Hi all! I’m trying to choose a school by May 1 and need some advice on which would be the best. My major is communications and my choices are UCSB, Chapman, Point Loma Nazarene, Westmont (Christian), and Cal Poly SLO.
My question about Christian school is that I’m worried about the reputation in the job market and how employers would view a student from a UC versus a student from a Christian school, in its name. Financially they are same range for me (24-28k) ucsb being the cheapest, and chapman the most expensive
I grew up in Christian school, and went to public school as well. I’m not into partying, and am relatively conservative. I liked Christian school more, but now I am trying to make the most rational decision between environment and academics now. I performed decently in high school (2060 SAT, 4.16 GPA)
PLNU and Westmont: Love the environment, but I know they’re probably not as great choices academically. Also, PLNU vs Westmont, which is better? Westmont seems too small, less opportunities, but also PLNU seems to direct its funding more towards science majors.
UCSB: seems like the best choice academically, but I’m not into the big school type of thing, and I want to graduate in four years.
Chapman: Appealing in size and environment, but afraid the school lacks a reputation/name as it is relatively new in name.
What’s the best for communications? I’ll answer your post too! Thanks
I have one word of advice for you…choose your college wisely! To let you know, I am a believer of Christ and have a relationship with him. That being said, there are plenty of Christian colleges out there that live by the rule of legalism and say it is biblical. Case and point, my wife use to attend Maranantha Bible College in Wisconsin and her time there sounded like she was locked inside of a prison cell while receiving an education. She was not allowed to listen to CCM (Baptists really frown on CCM), was not allowed to wear shorts or jeans to class and had to wear khakis to class. But that’s not all, she was not allowed to go on the men’s side of campus and had to stay on her side after class (yes, that rule exists). If you violated these rules (and I’m sure there is more), you were suspended or expelled and called a heathen. Very legalistic and completely non-biblical.
On the other side, I attended Liberty University Online and didn’t have to adhere to silly and stupid legalistic, non-biblical rules! Moral of the story…choose your college wisely and don’t do it solely because of the program you’re trying to take. Do it because that is where you are going to live, eat, learn and breathe for the next 4 years (possibly more if you choose to do graduate school).
Also…a couple more things to consider about maranantha bible college: They have a curfew for the students. You cannot go off campus past 7pm (if you do not have a family member to accompany you) and that means you cannot go on dates past 7pm. Do not go the legalistic route and do ample research before attending any Christian college!!
This person didn’t list Marantha Bible College. That’s the kind of school where all of the student had parents that dictated they had to go to a Christian College. That’s the Bob Jones University type crowd: dress codes, rules, gender separation… there’s plenty of Christian Colleges that aren’t like that. I used to go to one of those crazypants churches where they were all about Bible colleges and BJU. I ended up going to Houghton. We had chapel 3 times a week and you had to go to 2/3s of them. There were separate dorms for men and women and visiting hours meant the opposite gender signed in at the front desk and you had to leave the door to your room open. I don’t remember if there was a dress code, but we definitely wore jeans and a t-shirt or sweater. I don’t remember girls dressing like skanks which is something that you will deal with at a public college. If you live in the dorms, music will be louder. Roommates will probably be more combative and may have their boyfriends sleeping over.
On the other hand, I find it hard to believe public college isn’t cheaper. If it really isn’t then go where you want. Nowadays, I would think they would just google a school’s average SATs to see if it should be taken seriously and these schools are all in the average range with an average score of 500 something for the SAT subtests. I don’t think it would be an issue of “we don’t know this school,” but we don’t want to hire a Christian because they’ll be trying to convert the staff, which they, of course, aren’t going to tell you.
Point Loma is a beautiful school but very boring according to my son’s friend. I would choose Chapman. It’s a great school and decently sized.