Attendance at IFB Colleges

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sword

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It's that time again.
Can anyone update the data on the following schools:

Attendance at IFB colleges (2022)
Hyles Anderson College (Crown Point, IN)
Providence Baptist College (Elgin, IL)
Commonwealth Baptist College (Lexington, KY)
Golden State Baptist College (Santa Clara, CA)
West Coast Baptist College (Lancaster, CA)
Crown College (Powell, TN)
Heartland Bible Baptist College (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Texas Independent Baptist Seminary (Longview, Texas)
New England Baptist College (Southington, CT)
Vision Baptist College (Berlin, New Jersey)

For Reference:
Bob Jones University
Pensacola Christian College
 
I lost all interest in WCBC in Lancaster when my former BIL left the church staff. And Crown College has never been on my radar.
 

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[According to Google, PCC has 4,882 students and BJU has 2,613 - those figures sound like they are about right - PCC is the 800 pound gorilla of IFB higher education these days. The BJU figures are about the same for 2020 as what I was told by a top BJU administrator about 10 years previously, so they appear to be holding their own. Some other schools, from Wikipedia - BBC - Springfield has an enrollment of 224, Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, Iowa has 384, Maranatha BBC in Watertown, Wisconsin has 1120; Golden State Baptist College had 372 but that is old info from 2008. In my opinion, enrollment stats at IFB colleges are significant as an indicator and predictor of the future strength of the IFB movement - or more likely, lack of future strength, since overall totals of student enrollment at all IFB colleges have declined drastically, and many of those colleges no longer exist].

From Google: What is the enrollment at Bob Jones University?

It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 2,613 (fall 2020), its setting is suburban, and the campus size is 225 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Bob Jones University's ranking in the 2022 edition of Best Colleges is Regional Universities South, #31. Its tuition and fees are $20,900.

What is the enrollment at Pensacola Christian College?

Pensacola Christian College
MottoStrength. Truth. Beauty.
College seal
Religious affiliationIndependent Baptist
PresidentTroy Shoemaker
Students4,882 [another place says 4,712]
 
Wow I'm glad to know that Maranatha has increased in enrollment. When I was there, only 850+ were there. That's great!
 
Providence Baptist College: 100 (approximately)

Commonwealth Baptist College: 150 (approximately)

West Coast Baptist College: 900 (approximately)

Crown College of the Bible: Slightly more than 500 (including the Crown School of Trades and Technologies, which has been doing more and more of the heavy lifting in enrollment numbers the past few years).

Heartland Baptist Bible College: Still advertising 500 in enrollment, but that appears to include students in their "online programs." My sources---alumni who actively are involved with the institution---say that it is under the five-hundred mark, hovering around 450.

New England Baptist College: Definitely under 100. Fifty? Sixty?

Vision Baptist College: Doing very well for itself as the youngest IFB school in existence. If they have not broken one-hundred students yet, they will soon.

Bob Jones University: Friends who attend there currently and are invested alumni have told me that enrollment this year has fallen just below 2,500, a mark which the University has not reached in decades. Their decline will only be hastened by the growing rift within its constituency.

Maranatha Baptist University: The 1,120 figure is actually outdated. Last I heard (2021), the number was slightly over 1,200. This, however, is due largely to Maranatha Online & Distance Learning. On-campus enrollment in Watertown is approximately 520, which is itself an increase over the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years. That number is also bolstered by Maranatha's Bridge to Campus program, which has remote learning sites at eight locations around the country. Between sixty and one-hundred students are enrolled through the B2C program each year.

Of course, Maranatha also has its graduate theological arm--Maranatha Baptist Seminary---and Bible Institute, but these two institutions are now largely considered independent for all practical purposes, although they work in tandem with the University and its undergraduate and graduate programs.
 
Thanks, Judge, for the helpful info. BJU enrollment is down more than 50% from its peak of past years (5400 maybe)? And there is some question as to just how militant BJU administrators, staff and recent graduates are with regard to strict IFB standards. Enrollment at BBC-Springfield is down 91% (see BBC-Springfield forum). I think it is important to take into account the distinction between on-campus enrollment and online enrollment. Students who attend "online only" are not going to be indoctrinated into the militant IFB mind-set, with its emphasis on strict "standards" and its arrogant, bullying approach to control of the laity, as well as students who spend 4 years or more on a campus with that strong IFB culture and atmosphere. Overall, the enrollment figures are indicative of a movement in decline. Of course, there are other means of propagating the doctrine and worldview of IFB-dom among the young, besides having them sell all, leave families and home churches, and go to reside on the campus of a militant IFB campus for 4 years. But those other methods are not as effective in imprinting the IFB thought patterns on their malleable minds. Not only that, but even if more students could be recruited to attend these institutions, there might not be enough financial resources to take them in and put up buildings for them. I was told by a BJU insider some years ago that BJU had reached the peak of their ability to raise financial support, and that more money is just not available to them. If true, that would not be surprising, considering the decline in the attendance and financial strength of the loyal "feeder churches."
 
