What Makes a Good Christian College?

[superdave]

Palmetto Boy,
Great posts by the way. I would agree, the things I learned about life while going to college from my room/dorm mates, friends, and experiences outside the classroom are as valuble to me in the "real world" as the great education I recieved at a "small" Baptist college (800 students)

Too many people have allowed their preconceptions to cloud their decisions and could probably have flourished at a school they "would never attend"

 

[Broadus]

Originally posted by Palmetto Boy:

2. Look beyond just accreditation at the academic aspects of the school: A) faculty education, publication, & professional experience B) quality of the library C) extracurricular activities (important!) D) track record of graduates getting into grad school...and you can think of other things.

My point is that you should dig deeper than rumors and college rankings to really evaluate the school's curriculum and qualifications.

Good point. I think that those of us who mention accreditation do so not because it is the most important reason for choosing a school but that it is typically the minimum academic standard one should accept. There are more small, non-accredited (and unable to be accredited), "Christian" institutions which offer the promise of obtaining degrees that are essentially valueless than one can keep up with. You're right---there is much more than the issue of accreditation.

Bill

 

[Dr. Bob]

I am not a great or famous preacher. I've met men who are.

But I was privileged to teach pastoral theology and homiletics and related courses at a traditional ifb college since I've had 30 years of experience. One college I know has a doctor teaching such classes who has never pastored or been an evangelist, etc, in his life. He learned it all from books.

One area not to be overlooked, and emphasized on the last few posts, is the experience of the faculty, not just the alphabet soup behind their names.

And that classes will be taught by that man/woman, and not by a grad student with the prof only occasionally lecturing. Found that a big reality at UW when working on degrees there.

Lots of good, thoughtful and helpful stuff on this thread! Thank you all.

 

[ktn4eg]

This was kind of hinted at in an earlier posting, but if the majority of the faculty hold ONLY degrees from the same Bible college, bells ought to sound.

The faculty should be more than just "home grown...home sown." Nothing inherently sinful about it, but spending some good ol' fashioned blood, sweat, tears, & toil in the "enemy" trenches is NOT a bad thing.

In research, this might fall under the category of PRIMARY SOURCES.

Far too often our views about X, Y, or Z are just something we've parroted from some other secondary source without ever spending some time digging into the real "why's."

To use an comparison, if you could, would you think a more accurate answer of Zephaniah's writings would be found in commentator X or from Brother Z himself.

Real rocket science, isn't it?