Abilene Christian University

“Private Christian research university in Texas affiliated with the Churches of Christ.”

Abilene Christian University is a private Christian research university founded in 1906 as the Childers Classical Institute and set on a 272-acre suburban campus in Abilene, Texas — a city of roughly 120,000 people about 150 miles west of Dallas–Fort Worth. With 6,219 students (about 4,069 undergraduates and 2,150 graduate students) enrolled across nine colleges and schools, ACU is one of the largest private universities in the Southwest and consistently ranked by US News among the nation's top institutions for student experience, first-year programs, service learning, and study abroad. The nine divisions span biblical studies, the arts & sciences, business administration, education, nursing, engineering & science (Onstead College), leadership & professional studies, and the Honors College, supporting 89 undergraduate majors, 77 master's areas of study, and five doctoral programs including the country's first and only university-based ACH (Accelerator for Christian Healthcare) MOLTEN SALT research reactor program. Student life is intentionally grounded in ACU's Churches-of-Christ heritage but is not exclusively denominational: daily Chapel is a cornerstone of the rhythm on campus, but the student body draws from more than 56 nations and many Christian traditions. Wildcat athletics compete at NCAA Division I in the Western Athletic Conference, and traditions like Sing Song (a decades-old student-run musical theatre competition), Homecoming, and Summit shape the culture. The student-faculty ratio sits at 13:1, classes remain small, and the residential experience is strong — most undergraduates live on campus, and Abilene itself is affordable, safe, and easy to navigate by bike or car. ACU has also distinguished itself academically with visible investments in research — notably the NEXT Lab nuclear engineering work and the Dallas-based Adams Center for Teaching & Learning. For international students, ACU is a warm, smaller-scale alternative to large Texas publics. The university accepts TOEFL iBT 80 / IELTS 6.0 / Duolingo 110 for direct admission, considers every admitted student automatically for merit scholarships worth up to $22,000 per year under its block-tuition model, and operates dedicated international-student advising. Texas has one of the largest H-1B sponsorship ecosystems in the US — centered on Dallas–Fort Worth healthcare systems, energy firms, AT&T, Texas Instruments, American Airlines, and a deep consulting sector — and ACU graduates in engineering, business, nursing, and computer science regularly enter that pipeline via CPT and OPT.