The Department of Education investigation found that Liberty had repeatedly violated the Clery Act, which requires colleges to maintain and disclose campus crime statistics and security information.

From 2016 to 2021, the Department of Education found 101 unreported cases of violence and sexual assault, including rape, date violence, domestic violence and aggravated assault. The report identified numerous cases that were misclassified or underreported, as well as several incidents that the university determined to be “unfounded” without any clear evidence showing why the initial report was false or baseless.

“This was especially common with respect to sexually based offenses, including rape and fondling cases, many of which were originally classified using non-specific or less specific codes such as sexual assault,” the settlement agreement stated.

Investigators discovered that many victims of sexual crimes on campus were fearful of reporting their incidents because they were scared they would end up in trouble themselves.

“In fact, over the course of this review period, several sexual assault victims were punished for violating the student code of conduct known as ‘The Liberty Way,’ while their assailants were left unpunished,” according to the settlement agreement. “Consequently, victims of sexual assault often felt dissuaded by Liberty administration’s reputation for punishing sexual assault survivors rather than helping them. Such fears created a culture of silence where sexual assaults commonly went unreported.”

According to the settlement agreement:

“The review team found that the University substantially and persistently failed to: 1) provide accurate and complete informational disclosures; 2) comply with the Violence Against Women Act requirements; 3) identify and notify Campus Security Authorities of their status and obligations; 4) compile and disclose accurate, complete, and fully-reconciled crime statistics; 5) issue Timely Warnings and Emergency Notifications as required by the applicable regulations ; 6) maintain an accurate and complete daily crime log; 7) accurately identify Clery Geography; 8) comply with required record-retention provisions; and 9) publish and distribute a compliant ASR.”

The lawsuit, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, targets Grand Canyon Education Inc (GCE), its CEO and the university. The FTC alleges the university misled prospective doctoral students about program costs and requirements and engaged in deceptive and abusive telemarketing practices.

According to the FTC, the university, despite its nonprofit claims, has been operated to benefit GCE and its shareholders, with 60% of its revenue going to GCE. Regulatory filings describe the university as a “partner” of GCE.

Officials for the Arizona-based university denied the FTC’s “unsubstantiated allegations” and promised to refute them.

“Given the major problems that exist in higher education… it is baffling that the federal government has chosen to target a Christian university that is addressing those issues in very positive ways,” the university said in a statement.

This is the second government lawsuit GCU is facing in a matter of weeks. In November, the U.S. Department of Education fined the university $37.7 million for misrepresenting the costs of its doctoral programs. A report from the found that fewer than two percent of the school’s doctoral program graduates completed their program within the advertised cost, and almost 78% took five or more continuation courses.

Hank Green and his brother, John, the bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars and other young adult novels, have posted endless hours of educational content on their YouTube channel, which has more than 3.5 million subscribers. They’re now taking their content to the next level with Study Hall, a new initiative that allows users to gain college credit, for a much cheaper rate, by taking classes on YouTube.

Study Hall is a partnership between Crash Course, Arizona State University and YouTube. The video program helps users first determine whether college is even right for them, and if it is, helps them learn what they can major in and how they can enter the work world afterward.

Study Hall allows users to take courses online in order to earn college credits accredited through ASU. That means those credits can be counted toward a degree at ASU, in addition to other colleges that recognize programs developed by ASU.

The project began more than three years ago, when the Crash Course team realized that 43 million Americans hold some form of student debt, totaling $1.75 trillion. Of those 43 million people, 40 percent don’t have a degree, because they never graduated for a variety of reasons.

“We decided to look at what the hardest parts are for students, and one of them was the barrier of cost and the barrier of bureaucracy to higher education,” Hank said.

Viewers can watch the educational videos on the Study Hall YouTube channel for free. Then, if they want to attain college credit, they can go to the Study Hall website and purchase access to the full class, where they’ll be given coursework and receive feedback from faculty.

The best part of it all? The program’s initial cost is only $25, which gives users access to faculty and assessments. From there, users can pay $400 to receive college credit. Otherwise, users can choose not to take the credit, meaning they’ve only spent $25.

“Fear is a big barrier,” Hank said. “Having a little bit of skin in the game is good with $25, but not an amount that anyone thinks is a large amount for a college course. But lowering that initial barrier of paying $1,200 for a course that I might fail is important.”

Currently, Study Hall’s YouTube channel covers topics like data literacy, chemistry, algebra, writing composition, human communication, rhetoric and composition, math and early U.S. history. The Greens plan to expand the number of courses to the point that students could complete their entire first year of college through the program.

