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.