<p>What is kind of reputation does this school have academically? I know that they are unaccredited, but they seem to have a really strong program in my area of interest, which is traditional painting and drawing. I found out about them online, while looking for christian colleges in the southeast that have art and visual communication programs. I was impressed with what I read about them on their website, but then I saw a number of complaints about their rules and lack of accreditation. I also noticed that students are required to live on campus unless they are over a certain age(I think 25 or so). </p>
<p>The main thing I am wondering is what kind of rules I would have to deal with if I did decide to go there. Also, I want to know more about what I could expect the campus living and academic situation to be like. Is it true that the internet connections there are highly monitored to the point that students have little privacy? Also, are students over 22 allowed to have PDAs, boyfriends, girlfriends, or whatever on campus? </p>
<p>Moderate rules do not bother me. However, I want to be sure that I fully understand what to expect in the way of rules and campus life before I actually send in my application. Thanks in advance for any answers!</p>
<p>I would not use “moderate rules” and “Pensacola Christian” in the same sentence. They are probably the strictest college out there with legalistic types of rules. I know of one person that went there for one year. She hated it and NONE of her credits transferred even to another Christian college. She’s now a Pastor’s wife, so it wasn’t the “Christian” part she was rebelling against - just the legalism part. Academically they have a really low reputation.</p>
<p>I suggest you google the name and read some of the posts that come up that aren’t directly affiliated with the school to see if it’s the right place for you or not. I’d never send my kids there, but to each our own.</p>
<p>I agree with Creekland. In my opinion, PCC is extreme in both the rules that it sets and the way in which they apply them. I cannot recommend this school.</p>
<p>Go to the <em>students review</em> website I’m not supposed to mention by name – the one where students review various colleges (if you know what I mean). Try googling “students review” to find students’ reviews of Pensacola Christian. I would post the ************** URL if I were allowed to. But I’m not allowed, so I won’t. Perish the thought!! 
</p>
<p>At the students-review website in question, Pensacola Christian is listed as the most-reviewed school (by students, I mean). I believe there are hundreds of student reviews of this school.</p>
<p>Once you read the students’ reviews of Pensacola Christian, you will run very fast and very hard in the opposite direction…I guarantee.</p>
<p>Diane, SEO Spammer Extraordinaire ;-)</p>
<p>Wow, there are some crazy online discussions about their rules. A lot of the ones I saw were not very current, but I doubt that the college has changed much since then. It would be interesting to talk with a student or grad student who is currently going there.</p>
<p>As someone who lives in Pensacola and attended Pensacola Christian Academy for several years, I can tell you that they have a very legalistic mentality. My next door neighbor currently attends the college in the criminal justice department. He seems to like it and does have a girlfriend. Contact between them is heavily restricted however. She can’t even come to his house while his parents are there. Dates must have a chaperone. The college has a list of people from which you can choose to be your chaperone. There are separate elevators and beaches for males and females.</p>
<p>This is not a place of moderate rules. What I mentioned is very, very surface. They have a rather frightening punishment known as shadowing, which I’m sure you’ve come across in reviews. Also, the mentality of many of the girls who go there is not educationally inclined. While attending Pensacola Christian Academy, I was told by several “Campus” (people whose parents went to PCC, work there now, their kids go to PCA, who then will go to PCC and work at PCA or PCC, etc. There are at least two dozen families like this.) girls that I should go to PCC to find a husband. I would think very carefully before going there. PM me if you have any questions for my neighbor or friends who go there.</p>
<p>Bookaholic, thanks for your reply. That is crazy that they won’t allow your friend to visit his gf. About girls who attend college with a higher interest in searching for guys than a good education…they are everywhere! I’m just not sure why one would choose to go to a school like PCC for that purpose, while knowing that their dating life will be so restricted while they are students there.</p>
<p>After reading severl posts from other users i decided to answer some f the questions that were posted… ( i am a former student 08’ graphic design grad and because of my on campus job i was privy to many happenings which plagued our campus)
One such question was “i bet the school is packed with homeschoolers” the answer is yes about 75-80 percent of the student body was homeschooled ( most of those students used Abeka circulum which is published and created by PCC)
another question is " Dont these kids chhose to go there on their own"
the answer to that question is NO … most students are asked to go by their parents or pastors. some students are promised that if they do a year at PCC then the parents will pay for them to go where they want to go
PCC administrators will tell you that transfering credits is Never a problem so prospective students believe that one year wont hurt thrm, when in reality, all of the credits are either meaninless or simply electives to most other colleges.
