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Adventist Education Rank Potluck

By Alexander Carpenter
With crisp Berkeley breezes buffeting me as I dodge the now Ipod smokin’ kids on Telegraph Ave – I’ve realized that it’s time for a back-to-school special edition of the Spectrum Potluck. (It’s the new patented term of a round up.)
This week we’re going to check how Sevy schools did on the (let’s face it, dubious) US News and World Report College Popularity Contest.
You go alma mater! The only nationally ranked Adventist school, Andrews University, moved from the fourth tier to the third tier in the nation. It now can hang out with the 248 member in-crowd of “American universities (162 public, 86 private) that offer a wide range of undergraduate majors as well as master’s and doctoral degrees; some emphasize research.” I guess. . .if you call apologetics research?
According to Andrews University Relations: “Andrews also ranks as the 14th most diverse campus out of all 248 National Universities. Last year its ranking was sixteenth. Andrews is also the National University with the sixth highest percentage of international students, with 12% of the student population coming from outside the United States.”
While not exactly the Harvard of the Adventist system, perhaps it is the Wheaton.
Now onto the regional rankings.
With 2,390 students and an endowment of $21,131,589 (a million more than AU!) – Southern Adventist University ranks 29th in the South.
It beat such schools  as Kentucky Christian University (49) and last place Oakwood College (53). Granted, Oakwood has about 1751 students and about fifteen million less.
In the Mid-West, Union College, with an endowment of 1.5 million (excuse me, hello alumni?), comes in at 46 out of 52.
And Walla Walla College ranks 41 in the West-Masters degree category. It has 1670 students.
Atlantic Union College makes the fourth tier. It lists 478 students and an 1.4 million endowment. And yes, it does offer cooking classes.

Endowed at fifteen million, and fifteen hundred students,  Pacific Union College ranks 14th in the West.
And Southwestern ranks in the third tier for BA schools in the West. So I
assume that PUC is in the first tier – come on US News, give me some quick
context.
Wait, could one reason: as ol’ Andrews (third tier National) is to Northwestern (14th rank National) so Southwestern and La Sierra (third tier BA West) are to PUC (14th rank BA West)?
Thus, PUC ranks comparatively best; OMG – analogies are truth! Why did you get rid of them, SAT?
Tired of asking what colleges can do for you? The brilliant Washington Monthly asks what colleges are doing for the country? Check out the do-gooder rankings here.
Some venture capitalist Adventist should fund a study based on the Washington Monthly matrices to rank which Adventist schools are best for the church and the community.
While I wait for Spectrum’s phone to ring – I’m going to practice my analogies.

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