Road Trippin With Rachael

For my day job, I work in Admissions for a Christian university. I get students and parents who come to check out the school, and inevitably I get the questions “why is your school so expensive? Is it worth the cost to attend?” I’ve gotten this question from parents, students, pastors, youth pastors, and random people I meet while I’m out and about who learn what I do.

To preface this blog – I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on this topic. I happen to be a huge proponet of Higher Christian Education, because A.) I am the product of it, and B.) my background is in Christian Education (which has to do with how people learn, spiritiual and faith formation, marketing, administration, and overall human development). I will be explaining why I support Higher Chritian Ed, but will also acknowledge when ministries are doing well reaching into the public universities.

Instead of always thinking about college in hard numbers, it is important to think about education as an investment. Christian Higher Education is an investment in a student’s future, specifically in their education, spiritual life, the Church universal, and yes, in them financially.

Financially

Cost is often the biggest factor that people consider when they are looking at higher education either for themselves or for their students. Completely reasonable. A student is requesting a service and they will be expected to pay for that service, and you do have to pay – but that is a different topic that I could go on about.

Instead of always thinking about it in hard numbers, it is important to think about education as an investment. Obviously, education does have a cost tag attached to it. Those who are teaching or are staff members also have families that they have to support and bills that they have to pay. On the surface it will look like going to a private school will be more expensive than going through the state option. If you ever go on a camus visit, specifically ask what the Cost of Attendence (COA) is. If you compare, tuition may be cheaper at a public university, but what about all the fees that have to be paid? What about meal plans, housing, washer/dryer, lab fees, printing fees, parking, athletic insurance, textbooks? That can be followed by questions about scholarships that a specific student will qualify for. From experience, private schools tend to give better scholarships. More importantly, graduation rate is something to be questioned. I had an opportunity in 2021 to attend a conference to compared what Christian and non-Christian families are looking for with regards to their children’s education. The speed at which a student can get their degree was high on their list – because time is money.

Comparitively, most students who go to a public university are going to take closer to six years or more to coimmplete their degree. Why is this? I would have to say that it is a cultural problem. Public univesieties tend to be homes to fraternities and soroities (although they can appear on private universities as well), and are more known for their parties. I often refer to it as Triple D: drinking, drugs, and debauchery. Freshmen tend to have a higher fail rate because the available social life, which results in having to retake classes that they should have been able to pass with ease – relatively speaking. Admittedly, this same problem can exist on private campuses, however, because of policies and smaller sizes where participation in theses activities will be more noticiable, it is much harder to get very far down that particular rabbit hole and not have some kind of intervention. I’ve been through college, and I know college students – if they are determined to participate in alcohol abuse, drugs, and all manner of debauchery, they they are going to.

Something else that needs to be a part of the financial investment discussionis the return on investment, aka job placement rate. Schools are required to publish this information, so I won’t bore you with statistics, but researchhas found that job placement is higher for graduates that come from private schools, and specifically from Christian private universities. I’ll share my thoughts on this later in this post. However, if I plan on investing $100,000 in my education, I plan on being able to get a job that is oigng to be able to make me an income that is going to be consistant with that cost of educaiton Some parents become conderned with networking or if the investment is legitament, and the answer is that it is. I’ll address this in a later section, but their are more networking opportunities available in the private sector and that allows for higher placement rates, and an oveall higher earning potential.

Education

Well, what about the education quality? Why, thank you for asking! Yes, Higher Christian Education does make a significant impact on the educational opportunities that are available for your student. Juust to be clear, a public univeristy doesn’t guarentee that a professor is going to be better. Private university educators are experts in their fields, and may even be more well known that the those that are in the public fields., and are sometimes better than those at the public universities depending on the field. or what the respectively universities are known for. These will primarily have to do with the quality, opportunity, and access that is available.

Opportunity and access specifically are related to the smaller class sizes that tend to personify the private Christian college experience. These small sizes lead to students being able to be taught by their professors, not by their teaching assistants .As aan additional boon, this leads to the professors getting to know the stdents who are int heir classes. In turn, students are going to have more one on one attention, wich ultimately lleds to additional opportunities within their fields of interest. For example, because of the smaller sizes and the additional networking opportunities, the professors are going to be able to help students get connected with others it their fields. This means that there are going to be better internship opportunities because there is going to be someone going to bat for your student. This ultimately will increase their ability to gt a job after graduation or even before graduation. All because they were one of 25 students in the class and not 1 of 500 students. Access makes a difference. Higher Christian Education also lends itself to evening the playing field, so to speak, helping to make education the Great Equalizer since a students ability to get an internship and networking opportunities isn’t going to be based on getting to the front of theline to know the professor.