Under existing rules, monthly student loan payments are capped at 10 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income, and those earning less than $20,400 a year aren’t required to make payments. But under the new “student loan safety net” plan, payments for undergraduate loans would be capped at just five percent of borrowers’ pay, and require payments only for those who earn more than about $30,000 a year.

The Education Department formally proposed the new repayment plan on Tuesday, and it‘s set to give a major overhaul to income–driven repayment plans – one of several payment options offered by the federal government. The resulting plan would not only offer lower monthly payments to millions of borrowers, but an easier path to forgiveness and a promise that unpaid interest will not be added to a borrower’s loan balance. 

“Student debt has become a dream killer,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. “This is a promise to the American people that, at long last, we will fix a broken system and make student loans affordable.”

The proposal would also make it easier to get debt erased after making several years of payments, and would erase all remaining debt after 10 years for those who took out $12,000 or less in loans. 

At your new job, you no longer have to perform the menial tasks that bogged down your previous “desk job.” Now, you command respect. Whether you’re delivering high-power orders in the boardroom or traveling overseas to monitor the status of your organization’s latest startup, you have the authority to make real change.

When you drive home after eight fulfilling hours of work, you cannot help but smile in eager anticipation of the next day. You have finally attained your dream.

Fact: Graduate school is not a golden ticket to this reality.

While most of us know great accomplishments require hard work over long periods of time, many are tempted to believe graduate school can automatically launch eager students into dream careers where passions and skills relentlessly thrive.

Unfortunately, an extra line on your resume will never possess miraculous power, even if it costs six figures and has numerous “MBAs,” “M.Div.’s” or “M.S.W.’s” attached to it. Many ambitious students complete graduate school and find themselves stuck in heaps of debt with few job prospects.

With that said, there are many legitimate professional and personal advantages to having a master’s or doctorate degree under your belt, and depending on your ambitions, those could be worth the sacrifice of a lot of time and money.

These contradictory perspectives show that before deciding whether to commit a few years of your life to reading obscure journals full of six-syllable words, the question has to be asked: Is grad school worth it?

I want to outline a number of pros and cons an admissions counselor likely won’t tell you. I’m no education expert, but I’ve jumped through enough higher-education hoops to know the practical advantages and disadvantages of graduate school that are often left out of university welcome brochures. Consider this Grad School 101.

Motivations Matter

Plain and simple: If you’re coming in with the wrong motivations, graduate school could be a whopping mistake.

Dissatisfaction with your current circumstances, feeling obligated to continue school, lack of direction or a desire to spend a few more years after undergrad on a college campus playing Xbox until 4 a.m. every day are all dangerous reasons to consider going back to school.

So before devoting any more time to exploring prestigious-looking university websites with smiling models on their homepages, ask yourself this fundamental question: Are you considering graduate school because you have a vision for your career or because you lack one?

I once knew someone who spent weeks applying to 11 different grad programs in separate fields, ranging from politics and business to entertainment and technology.

While some people may enjoy shelling out hundreds of dollars to write lengthy existential essays on the convergence of experience and intellect, the application process is typically grueling and frustratingly expensive. Therefore, before you apply—and more importantly, before you decide whether to attend—prayerfully define your career goals and how you believe a particular graduate program could help or hinder you in achieving them.

More than likely, if you’re not sure what you want to do but attend grad school for lack of a better option, you could be pigeonholed in a field you do not like with debt you don’t want to pay.

For help solidifying your ambitions, consider asking some professionals for “informational interviews” (a fancy phrase for boosting people’s egos by buying them coffee and asking them about their jobs). But if you know what you want to do and feel highly motivated to become an expert in that field, grad school could certainly be worth it.

A Word to the Wise

Obtaining a graduate degree can be a great way to stand out from the crowd. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only about 10 percent of Americans hold master’s degrees while more than 30 percent hold bachelor’s degrees.

However, before you assume an extra degree will boost your chances of landing a great job, do your homework and figure out what types of degrees the people who get hired in your field actually hold.

For example, if you want to work for an international relief agency, you may be better suited acquiring a tangible skill such as nursing, urban planning or business administration than obtaining a master’s degree in international development (of course, this varies depending on the organization).

Some organizations hire most of their employees for entry-level positions, so you could actually educate yourself out of a job by obtaining a master’s degree. On the other hand, if you have a strong passion for a less-tangible subject, such as anthropology or global health, you should not allow a competitive job market to kill your dreams of becoming an expert in that niche.

Although this seems obvious, it is important to remember that you do not have to go to graduate school to study a subject in-depth. Half of grad school consists of reading academic journals, and chances are, you have internet access and therefore have the ability to type phrases like “historical verisimilitude” or “technological disintermediation” into Google Scholar.

