<p>What can you tell me about Lipscomb University in Nashville TN?</p>
<p>It’s a Church of Christ school. There are some good students there, but it is Church of Christ. That’s all I need to know.</p>
<p>It is indeed a Church of Christ school; all faculty must be proven CoC members and the majority of students are also CoC. From what I know, they have a very good music program, though it sometimes is overshadowed by fellow Nashville institution and rival Belmont U. Last I checked, Lipscomb has a super strict student and faculty conduct code, i.e. no student or faculty member, regardless of age, is allowed to drink alcohol, or something to that nature.
If that’s what you’re into, it’s not at all a bad school.</p>
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<p>I’d suggest that if that’s what you’re into, you should consider seminary after an undergraduate degree. But what kind of education is it to go to a campus at which all the faculty and students must share the same narrow points of view? Not a higher education at all, in my book.</p>
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<p>gadad- I had to laugh. My daughter (Rice '07) is in her 3rd year at seminary and was certainly NOT into the values required at Lipscombe! </p>
<p>That said- my daughter said there are a number of students at Vandy grad school who are Lipscomb grads and they are quite bright. Sure wouldn’t have worked for my kids…</p>
<p>The campus has been undergoing a major renovation under the new Provost who came over from Pepperdine. I’ve heard through the grapevine that a lot of older professors were offered retirement packages and that new, recruited faculty have been being brought in.</p>
<p>But yes, it is a Church of Christ school and while alumni I know tell me that things have “loosened up” since they were there, it’s still got some mandatory chapel requirements, etc. And their sports teams are called the Bisons. Even though Bison is already plural ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the feedback! Has anyone actually attended Lipscomb or plan on attending next year? I’d really like to hear about your experiences.</p>
<p>This reply may be too late to be of any use to the OP but perhaps it will benefit future prospectives.</p>
<p>I am a recent Lipscomb alum and have been admitted to several top grad programs in my discipline (not theology). Many of my friends are on a similar track. Some are in or en route to top med schools, others at top law schools, and still others share my aspirations for a PhD.</p>
<p>Obviously, a fair bit of that is selection. I primarily associated with academically-oriented students during my time at LU. Based on my own interactions at conferences and time spent at other schools, I will say that the smartest students at Lipscomb are just as smart as the students at the best colleges and universities in the country. I’m not suggesting the median student at LU is comparable to the median student at Harvard. I am suggesting that the top students at Lipscomb (say 5-10%) would fit in just fine with students from nearly any university in the country. Compare the top 5-10% at Dartmouth to the the 5-10% at Lipscomb and you would expect disparity in Dartmouth’s favor. Compare the top 5-10% at Lipscomb with the median student at Dartmouth and I anticipate that you would find little difference in academic ability. Many talented students choose Lipscomb over more prestigious universities because they appreciate the spiritual element of the school. Still others for financial reasons. Further, I think this is probably true for most legitimate universities/colleges in the US. Obviously, discrepancy would be apparent when comparing like with like (median with median, 75% with 75%, etc), especially as you leave the top percentiles at each school. </p>
<p>As a senior in high school, choices came down to Lipscomb, Notre Dame, and Vanderbilt. I selected Lipscomb primarily because it was free while the others were not. Since I could not be happier with my present choices for grad school, I feel vindicated in my selection. </p>
<p>On the religious component…</p>
<p>I disagree heartily with the above post by gadad. At the beginning of my freshman year, I was a fundamentalist/“born again”/conservative Christian. By the time I graduated, I was an atheist. Lipscomb afforded me the chance to delve into religion and spirituality in an academically rigorous way. Though the religion faculty are generally religiously conservative, I spent a great deal of time discussing theological issues with them and received honest answers that appreciated the nuance present in any question about theology. Many times, they sympathized with my doubts and acknowledged that they were legitimate. This stands in stark contrast with the absolutism one tends to find in religious circles outside academia. As I moved away from religion, my opinions were always respected by the faculty. Never did I feel vilified because I was no longer a theist. It did, however, put me in a minority within the student body. That was OK with me, particularly since being an atheist/agnostic puts one firmly in the minority among Americans in general. Part and parcel of being faithless.</p>
