LeTourneau University

Date: Aug 04 2003
Major: Electrical Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
I really want to like this school. I first attended the preview weekend and really was impressed by the school. My first two years went pretty well. By my third year, my perceptions unfortunately began to change. Here is an overview of Letourneau from my perspective.

Student Life:

The heart of student life on campus is the individual floor of each dorm. Each floor has its own personality and history. There are a few floors where everyone stays locked up in their rooms but most floors do pretty much everything together. I greatly enjoy dorm life here.

Finding extracurricular fun can be difficult here. Aside from computers, LU Student Ministries and Intramural Sports are the most popular activities. Longview's commercial district has been slowly moving away from the school over the years. You will have to drive in order to get to movies, dining, bowling, etc.

The Letourneau guy/girl ratio is presently somewhere around 5/2. Since this is a technical school, this is to be expected. However, if you don't have great social skills, and are studying in a technical field, don't expect them to improve here. While guy/girl social life may leave something to be desired, students with technical majors will rarely have the time to miss it.

The campus is very clean and well kept. Most parts of campus are well lit and most of the girls I know feel very secure walking around at night. There are some decent athletic facilities with racquetball and tennis courts, weight rooms, gyms, a baseball field, a soccer field, a lap pool, etc. There are a number of new buildings (dining hall, chapel building, student center) that will be going up in the next few years. I am very satisfied with the campus at this time.

This is a Christian school. Letourneau makes a strong effort to make the campus conducive to spiritual growth. There are about three chapels each week. You must go to 38/52 chapels opportunities. Professors give devotionals prior to each class. Each floor has a designated chaplain. I grew up in public schools with few Christian friends. I thought that a Christian school would be a breath of fresh air. I was wrong. The vast majority of student here are very complacent and apathetic about their faith. I know of only a handful of Christians who are even interested in deepening their walk with God. I find this spiritually stagnant atmosphere to be very discouraging. If you go here, get plugged into a good local church ASAP. Authentic Biblical fellowship among students is hard to come by. While I do not intend to imply that Letourneau will choke your faith, or that my experience is indicative of the student body as a whole, but I must note that my walk with God is neither where it used to be nor where I want it to be.

Academics:

(I can only speak for the engineering program)

Overall, this is a difficult school. Engineers will not be able to coast through the program here. From what transfer students from state schools tell me, the homework/project load is considerably higher at Letourneau. Some professors swamp you with lots of busy work. This bothers me at times, but I do recognize how it can build perseverance, academic discipline, …and character.J The pace increases each year, and if you can't keep up, you quit/transfer, switch to Business, or stay here forever. While the work load will keep you up into the wee hours of the night on a regular basis, I believe this school produces competent and marketable engineers.

I have mixed feelings about the faculty here. There is a good crop of older professors who have taught at Letourneau for ages. They are competent, friendly, and will invite you over to their house for help if you need it. My favorite professors are in this category. On the other hand, many of these older professors are retiring, or soon will. The school is constantly hunting for replacements. Now I do commend the university for trying to hire only professors who exhibit a strong relationship with God. Qualified professors who are Christians, and who are willing to work for modest pay at a small institution are very rare indeed. Unfortunately, they are too rare. Since I have attended Letourneau, I have been taught by about eight brand new engineering professors that were hired to either fill vacancies, or compensate for the expanding student body. Of these, two were superb. Yet both unfortunately declined contract renewal after their first year. The others were initially either unqualified, incompetent, inexperienced, or didn’t speak coherent English. I enjoy having professors who are mature in their faith and will eagerly share with their students. However, I believe that a compromise may be necessary when qualified Christian professors are unavailable. I am paying for a quality education in engineering, not for pre-lecture devotionals. What is more, the university will immediately give these fresh professors numerous upper level courses to teach. They are unprepared for lecturing their students, and cannot make exams that test the students on what they have learned. Implication: Your education and GPA are adversely affected by the new professors’ inexperience. This is by far my biggest complaint with Letourneau. Again, I really want to like and recommend this school, but this experience has been very frustrating and aggravating.

One extra note, this isn’t a research school and there is no faculty advancement program. Therefore, the professors do tend to lag behind with technology in some respects. I don’t see this as a major hindrance though.

I hope this is all helpful. If LU can fill the remaining positions in the engineering department with qualified individuals, I will recommend this school to almost anyone.

8-4-03