Unlimited knowledge is at your fingertips for free, therefore, master’s degrees and Ph.D.s are only worth the effort if you know you want to make a given subject area your profession.

The Real Benefit

Let’s talk about the real perks. Graduate school can increase your mental stamina, boost your professional credibility and enable you to dominate one category of Trivial Pursuit, but its greatest benefit can be summarized in one word: access.

Giant corporations and professional organizations rarely open their inner doors to random strangers, but graduate students have the opportunity to apply for internships, fellowships and various other “-ships” with these entities. Moreover, the same professors who might have seen you as one name on a long class roster during your undergrad will begin treating you as a peer, inviting you to take part in their cutting-edge research.

By enrolling in a respected graduate program, you are grafted into a network of intellectuals and thought leaders who can connect you with bosses and bigwigs in the real world. It’s therefore essential to consider where a school is and to whom it’s connected before applying.

When I arrived in Washington, D.C. in 2012, I knew no one and had no job prospects. Over the course of my studies, however, one professor connected me to one journalist who connected me to my current boss. The access has been priceless.

The Dreaded Question

If you’re still seriously considering graduate school, you have to answer the final dreaded question: How will you pay for it?

There are many biblical debates as to whether or not debt is OK. When I began considering taking out loans to help pay for classes, multiple friends called me and quoted Proverbs, saying, “Dude, don’t you know? ‘The borrower is the slave of the lender.’”

Since I did not go to graduate school for theology, I will have to defer to my seminarian brethren to define the circumstances in which debt is OK. Certainly, grad school is not worth financial ruin, but with a combination of scholarships, loans and a lot of frugal living, I believe an advanced degree is worth taking on some debt if it enables you to take a significant jump forward in your career.

Of course, debt can be an unbearable burden if you do not have a plan in place to pay it off. Before signing the dotted line to receive $40,000 in federal loans, for example, ask yourself if the kind of job you will get once you have your degree will give you a salary large enough to repay this amount. If you plan to work in the nonprofit field, you may qualify for federal “public service loan forgiveness,” where your remaining federal debts are wiped away after 10 years of making payments while working at a nonprofit.

The main point is this: Debt is not an issue to take lightly. It should only be used if no other options exist after you have sought out grants or scholarships and prayerfully sought the advice of individuals with financial wisdom.

So, is it worth it?

Before I officially decided to go to graduate school, I remember thinking, “Why won’t God simply tell me what to do?” Although I know some people have received very specific direction from God on graduate school, more than likely, you will have to rely on limited wisdom and knowledge to decide whether graduate school is worth it for you.

This may seem risky, but just as Abraham obeyed God and followed Him “not knowing where he was going,” you can take a leap of faith even if you don’t know exactly where you will land on the other side.

Once you have prayerfully weighed the pros and cons, you should feel the freedom to decide what is best. Graduate school may not be a golden ticket to your dream job, but it can be one valuable step toward it, and if you’re a nerd like me, it’s a great excuse to spend countless hours reading 10-pound books while connecting with professionals who can give you a leg up.

So now I will ask you: Is grad school worth it for you?

The bill says these surveys will keep track of “the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented” and will find whether students, faculty and staff “feel free to express beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom.” It’s not clear what will be done with survey results, although DeSantis has threatened universities and colleges with budget cuts if they’re found to be “indoctrinating” students.

“It used to be thought that a university campus was a place where you’d be exposed to a lot of different ideas,” DeSantis said at a press conference. “Unfortunately, now the norm is, these are more intellectually repressive environments. You have orthodoxies that are promoted, and other viewpoints are shunned or even suppressed.” He did not offer any examples.

Critics say the bill amounts to policing “thoughtcrime,” since there’s no real standard for what is meant by “intellectual diversity.” Giving politicians the authority to monitor and perhaps even meddle in what can and can’t be believed on campus. “I worry that this bill will force a fearful self-consciousness that is not as much about learning and debate as about appearances and playing into an outside audience,” Cathy Boehme, a researcher with the Florida Education Association, told the Miami Herald.

At a state floor session, Sen. Lori Berman told the bill’s advocates that the law crossed an uncomfortable line, allowing political leaders to police beliefs. “Don’t you think it is dangerous for us to have all the data on personal opinions of university faculty and students?” she asked. Her concerns were dismissed.

Of course, colleges and universities should be environments that encourage curiosity and promote diversity of thought. And if there is a pattern of students or faculty who feel like valid areas of scholastic study are being squashed, then that’s something well worth addressing. But it’s worth asking whether this level of oversight is really helping to encourage free thinking, and whether the people in charge are the best ones for that particular job.

