Liberty University

I came to Liberty as a passionate and extremely motivated student both faith-wise and intelligence wise. I had a full ride to a state school. I can't stress this enough, you will get a far better education at a state school and the cost is far less. I also firmly believe that your faith will grow more at a state school. Why? You will be challenged at a state school, the Christian community at state schools is unified and active. At Liberty everyone is "Christian". There is no community and not much zeal. In reality nobody does much of anything. Students at Liberty are far more vain than students at state schools.

If you go to Liberty only go there for your first two years. Then transfer to a state school, make sure you plan it out. If you want the Christian environment and the core Christian classes, my theology class and two missions electives I took were the saving grace of the university (but that was individual Christians ministering to me not the school). Liberty creates stagnant, burnt-out Christians. Most of the students fall through the cracks. There is little challenge on campus. The university spends its money on the sports program while the academics suffer. The higher administration may have had good goals but they are delusional and disconnected. Liberty students cannot get jobs after graduation so the school hires many of them to run its online program. They are horrible to deal with.

Every interaction with financial aid was hell. The school routinely cheated me out of money and made life hell. Its 6 months after I graduated and the financial aid office charged me a random charge, even though it isn't the same year or the same semester. My account was paid in full as this is required to graduate. Their office like usual doesn't care.

The online program is a horrible waste of money. You are better off getting an academic education from an academic institution, get involved in your local body of Christ for your Christian education, get mentored, the resources are there. Don't pay for horrible academics and professors (most of which) don't care. There are some awesome Christians at Liberty. I would only advise it for music majors, but even then I do not advise anyone to attend this university.

Liberty tore me down, the staff treated me horribly, you will find that among the LU Online students are ignorant fundamentalists, and not the good Christian fundamentalist, the hate-filled ones that give Christianity a bad name, are deeply unhappy and only bring others down. Its not fun being in a discussion group with someone who thinks you are the anti-Christ because you say the Bible does not ban all alcohol for Christians. I personally didn't drink till I was 21 and only lightly drink, but if you read the Bible it does not ban wine for example, only getting drunk and hard liquor, unless you are making someone stumble or a king, etc.

You will not grow at Liberty, I'm sorry. If you want to be at camp for four years with a bunch of immature kids who just hook up and become co-dependent, then Liberty may be a good choice, but you will regret going there.

If you attend Liberty and get sucked in it is hard to transfer, state schools may not accept everything, and once the University has you, you will get no mercy. They can do anything they want to you without consequences. It is a nightmare to contact anyone.

God needs you on the campus of state schools, He doesn't need you amongst a bunch of lukewarm Christians (I include myself as being lukewarm while I was there, though personally I struggled with severe depression and religious doubts - of which nobody at Liberty helped me with or cared, except my Theology teacher a little while I was in class). For example, while Bible study is something awesome at state schools and amongst local college groups, at liberty, "prayer groups" are unofficially required. And nobody wants to be there.A lot of the students get married too early and graduate this school with as much as $80,000 in debt. Their degrees are mostly worthless. Please think carefully.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

I came to Liberty as a passionate and extremely motivated student both faith-wise and intelligence wise. I had a full ride to a state school. I can't stress this enough, you will get a far better education at a state school and the cost is far less. I also firmly believe that your faith will grow more at a state school. Why? You will be challenged at a state school, the Christian community at state schools is unified and active. At Liberty everyone is "Christian". There is no community and not much zeal. In reality nobody does much of anything. Students at Liberty are far more vain than students at state schools.

If you go to Liberty only go there for your first two years. Then transfer to a state school, make sure you plan it out. If you want the Christian environment and the core Christian classes, my theology class and two missions electives I took were the saving grace of the university (but that was individual Christians ministering to me not the school). Liberty creates stagnant, burnt-out Christians. Most of the students fall through the cracks. There is little challenge on campus. The university spends its money on the sports program while the academics suffer. The higher administration may have had good goals but they are delusional and disconnected. Liberty students cannot get jobs after graduate so the school hires many of them to run its online program. They are horrible to death with.

