<p>Can anyone please help me?
I am looking for a Christian college or university that is fairly inexpensive after scholarships. I would really like to graduate debt free. I have a 4.0 and a 33 on the ACT, so I could qualify for some Merit Scholarships. I want to go into the mission field using with a degree in Elementary Education and Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, so I need a school that has those majors/minors and is very globally minded. I would prefer to go to a small school, and it does not matter where in the U.S. it is located. I really liked Northland International University but could not sign the statement of Faith because of something that I personally disagree with concerning gifts of the Holy Spirit.</p>
<p>You never defined “fairly inexpensive.” We really need to know if you are talking about 1 - 2K (very tough to find) or 20K (possible with your stats) or anywhere in between.</p>
<p>Inexpensive would be less than or equal to around $25,000 before scholarships so the price would be $15,000 or less with scholarships. (or any school that would be $15,000 or less with scholarships).</p>
<p>You should be able to find a number of Christian colleges that your net cost will be minimal with those scores. Selectivity will drive the net up and down.</p>
<p>Do you have any specific suggestions? </p>
<p>Two of my teachers suggested Wheaton, but that is out of my price range even with financial aid. I have looked at universities like Evangel (Missouri), Bryan College (Tennessee), and Warner Pacific (Oregon), but I am not quite sure about any of them. I am planning of visiting Oklahoma Christian in a few weeks, but I am very interested in getting out of Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Have you looked into Grove City College? Their tuition is lower than most. Is there a specific type of Christian college you’re looking for? Evangelical? Aligned with any particular denomination? Any ones you might want to avoid? There are a boat load of Christian colleges out there so it might help us if you had other criteria.</p>
<p>I heard both Liberty and Oral Roberts Univ. have good merit scholarships. A local senior I know apparently has a full ride at Liberty.</p>
<p>I was going to recommend Okla. Christian but I see that might not do. :-)</p>
<p>What about Berea? Taylor Univ in Indiana?</p>
<p>Azusa Pacific in California is a good school and you would probably get some good merit aid there with your stats. They are pricier than $25,000 to start but it may be worth seeing what kind of scholarships you can get.</p>
<p>How conservative do you want to go? Liberty and ORU are way on the extreme end, IMO.</p>
<p>Check out Covenant (GA), Union (TN), Palm Beach Atlantic (FL), Geneva ¶, Eastern ¶ and Taylor (IN). I’m NOT 100% sure what all of these have for majors, but they should all be in your affordable category after scholarships and all are small plus more globally minded. Liberty is definitely not small.</p>
<p>There are most likely more that can work too. I was mainly concerned with how inexpensive you needed. Some need total free rides and those aren’t super easy to come by with Christian schools.</p>
<p>My kids considered these schools, which were quite generous with merit scholarship offers.</p>
<p>Central College, in Pella, Iowa
Jamestown College, in Jamestown, North Dakota
Waldorf College, in Forest City, Iowa</p>
<p>Have you considered Cedarville University?</p>
<p>Cedarville is pretty well known for NOT being good with money IME. They have a few scholarships, but very few and those cover a max of 75% tuition only with fees and R&B extra (unless they’ve changed in the past couple of years since a friend had experience with them).</p>
<p>Collegeboard also has them only meeting 31% of financial need, so they aren’t just stingy with merit aid.</p>
<p>Parents I know with students who attend there say the school is great if you can afford it (and like the conservative aspect, etc), but they even caution against it if you can’t afford it. One could try an app to see (as with any school stingy with aid), but don’t count on it.</p>
<p>It’s too late to edit my post, but according to one parent who currently has an accepted Cedarville applicant, they have eliminated their 75% tuition scholarships and the highest now is just under 50%…</p>
<p>Wartburg in Iowa has a Regents Scholarship for high stats students that ranges from $15,000 to full tuition. At full tuition, Wartburg would fall well within your financial limit.</p>
<p>Wartburg is a Lutheran college and has a seminary school.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for the suggestions!
