<p>What is your opinion of Liberty University? Is Liberty University a respected college? Will future employers respect the education and the degree that a person earns from Liberty University? Is Liberty University considered to be prestigious?</p>
<p>I find Liberty University quite laughable. Simply glancing over their ridiculous rules is enough. </p>
<p>To me, Liberty is on par with Bob Jones and Pensacola Christian College, both of which also have ridiculous rules (I remember Bob Jones students cannot watch any movie that does not have a G rating).</p>
<p>I can’t speak for the academics, though. Who knows, they may be decent.</p>
<p>indifferent, not really, they may respect the person but not because of where the degree came from, no</p>
<p>I’m sure it can provide a great education though.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t pay too much consideration about prestige. Liberty University is a Tier Four master’s level University, one of the largest tiers in the ranking system.</p>
<p>Are you looking to build your faith as well as challenge your mind? For 35 years, Liberty University has produced graduates with the values, knowledge and skills required to impact the world. The secret to its success lies in a rock-solid commitment to Biblical truth and morality. Liberty has built upon this foundation a world-class university that offers excellent academics, NCAA Division I athletics, an exciting social atmosphere and an environment that encourages spiritual growth. With more than 340 faculty members, the student to faculty ratio is 23:1. With over 60 areas of study, Liberty is approved by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. Liberty University is exploding with 19 new apartment-style dorms including laundry facilities, fully equipped kitchen, closet space, room-adjoined bathroom facilities, and high speed internet. A new student service center with a pool and theater, plus new basketball courts and an NCAA regulation-sized pool! Liberty is located in the foothills of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, a region rich in history, culture and outdoor recreational opportunities. This perfect location provides a vast array of outdoor recreational activities. Students enjoy nearby hiking, kayaking, water skiing, snow skiing, whitewater rafting, fishing snowboarding and so much more. Liberty’s 5,000-acre campus serves nearly 7,750 resident students each year. The student body represents all 50 states and 80 countries, with 20 percent of the student population representing minorities and international students. Liberty University invites students to take a closer look at Liberty because choosing a college is about more than just getting an education…it’s a decision that could change students’ lives forever. Liberty University is changing lives one degree at a time.</p>
<p>Liberty’s restrictions are ridiculous. The rules are ludicrous…crap like “no parties on or off campus.” Every time you break a rule you get fined for it exuberant amounts of money that get tacked on to the already sky high price of the college.</p>
<p>Is it prestigious? </p>
<p>Depends. People know it well…</p>
<p>However, the acceptance rate is over 90%.</p>
<p>It is not a selective institution whatsoever.</p>
<p>It has a massive student population.</p>
<p>Look, if you’re thinking about going there for religious reasons, listen: no matter what college you go to, there will be plenty of religious groups on campus.</p>
<p>I went to W&M’s Admitted students’ day, and during the block party, there were TONS of Christian groups there.</p>
<p>Seriously, you will find people who share your faith on every campus.</p>
<p>Don’t go to Liberty just for that…</p>
<p>I mean, I have friends going to Liberty. They are Christian and that’s why they chose it.</p>
<p>And it boggles my mind.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>Because when I ask what they’ll do about the restrictive rules, they always say: “Tch! No one actually follows the rules. Everybody breaks them.”</p>
<p>I don’t know about you, but why in God’s name would I want to go an institution where I have to break all its rules to get any level of intimate with a significant other (hand-holding only at Liberty!) and watch the movies and play the games I want to play (no R or M ratings allowed of course)?</p>
<p>I wait 18 years to get my foot into the freedom of adulthood. Why in the world would I want to restrict it more than it was in my teen years?</p>
<p>I find that ridiculous.</p>
<p>Overall, I would not recommend Liberty U.</p>
<p>There are much better places to get a great education AND to get a grasp of the real world, your true passions, and even go deeper into your faith without losing any freedoms in the process.</p>
<p>The vast majority of America will not recognize a degree from Liberty as a higher education. As noted in the institutional blurb quoted above, Liberty claims that “the secret to its success lies in a rock-solid commitment to Biblical truth.” Sorry - that’s religious instruction, but not higher education. Higher education involves critical thinking, the ability to consider without judgment opposing ideas and glean valid insights from them. Being presented a single model of “truth” and being allowed no deviations from it is not a valid education for the 21st century.</p>