other students have just been engrained to go to PCC since they were little as was the case with me. i never visited other colleges and since i was homechooled i did not have a wide variety of friends who were looking at other colleges. </p>
<p>One of the issues with PCC is that their students are treated as prisioners and not as adults. The administration and student life assume that given the opportunity a person will do the wrong thing and thus sin. Many of their main rules pertain to opposite gender interaction and media. the oposite gender rules are utterly rediculous and well as sexist. Guys are given much more freedom than girls. for example men are aloowed to go off campus with female grad students, but undergrad female students are only allowed to go to church and the commons with their male grad significant other. this is not the only double standard. Men students (of any age) are permitted to go off campus alone, but female students (untill the age of 23 ) are to be in the company of two other girls at all times and five if they are going to the beach one of thoes five must be a floor leader in order to keep the girls from wearing inappropriate swim suits on the beach. The act of “telling on each other” is not only encoraged a student may be punnished if he refuses to turn in his fellow student. the year after i graduated some 25 students were kicked out because they refused to turn in another student who had confided in his friends about his homosexuality. During my time as a student three of my friends were kicked out because of “supposed touching” the couple which was set to graduate was kicked out along with the girl’s roommate. the third roommate had been very angry with the other two girls (for some unknown reason) and lied about them to student life stating that the roommate witnessed the couple " holding hands in church" all three students were kicked out and yet they did nothing wrong. One of the things which still bothered me to this day was the unwritten rule that after the semester ended students were supposed to wait untill the “left the greater pensacola area” to stop for food, shop, or change into other clothes (the final day the guys wore ties and the girls hose and skirts). When going to the airport students were not permitted to ride in taxis with mixed groups or talk to members of the opposite gender untill they flew out of the greater pensacola airport. inorder that this rule be followed student life sent RAs to the airport to stand by the security checkpoints to ensure that students followed this rule. thses are just some of the things that are the reason why PCC is the way it is… One thing that PCC will never tell you is rate of graduation … Most colleges will say something like 45% of freshman graduate or 60% of students who began here graduate here… PCC’s rate of graduation is less than 15% my freshaman class had about 2300 students my graduating class was 462… that alone should say something to administration but it doesnt… Pcc administrators will just say that thoes students were in rebellion or not in the will of God or simply not christians. </p>
<p>another area that PCC strictly governs is media. there is one TV per dorm building and one in the campus restaurant. this is on from 6:05 pm-6:25 pm and a student life personall usually a floorleader ( this is what i did–heavens i watched commercials i better pray) will flip a sweich to cut service during commercials… i could still watch them and turned them back on when the news ressumed. they also aired the world series games, but never the super bowl and the TV was never on after 11 or on Sunday. Students were discouraged from going off campus on superbowll sunday to watch the game and the administration made sure that the service went extra long to prevent this. floorleaders were asked to monitor the parking lot and main gate to make sure noone sunck out early ( being caught would have been an automatic expullsion-- i let a few students go you know who you are…) Students are not permitted to have movies in any form or video games rated above E students are not allowed acess to the internet news sites or other forms of medis such as youtube or facebook. students are not permitted to have wireless cards on their laptops or cell phones. ( they didnt have the IPhone or Droid when i was in College) if the administration found out that a student broke any of these rules he was immediately expelled no questions asked. During ellection year the college will promote heavily the opponent they want to win and encourage students to vote in the city of Pensacola hoping to swing the county vote (which usually turns escambia county red) during the Obama/Mcain campaign i was told by students that ALL Obama paraphenilia was prohibited and extra security measures were taken to ensure that no student or students promoted any one other than Mccain. </p>
<p>Please i urge all potential students to carefully weigh the pros and cons of PCC please visit ask questions really probing questions visit classes and talk to students… ask for a copy of the handbook, ask for stats, Do not go during college days because the student body as already been coached on how to act and what not to say least they get in trouble… really understand what this college is asking you to do as a student and remeber if you cant take the rules please seek other colleges its not worth the risk</p>
<p>As I understand this, one way to categorize Christian colleges is:
Regionally Accredited College (Most Christian colleges discussed here)
Accredited College (for example, Bob Jones University is accredited by TRACS)