I have looked at Grove City and have not seen that it has a TESOL program or anything similar. </p>
<p>I am willing to go pretty conservative, but not to the extreme of Pensecola Chrisitan. </p>
<p>I have looked at Cedarville, and I do not believe that my family can afford to send me there or that I can afford to put myself through school there.</p>
<p>As for denomination, I attend a Southern Baptist Church, but I don’t want that to limit my prospects.</p>
<p>I will check out some of the other colleges you all suggested that I haven’t heard of!
Thanks again!</p>
<p>Liberty U has very good aid, esp merit aid, and has a rapidly improving campus ($150 million in new construction, adding med school, engineering school, etc.) and reputation. The education school is highly regarded in Virginia.
[Liberty</a> University Christian College Education](<a href=“http://www.liberty.edu/]Liberty”>http://www.liberty.edu/)</p>
<p>I’ve heard good things about Liberty. They are getting big into distance education. Furthermore, adding schools like medicine, engineering are not any “free lunch.” Any number of universities have gotten themselves into monstrous trouble trying to fund hugely expensive programs like these. </p>
<p>The point here is not to demean or diminish these efforts. May they succeed. But there can be no creation of expensive programs like these 2 (and some others) without big-time robbing of Peter to pay Paul. These will dramatically impact the finances and thus the operations of Liberty. Perhaps it remains to be seen, but I’d be extremely cautious and inquisitive were I or mine considering a university in major transition. And that is what this situation is.</p>
<p>As for Wartburg, like many previously closely tied denominational institutions, they seem to have become far more secularized. I believe they are affiliated with ELCA, which has become a severelly watered down, secularized denomination (there remain a number of orthodox congregations) and I’d be amazed if a Southern Baptist would find that to be a spiritually satisfying place. There are literally hundreds of campuses that might well be described like this one.</p>
<p>And many of them offer wonderful financial aid (they must to attract top students, no matter the denomination). If this is not out of your purview, this opens up a substantial list of possibilities.</p>
<p>Look at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. You can still apply and they would give you a full-tuition scholarship. The costs around $8,000 a year (depending). It’s a really great school.</p>
<p>WP. I think LU has been very deft in handling their finances and have not gone blindly into their expansions. Virginia is providing substantial support to start the med school $20.5 million grant.</p>
<p>[Liberty</a> University’s net assets headed for $1 billion, thanks to online - Richmond Times-Dispatch: News, Crime And Politics For The Richmond Metro Area: p, news, state_regional,](<a href=“http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/liberty-university-s-net-assets-headed-for-billion-thanks-to/article_a65b5604-745e-5d13-98f0-f1ed2eb6dd8d.html]Liberty”>http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/liberty-university-s-net-assets-headed-for-billion-thanks-to/article_a65b5604-745e-5d13-98f0-f1ed2eb6dd8d.html)</p>
<p>[Commitment</a> to care | Liberty Journal | Liberty University](<a href=“http://www.liberty.edu/libertyjournal/index.cfm?PID=24995&MID=75484]Commitment”>http://www.liberty.edu/libertyjournal/index.cfm?PID=24995&MID=75484)</p>
<p>[Blogs</a> | Blog Entry | Liberty University](<a href=“http://www.liberty.edu/academics/engineering&computationalsciences/index.cfm?id=617916&blogpid=18846&pid=9720]Blogs”>http://www.liberty.edu/academics/engineering&computationalsciences/index.cfm?id=617916&blogpid=18846&pid=9720)</p>
<p>With the fierce competition for med school slots, ANY new med schools opening is a welcome thing IMO. I know Va Tech just opened one recently too. It sounds like VA is on the right track.</p>
<p>But I still mention that Liberty is not a small school as the OP was asking for. However, I do know several students who attend Liberty and they all enjoy the school. It’s just not “small.”</p>
<p>Right–I’d call it mid-sized at about 14,000 FT on campus students. Not small.</p>