I’m looking to study International relations and pre-med. Considering largely secular ones, but out of the Christian ones have looked at Wheaton and Pepperdine. What other ones would you say are good? What Christian colleges have the best education?
Your preferences on denominational match and level of religiousness can affect which ones are “best” for you.
Notre Dame and Georgetown have the best national rankings.
If you mean Christian, excluding Catholic schools, you are on the right track. There’s bigger ones and less orthodoxy, SMU and TCU come to mind. If you include the Catholic schools you have the holy trinity as it’s called in my neck of the woods, Georgetown, ND and Boston College. ND being usually considered the most conservative of the three, in a religious sense not politically. There’s Villanova Santa Clara that are really great. Then lots of excellent Loyola’s, big east schools like PC and Marquette. Gonzaga out west etc.
For international relations, there is BYU. Very different and some will not consider it christian, but good for international relations.
Also Catholic university in dc is very conservative by comparison to others and has a lot to offer academically as well.
Wheaton College in Illinois is a pretty good Christian LAC, and fairly conservative. There is also Baylor.
Aside from the other less conservative Christian affiliated colleges, there is also Emory, Davidson, and St Olaf.
Liberty, Hope, Calvin, Messiah
I can only speak of Texas. Baylor, SMU, TCU are our top 3 religious schools. All three can give you solid education, good college experience, connections and good aid/merit/athletic scholarships.
Baylor should work best for your needs as they are known for their pre-Med track and IR department. Baylor Network has several hospitals, medical, dental, nursing and other health profession schools so alumni contacts are helpful. For IR related opportunities, their close ties with republicans and conservatives should be a great asset.
Outside of Texas, BYU, Emory, Pepperdine, Wheaton, American and Liberty come to mind.
Samford University
True. I’m open to almost any christian denomination, catholic as long as a decent portion of the student body is non catholic (say 20-30%+), not a big fan of BYU tho. strong political views tied to religion are somewhat of a negative for me, conservative religion wise is fine.
Many nominally Christian colleges are secular for all intents and purposes. You have to dig deep to see if a college’s religiosity matches your personal beliefs.
Lipscomb University in Nashville TN. Also Belmont in Nashville.
Although I would strongly advocate for TCU, I will admit Baylor is more overtly “Christian.” However, it all depends on what you want. TCU has multitudes of campus ministries, but allows students to choose their level of involvement. I am personally a fan of this as a Christian because it offers plenty of opportunities to students to become spiritually involved without forcing anything on students; pushing things only breeds resentment in people who are skeptical.
But again, there is practically a guarantee of various church groups on any college campus- you may find it helpful to ask in the threads of schools you have interest in about them.
I would say the Top 10 colleges are Emory University, Davidson College, Southern Methodist University, Brigham Young University, St. Olaf College, and the University of Tulsa.
@degreematch: Emory ? SMU ?
I think that you may be trying to rate schools which claim religious ties. OP seems to be seeking schools which actively promote faith & religion and/or have a strong presence on campus such as Wheaton College in Illinois & Pepperdine in California.
OP, there are many colleges that technically started out as Christian but for all intents and purposes are secular now (they accept and validate all religions as equal). You need to define what you mean by “Christian”. If you are looking for a place where the school still actively promotes the Christian faith that list is much more narrow.
And BYU is Mormon which is not considered Orthodox Christianity.
Baylor for what you are seeking.
Holy Cross (Jesuit) is a highly ranked liberal arts college.
Jesuit colleges are known for being tolerant and open minded.
Anyone familiar with Liberty care to comment on the 52% (!) graduation rate?