Waco, TX, 76798, United States

The student community at Baylor University is bound together largely by religion and service. The Waco, Texas, school is a private, Baptist institution, and its student body is particularly active in volunteerism. Each semester, students donate a collective 12,000 hours of time to service projects through a one-day program called Steppin’ Out. Students can volunteer year-round through the school’s Urban Missions, which coordinates service projects in the local community, and Global Missions, which sends students abroad. The student body is also active in faith-based activities. Each year, students lead Be The Change, a week of speakers, breakout sessions and events that give religion a global focus. Freshmen are required to live on campus and must also take two semesters of Chapel, attending worship services every Monday and Wednesday. Students and faculty gather daily for a campus prayer at noon, and weekly for free ice cream floats during "Dr Pepper Hour."Students can also get involved in more than 300 student organizations on campus. There are about 40 fraternities and sororities, and the organizations compete in their own intramural sports leagues. Baylor is one of the only private schools in the NCAA Division I Big 12 Conference, but the sports teams, known as the Baylor Bears, stay competitive – especially in football. The school mascot, not surprisingly, is a bear. Baylor University also has its own holiday, Diadeloso, or "The Day of the Bear," a day when classes are canceled so students can participate in athletics tournaments and attend free concerts. Waco, which is 100 miles from Dallas and Austin, is a small city with outdoor recreation opportunities like hiking and mountain biking.Baylor University faculty and students are active in research. The university partners with the city of Waco in some of its research initiatives, including the Center for Reservoir and Aquatic Systems Research and the Waco Mammoth Site. For those who want to write about events on and off campus, the school newspaper, the Baylor Lariat, hires a small staff of student writers on a yearly basis. Famous Baylor University graduates include Angela Kinsey, an actress who portrayed the character Angela on "The Office," comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and Mark Hurd, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard.