“The mainline schools get the money, but the evangelical schools get the people,” says Christianity Today. The six largest seminaries in the U.S. are now conservative Evangelical — with enrollments approaching 7,455 students. The six largest mainline seminaries — there are only six in the top twenty — have only 3,200 students. Mainline schools used to lead the way in theological education. No longer.
The trend is actually even worse than it appears: The mainline schools depend on their endowments because tuition is lagging far behind costs. Union Theological Seminary in New York, a leading liberal school, is in dire financial straits. But the conservative schools depend on tuition — and their students are willing to pay. Liberals depend on income from the past; conservatives are paying in the present.