{"id":24932,"date":"2025-10-21T11:12:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/?p=24932"},"modified":"2025-10-21T11:12:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:12:38","slug":"baylor-jumps-to-no-4-in-the-nation-for-first-year-experience-says-u-s-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2025\/10\/baylor-jumps-to-no-4-in-the-nation-for-first-year-experience-says-u-s-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Baylor jumps to No. 4 in the nation for &#8216;first-year experience,&#8217; says U.S. News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24954\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/studentexp-oct25.jpg\" alt=\"Baylor students celebrating at a football game\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/studentexp-oct25.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/studentexp-oct25-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/studentexp-oct25-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/studentexp-oct25-768x384.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking for a great undergraduate experience? You can&#8217;t do much better than Baylor.<\/p>\n<p>Baylor is one of just three colleges to rank among <em>U.S. News<\/em>&#8216; top 10 nationally for both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/best-colleges\/rankings\/first-year-experience-programs?_sort=rank&amp;_sortDirection=asc\">first-year experience<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/best-colleges\/rankings\/learning-community-programs?_sort=rank&amp;_sortDirection=asc\">learning communities<\/a>, and the only one of those three to be either an R1 research institution or offer Power 4 athletics.<\/p>\n<p>The publication ranked Baylor No. 4 in the nation for first-year experience, BU&#8217;s third straight year in the top five (and seventh straight top-20 ranking). Baylor also came in at No. 9 in the country for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/best-colleges\/rankings\/learning-community-programs?_sort=rank&amp;_sortDirection=asc\">Learning Communities<\/a> (schools where students &#8220;get to know one another and their professors especially well&#8221;), BU&#8217;s third straight top-1o finish, and remained highly regarded for undergraduate teaching (No. 27), innovation (No. 38), and undergraduate research (No. 40).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At Baylor, we remain deeply committed to providing a transformational undergraduate educational experience, which is a cornerstone of our Christian mission and vision,&#8221; says President Linda Livingstone. &#8220;We are thankful the &#8216;Baylor Distinctives&#8217; remain highly valued, from faith and character development to the opportunity for students to build meaningful relationships with faculty and mentors. These qualities make Baylor a truly special place to prepare students for worldwide leadership and service.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Baylor experience builds on first-year activities and traditions like <a href=\"https:\/\/nsp.web.baylor.edu\/our-programs\/baylor-line-camp\">Line Camp<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nsp.web.baylor.edu\/our-programs\/welcome-week\">Welcome Week<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/cll.web.baylor.edu\/\">on-campus living experience<\/a> through continued favorites like <a href=\"https:\/\/studentactivities.web.baylor.edu\/attend-event\/dr-pepper-hour\">Dr Pepper Hour<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/spirituallife.web.baylor.edu\/chapel\">Chapel<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/campusrec.web.baylor.edu\/intramurals\/sports\">intramural sports<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/diadeloso.web.baylor.edu\/\">Diadeloso<\/a> to help students grow in every respect as they go through their college years.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s rare for a school the size of Baylor to be able to provide its students such a welcome to campus. The only other universities nationwide that rank in the top 10 for both first-year experience and learning communities are Agnes Scott College and Elon University, and neither enrolls even half as many students as BU.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that BU can offer students such tight-knit community as well as the opportunities associated with big-time academics and athletics speaks to <a href=\"https:\/\/magazine.web.baylor.edu\/news\/story\/2025\/faces-class-2029\">the unique &#8220;just right&#8221; qualities<\/a> found here in Waco.<\/p>\n<p>Sic \u2019em, first-year Bears!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking for a great undergraduate experience? You can&#8217;t do much better than Baylor. Baylor is one of just three colleges to rank among U.S. News&#8216; top 10 nationally for both first-year experience and learning communities, and the only one of those three to be either an R1 research institution or offer Power 4 athletics. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-honors","category-student-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}