapters, as well as other student organizations.</p>
<p>All top college will have an active Christian community. The difference in the Southern and NE is the number of religious organizations and the flavor. My D went to Dartmouth and was active in a Christian organization. Overall this organization was a little more evangelical and conservative than her religious upbringing. They were fine young people, and had fun, and she made good friends, but there weren’t a huge number of options. At Davidson, for example, you can walk to about 5 different churches, and at a place like Vandy they might have 10 orgs.</p>
<p>There are a fair number of conservative/evangelical Christians at Princeton. They certainly weren’t in the majority, but they knew each other and were pretty visible and self-confident. I gather from friends who know all three campuses that there are more of these students at Princeton than at Harvard or Yale but I don’t know that firsthand.</p>
<p>exegesis, I’m sure you didn’t mean to offend anyone, but your thread title talks about active Christian communities, and when I came here to recommend Jesuit schools, I discovered that Catholic schools somehow don’t count in your eyes. A more specific thread title, such as Top Schools w/Active Protestant Communities, or Top Schools w/Active Conservative Christian Communities (if that’s what you’re looking for) could help you avoid giving the impression (incorrect, I’m sure) that you don’t think Catholics, the original Christians, count as Christians.</p>
<p>^^jingle, you are absolutely spot-on. Now the conservatives and religious at Princeton are just as vocal (but maybe not as numerous) as their counterparts. It is truly an unbelievable opportunity to be involved in such an engaging and open dynamic.</p>
<p>Oh please, Cardinal Fang. Even those of us who have trouble telling y’all apart know that when a kid is looking for an “Active Christian Community” he doesn’t mean Catholic University, or Notre Dame (unless there’s, you know, an active evangelical underground there). Of course, it’s especially easy when he specifies “(Protestant)”.</p>
<p>There’s already been one thread that dissolved into recriminations about who owns the word “Christian”. I am sure most of us agree that proper use of the word includes Catholics. And the ones who don’t aren’t going to have their minds or vocabularies changed by arguing about it here.</p>
<p>As a Catholic, I agree wholeheartedly with CF. If you want to go to Wheaton Christian and Pepperdine and use Christian to mean only Protestants, that’s your privilege…though I think it’s absurd. But to use that phrase to mean only Protestants while discussing top secular colleges is extremely offensive.</p>
<p>You’re not the one being offended here, JHS. Catholics don’t like to hear that they’re not Christians.</p>
<p>In hope of finding guidance for this poster’s specific request, I am changing the thread title from “Christian” to “Protestant.” I trust that this addresses the legitimate concerns of Catholic members who do not wish to give away the word “Christian” which also describes their faith. </p>
<p>Please provide names of colleges which, to the best of your understanding, meet the OP’s stated needs.</p>
<p>There are quite a few evangelical Christians at Harvard: [Harvard</a> Christians On The Rise | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2006/5/2/harvard-christians-on-the-rise-harvard/]Harvard”>Harvard Christians On The Rise | News | The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>I suspect the story is similar at other universities.</p>