<p>Outside of religious courses, classes at Lipscomb look similar to those at a secular university. The biologists are (thankfully) evolutionists. There’s no “creation-science” requirement for faculty (which I believe exists at some Christian universities). The physicists are serious and approach questions with the same scholarly rigor that one would expect from any serious academic. There is no academic dishonesty in the name of religious consistency.</p>
<p>Further, the approach to religion at Lipscomb has turned quite liberal over the past decade. The school focuses on service and compassion over theological quibbles and social justice over fundamentalism. There is a strong pacifistic moving within the faculty at LU and a component of the student body shares that interest. David Lipscomb, the school’s founder, was a pacifist and Christian anarchist, positions that I respect a great deal in spite of my present absence of religion. </p>
<p>Like most schools of its size, interaction with the faculty is quite easy. It is certainly a teaching-oriented school, most disciplines do not offer graduate degrees. Thus, you will always be taught by a PhD and will find it easy to establish strong ties with them. They are generally interested in you and in your development as a student. This is particularly true if you show genuine interest in your field. </p>
<p>It is true that President Lowry is investing heavily in the university. The campus has been seriously improved over the last few years and the academic standing of the school is improving. Outside of campus, Nashville is simply incredibly and Lipscomb is located in a great area of the city. </p>
<p>Caveats…</p>
<p>There is no doubt about it, Lipscomb is a Christian university. You will not avoid religion at Lipscomb. You must take courses about Christianity. Some of these are quite interesting and include Christianity and Nonviolence, Biblical Ethics, etc. Others are a little annoying. You can choose which courses you want to take, save a required freshman intro course about the Bible. You must also attend chapel. I believe the requirement is something like 1.5 times/week. You can find it on the website.</p>
<p>A much greater percentage of the student body is Christian that of the population at large. To reiterate, while I had a great academic experience at Lipscomb, it is a Christian university. If that’s what you want or if it doesn’t matter to you, then the school will be a good fit. If you want an uber-liberal campus full of beret-donning pinkos (not a pejorative, I’d label myself a pinko), you won’t find it at Lipscomb. </p>
<p>As far as the rules go, they are more of an annoyance than anything. By the time I was no longer religious, I was off-campus. I partied and had what I consider a healthy sex life. There is a segment of the school that is not so religious - you just get plugged in with them. However, you will be in the minority. Or at least you’ll feel that way because everything is a little less publicized than it would be at a school without comparable rules and restrictions. </p>
<p>If you’re reading this and want to go to a Christian university, I anticipate you’ll be very happy with Lipscomb. If you are an atheist/agnostic but are not hostile to religion (or perhaps even find it interesting), then Lipscomb might be a good fit. If you have high test scores + high grades, money is easy to come by and thus LU might make a lot of sense financially. However, if you want to be surrounded by pagans (again, a term I use with fondness) and if the thought of being discreet about your personal life isn’t appealing, then it’s a bad fit. </p>
<p>Because I couldn’t be happier with my present academic positioning, I don’t regret my decision. LU helped me truly develop a love from learning and academic discovery, one that perhaps would not have developed elsewhere (I was a good student in high school but didn’t love learning, I credit LU for that). But if I was going into college as an atheist/agnostic, I probably would’ve gone elsewhere. </p>
<p>Summarily, there was something about LU that “worked” for me. Ironically, I would probably still be religious if I had gone elsewhere because I wouldn’t have examined my faith in a rigorous manner. However, the bitterness of the pill (reference to the rules/restrictions) would probably have put me off if I had recognized that I would find the taste disagreeable before before agreeing to swallow it. </p>
