The American Baptist Seminary of the West is located in Berkeley, California directly across the bay from San Francisco. ABSW students have access to the combined resources of eight seminaries including one of the largest theological libraries in the United States. ABSW faculty work with 150 professors from the other member schools to a large selection of courses.

The seminary offers a Master of Divinity, Master of Arts in Community Leadership (both accredited by the Association of Theological Schools), a Master of Arts degree jointly with the GTU, and also participates with the GTU  in offering the Th.D. and Ph.D. degrees (all fully accredited degrees) and a Doctor of Ministry program in partnership with the Bakke Graduate University in Seattle, Washington.

The curriculum involves students in an interdisciplinary approach to biblical, historical, theological, and social–psychological disciplines covering a variety of religious and cultural orientations. The arts of preaching and worship, teaching, and pastoral care are also curricular requirements. Core courses in these disciplines are taught by ABSW faculty, while students are encouraged to take elective courses offered by the faculties of the other eight GTU seminaries in addition to the ABSW faculty.

The American Baptist Seminary of the West offers Moodle which is a course management system used in classroom throughout the Graduate Theological Union. This system allows professors to create online courses and course work for an active learning community.