Statistics of Christian Colleges vs. traditional colleges

Hi, I am working on a paper for school and can't seem to find a definition for "Christian Colleges" or any statistics comparing them to traditional colleges and universities. Does anyone know where I can find that?

 

Interesting task. Here is one place to start (Council for Christian Colleges and Universities) Council for Christian Colleges & Universities - Home. A lot of good schools belong to this and under the tab marked Research there are a number of articles (studies) including one called "What is a Christian University". Beware that you will also need to look at schools that are not members and to entities like Home - Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities for Catholic colleges and Universities (of which there are a lot).

 

Thank You, that was really helpful. I am still having trouble finding a standard definition of a "Christian College" though.

 

A "Christian college" could, by definition, include everything from the numerous unaccredited Bible seminaries to the hard-core Protestant Bob Jones University, to the Catholic Jesuit institutions of Notre Dame and Boston College, so you might want to refine your search terms.

 

Like Bruce said, you will have a tough task unless you narrow your search down a bit. Almost all of the colleges founded in early America were founded with a religous bent. Some colleges were nonsectarian, as most are now. Where's your research headed? Are you just doing a numbers thing or is there a deeper look into "Christian Colleges" vs. "Other Colleges"?

Good luck on the paper.

 

My paper is on the benefits of attending a Christian college or university. Through statistics I want to prove that they receive ratings (graduation rate, retention rate, teacher/student ratio, etc.) equal to or better than their non Christ-centered counterparts. I don't want to go so far as to delve into the different types of religious universities, I just want to include those that make it clear and include in their mission statement that they are Christ-centered. While Harvard and others started out as religious universities, they no longer tie themselves to the religious base they were built on.

 

Then your research is biased. The point of statistical analysis is not to prove your hypothesis but to test it. Of course your research is overly broad anyway. It would be better to focus on one or two elements, not in general.

It seems that you are making a philosophical statement "Christian colleges are better" but trying to back it up with quantitative data. This probably isn't the best approach.

I recently did a literature review on a related topic, however, so I will PM you my reference list. You might find some helpful articles there.

 

I agree with Stefan. Look at the data and reach a conclusion. Don't start with a conclusion and then try to prove it by selective use of statistics.

 

I agree with Stefan & Hokiephile, it may be the case that Christian schools are better in some ways and worse in others (in fact I'm fairly confident that is the case!) but try to let the data speak for itself.

One note to make though, if the assignment the OP was given was specifically to write a paper explaining the benefits of attending a Christian school, then his/her research approach would be appropriate given the nature of the assignment. Ex, if someone is given an assignment to explain the benefits of capitalism, they wouldn't necessarily be expected to also explain its problems, the benefits of communism, etc. (In fact that may negatively impact their grade since it wasn't what they were asked to do.) Whether that is the case here, I don't know, the description of the assignment is a bit vague.

 

I wouldn't necessarily say that it is valid even with that kind of prompt. One can discuss benefits without trying to force quantitative data to meet your hypothesis. Based on the literature I have seen, the primary differences between Christian colleges and secular colleges pertain to religious practice and worldview. Beyond this, you are looking at apples and oranges, and there are far too many variables to reliably claim that a religiously-affiliated school is better than a secular school.

For instance, one could argue that Baylor University (a nationally-recognized, doctoral-level, religiously affiliated school) has stronger academics than the University of Arkansas at Monticello (a regional state university), but it wouldn't be a fair comparison. Similarly, it wouldn't be a fair comparison to compare Cornell University (a Ivy-League, secular private school) to Liberty University.

 

Minor comment----I don’t believe Notre Dame is a Jesuit college. Notre Dame is under the Congregation of Holy Cross order (C.S.C.) as is St Edwards Univ, and Univ of Portland, among others. The Jesuit (Society of Jesus) schools include the various Loyola colleges, University of San Francisco, and Georgetown, among many others. The Marianist schools (Society of Mary) include St Mary’s of San Antonio, University of Dayton, and Chaminade University in Hawaii. All of these catholic orders also include high schools as well. (I attended a Marianist high school in San Antonio.)

 

Dr. Rene is right about Notre Dame. I used to work for a C.S.C. college. Notre Dame is C.S.C., not Jesuit.

 

I would do what the assignment asks and find statistics to prove the benefits.
Its like if you were asked to write a paper listing the benefits of education to society. You wouldn't spend your paper writing about the number of people who have masters degrees in Egypt, due to the country's generous free tuition, who are without a job. Of course, I probably would

 

Ok, so this is my first time working on a research paper in a number of years and I am just looking for something simple. I have decided to go with the statistics of the colleges and universities that are members of CCCU. I just want a paper telling how a Christian education is beneficial. Not necessarily comparing them to all other colleges. I just want the statistics so that I have some factual evidence that they are as good as other colleges, and not go into it blind. I don't want to write a paper about the benefits and then come to find out that they have the lowest ratings of all schools. I am using the numbers in the US News Best Colleges list (acceptance rate, ranking, student/teacher ratio, graduation rate, retention rate) to compare them to some well-known colleges and universities that are not faith-based. The entire paper is not about statistics, I just want a paragraph proving that they don't rate poorly among others.

I hope this makes sense

Thank you for the references!!!!

 

Sorry about that, I'm not Catholic and therefore am ignorant about the subtle differences in the religion/orders.

My point stands, though; Notre Dame, Boston College, etc., could be labeled "Christian Universities", since I *do* know that Catholics are Christian. :bandit:

 

At least he is upfront about it and not pretending that there is some ultimate truth in statistical findings. Even with the best conditions for neutrality and access to data he would have to make some subjective criteria selections - as ranking tables do as well. Speaking of which, that might be the a good start, to draw somewhere the line between Christian and traditional schools and do some juggling of the already available ranking data through various magazines. Might be also possible to find through that way "historic" data and compare the situation today with the one 10-20-30 years ago.