,·Private (Seventh-day Adventist), Regional College·Est. 1893
“A small Seventh-day Adventist university in rural Texas with a world-class undergraduate dinosaur research program.”
Southwestern Adventist University (SWAU) is a small private residential university affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, located in Keene, Texas — a 'company town' roughly 30 miles south of Fort Worth where most local stores still close on Saturday in observance of the Sabbath. Founded in 1893 as Keene Industrial Academy, SWAU enrolls about 800 students from 38+ countries on a 150-acre campus and runs on an explicitly Christian, mission-driven calendar: Friday-evening vespers, Saturday Sabbath services, and a campus-wide pause from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday for worship, rest, and fellowship. Academically, SWAU is best known for two things at very different scales. First, it operates one of the most ambitious undergraduate paleontology programs in the country: the Dinosaur Science Museum holds more than 30,000 catalogued dinosaur bones excavated from the Lance Formation in eastern Wyoming, and undergraduates spend summers digging at the Hanson Research Station and preparing fossils in the Harold Drake Preparatory Lab — extraordinary access for a school of this size. Second, the Department of Nursing (CCNE-accredited BSN, LVN-to-BSN, and RN-to-BSN tracks) draws students from across the Adventist network, complemented by strengths in biology, medical laboratory science, business, theology, and a fire-science degree that is the only one of its kind in the Adventist higher-ed system. Life at SWAU is small (12:1 student-faculty ratio), Christ-centered, and notably international: the cafeteria serves a lacto-ovo vegetarian menu with vegan options consistent with Adventist health teaching, residence halls expect single-sex housing for students under 22, and the Knights compete in NCCAA Division II and the USCAA. The campus is racially diverse — roughly half Hispanic/Latino — and the surrounding town is small and quiet, designed around the rhythm of an Adventist community rather than the nightlife of a college town.
Visa, OPT, H-1B alumni outcomes, and acceptance rates by country — sourced from FOIA, USCIS H-1B Hub, and DHS SEVIS.
Regional Colleges West
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Test Optional — You can submit scores if they help your case, but they're not required.
Official SourcePriority / Scholarship Deadline (Fall)
Best consideration for institutional scholarships.
International — Fall
Must be fully admitted by June 1 to receive I-20 in time for visa interview.
Final Fall Deadline
Last day to apply for fall semester (domestic).
International — Spring
Must be fully admitted by November 1 for I-20 timing.
Spring Priority
Priority deadline for spring entry.
The deep admissions playbook beyond the headline acceptance rate — round-by-round breakdowns, nationality data, requirements, and contact paths.
Tuition & Fees (All Students)
$25,440 – $26,200
/yr
Beyond the sticker price — every named scholarship, the financial aid policy, need-aware notes, and a personalized net-cost estimate.
How life on campus actually feels — clubs, sports, traditions, housing realities, and how the school integrates with its city.
CCNE-accredited nursing department offering traditional BSN, LVN-to-BSN, and RN-to-BSN tracks, plus an MSN in Nursing Education. Approved by the Texas Board of Nurse Examiners and one of the university's flagship programs.
Home to the university's celebrated paleontology research program; students work directly with the Dinosaur Science Museum collection and join summer dig expeditions to Wyoming's Lance Formation. Strong pre-medical and pre-dental advising.
Small, lab-intensive department serving pre-health and pre-engineering students, with the Thomsen Observatory supporting astronomy coursework.
BBA program with eleven concentrations spanning accounting, finance, marketing, supply chain, project management, and international business — designed around Adventist values of service-oriented enterprise.
Trains pastors, Bible workers, and lay leaders for the Adventist denomination, with B.A. tracks in Religion and Theology, biblical-language minors, and the SWORD Bible Worker certification.
Teacher-preparation programs leading to Texas certification, including elementary education, secondary content-area certification, and alternative certification pathways.
4 years
Undergraduates can join the SWAU Dinosaur Research Project — quarrying upper-Cretaceous fossils each summer at the Hanson Research Station in Wyoming and preparing specimens in the on-campus Harold Drake Preparatory Lab. Few US undergraduate programs offer this depth of hands-on paleontology experience.
4 years
CCNE-accredited four-year nursing program with strong NCLEX outcomes and clinical placements across the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. LVN-to-BSN and RN-to-BSN tracks serve working nurses across the Adventist health network.
4 years
The only Fire Science degree program in the Seventh-day Adventist higher-education system — uncommon at any private liberal-arts university and a niche pipeline for Adventist students entering emergency services.
Where alumni go after graduation — top industries, grad-school continuation, and the qualitative outcomes story.
Sticker price (annual, out-of-state): $25,380
Net-cost estimate is US-resident-only — international applicants are typically excluded from need-based aid at most schools and should treat the sticker price as the planning baseline.
