Samford University and Ouachita Baptist University, two Baptist-affiliated schools, are safe places for conservative students to attend, according to the Heritage Foundation, progenitor of Project 2025.
The conservative think tank — that has taken a sharp turn to the further right in support of Donald Trump and Trumpism — has produced its own college rating guide, squeezing yet another ranking system in a crowded market once dominated by US News and World Report.
An introduction to the “Choose College with Confidence” guide states: “Universities should promote freedom, opportunity and upward mobility, fostering free expression and open academic inquiry. They should be intellectually rigorous and provide students with a solid return on investment. American colleges and universities should reclaim their place as the most renowned academic institutions in the world. This site highlights colleges and universities that exemplify these goals along with those institutions that need to reorient themselves toward academic excellence, free expression and ideological balance.”
The Heritage Foundation gives schools a green ranking if they are deemed a “great option” for conservative students, a yellow ranking if they are “worth considering” or a red ranking if they are “not recommended” for conservative students.
Among those schools not recommended: Harvard, Duke, Wake Forest and a host of state school powerhouses.
Faith-based schools tend to score well on the guide, with conservative favorites among that pack: Hillsdale College, Liberty University and Patrick Henry College. Other faith-based schools in the green zone include Georgetown College, Calvin University, Asbury, Wheaton, Seattle Pacific.
However, some faith-based schools — and some schools with historic Baptist ties — fall in the yellow zone: Palm Beach Atlantic, Mercer, Houston Christian, Baylor, University of Richmond. Even Regent University, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, gets the yellow light.
The Heritage Foundation guide currently evaluates only 280 schools, compared to 1,800 in the US News guide.
Among the set of criteria by which the Heritage Foundation judged schools is “the number of conservative versus liberal clubs” on campus, “the prevalence of DEI administrators” and whether the schools “have a bias response team, departments of ethnic or gender studies, or require diversity statements in hiring.”
As for those schools with red ratings: “The universities and colleges listed in the ‘Not Recommended’ category display a pervasive hostility toward diverse viewpoints and lack robust core curricular requirements, undermining a well-rounded education. The institutions are often heavily influenced by ideologically driven administration agendas and DEI bureaucracies, frequently resulting in limitations on freedom of expression. Moreover, these universities typically demonstrate weak returns on investment, evidenced by lower graduation rates and diminished post-graduation income.”
The Heritage Foundation has been roundly criticized for its role in creating and advancing Project 2025 as a template for the next Republican presidential administration in America.
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