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Abbey Named #1 “School On The Rise, Filled With Excitement” By First Things Magazine

The magazine also ranks the Abbey #6 among America’s top 12 “Most Catholic Catholic Schools.”

 First Things has named Belmont Abbey College America’s pre-eminent “School On The Rise, Filled With Excitement” in the magazine’s first-ever survey of the nation’s colleges and universities. Over 100 leading colleges and universities are profiled in First Things’ November issue.

The magazine also ranked Belmont Abbey College #6 among America’s top 12 “Most Catholic Catholic Schools.”

In its review of the College, First Things writes: “Once only local, Belmont Abbey is increasingly attracting a national set of Catholic students drawn to the college’s ‘vibrant community life and the rich Catholic intellectual tradition.’”

The rankings in the aforementioned categories are as follows:

To arrive at its various rankings, which also include categories such as “Least Unfriendly To Faith In The Top Secular Schools,” “Best Seriously Protestant Schools,” and “First Things’  Top 25 Schools In America,” First Things began collecting publicly available data on 2063 institutions of higher learning two years ago. Over the last year, it followed up with polling of students and recent graduates on the religious, academic, and social atmosphere of their schools. The magazine’s editors then followed up further with queries among their extensive network of contacts in higher education.

The list of schools to be profiled in written form by the magazine was then narrowed down to 105 top colleges and universities. Each school was given a numerical score based on its strengths or weaknesses in three categories: academic, which took into account factors such as academic reputation, graduation rates, the level of the incoming class, and more; social, which deducted points for promiscuous sexual activity, drugs, drinking, etc. and rewarded points for wholesomeness, sobriety, etc.; and religious, which rewarded friendliness to religious belief  (whether that religious belief be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or Mormon), vibrancy of campus ministry, student faith, and, where appropriate, the school’s faithfulness to the religious mission of the school.

First Things is published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, “an interreligious, nonpartisan research and education institute whose purpose is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.” (Source: First Things’ website.) The magazine is considered by many to be one of America’s most influential intellectual journals.
 
More about Belmont Abbey College: Belmont Abbey College finds its center in Jesus Christ and believes in the development of the whole person – in mind, body and spirit. The Abbey has been named one of the top 50 “All-American Colleges” by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), and one of the top Catholic colleges in America for faithfulness and affordability by the Cardinal Newman Society.

Between 2005 and 2009, Belmont Abbey College was the fastest-growing college of all North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU). Founded in 1876 by Benedictine monks, the College is home to more than 1,700 students. The campus is situated on the picturesque 650-acre monastic property of Belmont Abbey. Located just 10 miles west of Charlotte, N.C., it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For more information, please visit the College’s website at www.BelmontAbbeyCollege.edu. 

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