Every interaction with financial aid was hell. The school routinely cheated me out of money and made life hell. Its 6 months after I graduated and the financial aid office charged me a random charge, even though it isn't the same year or the same semester. My account was paid in full as this is required to graduate. Their office like usual doesn't care.

The online program is a horrible waste of money. You are better of getting an academic education from an academic institution, get involved in your local body of Christ for your Christian education, get mentored, the resources are there. Don't pay for horrible academics and professors (most of which) don't care. There are some awesome Christians at Liberty. I would only advise it for music majors, but even then I do not advise anyone to attend this university.

Liberty tore me down, the staff treated me horribly, you will find that among the LU Online students are ignorant fundamentalists, and not the good Christian fundamentalist, the hate-filled ones that give Christianity a bad name, are deeply unhappy and only bring others down. Its not fun being in a discussion group with someone who thinks you are the anti-Christ because you say the Bible does not ban all alcohol for Christians. I personally didn't drink till I was 21 and only lightly drink, but if you read the Bible it does not ban wine for example, only getting drunk and hard liquor, unless you are making someone stumble or a king, etc.

You will not grow at Liberty, I'm sorry. If you want to be at camp for four years with a bunch of immature kids who just hook up and become co-dependent, then Liberty may be a good choice, but you will regret going there.

If you attend Liberty and get sucked in it is hard to transfer, state schools may not accept everything, and once the University has you, you will get no mercy. They can do anything they want to you without consequences. It is a nightmare to contact anyone.

God needs you on the campus of state schools, he doesn't need you amongst a bunch of lukewarm Christians (I include myself as being lukewarm while I was there, though personally I struggled with severe depression and religious doubts - of which nobody at Liberty helped me with or cared, except my Theology teacher a little while I was in class). For example, while Bible study is something awesome at state schools and amongst local college groups, at liberty, "prayer groups" are unofficially required. And nobody wants to be there.A lot of the students get married to early, and graduate this school with as much as $80,000 in debt. Their degrees are mostly worthless. Please think carefully.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

I am into my second semester at Liberty and have determined that is a pure joke. My first course went rather smoothly, with no issues. None other than the professor sending group messages about how busy he is and to pray for him because he can barely keep up with his family life and life itself. JOIN THE CLUB. The issues more began the second course into the third, and I find it interesting that both of these ?professors are women. I can share a few insights I have noted during my short time so far:

- The professors are not truly professors. I am not sure what their credentials are, but they work around their own schedules (personal lives), and clearly put their job responsibilities last on their priority list. A few have even put in their weekly announcements that ?family is first? ? pray to get through the class if you are suffering? type of postings. Or ?don't worry about your classes ? family life is the most important.? You don't say this to people who are borderline passing ? people PAY TO PASS. To tell people to NOT WORRY ABOUT GRADES BECAUSE GOD GRACED YOU WITH A FAMILY IS PURE B.S.

- You submit assignments that are mostly graded automatically on the system, and the other work is mainly reading and posting messages to a group forum back and forth, which, is a joke. They generally assign one or two at most projects that require them to lift a finger to grade (that aren't automatically graded). This is a self-running system they use (Blackboard) that just resets each new course with the press of a few buttons. What's even more disturbing is the total laziness such as ?class, the syllabus states that assignments are due on Sunday ? it's really Monday,? or, ?the assignment says to work in groups, but the real deal is that this is to be done individually.? Hey, I have an idea ? CHANGE THE DOCUMENTS IN THE SYSTEM SO THAT THERE IS NO CONFUSION. WHY IS THIS SO DIFFICULT? Then they have the nerve to get irritated if you ask about it or, that you are off a day because you missed some posting you wouldn't otherwise need to worry about checking because you rely on the course outline for this information to be accurate. In a nutshell, they sip drinks all week on their decks or change diapers all week and get to you at their convenience ? PAID.

