"The cost of sending a young person to a state university will, in many cases, be a life marked by ambivalence toward spiritual things"

I would never, never, NEVER suggest where a HS student would go to school. It is not my place to make decisions for the parent and the young person.

That being said, I think the “default option” of sending kids to a “Christian” college is flawed at best. If the parent is still the primary support for that child, they should have and must have a direct responsibility to train that child in the way they should go, so that they can be prepared for what life brings them. That can still be done in a public school setting, and to be frank, a lot of times isn’t done at all in a Christian school setting.

I must second the community college route. Parents would save a lot of $$$ by forsaking university tuition for the first two years and paying for community college. I myself am a proud graduate of Tacoma Community College!

Community college - in my family:

• My wife started out at St Petersburg Community College (she lived in St Pete with her parents … road her bike to school). Final 2 years at Florida State - graduating with a 4.0 in Math. St. Petersburg College now offers four-year bachelor’s degrees and has 65,000 students
• 3 of my wife’s other siblings started out the same … then final 2 years at University of Florida
• My brother and sister started out at a community college. My brother graduated from the University of Cincinnati.
• I lived at home for 4 years and attended the U of Cincinnati. Parents let me live at home rent free and with free meals. (My Father was adamant that upon graduation - one had to move out)

My own experience at college:

• Drinking = yes
• Rock music and rock concerts = yes
• Drugs = no (never messed with that stuff)
• Sex = no. I graduated a virgin
• Got saved in November 1969 in my Junior year of college - old life dropped away
• Joined a local church and had solid discipleship at the U of C from a guy with CCC

I find the concept of Bible College more focused in the “fundy” realm. I am going to a non-fundy church, and the concept of going to a Bible college is much more rare than at a fundy church. 10% of our church is filled with college students, and out of that 10%, 100% are going to secular colleges. They are faithful at church, carry a good testimony, and invite others to church. In fact they are some of the best college aged christians that I have interacted with, and that is coming from churches where large numbers of young people went to BJU, PCC, Northland…. I can’t really explain it. While I have been on both sides of this equation (BJU and secular colleges), I can tell you that family and church have a bigger impact than the college. My room mate at BJU was having sex with his girlfriend in the dorms (got her pregnant and obviously kicked out at that point). 75% of one of my prayer groups was kicked out one semester for drinking and partying. So while it looks more controlled at a christian college if you desire to do wrong you will do it, and it isn’t really that hard, rules or no rules.

I do strongly second the community college route for at least the first 1-2 years.

[Jim]

Chip: You asked “Which setting is best equipped and most likely to help a young adult continue maturing as a disciple of Christ?”

I answered “the church” which really wasn’t one of the answers you sought.

My observations are these:

• I have a lot of confidence in Maranatha and Faith (fundy schools near me). I applaud both schools for being regionally accredited. I think BJU is a very good school despite not being regionally accredited yet! I expressed on some other thread on S/I that I think PCC is the best “value” for fundamentalist schools because the tuition rates are the the lowest (subsidized I would imagine by the A-Beka division)
• From the non-fundy orb, I like Cedarville and Cornerstone
• The decision of where to send a young adult for college is a very personal one - best made by a mother & father and the young adult in question
• I find it unfortunate that the Christian college vs the secular college is yet another divisive issue in our churches - and again I believe the decision is best left with the family
• I find the the common decision model of the youth pastor recommending colleges to be severely flawed - what qualifies the Y/P to make that recommendation?! Additionally I find that some churches have a certain herd mentality where the vast majority of the xx (year) class will go to Northland … 3 years later it is Maranatha … et cetera.
• Looking around my own church - 4th Baptist in Plymouth. This is what I find:
  • Northland was the “go to” place for a number of years. No more! Before that it was Pillsbury (which of course itself is no more!)
  • For Christian colleges: Faith, Clearwater CC, Maranatha, & PCC. BJU (seems to be waning as a choice - but consider the distance!)
  • We have many students who start at the community college: Anoka Ramsey, Hennepin County etc
  • Many go to “the U” (which for us is the University of Minnesota). I know of 3 in our church studying engineering at the U
  • Some go the military route - We have 3 young men in the Marines .. 1 in the Army
  • We had a young adult (25-40 year old) fellowship last night. There were grads from all of the above colleges in addition to Cornerstone. Another did 2 years at PCC … finished a the U of North Dakota and has an MBA from the U of Minn. Another Bachelor’s and MBA from Augsburg College. Another from University of Northwestern – St. Paul, The man who started at PCC expressed to me that he felt his education there was weak. The Cornerstone grad started out at a fundy school (named in the list above) but couldn’t stand the rules and left after 1 year
• I don’t see a “one sized-fits-all” approach to be viable!

