Eastern University

Date: Mar 08 2007
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
Eastern University is a great school for certain people- unfortunately, I am not one of those people. First and foremost, do not come here if you are not a devout christian. If you don't have a strong faith, or a desire for a strong faith, don't even bother. I came here assuming that the faith thing wouldn't be that big of a deal- but it is, it's a huge deal. They really mean it when they say that they teach from a Christian perspective. There is usually a prayer at the beginning of every class, and religion is woven into every aspect of your existence at this university. In fact, there is an almost subliminal common acceptance of the notion that non-religious people (namely atheists and agnostics) are somehow less human that christians. It sounds like an outrageous claim, but I have heard many students (and even a few professors) stating that atheists/agnostics are completely without morals. In one of my classes, a student said that the reason why there is crime in the world is because of the atheists, because they have no moral code. My professor merely said 'right, right' and then moved on. The general notion here is that Christians are the only moral, well-intentioned people in the world, except maybe for the jewish. It's a subtlety that underlies almost everything at the university.

Like it says, Eastern is incredibly dedicated to social justice- i will give it that. There are several clubs on campus that promote social justice in various arenas, and there are many opportunities to get involved. The only drawback is that, once again, the emphasis is on christianty, therefore ministering is on the same level as the humanitarian efforts.

The social life here is non-existant. Almost everyone goes home on the weekends, and there isn't anything to do on campus. Wayne is your typical small wealthy town- nothing to do and all of the little shops are extremely expensive. The good news is that the residents are wealthy as well, so there are a ton of extremely well-paying babysitting and nanny jobs. Philadelphia is only about a 20 minute train ride away, but in the winter walking around down town Philly in the cold gets less and less appealing.

Also, the visitation and "PDA" rules are extremely strict, so it's hard to even watch a movie with someone of the opposite sex.

The education here is sub-par. I've had high school classes that were more challenging. INST150 (faith, reason and justice) is a joke, and a complete waste of money. It's basically a let's-talk-about-your-feelings course where you're required to admire C.S. Lewis and talk about your faith. There aren't very many majors at all, and I after my first semester I was already having a hard time finding interesting classes to take. However, I've heard from several sources that their Social Work and Secondary Education programs are pretty great. Apparently, the Social Work major is based on an ivy league program.

Generally, the people here are friendly- students, staff, and faculty. I've never run into a problem with anyone. My biggest complaint was the close-mindedness that is found in many of the students, and sometimes even the faculty. Usually this was mostly concerning religious issues. A good portion of the kids here spent their lives in private christian institutions and don't know much about other beliefs or care to know about other beliefs.

There are lots of opportunities where guest speakers come to the university, especially with the weekly Windows on the World, however the majority of the speakers are predictably just as religiously biased as the university and its students. I've never heard the word secular said with as much disdain as it is said here. In fact, secular anything is scoffed at, especially secular education.

The campus is gorgeous, several weddings take place here in the fall and spring. They generally do a good job with being environmentally conscious, mostly due to a club on campus that really pushes for that. The facilities are improving as the campus expands.

In my opinion, the price of this institution far exceeds what it provides, but I have friends here that absolutely love it and couldn't imagine going anywhere else. I will be transferring.