Baylor students who live on campus have a variety of options. Some choose to live with students their own age. Other students with similar academic and extracurricular interests. Still others study at faculty-led boarding colleges.
Baylor takes these opportunities seriously and it shows. Baylor’s learning community is once again ranked among the nation’s top 10 by U.S. News. It ranks higher than just about any other school, just behind Yale and Vanderbilt. (This honor ranks Baylor University No. 1 in the Big 12, No. 1 in Texas, and No. 1 among large private universities.)
“When students decide to come to Baylor, I think they are getting the best of the world in many ways,” Dr. Wes Null, vice president for undergraduate education and academic affairs, told the Baylor Lariat. . “While we are a full-fledged research university and an R1 university deeply committed to our Christian identity, we also expect our faculty to be high-quality teachers. I think it occupies a space to integrate all of this in a powerful way…and I think it’s our Christian mission that allows us to do that.”
First-year communities are traditional freshman dorms (such as Collins or Penland) that give freshmen the opportunity to live with other first-year students with different interests and majors. Senior Division communities (located in University Park and North Village) offer something similar, but geared towards upperclassmen and with the amenities of apartment living.
Living Learning Communities (LLCs) are organized around specific academic programs and extracurricular activities, such as Science & Health LLC at Earl Hall and Business & Innovation LLC at Brooks Flats. Students of all classifications live with other students with similar interests and degree plans and share special programs and classes.
Residential colleges, such as the Honors Residential College at Alexander and Memorial, are faculty-led communities that foster academic excellence through intensive interaction between faculty and students. Students in all classes enjoy a special sense of community through events and activities that help students connect with each other and with faculty and staff.
In addition to hall directors and community leaders, each residence hall at Baylor has its own instructor (a professor who lives in the hall in close proximity to the students) and resident chaplain (a Tuyet Theological Seminary student who lives on-site to provide education). I live there). Spiritual Care), help guide and serve the students who live there.
It’s rare to find a community like this at a school the size of Baylor. Most of the other schools in the U.S. News Top 25 are either much larger (such as flagship state schools with vast resources to support such programs) or much smaller ( necessarily suited to close-knit communities). Only one other school of Baylor’s size (10,000-20,000 undergraduates) ranked in the top 25 best learning communities. This reiterates Baylor’s distinct position in the world of higher education.
Combine this with Baylor University’s top 10 rating for “First Year Experience” and rare ranking in the top 30 for both undergraduate teaching and research, and you wonder why so many people think BU is such a special place. You can see if it is.
Damn it, Bears!
