Grove City College

Date: Feb 06 2008
Major: Economics (This Major's Salary over time)
This college met all of my expectations and more.

When I was about to enter college as a High School Senior, me and my parents, together with friends at my church outlined the criteria for a college that I would like to get into.

We wanted a college that…… (not necessarily in this order)

1) Has extremely high academic levels. Not in the PR that all colleges seem to put out in their brochures, but as measured by

a) Student body that is highly selective

b) Faculty that is distinguished, challenging, committed, and TEACHING

c) A grading system that does not reflect grade inflation

d) Respect given by employers of serious note.

e) Quality of visiting lecturers

2) Commitment to a pro-evangelical, pro-Christian, pro-western civ., pro-free enterprise, worldview where a serious major could study free of the straight-jacket of Darwinianand relativistic ideology ( A number of allegedly evangelical colleges fell off the list at this point).

We wanted to see this demonstrated IN DEED as well as PR. We wanted a school that, while pro-evangelical, would also have a broader student body - including conservative Catholics and Protestant "Mainliners"

3) Financial integrity, as measured by……

a) Equity in dealing with tuition charges by avoiding 'cross subsidies'. We preferred not to patronize a college, if we could help it, that charges some people more in order to charge others less - especially when distributing financial aid (read discounts as in car dealers) according gov't guidelines (Federal Fin. Aid Forms). I HATE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND ALL THE CONSEQUENT RACIAL TENSIONS IT HAS BRED.

b) Avoiding compromise of the college's mission and management through entanglements in Federal Regulation. due to accepting taxpayer's involuntary support

c) Making sure that students come, stay, and leave with a purpose, proactively monitored by a REAL career and guidance office.

We whittled the colleges down to about 7 or 8 and finally chose Grove City. Needless to say, the school has met and exceeded my expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed my 4 years in college.

Mind you, this college is not for everyone. You must possess a certain kind of value system and temperament to be able to make it here ( and stay here if you ever make it ).

For those who want to know, Grove City College : 1) Has a faculty that teaches and advises in person. I found most faculty members to be personable and helpful. 2) A rigorous academic curriculum that can humble the best of the best 3) A graduating senior class in 2006 that had earned enough respect from outsiders to receive more contract job offers from the Top 5 accounting firms, proportionately, than any undergraduate school in the country.

I currently work as a quantitative analyst for the Federal Reserve and I got my job via an introduction from an internship I had with the Heritage Foundation.

4) Visiting lecturers that include the likes of such conservative stalwarts as … Philip Johnson, Michael Medved, Armstrong, Williams Peter Marshall Michael Horowitz, Ed Meese, Gary Bauer, Michael Reagan, Thomas Sowell, Ric Santorum and Tom Ridge.

5) Mandatory core courses that highlight the great ideas of the West and knowledge of the Bible ( no fluff courses like Gay and Lesbian Studies ).

6) A comprehensive tuition plus bioard and lodging of $17,600, with the school making very clear that NO family was being charged to subsidize another family. Built into this price is a new HP notebook computer with a color printer that the student keeps at graduation.

7) Refusal to take federal 'aid', allowing the college to teach and manage itself without the compromises that come with accepting the forced 'contributions' of others. Thus, the school practices what it teaches in the Economics and Business Departments.

8) A Career and counseling office that models it program on Larry Burkett's 'Career Pathways' seminar. The school considers it a failure to have a student go through 4 years of college work without having a clear, and reasonable, idea of what to do with his or her degree after graduation.

Students are pushed to make a firm career choice by late sophomore or early junior year, with a well planned job search ready, going into the senior year. Most college career offices at evangelical schools are a very bad joke - not at GCC.

9) Senior students whose knowledge of Civics and America's Founding principles outclash most Ivy League Schools.

10) Separate Men and Women Dorms ( Intervisitation allowed with strict curfew ).

11) Over 50 degrees to choose from.

A true value for money of a college in a great but not too restrictive Christian atmosphere.