Birmingham-Southern College

  United States

University Attributes: Founded in 1856, Birmingham-Southern is a four-year, private liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The college challenges students to think independently, to examine the arts and sciences aesthetically and critically, and to communicate clearly, while fostering the advancement of scholarship, personal and resourceful learning, and comprehensive advising. It is a sheltering institution for Phi Beta Kappa, and home to 20 other honorary or professional societies in various academic areas, as well as more than 80 student organizations.

BSC enrolls 1,339 students from 33 states and 16 foreign countries and offers five bachelors degrees in some 50 programs of study. The low 12-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio allows for an environment of personal attention in and out of the classroom.   It is distinguished by a January Interim Term, and honors, study abroad, leadership studies, and service-learning programs. In recent months, the college has opened a new Admission Welcome Center for prospective students, their parents, and other visitors; finished phase one of a new Football Complex; and also completed phase one of an Urban Environmental Park that will serve as a place of recreation and leisure for students and as an outdoor classroom for the new Urban Environmental Studies major.

In fall 2007, the college welcomed 506 new first-year students, including a record 452 freshmen. Birmingham-Southern is recognized nationally for its quality academic program and its value: Colleges That Change Lives author Loren Pope again selected Birmingham-Southern as one of 40 colleges that are outdoing the Ivy League schools and the major universities in producing winners; the 2008 Fiske Guide to Colleges includes Birmingham-Southern among 26 private colleges and universities nationwide named as a Best Buy for the quality of the academic offerings in relation to the cost of attendance; and The Princeton Review includes Birmingham-Southern as one of the Best 366 Colleges in the country and as one of Americas Best Value Colleges. In addition, Birmingham-Southern ranks No. 1 in Alabama and among the nations best each year in percentage of all graduates accepted to law school, and has a distinguished record of job placement and admission to other graduate and professional schools.