Largest seminaries in the USA?

[DMcFadden]

There is good news and there is bad news. Rank liberalism in its most pernicious forms has fallen out of favor among the watering holes for thirsty seminarians seeking to "drink deep" of the "Pierian spring" of theological knowledge.

The evangelical Fuller Theological Seminary ranks largest with 1,542 full-time enrolled students during the 2015-16 academic year. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary follow closely behind with 1,438 and 1,356 full-time enrolled students, respectively.

While all of the ten largest seminaries in the country are evangelical Protestant, it’s interesting that half of those schools are Southern Baptist-affiliated. Five of the six theological seminaries associated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) are among the top ten largest in the country. Meanwhile, the SBC-affiliated Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary barely missed the list with 705 full-time students enrolled.

Fluctuations between America’s top ten largest seminaries during the 2015-16 and 1995-96 academic school years are surprisingly narrow. Only Reformed Theological Seminary, Presbyterian Church USA-affiliated Princeton Theological Seminary, and United Methodist Church-affiliated Candler School of Theology fell out of the top ten.

The bad news is that confessional Reformational thinking is not valued nearly as much as broad evangelicalism, especially that coming with a flavor of egalitarianism and trendiness. I'm very sorry to see my alma mater top the list again. While it has been described as "arguably the most influential [seminary in America], by number of pastors and educators trained," it boasts of being "the voice of a third way" that is neither "right" nor "left." Nah . . . it is pretty much left.

. . . . . . [sigh]

 

[Steve Curtis]

Dennis,

What was the source of that table?

Edit: Never mind, I found it!

http://www.ats.edu/resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables

 

[Bill The Baptist]

Meanwhile, the SBC-affiliated Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary barely missed the list with 705 full-time students enrolled.

Now that Golden Gate has changed their name to Gateway and moved closer to Los Angeles, they should see some positive growth and maybe even give that seminary on top of the list a little competition. http://www.gs.edu/about/locations/los-angeles-campus/

 

[zsmcd]

I attended preview day at SBTS and was told by Dr. Mohler that they were the largest, wonder if that included online.

 

[Taylor]

I am happy to see my current school on the list! Although TEDS is not exclusively Reformed, there has been an explosion of Reformed students here, and many of the faculty are also Reformed (Carson, for example). I would dare say I have met more Calvinists than Arminians here. I am thankful for TEDS.

 

[Edward]

Is seminary size supposed to be a virtue? I do recognize some fiscal benefits in economies of scale, but apart from that?

 

[zsmcd]

Is seminary size supposed to be a virtue? I do recognize some fiscal benefits in economies of scale, but apart from that?

I think the size of the seminary is just evidence of the influence they are having on evangelicalism and at what rate their specific denomination (or at least potential leaders) may or may not be growing.

 

[Natertot]

Is seminary size supposed to be a virtue? I do recognize some fiscal benefits in economies of scale, but apart from that?

Virtue in and of itself? Probably not, but I do think it's a good thing that most if not all the biggest seminaries are evangelical. It shows more students are attracted to conservative, orthodox positions (for the most part).

 

[GulfCoast Presbyterian]

I wonder if RTS having multiple sites now splitting the "full time" students caused them to "fall off" the list?

 

[Bill The Baptist]

I wonder if RTS having multiple sites now splitting the "full time" students caused them to "fall off" the list?

This is very possible. This is the same reason why the airport in Atlanta is the busiest in the world, because most other major travel cities have two or more airports while Atlanta only has one. I would agree with others that size in and of itself is irrelevant. In fact, when I was at SEBTS, I encountered many people who had no business being in seminary and the church would have been better served if there had been less people there, but that is just my

 

[Edward]

I wonder if RTS having multiple sites now splitting the "full time" students caused them to "fall off" the list?

Looking at one of the charts, it appears that they have RTS as a single line item instead of splitting it by campus. (Table 2.15). Note that the head count for RTS is about twice that of Princeton, but while almost all of the Princeton students are full time, the FTE number for RTS is about half of the head count). http://www.ats.edu/uploads/resource...-data-tables/2015-2016-annual-data-tables.pdf

For RTS, the 2004-5 numbers show total head count of 1249 and a FTE of 657, the 2015-16 numbers show 1149 and 548, so overall, not a significant change in numbers or percentages. The MDiv numbers are a bit more interesting. 2004-5 they were 399/308; by 2015-16 it was 407/264. So the percentage of full time MDiv students has taken a significant drop, with the higher body count perhaps accounted for by students taking longer to meet degree requirements.

 

[reaganmarsh]

I attended preview day at SBTS and was told by Dr. Mohler that they were the largest, wonder if that included online.

In the past, emails sent by SBTS made that statement as well. If memory serves, SBTS stated in those emails that they included online and extension center students in their calculations to be able to say it. If I can find one, I'll try to post it later.

 

[DMcFadden]

Is seminary size supposed to be a virtue? I do recognize some fiscal benefits in economies of scale, but apart from that?

Only in that since people "vote with their feet and their pocketbooks," size indicates "market share" of ideas and ideologies as well. That the mainline schools are frozen out of the mix suggests that fewer new pastors will be going into churches armed with the latest in liberal twaddle. However, that the largest school is . . . shall we say . . . a little compromising when it comes to biblical truth, there is room for some sadness as well.

Size MAY be inversely proportional to how personal the education is. While not always the case, my alma mater was LARGE in my day too (mid 70s) when a systematics class or NT course might have 150+ students in it. It was not exactly about pastoral formation in a small group setting! Most of us were anonymous to the profs. After three years of M.Div. courses, the only two profs who even knew my name (despite a high GPA and lots of class participation) were the polity prof from my denomination who knew me in that setting and the systematics guy who had been my teacher as an undergraduate at Westmont. A year after graduation, sitting across from a teacher from two of my classes in seminary, he introduced himself to me as a stranger. I reminded him that he had been my prof a year earlier and had given me two A's in his classes!

In another conversation with a world famous prof about a few of his former students (and my classmates) who had gone on to write religious books of some renown, he admitted to having no recollection of ever having them in his classes.

So a ginormous school is not necessarily the best educational experience. At least it is not always the most personal one.