Alabama’s three Baptist colleges are among evangelical Christian colleges across the nation that are attracting record numbers of applications this year. It’s a trend that bodes well for an educational niche that was struggling to survive just a generation ago.
Applications have jumped between 8 percent and 10 percent at the 238 colleges that belong to the North American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals, according to Executive Director Chant Thompson.
More applications mean more students, he said, and that’s good news since 25 percent of those schools are barely breaking even financially.Excitement is running high among administrators at Christian colleges long desiring to grow enrollment and fill classrooms with high-achieving students.
The University of Mobile (UM) has seen an increase in freshman applications result in record freshman classes for the past two consecutive years. The fall 2004 class included 255 first-time freshmen, with 264 in the fall 2005 class.
According to Kim Leousis, UM’s vice president for enrollment management, the university has already received 355 freshman applications for the fall 2006 semester, excluding athletes, an increase of 4 percent from this time last year for first-time freshman, excluding athletes.
“Research shows that current high school and college students, known as the ‘millennial generation,’ want the type of college environment that many Christian colleges provide,” Leousis said. “Small classes, excellent academics, attention from professors and a safe environment are just some of the qualities these students and parents are looking for.”
She said prospective students are seeking the combination of curriculum that includes Christian thought and campus activities that encourage spiritual growth when they apply to a Christian college.
Michael Scotto, director of admissions at Judson College in Marion, said he sees the application rate at the women’s college increasing for the same reason. Applications are up 16 percent from the same date in 2004. “We believe this … trend will continue as more Christian parents and young women consider spiritual issues as part of the college selection process,” Scotto said. “An environment that nurtures and encourages core Christian values has become an attractive alternative in an increasingly secular higher education culture.”
Though R. Philip Kimrey, dean of admission and financial aid at Samford University in Birmingham, cites a variety of reasons for student interest in Christian colleges, “central to the process is a desire to grow spiritually during the college years.”
Samford hasn’t seen a spike in applications, but it has experienced steady growth, Kimrey said.
A rise in applications is good for colleges, but it also means keener competition and disappointment for some anxious seniors in high school who thought their credentials were good enough to get in.
“On Jan. 15, we had thousands and thousands of applications from students who in prior years would have been admissible, but we had to wait-list them,” said James Steen, assistant vice president of admission and enrollment services at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
At Baylor, a spike in applications from 11,000 in 2004 to more than 21,000 this year is enabling the school to be choosier. In 2006, just 41 percent of Baylor applicants are getting accepted, a dip from 65 percent last year and 72 percent in 2004. Meanwhile standards seem to be rising as the average SAT score is now 1225, up from 1198 at this point last year.
For other schools, more applications spell opportunity to boost revenue by enrolling more students. At Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn., a 5 percent growth in applications since 2000 has helped enrollment grow 10 percent over the same time period, from 832 to 923. Such enrollment growth helps the school make Christian education accessible without raising tuition more than 6 percent a year, said Jay Fedje, director of admissions.
Higher application rates have helped even the largest and best-known evangelical colleges meet enrollment goals. Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., for instance, needs to enroll about 1,000 new students per year in order to make its annual budget work. In 2004, the school missed its target by 85 students, but a 24 percent spike in applications last year closed the gap. This year, applications have increased 2 percent over the same period from 2005.
Enrollment has increased 70 percent since 1990, from 135,000 to 230,000, at the 102 evangelical schools belonging to the Council of Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU). Over the same period, enrollments at all public and private colleges increased by 13 percent and 28 percent, respectively.
This growth marks a turnaround from the 1960s and 1970s, when religious colleges struggled to attract enough students, according to Alexander Astin, director of the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. About 120 Christian colleges closed between 1960 and 1979, according to data collected by historian Ray Brown at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo.
Observers of the current trend cite multiple reasons, including relative value in an era in which tuitions have outpaced inflation. Religious denominations help contain tuition increases through subsidies often ranging from $1 million to $3 million a year, CCCU President Bob Andringa said.
But money isn’t the only factor. Students who practice a faith often want to study where their beliefs are respected, and that can be hard to find on secular campuses, said Naomi Schaefer Riley, author of “God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation Are Changing America.”
“There is a sense that the people who dominate the faculties at secular universities do have an antipathy toward traditional religion,” Riley said. “It’s nice for (students) to go to a place where they don’t have to always be defending their beliefs.” (RNS, TAB)
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