Barron's, NewsMax, and Young America's Foundation
Agree:
Thomas Aquinas College Among "Best Colleges"
(Spring 2006 Newsletter)
One might be hard pressed to find three more different entities
than Barron’s magazine, NewsMax magazine, and
Young America’s Foundation, but all three organizations have
come to the same conclusion—Thomas Aquinas College belongs
on their elite lists of “best” colleges in the country.
Barron’s magazine is one of America’s preeminent
weekly financial magazines and counts among its readership some
of the most sophisticated and powerful corporate decision-makers
in the country. The magazine has applied an economic formula to
a variety of institutions of higher education across the country
and designated Thomas Aquinas College as one of its “Best Buys”
of 2006.
Barron’s primary criteria for designating a college
as a “Best Buy” includes tuition and fees, the number
of faculty members who hold PhDs, and features such as the setting
of the school and its financial aid protocols. When commenting on
Thomas Aquinas College, Lucia Solor-zano, author of the Barron’s
article, says, “…The picture that emerges is of a college
worlds apart from the typical American university....Students freely
admit they have come to Thomas Aquinas to seek the truth…and
for them, any college that strives to lead students to the truth
for $24,400 a year, tuition and board included, is a square deal
even Euclid would find perfect.”
Although Barron’s is a financial magazine with a strong
interest in the economics of a college education, Solorzano seems
impressed by the intangibles she turned up in her research of the
College. She itemizes those in a section of the report titled the
“Bottom Line.” “Thomas Aquinas College is a college
that takes both the Catholic faith and the intellectual life very
seriously and expects its students to do the same. The most successful
students here are not the ones who have had the most rigorous education
before coming here, but the ones who are careful and attentive thinkers.”
Like Barron’s magazine, NewsMax magazine recognizes
that the process of choosing the right college must include a review
of the cost and location. However, NewsMax’s basis for
rating colleges has to do with the distinctive, conservative profile
each institution offers.
NewsMax magazine is a monthly publication modeled on established
weekly staples such as Time and Newsweek, but with
a more pronounced, conservative voice. As such, the magazine covers
current events-—both national and international—with a
particular interest in promoting traditional cultural values and
morality. In its October 2005 issue, NewsMax carried a “Special
Report” on American education examining what it deemed as the
top schools in the country—those that exemplify these “American
Values.”
NewsMax magazine author, Peter M. Davidson, employed a variety
of sources when compiling his publication’s top ten list of
colleges that espouse conservative values. He placed on the NewsMax
top ten list those institutions “…where a core curriculum
requires a rigorous exposure to the great thinkers who have shaped
our political, religious, and cultural heritage, and where the atmosphere
for learning is nurtured by genuine intellectual freedom, tolerance,
and tradition.” Among the “Top 10” is Thomas Aquinas
College.
Another conservative organization, Young America’s Foundation
(YAF), was established in 1998 as an outreach program for college
students. According to its mission statement, “The Foundation
is committed to ensuring that increasing numbers of young Americans
understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom,
a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values.”
Last year, YAF inaugurated an annual evaluation of colleges that
embody those virtues. As it was then, Thomas Aquinas College has
again been designated one of the top ten colleges that measure up
to YAF’s criteria—colleges that have avoided the pitfalls
of postmodern scholastic distractions, embracing instead the principles
of Western civilization in a program of liberal education of exemplary
quality.
In its review, YAF states, “Campus life at Thomas Aquinas
follows with traditional Catholic morality and teaching. The college
itself tries to stay out of organized student activities, but there
are many groups in which students participate…the St. Genesius
Players is a drama group that puts on productions, the choir often
performs, and the “Bushwackers” maintain local trails
and organize hiking trips. Student groups are also involved with
activism on issues related to traditional religious values.”
It should be noted that the College does not formally promote political
activism or a particular political party. Nevertheless, the overwhelming
majority of its students and graduates do embrace conservative principles
and ideals, particularly as they touch on the family, morality,
and the rule of law. The College is proud, therefore, of its standing
with national conservative organizations such as YAF and NewsMax,
as well as Barron’s magazine.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Spring 2006
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