Olivet Nazarene University

Date: Nov 22 2014
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
The education you get here is fairly good. It isn't on par with Stanford or the Ivy League or any other elite of the elite, but it's good enough I guess. And the people, on the whole, lean toward the friendly side. A lot are awkward, perhaps, but at least superficially nice. A lot of kids here didn't attend public schools, and it shows up in the quasi-preppy, holier-than-thou culture of a good deal of the student body. But, I'm not trying to befriend the ENTIRE campus so this doesn't bother me all that much. I can say from experience that there are some racists, but I'm not naive and I know that this is going to be the case no matter where you go to school. The campus is well kept. Student parking sucks, but considering the small size of the campus I doubt ONU has it any worse than most state schools. It's the summer home of the Chicago Bears, and as a Bears fan I like that.

All that being said, the rules and regulations here range from astonishingly pointless to breathtakingly childish. You're going to see a lot of kids say that they aren't that bad. This is something like a Mississippi Klan leader saying in the 1950's that segregation "isn't that bad." Or a member of the Communist party saying that the Soviet Union "wasn't that bad." Of course, ONU isn't even a fraction of a percent as bad as the Jim Crow South or the USSR. But I think you get my point. If you agree with a system then, obviously, to you it's "not that bad," and anyone who disagrees is "just complaining." The key word in that sentence is "if," and most kids, Christian or not, partier or not, wouldn't agree with the strictness of the system here; especially regarding interaction between the sexes. Asking conservative evangelical students if the conservative evangelical rules of ONU are okay probably wouldn't be utilizing the best source for information on that question. I wish I had the time and space for some horror stories (I've experienced a few in the three semesters I've had here) but suffice it to say ONU has a pretty stuffy and conservative rules system. It often feels more like a Christian summer camp for 16 year olds than it does a higher learning institution for adult men and women. And no, they don't tell you about it before you get here. You come in knowing you can't drink or smoke on campus and that you can't wear overly-provocative clothing. That'd be pretty reasonable…if that's all there was. Alas, that's not all there is. Not even close. You learn at a beginning-of-the-year, all-dorm meeting the TRUE nature and extent of the regulations. Let's just say that the phrase "I had more freedom in high school!" (BTW; I'm a pastor's kid) definitely came to mind more than once in that meeting, and many times since then. It's a pretty big part of your college experience, and yet they downplay the hell out of it until they've got your first payment and your name on the class lists. ONU is not Bob Jones University bad, but it's the next level or two up for sure. As an aside, along with abysmal wifi you can count on about a third of the entire internet being blocked. Before you start snickering, it's not just porn. You'll find, for instance, harmless YouTube videos blocked by YouTube's SafeMode feature, which can't be disabled while using ONU's wifi systems. Muy frustrante.

I would also say that the overly financial focus of this school leaves a pretty bad taste in the mouth. We are paying 50-100% more than kids who go to public universities, and yet I'd almost swear this place has a Revenue Raising Research Department, constantly dreaming up ways to fine students. Fines for swearing, even in the privacy of your dorm room. Fines for chapel. And chapel is mandatory, twice a week, and you get a grand total of six (6) skips for the entire year. Don't think that you can just take the fines and not go to chapel, either. After 10 or 11 unexcused misses in a semester, they disenroll you (I know; it almost happened to my roommate last year. They sent him a letter and everything). These and a dozen other things will lead to being charged fines. Admissions and financial people are terribly nice folks, but they rarely seem to know what they're talking about. And they are usually useless and of no real help. In the most courteous and smiling way, yes. But useless nonetheless. I'm as capitalist as they come, but "money-grubbing" is not an unfair word when describing how this university runs things. All universities are businesses, true. But I think its small population and small endowment causes ONU to lean on the actual students themselves, far more than a large state school would. Get a full ride and don't lose it, or save up a ton of cash, because there's never enough cash to satiate this school. Everything that's been said about this school's obsession with its image (which is strange, considering most Americans have never heard of it nor will they ever hear of it), often at the expense of its students, is spot on. So is the excruciating boredom of this place on weekends, which has mostly to do with its rules. Along with the fact that its just far enough away from Chicago (35-45 minutes) that most broke college kids can't just visit any time they want. Even if we could, there's that damned curfew. Come in late and that's yet another thing you'll be fined for.

Bottom line, if you're a product of conservative evangelical "Church culture" and have no intention of leaving it, ONU is without question for you. I listed this review as neutral because I know what I've described might actually appeal to some folks. More power to 'em. But if you are a secular kid, I would think twice (or thrice) about coming here. Even if you're a conservative-leaning Christian, like I am, who wants to experience [and knows how to handle] the real world, and doesn't want to live in a suspended adolescence where the only thing that "grows" is your religious faith, then I would suggest looking for a more open and cosmopolitan alternative. That's what I'm doing, anyway.