Christendom College in Front Royal, VA

On many an occasion I’ve driven by the exit off of I-66 for Christendom College and wondered what it was about. Well, whatever it’s about, it’s considered one of the single most conservative universities in the country.

WTOP reports on a list produced by the Young America’s Foundation ranking the country’s most conservative universities—a good chunk of which are in Virginia. Along with Front Royal’s Christendom College, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Patrick Henry University in Purcellville and Regent University in Virginia Beach make the list, far outpacing any other state in the union in terms of conservative-minded institutions of higher learning.

The organization explains the reasoning for the list, which is supposed to serve as a complement of sorts to the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings:

These colleges offer an alternative to the liberal status quo, because they allow and encourage conservative students to explore conservative ideas and authors. They offer coursework and scholarship in conservative thought and emphasize principles including smaller government, strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values. Furthermore, they avoid trends in academe by continuing to study Western Civilization instead of straying toward the study of Marxism, feminism, sexuality, postmodernism, and other distractions that do not give students a complete understanding of our country, our culture, and its founding principles.