Of course, Sir. I am always happy to help keep people updated on the goings-on of Fundamentalist higher education.

Regarding your comments on "indoctrination" and online enrollment, I would have to disagree somewhat with your conclusions. Your principles are sound---those who study at IFB institutions from a distance are less likely to imbibe the stylistic peculiarities or false doctrines of those who are entirely surrounded by them in a campus environment. Note that the only Fundamentalist school that is using online education in a targeted, robust manner is Maranatha, an institution that has always strove to be true to its roots within a balanced Northern Fundamentalism. Maranatha's campus does not seek to indoctrinate (a fact that I can state as an alumnus who was often surprised by the University's willingness to allow its students to draw their own conclusions inside and outside of classes); rather, it uses its online programs to reach out across the country and around the world to deliver its unique style of teaching and ministry to those who could never make it to Wisconsin. Ironically, Maranatha's online program has had the opposite effect of what one would expect: its Online and Distance Learning arm is drawing more and more students each year from the right-wing camps of "IFB-dom," individuals whose pastors and churches would never let them step foot on the Watertown or Bridge campuses.
 
Thank you for the additional favorable information on Maranatha. These things are good for us to be aware of. One of my preacher friends is a Maranatha graduate. While not necessarily totally endorsing everything about Maranatha, we tend to think it is the best of the bunch among IFB colleges. As I have mentioned before on this forum, I was a member of Pastor Arno Weniger's church, Calvary Baptist Church in Normal, Illinois before he became the Maranatha president, and I have always had favorable impressions of him. No college is perfect, but based on your remarks, Maranatha may have a lot to offer to the world of IFB, as a counterweight to the more extreme educational alternatives out there.
 
What is the attendance at hac not counting the online students? I know the staff left that was there for years.
 
TheOldJudge said:
Of course, Sir. I am always happy to help keep people updated on the goings-on of Fundamentalist higher education.

Regarding your comments on "indoctrination" and online enrollment, I would have to disagree somewhat with your conclusions. Your principles are sound---those who study at IFB institutions from a distance are less likely to imbibe the stylistic peculiarities or false doctrines of those who are entirely surrounded by them in a campus environment. Note that the only Fundamentalist school that is using online education in a targeted, robust manner is Maranatha, an institution that has always strove to be true to its roots within a balanced Northern Fundamentalism. Maranatha's campus does not seek to indoctrinate (a fact that I can state as an alumnus who was often surprised by the University's willingness to allow its students to draw their own conclusions inside and outside of classes); rather, it uses its online programs to reach out across the country and around the world to deliver its unique style of teaching and ministry to those who could never make it to Wisconsin. Ironically, Maranatha's online program has had the opposite effect of what one would expect: its Online and Distance Learning arm is drawing more and more students each year from the right-wing camps of "IFB-dom," individuals whose pastors and churches would never let them step foot on the Watertown or Bridge campuses.
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TheOldJudge said:
Of course, Sir. I am always happy to help keep people updated on the goings-on of Fundamentalist higher education.

Regarding your comments on "indoctrination" and online enrollment, I would have to disagree somewhat with your conclusions. Your principles are sound---those who study at IFB institutions from a distance are less likely to imbibe the stylistic peculiarities or false doctrines of those who are entirely surrounded by them in a campus environment. Note that the only Fundamentalist school that is using online education in a targeted, robust manner is Maranatha, an institution that has always strove to be true to its roots within a balanced Northern Fundamentalism. Maranatha's campus does not seek to indoctrinate (a fact that I can state as an alumnus who was often surprised by the University's willingness to allow its students to draw their own conclusions inside and outside of classes); rather, it uses its online programs to reach out across the country and around the world to deliver its unique style of teaching and ministry to those who could never make it to Wisconsin. Ironically, Maranatha's online program has had the opposite effect of what one would expect: its Online and Distance Learning arm is drawing more and more students each year from the right-wing camps of "IFB-dom," individuals whose pastors and churches would never let them step foot on the Watertown or Bridge campuses.
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Old Judge, am I acquainted with you?? I went to MBBC back in the day.
 
I haven’t seen numbers on Hyles Anderson’s figures. Did I miss them? I’d assume they would still have a large enrollment at least compared to other IFB schools.
 
Tarheel Baptist said:
I haven’t seen numbers on Hyles Anderson’s figures. Did I miss them? I’d assume they would still have a large enrollment at least compared to other IFB schools.
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The last numbers I saw were back in 2015, and that was between 350 and 400 students. That's what a friend who is at FBCH said as well.
 
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