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<p>??? The fourth tier is the bottom quarter. Tier four is exactly the same size as tiers one, two, and three - the top, second, and third quarters.</p>
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Sometimes this is lacking on traditional, elite campuses, as well…</p>
<p>Good book on Liberty U. from the perspective of a liberal Brown student who “infiltrated” the campus – Kevin Roose’s The Unlikely Disciple. Humorous, but fair-minded.</p>
<p>Never heard of it and it sounds like it sucks.</p>
<p>Liberty is a tool of the Christian right so they don’t have to go to school with the rest of us heathens.</p>
<p>Prestige? What’s the opposite of prestige?</p>
<p>Lointige. ;)</p>
<p>Loser school…hahaha</p>
<p>Dude they accept kids with 1.0 gpa…ummm???</p>
<p>It’s like automatic acceptance for anybody.</p>
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<p>A religious orientation and strict discipline are what make the school what it is. Any informed applicant should be choosing it for exactly those qualities. So I would not fault them for that, any more than I’d fault the Naval Academy for uniforms and too much exercise.</p>
<p>What I’d question (and what I think the OP should be questioning) is the quality of their religious instruction and the overall academic quality. A solid commitment to Biblical truth requires wrestling with difficult issues, don’t you think? Is this process encouraged at Liberty University?</p>
<p>I cannot say for sure, but I think the school’s mission is too entangled with politics, the school policies are too doctrinally rigid, and the academic standards too low, for that to be the case. As alternatives, consider: Notre Dame (Roman Catholic), Loyola University MD (Roman Catholic - Jesuit), St. Olaf (Lutheran), Goshen College (Mennonite), Wheaton College in Illinois (evangelical Christian), Brigham Young (LDS), Grove City College (nondenominational Christian), Earlham College (Quaker), Pepperdine (Church of Christ), or St. Thomas Aquinas College (a Catholic “Great Books” school).</p>
<p>These schools differ from each other in many ways (for instance they run the gamut from politically liberal to conservative) but I think all are academically stronger than Liberty University.</p>
<p>No, it is not a respected institution. It is considered a place for people who are brainwashed and not too bright (or else totally under the thumb of their parents). There are Christians who inspire people around them because they live their values, and then there are Christians who annoy the crap out of other people because they act as if their God-given gift of a brain is a vestigial organ that is only meant to dwell on orthodox talking points. If I were hiring someone, I would look on a graduate of Liberty University in a negative way–my first assumption would be that this is going to be someone who’s going to be a pain in the butt in the office by trying to evangelize their co-workers. In a world where there are graduates of plenty of other universities to choose from, I would put Liberty University graduates way at the bottom, along with people who graduate from no-name online schools. As was pointed out above, every college campus has religious groups. Go there instead!</p>
<p>^^^ Good post, TK.</p>
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<p>I can’t speak to the former, but I note that only 23% of the Liberty student body graduated in the top 25% of their class and the median SAT is in the 900s. So the LU student body as a whole has academic stats slightly below that of the average American high school graduating class.</p>
<p>Liberty is what it is. If that’s what you want it is academically a step above some of the other Christan right institutions. It is not Bob Jones. It has a large, and not unattractive, campus with mountain views. I found the administrators I worked with decent enough folks although they had a really hard time understanding the issues the Federal government was trying to convey to them in spite of repeated letters and numerous on-site visits.</p>
<p>According to this list of incoming stats of Protestant Christian colleges, it ranks right there at the bottom. It was too low academically to investigate further for me.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/christian-colleges/876276-2010-updated-christian-college-university-list.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/christian-colleges/876276-2010-updated-christian-college-university-list.html</a></p>
<p>Awful awful awful.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of it until now. And I’ve been a professor for 20 years, and oversee a professional organization of 20,000 professors in my field.</p>
<p>Just to confess a prejudice: I am Presbyterian and we “vote” on new ministers although it is typically just a rubber stamp of what a committee has already chosen. The only prospective minister I’ve ever voted against was a woman with an undergrad from Liberty and I voted against her for only that reason.</p>