<p>To sleep now. I hope that helps. </p>
<p>Best</p>
<p>PS - Personally, the spelling of Bisons is endlessly annoying</p>
<p>I’ll bet that some kid somewhere has written off Lipscomb because it sounds like “lip scum”. Kind of like Lipschitz.</p>
<p>Nashvillian- Thanks for a great and informative post. I’m a Nashvillian, too, and I learned a lot from your post. (Nice job beating Belmont in hoops, too!)</p>
<p>Mantori…
Ha - agreed. I remember these trucker hats from freshman year that had a pair of lips and a comb embroidered on the front. It’s a more palatable way to poke fun at the name… From a PR standpoint, Lips + Comb > Lip Scum. </p>
<p>I love the way disciplinary jokes develop. Hang out with people in Real Analysis and Lipschitz becomes the reproach of choice. Or physics students and discover how many terms from E&M can function as sexual innuendo.</p>
<p>MomofWildChild…
My pleasure. Sadly, I’m not in Nashville at the moment. How I miss Pancake Pantry and Fido…</p>
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<p>Physics innuendo, wooo! “I was driven to perturbation by the elliptical orbits of her celestial body.” :D</p>
<p>I will add one final point to my post above.</p>
<p>Though my personal experience spoke indirectly about diversity in thought, allow me to explicit note that there is a great disparity in thinking among the student body. I agree with Gadad - an absence of intellectual diversity would ■■■■■■ intellectual growth. Thankfully, there exists intellectual diversity among the students. </p>
<p>Many universities contain clusters of students at certain ideological points. Brown is noted for its liberal student body. No one, I hope, will suggest that such clustering precludes legitimate higher education. At Brown, one would certainly find individuals of all ideological flavors. The predominance of one over the other does not preclude free thought nor diversity in it. Similarly, just as the predominantly liberal persuasion of academia does not prevent serious academic study, a cluster on the opposite end of the spectrum offers no threat to serious study. This assumes that faculty are open-minded and not dismissive of alternate viewpoints, an assumption that proved true at least during my time at LU. </p>
<p>A greater percentage of students at Lipscomb are theists than at secular universities. But that certainly does not mean that all students share identical, or even similar, convictions or ideologies. </p>
<p>I will say I didn’t like the rules. However, they didn’t stop me from learning. </p>
<p>And for clarification, I feel no need to defend Lipscomb. It’s no longer the institution at which I completed my highest level of study and thus its relative standing is of little importance to me. I only want to offer an insider’s perspective. I am aware that there are some religious schools that simply are not committed to academic inquiry. Based on my experience, Lipscomb should not be counted among them. Just go in knowing what you’re buying and you should be happy with the product. </p>
<p>Mantori… Perfect post. The company of nerds. Nothing like it.</p>
<p>Nashvillian - Thank you for the detail in your posts. Can you comment on the student/campus activity outside of classes? My DD will be several hours from home and I would like to know if people stay on campus for the weekend and what they typically do for entertainment. If you know anything about the academic departments that would be interesting also. Any knowledge of the Computer Science depatment?</p>
<p>I visited Libscomb on March 4. It was very impressive. I put a summary in campus vibe. Here is an excerpt:</p>
<p>Lipscomb was not on our radar early on inthe process. As we started to investigate schools, it did eventually gain our interest. Working with the Lipscomb recruiter and the entire admissions staff has been extremely easy. They will do their very best to answer anything you bring to them. I have seen some negative comments about this being a Church of Christ school. Coming from a Catholic (which is what I have been since birth), I found them to be very dedicated christians. The rules on campus are no more than what I would expect at my own home. In some cases maybe even a little more liberal. If you are interested in this school then go to their web site and read the rules. I observed the students on campus closely. They are about as normal as you can get. I saw some studying, some running/exercising, some sleeping on the lawn, … </p>
<p>Really is a good place. Not sure if my daughter will end up at Lipscomb but I hope she does. Either way thay deserve a fair shake from good students.</p>