Guide
Which colleges count as United Methodist
A college is on this page only when its IPEDS affiliation is exactly United Methodist. The fact column shows that label. Other Methodist bodies stay off, even though the word Methodist appears in their names. The table sorts by state.
The label is an institutional report, not a count of Methodist students. Duke University reports United Methodist, so Duke is on this list. Duke is also an ACC football school and an Ivy Plus university. A research university is not dropped for being large.
- Schools
- 84
- States
- 30
- Median admit rate
- 72%
- 72 report a rate
- Median earnings
- $53,460
- 10 years after entry
One exact label
Exact match is the whole rule. United Methodist means that string and nothing wider. Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, reports the label. Cornell University does not. The university is not on this page. The Iowa college is, because the affiliation says so.
The page does not ask whether the church still elects the trustees or how prominent the affiliation is in admissions marketing. Those are real questions. They are not the field.
Other Methodist churches
African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Christian Methodist Episcopal, and Free Methodist are different IPEDS labels. Colleges that report them stay on the wide Christian page and off this one. Treating every Methodist body as United Methodist would erase a distinction the file bothers to record.
A college with a Methodist history that now reports no affiliation, or reports a different one, stays off. History is not a second field this page can read.
The column will look repetitive
Every row's fact column says United Methodist, because that is the filter. Use the state, size, and price figures to tell the campuses apart. The repetition is the rule working.
Duke is the surprise for readers who picture only small church colleges. Leave it in. Removing famous universities that report the affiliation would turn the page into a mood instead of a field.
Denomination pages use two different tests
This page is exact. The Baptist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran pages are wider: they keep any label that contains the tradition's name, so Southern Baptist and American Baptist share a page. United Methodist does not work that way, because the other Methodist labels are different churches.
If you want every Christian affiliation, including these colleges and the bodies this page excludes, use the Christian colleges page. The exclusion list there does not remove United Methodist.
Where the schools are
These schools sit in 30 states. The largest groups are Georgia (9), North Carolina (9), Ohio (5), Texas (5), and Virginia (5). The rest of the roll is spread across the other states in the table.
Who runs them
Every school with a reported control is a private nonprofit college. Control is the Scorecard field. It is not a judgment about quality.
Predominant degree is the credential the campus awards most often. On this list it is a bachelor's degree at 70 schools, a graduate degree at 8 schools, an associate degree at 5 schools, and a certificate at 1 school. A campus can still award other credentials.
How large they are
The largest undergraduate enrollments on this list are Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, with 7,298 undergraduates, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, with 7,277 undergraduates, American University in Washington, District of Columbia, with 7,266 undergraduates, Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, with 6,442 undergraduates, and High Point University in High Point, North Carolina, with 5,129 undergraduates. Enrollment is the undergraduate figure. It is not a ranking, and it leaves out graduate students.
8 schools do not report an undergraduate enrollment. Those campuses stay off the size order. A blank is not zero.
Admission
72 of 84 schools report an admission rate. The median of those rates is 72%. Schools with no reported rate stay out of the median. A missing rate is not an open door, and it is not a closed one.
The lowest reported admission rates on this list are Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, at 6%, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, at 11%, and Emory University-Oxford College in Oxford, Georgia, at 13%. A lower rate is harder entry. It is not a score for the school.
The highest reported admission rates on this list are Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage, Alaska, at 96%, Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, North Carolina, at 96%, and Paine College in Augusta, Georgia, at 95%.
What they charge
Among 75 private colleges that report a sticker price, the median is $35,548. 9 other private colleges on the list do not report one.
Sticker price is not net price. Grants, waivers, and a service commitment can move the bill by a wide margin. Open a school for the net-price figures.
Earnings and graduation
Among 75 schools that report earnings, the median of those school-level medians is $53,460. The clock starts at entry, not at graduation. The highest reported medians on this list are Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, at $97,800, Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio, at $80,928, and Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, at $80,137.
Among 75 schools that report a graduation rate, the median rate is 51%. A blank rate is left out. It is not treated as zero.
Athletics in this file
7 report NCAA Division I athletics, 2 play FBS football, and 2 play FCS football. A blank athletics field means this file has no division for that campus. It does not prove the campus has no team.
Also on other lists
Some of these schools also meet the rule for another list on this site. The overlap is a second flag or a second classification. It is not a second ranking.
3 are also on R2 research universities. 20 are also on liberal arts colleges. 10 are also on HBCU colleges. 3 are also on Hispanic-serving institutions.
How these figures work
Admission rate, enrollment, sticker price, earnings, and graduation rate all come from the College Scorecard. Earnings are the median 10 years after a student entered the school. Tuition for a public college is the in-state sticker price. Tuition for a private college is the published sticker price. None of these is net price after aid.
A blank field stays blank. This page does not turn a blank admission rate into an open door, a blank fee into a free application, or a blank earnings figure into zero. The table above is membership under the rule in this guide. Sort order is not a quality ranking.