I didn’t include the church because we are not sending young adults to church for vocational training. I agree there is not a one size fits all solution. Perhaps I was less than fully clear that I don’t think secular college is always the wrong choice - particularly when we consider local community colleges where kids can live at home and stay in the home church while taking classes. I was only looking at the generalities that seem to be frequently overlooked when anecdotes are given of successful Christian in secular college or failures who attended Christian college.

[Chip Van Emmerik]

While everyone agrees some Christians who go to secular colleges remain faithful to the Lord and some students attending Christian colleges abandon their faith, and everyone agrees that the primary responsibility remains parental, do you think a young adult professing Christ is more likely to be discipled in the faith and encouraged in their sanctification in a Christian college setting or a secular one? With all the anecdotes about secular college successes and Christian college failures, that is still the core question. Which setting is best equipped and most likely to help a young adult continue maturing as a disciple of Christ?

Chip -

As Jim said, the only two institutions that are God ordained to do this - the family and the local church.

Is a “Christian College” the default answer? I don’t think so. It would have been better for me to stay at home and be plugged in there with my support network, I think, than it was to send me away to NIU. Don’t get me wrong - NIU is a good school, and I learned a lot there, and I’d probably still recommend it to any who asked for my opinion. But I think that pushing me away from my support network to go to college - especially because I was immature and because it was a ‘Christian’ college (and automatically assumed to be ‘safe’) - set me back and hindered my development in some ways, but that’s a long story.

I think that there is a lot of young people who are packed up and shipped (and I use those terms deliberately) to “Christian Colleges” in the hopes that the parents can hand over their responsibilities to someone else, to use the colleges as a reform school, or because they expect that “Christian Colleges” are ipso facto the best place to be, when all that really happens is that the students have always been living as chameleons in the ‘Christian’ environment and now they are free to pursue whatever they really want, even if it is within the strictures of a private, religiously focused college. Circumstances vary. Personally, I have been far more impressed with some of our church’s secular college students than I ever was with some of the NIU students I met - including myself.

My first post, BTW, was made tongue in cheek…in case anyone didn’t catch that.

What is the purpose for going to college?

(Trust me …. it’s a purely academic discuss for me … been to college and soon to retire from the workforce)

• Grow in the Christian life (and see the college as the main director of this)? The best option is a Christian college
• Find a Christian spouse in college? (but really few are marrying young anymore). Probably a Christian college
• Prepare for a ministry vocation (a paying job in the ministry)? Probably a Christian college
• To be as isolated from the world as possible? Ditto

Of course the article voices valid concerns. But from the pov of someone who is tired of hearing guilt tripping messages from Christian leaders, there are some problems with this approach.

The price tag is certainly a factor when deciding on a college. But, is it the only factor? Haven’t you taught your children that many things, including our walk with Christ, are more important than money?

I doubt that most, or even a lot of parents, send their kids to college based solely on price tag. If their audience is parents who make all of their important decisions based on cheapskating their kids, their article needs to go a lot deeper than ‘send your kids to Christian college, or else’. Equating one’s walk with Christ to attending a college one can’t afford is highly unfair, IMO. This could be perceived by some parents as implying that one should “go into debt or you don’t love God or your kids”.

Again, the issue is too complex to assign blame to a particular educational choice. If attending a state university will likely result in “a life marked by ambivalence toward spiritual things, regrettable lifestyle choices, or a complete disregard of the principles Christian parents had attempted to pass on to their children” what does that say about our parenting, or the church, or the depth of the young person’s spiritual maturity to begin with?

Why are Christian colleges so much more expensive? Do they offer more challenging academics, nicer campuses, better opportunities for students?

Jay,

That’s great if it’s available. Not everyone has a college - of any kind - near their home where they can get vocational training while living at home and attending the church they grew up in. Many do exactly what the op describe. They check costs and go with the cheapest.