- Students have deadlines and have to adhere to them, yet these "professors" get to students at their leisure and often grade late. Also, I have had questions about assignments due days in advance, with NO RESPONSE, hence, my grade suffered unnecessarily. Had I received a response (help) ? I would have understood the assignment ? or the subject matter necessary to COMPLETE IT.

- Also, they do not care if you pass or fail. If you need help, they do not offer to extend themselves at all ? they won't call you, everything is done via email ? it is essentially the students responsibility to read the textbooks for information and If that isn't clear, don't expect to get a good grade because there is NO OTHER HELP. The emails sent by these "professors" always skirt around your questions and they never HELP AT ALL. You are lucky to get a response also..most of my emails go with no response from these wankers.

- Your grade is heavily reliant on your Christianity. If you don't sign off ?god bless you,? ?in Christ,? or add scriptures to your emails or forum postings, good luck at this place.

- You are treated like an idiot, not a student or customer paying their salaries. They disregard you and treat you like a joke for attending their online program, which, to me discredits them altogether..if they treat you like a joke, they realize they are too.

- You stand little chance of getting an A in these courses, unless, like I said, you exhibit that you are a fellow Christian. They NEVER give a perfect score, and an ?A? IS STILL DOCKED DOWN TO THE LOWEST A POSSIBLE. I think they need to appear that they don't ?hand out? A?s, then students who deserve an A do not get one due to their fear in losing their jobs to give A students A?s. I HAD A HIGH B IN MY FIRST CLASS WHICH WAS 2 POINTS AWAY FROM AN A. HAD I NOT BEEN STUPIDLY DOCKED ON B.S., for the sake of not giving a good score (usually on stupid forum postings) ? I would have made the A. There is no way to backtrack and they do not consider anything but their numbers system. Even at a real college, professors factor in how well a class did overall and will assign a curve at times, or, if you are clearly an achiever, and your grade falls between two, there is lenience/discretion to issue the appropriate fit.

- I get NO response to any of their online "help" such as their prayer program, etc. I submitted a prayer request and NO ONE PRAYED FOR ME. They are supposed to respond to confirm that a prayer was conducted.

- I have mailed my transcripts in to their admissions office twice and they still claim non-receipt and haven't entered my transfer credits. I asked them to then contact my schools themselves to order the transcripts ? still nothing. They want you to do all of their work for them and if there are any administrative issues, they do not rectify them. Too much time has lapsed now for me to not have my credits entered.

- Their grading is subject to their mood and how they feel about you. I get messages that I did a great job on my forum postings, or got the question right, but for whatever reason, my points were docked significantly, with no explanation. When I ask, I get nothing. I?ve been told I did great but was docked 12-15 points on postings when my writing is certainly better than most of the other postings. I really wonder what grades these flamboyant Christians are getting.

- You get no feedback on assignments to even know if you are right or wrong. I have had one professor who posts comments either via email or on the online grading system, but they are generalized, and it is clear that they have 4 or 5 general comments they give people and they do a cut and paste..no feedback is specific to your work. IF YOU ASK YOU SHALL NOT RECEIVE AT THIS PLACE.

- The financial aid section on their ASIST system is not what you will find in your statements from your loan provider. They tack on a fee that they won't explain ? nominal as it is, it's money that you pay them with no explanation. If you ask about it, your emails go unaddressed.

- They blow you off ay every chance.
- The courses are more focused towards Christianity than the subject itself, which has NO VALUE AT ALL in the business world, which is why people pay this kind of money for a degree?for BUSINESS EDUCATION. They've managed to tie this into courses that I wouldn't have imagined would be possible.

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I am looking forward to winter term because we get the semester off. I plan to seriously deliberate the unvalued of this school. I really didn't want to have to transfer again but I can't pay 30 grand or more in loans and wind up with no more knowledge than before I started. Many of us actually want the education, not just the paper. The paper is nothing without knowledge. Knowledge is power ? not a meaningless degree.

1st Year Female -- Class 2015

Friendliness: C, Education Quality: F