Southwest Baptist noted for its affordable education
By Staff
BOLIVAR—Southwest Baptist University (SBU) has been named one of America’s 100 Best College Buys for the 13th consecutive year and one of America’s Best Christian Colleges for the 12th consecutive year. In addition, for the second year in a row SBU has been named among schools with America’s Best College Scholarships.
Darren Crowder, SBU’s director of admissions, said, “We are delighted to be recognized for our ability to provide families with a Christian higher education experience that is ranked among the most affordable universities in the region and in the nation. Since our average ACT has grown along with our number of applicants, we know we are not sacrificing quality for quantity.”
For the top college award the average high school GPA for freshman entering Christian institutions of higher education in the fall of 2007 was 3.28 and the average ACT score was 22. According to Crowder, in fall of 2008 SBU raised its average first-time freshmen ACT from 22.9 to 23.0 and high school GPA from 3.44 to 3.48
SBU President C. Pat Taylor said, “We are pleased to be named among America’s best college buys. During these economic times, we are doing everything we can to help our students and their families afford a college education. We know that our costs are well below the national average for private, four-year institutions, and we are striving to continue to keep our costs down. We finished the 2007-08 school year in the black and hope to do so this academic year.
“We will do a 2 percent planned salary increase for faculty and staff in March and are planning to do our normal salary increases next year. At this time we have not frozen hiring or travel; however, we will be looking at ways to cut costs whenever possible without compromising our quality product. We are not reducing tuition, but we did not increase it much for next year. In order to better serve our students and their families, we plan for financial aid to have an increase for next year.”
According to the criteria set by Institutional Research and Evaluation, Inc., in order to “be considered for the designation America’s 100 Best College Buys an institution must:
1. be an accredited, four-year institution offering bachelor degrees.
2. offer full residential facilities including residence halls and dining services.
3. have had an entering freshman class in the fall of 2007 with a high school grade point average and/or SAT/ACT score equal to or above the national average for entering college freshman.
4. have an out-of-state cost of attendance in 2008-2009 for three quarters or two semesters below the national average cost of attendance or not exceeding the national average cost by more than 10 percent.
