To begin with, this survey is very poorly formatted for
graduates who are in a transitional period. I greatly appreciated
the education I received at Pensacola Christian College, but my
answers to the previous questions would make it seem as
though my education there was less than sufficient. It is
necessary to address three specific areas of this survey. The
questions pertaining to occupation do not adequately reveal the relationship
between my current occupation and my education, the questions pertaining
to preparation misrepresent the effectiveness of Pensacola Christian College's educational
program, and the question regarding reputation does is not a
completely effective evaluation of the College's programs. I believe that
Pensacola Christian College has prepared my quite well for my
It is necessary to first address the issue of
occupation. My current occupation is unrelated to my field for
two reasons. 1) I needed to earn enough money to
get a vehicle to transport me to an occupation in
my field, and 2) I have a friend who needed
extra help due to a sudden increase in his business's
workload. As of yet, I have not even applied for
an occupation in my actual field, so to draw the
conclusion that my college failed to prepare me for my
future would be a gross misrepresentation of the facts of
the situation. I am only undertaking my current employment for
approximately three months.
The next issue to address
is the question of preparation. I rated Pensacola Christian College
as having only a small contribution to my success, not
because PCC failed to prepare my to succeed, but because,
before I went to college, I was already prepared to
“succeed.” Success is an extremely loosely defined term, and to
say that PCC prepared any more than a small percent
would be to 1) discredit the role that God has
in whether or not we fail or succeed and 2)
to discredit all that I had learned from parents, friends,
and mentors in my 18 years of life prior to
my enrollment in PCC. I believe that PCC contributed to
my preparation as well as any college could have, but
only someone who is a complete failure PRIOR to attending
college, or who has not experienced the saving grace of
Jesus Christ prior to entering college, can attribute any more
than a small percentage of their success to their college.
The final issue that must be dealt
with is the college's reputation. Among fundamental Christians, PCC generally
has a good reputation. However, when it comes to PCC's
reputation, as a whole, to all sorts of people, because
PCC is a relatively young college, and because the college
chooses not to be accredited, the extent to which the
reputation of the college helps in the business world is
limited. Despite the fact that accreditation is really an arbitrary
standard by which to judge the merits of an institution,
the fact that PCC is not accredited CAN make graduate
schools unnecessarily unwilling to accept undergraduates from PCC.
All these factors being considered, I believe that PCC
offers an exceptional college education. The issue of accreditation is
one that I understood prior to my enrollment there, and
this is the main “problem” that bears consideration for those
wishing to enroll there. All this means is that it
is harder for a lazy student to graduate from PCC
and go on to graduate school. A student who maintains
satisfactory GPA and performs well on his graduate
school exams (MCAT, LSAT, GRE, etc.), and who
aggressively pursues graduate enrollment, should have little difficulty in advancing
his education.
As an addendum to
this, let me state that PCC is a CHRISTIAN college.
There are many rules, and anyone going to college for
the purpose of PARTYING rather than STUDYING may be greatly
dissappointed. I found it to be an excellent place for
both intellectual and spiritual growth, and despite the fact that
I did not always agree with all of the rules
or procedures as being the BEST, the college never dictated
that I had to do anything WRONG (i.e., UNBIBLICAL). It
did help me to understand how to do what is
RIGHT (i.e., BIBLICAL), and for that I am grateful. PCC
is an excellent choice to consider, particularly, I believe, for
Christians looking for a “secular” (i.e., non-ministerial) education with a
Biblical foundation.