The classroom isn’t the only place where there are additional opportunities. Small campuses and class sizes will also lend itslef to students being able to have a well rounded education. As an example of this, and this might vary from school to school, but there are opportunities to be a part of clubs and fine arts productions that are not strictly based on majors. At the univesity where I’m employed, students are able to be a part of the theatre productions each semester wheither that is because they are taking it as a class or if it is their major. They aren’t limited to being stage hands, but can be in leading roles. Some of our faculty and staff have even been known to take the stage from time to time. As a result, students have a holistic education, that ultimately makes them more well rounded and more appealing to empoyers later one. It also allos for them to discuover their passions outside of what they may want to do professionally.

Spiritual

Finally, sending students to a Christian univesity is a significant investment in their spirutal lives. I think we have all heard of the problem that is facing the church as a whole in the West. Students are leading the faith. There are various reasons for this, but one contributing factor is that they are going off to schools where they are challenged in their faith, and don’t know what it is that they believe, or they want to be able to ask questions, and they are lead down a path that leads them to declaring themselves to be atheists or agnostic. There is also the additional fact that they are experiencing independence for the first time. Mom and Dad are not there to make sure that they are getting up to go to church, and if they don’t want to go, they don’t have to. It’s completely their choice, and they are adults – it doesn’t always feel like that, but they are. And as adults they are repsonsible for their own choices. A Christian university is more likely to offer up a place where they can land whenever they make choices that are going to be not the greatest. It gives them a safe place to land, a safet place to ask questions, and an encouraging environment where they are able to know what they believe.

In the last few years, there has been more and more discussion over emotional security. This extends to feeling safe intellectually, and spiritually. If nothing else, an institution of higher learning should be a place where students can ask questions and wretle with what they believe. When a students goes to college, they experience independence in more ways that not living under their parents’ roof. They are able to choose if they are going to church, what time they are getting up, and when they are going to church if they make that choice at all. Like minded individuals tend to gather togeher, so when there is group of Christians get togeher there are likely to be a few characteristics of the Church that are going to appear. One of those characteristics is going to be encouragement. For the college student, this could mean that they are around other beleivers so they are encouraged to continue going to church. It could mean that they are able to ask questions and wrestle wiht what it is that they believe apart form what they have grown up with. And that’s okay. They need to be able to own their own faith, not adhere to what their parents believe. This does’t mean that they will be encouraged to go off the deep end theologically, but it does mean that they are going to be presented with the opportunity to ask, and people who can be solid sounding boards as they are working their way through it.

Finally, I would argue that long term, it isn’t only an investment in the singular student, but also an investment int he stChurch universally. When a student is at a Christian college, they are more liely to remain involved in church through their college experience and following graduation. That engagement means that they are evenutally going to be the future leads of the churches. This couldl ead to them being Sunday school teachers, small group leaders, deacons, pastors, or the volunteer force that is going to keep the local church going. We’re all aware of how students are leaving the church. The most recent research that hs been conducted by lifeway (you can check out LifeWay Research for mor statistics) but basically seven our of 10 students are leaving the church following high school graduation. That is a 1 student drop from when I graduated from high school in 2009. The other side of that, is that there are less women who are a part of the church, specifically the Gen. Z women. That is a whole new situation that the Western Church has never had to deal with. Considering college in general, many people will meet their spouses during college. If they are both dedicated to being involved in church then that means that they are going to be bring their children to church. This in turn means that they are going to be raising a new generation of Christians who are going to be involved and will hopefully continue in producing generations of faithful believers. No parent wants to accept that their child may be going to Hell, or that they have chosen that. But each person is responsible for their own response to the Holy Spirit. My question tothe parent woho would argue that the public university should be the first choice would be, “why do you want to set your student up to walk away?”

Here are my final thoughts. Higher Christian Education serves to encourage beleivers. It is a financial investment helping get a quality education