Methodology for ranking Christian colleges

The Faith on View Christian College Rankings is the original and most complete ranking of Christian institutions available. 

Faith on View's rankings consider what some call Christo-centric institutions or colleges that are serious about their Christian commitment. Many schools have religious affiliations but do not appear distinctly Christian and are not included in the rankings. Over the years, we have carefully selected which colleges to include. In our inaugural 2013 rankings, inclusion in the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, and The Newman Report was the starting point. In 2013, we ranked 191 institutions. The new 2025 ranking includes 323 institutions.

In Christian Higher Education: An Empirical Guide, Dr. Perry L. Glanzer recently developed a methodology to quantify how central Christianity is to an institution's identity and operation. This research provided us with a practical baseline. The 2025 Faith on View Christian College Rankings only include institutions that scored at least 10 on Dr. Glanzer's Operationalizing Christian Identity Guide (OCIG) scale. Also included are smaller schools our own research indicated would score at least 10 on the OCIG.

Faith on View rankings seek to evaluate an institution's overall academics, providing prospective students with a solid start in determining institutional "fit." Prospective students should carefully investigate the institution's environment, including its academic, social, and spiritual components. Potential students should evaluate an institution's spiritual compatibility and health before choosing to attend. Attempting to quantify the spiritual health of an institution can be extremely complicated and, as such, falls beyond the scope of Faith on View's rankings.

Some schools may not rank as well as their programming deserves for various reasons. This can be particularly true of institutions that are especially strong in select departments. It can be challenging to determine which schools to include; our readers may notice some schools missing. There is no perfect methodology for ranking Christian colleges; legitimate criticisms exist for every approach. 

We only aim to rank liberal arts colleges and universities, not Bible schools. At some point, we hope to add a list of Bible schools in each state, but we do not intend to rank them. 

Like any ranking, Faith on View's ranking has a bias. The biases and methodology are detailed below.

The Faith on View rankings evaluate six areas for the rankings. 1) Reputation, 2) Student Success and Satisfaction, 3) Faculty Resources, 4) Student Selectivity, 5) Value, and 6) Diversity.

Reputation- 25%

The Faith on View rankings assume that reputation is important for colleges. The reputation speaks to the institution's history and perceived quality of education, which can be important for graduate employability and admission to graduate school. Further, reputation can speak to intangibles that are not easily quantified. Unlike some rankings, we do not put all the weight of the reputation score into a manipulable peer review. The Faith on View reputation score relies on accreditation status, our own peer-review survey, the number of applications, the percentage of admitted students who choose to attend, and data from multiple other ranking sources.

Student Success and Satisfaction- 25%

A quality education leads students toward successful program completion and satisfaction with their education for years to come. This category considers graduation rates, retention rates, student reviews, alum giving, load default rates, post-graduation employment, graduate school rates, and alum salary information.

Faculty Resources- 20%

A base assumption in the Faith on View rankings is that the faculty is an institution's core. Faculty who are well cared for and have appropriate workloads can better instruct and mentor students with excellence. This ranking category considers faculty salaries, cost of living, course size, percent of full-time faculty, student-faculty ratios, faculty credentials, teaching loads, and the institution's endowment.

Student Selectivity- 20%

Student selectivity, broadly understood, is an integral part of ranking a college. The pedagogical concern in this section is how bright, motivated, and prepared students are to pursue college-level work, not how many students are denied admission. As a result, this category factors acceptance rates, standardized test scores, and high school success.

Value- 5%

The value rank considers educational quality, price, student debt, and financial return.

Diversity- 5%

A diverse college experience introduces varied perspectives to a student and better prepares them for life. This ranking considers the ethnic, geographic, national, gender, and financial diversity of students, along with the gender and ethnic diversity of the faculty. Opportunities to study abroad are also factored.

Statistical Sources

Statistics for the study were sourced from the US News rankings, the Forbes rankings, the American Association of University Professors faculty salary study, the CCCU faculty salary study, the National Center for Educational Statistics, educationnews.org, collegefactual.com, college websites, and from the colleges themselves.

Institution Size

We contend that the size of the undergraduate population has the greatest effect on the "feel" of an institution's size, with the graduate population impacting both the actual size and ethos of an institution. Institutions are divided by size in this study, with undergraduate students counted as one. In contrast, each graduate student counts as half, so an institution with 1000 undergraduates and 1000 graduate students would count as having 1500 students. The size categories are as follows: Very Large (7500+), Large (4000-7499), Medium (2000-3999), Small (750-1999), Very Small (250-749), and Tiny (under 250).

Research Team

The research team includes Rondall Reynoso (lead researcher), Pamela Reynoso, Deena Vore, Kyle Reynoso, Sylvana Lipe, & Roy Chan. 

Colleges may request to be considered for or excluded from Faith on View's rankings using the comment box below.