Unaccredited College (Pensacola)</p>
<p>If you are thinking about employment:
If you look at job requirements, some say a bachelor’s degree, some say a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college, and some say a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college. </p>
<p>If you want to be sure your degree “counts” for all potential employers, it is safest to choose a regionally accredited university.</p>
<p>If you happen to end up transferring out of your college before graduation, your credits are generally more likely to transfer to a new college if you are transferring from a regionally accredited college.</p>
<p>Well said. And it may be that grad schools require previous work from an accredited college or university. The options available to alumni of unaccredited institutions are definitely fewer. Buyers beware.</p>
<p>I went to PCC. I graduated in May 2011. They are now accredited as of Spring 2012 with TRACS. It was a great opportunity to go there, but it is not for everyone. In my experience, their academics are better than the other schools I have attended (4 other schools). The academics are definitely better than most schools where my friends have gone (they are cheaper, too). You should visit and see if you like it. The rules have relaxed a lot during the last 5 years. Pray about it.</p>
<p>I have read pages of conversation about PCC. As a parent of a former student from 2002, and a student thinking of transferring in his JR year to PCC I just had to take the opportunity to say it sounds like the people writing these post sound very bitter. Both my son’s choose PCC with no guidance from myself. Had we had the choice we would have chosen Baptist Bible College in Springfield MO. This was where our boys wanted to be. My kids were not homeschooled. The problem with these rules lie in the fact that a lot of these kids were forced to go here and they do what ever it takes to not be where the parents want them. In some cases parents think the school will change their kids. At this age if you have not instilled Christian standards and a love for wanting to be more Christ like it is not a schools job to do that. The rules are extreme at times, but you have to remember that someone at sometime did something to cause them to make that rule! PCC is NOT legalistic in belief, and the rules are not meant to be for life, however like our US military they are training and shaping young people to make the right moral choice automatically. In the military this could mean life or death if the disciplines are not followed, there the rules could mean a life long mistake, that could change your life forever if not followed. I also have a daughter and I would feel so comfortable leaving her there. I know that no place is 100% safe, however they go to extremes to keep these girls safe. As for the accreditation issue I was personal friends with the human resources person for NASA and she said many times she looks for engineers from PCC. The hospitals there in the area offer huge bonuses to keep the nurses that graduate from there and the job fair they hold every year is so popular that unless your school is a certain size they don’t even have room for you to attend. If your looking to get out from under godly parents and live your life like the world this is not the place for you, but if you desire to be more Christ like and want a amazing education that will serve you and your future family, there are few places as well equipped to set you on your path to success. PCC Parent</p>
<p>This thread has been dead for almost 2 years.</p>
<p>Hi, you won’t have to deal with any stricter rules that you’d have to deal with in real life…the rules are just different. For example, you can’t leave campus unless you sign out or get a pass, and you must be back on time. Well, as a Marine, I can tell you that you are not allowed to travel more than about 150 miles in a weekend unless you get approval from your commander. At PCC there is a strict dress code. In the Marines, yup, dress code. At PCC you must show respect to teachers and staff. In the Marines we say Sir and Ma’am. At PCC touching between opposite sex (hand holding) is generally not allowed without a school chaperone. In the Marines, two service members of different rank are not even allowed to be friends (hang out after work). Officers and enlisted cannot date or be friends except under certain conditions. At PCC, you must turn out the lights and sleep at a certain time. In the Marines, there are also barracks curfews. And so, I could go on and on. In life there are rules to follow; it’s that simple. When I was at PCC, I didn’t follow them that much and I got a ton of demerits. Ultimately, they asked me to wait out a semester. ALL MY CREDITS TRANSFERED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA, and I graduated in 2002. There may be good reasons to NOT go to PCC, but not wanting to follow simple (yet admittedly weird) rules is not a very good reason. Oh, and by the way, the Marines accepted me while at PCC into their officer program (requires a degree), so at least they recognized a degree from PCC. Ignore the haters, go to PCC, follow the weird and silly rules, and just have fun. </p>
<p>If you have to compare being a Marine to PCC to make it seem ok then something is wrong with PCC. If I wanted to have super strict rules I would go to one of the Service Academics or Senior Military Colleges. At least then you would have the prestige that goes with it. PCC is just not worth it, students have so many other better options these days. Chances are those options would be regionally accredited too. </p>