About Bible classes. I am sure you would agree you learned more Bible more quickly taking two or three Bible classes a semester at NIU than you would just attending church. I don’t think college can flesh all that knowledge the way church can, putting it into action, but it certainly works well to expand the base of knowledge in a way that church just doesn’t do. I don’t think college can replace the church, but it can certainly make us more effective in the church. And one kind of college is much better for that than the other.

But we are off the subject now, Chip.

The OP and its subsequent defenses asserted that one is more likely to see one’s children defect from the faith if one sends them to a State University.

https://www.barna.org/teens-next-gen-articles/534-five-myths-about-young-adult-church-dropouts

Myth 3: College experiences are the key factor that cause people to drop out.
Reality: College certainly plays a role in young Christians’ spiritual journeys, but it is not necessarily the ‘faith killer’ many assume. College experiences, particularly in public universities, can be neutral or even adversarial to faith. However, it is too simplistic to blame college for today’s young church dropouts. As evidence, many young Christians dissociate from their church upbringing well before they reach a college environment; in fact, many are emotionally disconnected from church before their 16th birthday.

“The problem arises from the inadequacy of preparing young Christians for life beyond youth group.” Kinnaman pointed to research findings showing that “only a small minority of young Christians has been taught to think about matters of faith, calling, and culture. Fewer than one out of five have any idea how the Bible ought to inform their scholastic and professional interests. And most lack adult mentors or meaningful friendships with older Christians who can guide them through the inevitable questions that arise during the course of their studies. In other words, the university setting does not usually cause the disconnect; it exposes the shallow-faith problem of many young disciples.”

Susan,

State and local community colleges are subsidized by millions of tax-payer dollars. Room and Tuition at MBBC and BJU are much less than comparable private colleges. Secular private colleges have huge endowments in the billions of dollars. Private Christian colleges have virtually no endowments; MBI is an exception. The average student at BJU now receives about 10,000 dollars in grants or scholarships per year bringing the cost down to 9,000 dollars a year for Room and Tuition. That’s a bargain. Three of my children have degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Room and Tuition at CIM is now over 50,000 dollars per year. The cost has nearly doubled in the last ten years. The financial sacrifices that Christian college professors make need to be appreciated. They make only a fraction of their secular counter-parts in order to keep the schools affordable.

And you need to defer to Christian parents who, by the way, have prayed and ministered over their child alot longer and deeper than the current minister of their church who has a tendency to boilerplate the direction a child should go.

I attended a fundamentalist university and have benefitted both spiritually, financially, and romantically (met my wife), but with our oldest, a different path has decided to be taken mostly because of his major. His younger siblings may be totally different than him, but we will not fit their situations to one particular way.

BTW, one drawback to fundamental universities is that there is a tendency to congregate in that location even after graduation. Very few graduates head back to their sending church. I wonder if these churches would be stronger if they let their young people attend locally and supply the Bible training they need at teh church as they study their profession.

[Barry L.]

BTW, one drawback to fundamental universities is that there is a tendency to congregate in that location even after graduation. Very few graduates head back to their sending church. I wonder if these churches would be stronger if they let their young people attend locally and supply the Bible training they need at teh church as they study their profession.

Barry,

Good point on the tendency to congregate near the college. This is a drawback and should be warned against. Michigan as a whole has had a difficult time getting its college grads to return or remain in our state.

As far as deferring, I agree with you fully. At the same time, a good pastor who has successfully raised four children to full adulthood and has been shepherding for 35 years has much good advice to offer his church families on such a critical decision. We support all our church families regardless of their decision. Nevertheless, recommendations and precautions are in order. I fully realize that the final decision is between the parent and their child.

Even though most of my children attended a Christian college, I later found it necessary for my daughters to complete their musical education at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Rachel is a violinist in the Detroit Symphony; Rebecca is on the piano music faculty at Hillsdale, and Maaike (pronounced “Micah”) is a cellist in the New World Symphony in Florida. They needed extra training for those positions. At the same time, the training my daughters received at their Christian university was extremely helpful in their character development, liberal arts education, and spiritual maturation. My son graduated from Clearwater in mathematics, finished his M.Div. and is starting his Th.M. program in a few months. CCC had a tremendously powerful influence in his life that he would never have received at Florida State. Many Christian colleges have done an immense amount of good and should be given very serious consideration.