But pursuing higher education—whether it be a bachelor’s degree, master’s or doctorate—is about far more.

Education isn’t just about making you employable—it’s about making you better. But even then it’s not just for you. The educated person makes everyone around them better, too.

Greg Thornbury is president of The King’s College in Manhattan. We recently caught up to discuss this idea of going to (or back to) school for a greater purpose than a job or even personal fulfillment: education for the common good.

###Does the idea of going to college exclusively for “getting a job” or “using your degree” fit with your idea of education?

That’s not a new idea. Previously it was called “vocational school” and it trained people to master certain techniques, whether that was TV-VCR repair, plumbing or those kinds of things. But this isn’t just a problem about education, it extends to how marriage is viewed, it extends to how government is viewed, it’s extended to how we see the law and crime and punishment.

Everything in society is now viewed through that very instrumentalized lens and unlike a lot of other people who hold the kind of job that I do, it’s totally understandable that that would be the orientation, because higher education has done a spectacularly poor job of delivering on its promises: It has racked up over $1.4 trillion in student loan debt, putting an immense burden upon the next generation, not only financially, but dampening their ability to innovate and create.

Many students are forced by the cosmic sandwich of parents and advisors to choose a major before you have any idea what you have an ability to do and you pursue that goal and you limit your options of what you can do down to a very narrow range of things and then you graduate and even if you realize that you now hate this thing that you’ve chosen, you’re locked in. I actually wouldn’t be the president of anything but King’s right now because I actually am very sympathetic with the reasons, not the philosophy or the worldview behind, but the reasons why it’s gotten to this point.

###If college and grad school isn’t just to help you get a job, what is it for?

You have to understand that if you go down that instrumentalized route that so many people are tempted by and want to do, you actually become what one professor recently called “excellent
sheep”— students just become a cog in the wheel of the means of production. You can be brilliant, you can be effective, but you actually won’t change anything. …

What the new economy is going to need is people who are highly creative innovating new community problem-solving initiatives.

###Can you speak to the broader social benefit of someone going back and finishing a degree or pursuing grad work?

I think the average person, and I don’t mean to use that derogatorily, is not going to devote themselves to sitting down and reading the curriculum that has kept western civilization relatively stable for hundreds of years. But I think wisdom is the thing that’s in shortest supply, not information or techniques. And that’s where most modern, kind of delivery-method type education gets it wrong.

###A lot of people seem convinced that more job-specific education will help the economy. but you seem to be saying that actually limiting.

We have to remember what the “liberal arts” are. They are those disciplines, they are those bodies of knowledge that keep a society free. They are liberal in the sense that they liberate.

And when you have a republic that is not aware of the things that liberate a society from tyranny—economic ideas, political ideas, religious ideas, mythological ideas—you can actually sever the republic from what keeps it free.

The danger that you run is when people don’t pick up those things and read with comprehension, you have people who are very susceptible to demagoguery and I think that’s what you see right now: If someone doesn’t agree with you, you demonize them and your basic attitude is “You should be in jail.”

###What would you tell someone who is, say 27 years old, about why it’s valuable to pursue their education?

For one thing, depending upon what their background is, they just need it. I mean we do not have as educated a K-12 system as we once did. Those are facts.

If they graduate from high school today, that’s like barely out of grade school education compared to previous generations. That’s a broad brush, but I think in general that’s right.

From the biblical point of view, I would simply say this: When we read the Bible and if we care at all about our witness to the world, if we care at all about reaching the world “for Christ” we have to ask ourselves who did that in the past.

St. Paul read the philosophers, he read the poets of his day. So if we don’t do it, if we don’t send our kids to schools we believe in, we deserve everything we’ve got coming to us if we don’t like the way the world’s going.

###Would you apply the idea of getting back into education the same way to a 30-year-old who never got around to college or never finished?

Absolutely. I think the 30-year-old ought to study the same stuff if they didn’t get it before. It’s a scandal if you’ve never read Plato’s Republic cover-to-cover. It’s a scandal if you don’t know the basic forms of argumentation and logic. It’s a scandal if you don’t know the basic narrative and literary shape of the Bible.

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This app lets you schedule tasks, make checklists, sync calendars and pretty much accomplish any organizational task.

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###Exhaust All Other Options

Chances are, you’ll have to take out some college loans—around two-thirds of college students do. Look into grants and scholarships, and make sure you’re using all resources at your disposal.

###Research Different Types of Loans

Odds are, you qualify for several different types of loans, and you should have a good understanding of them. Know the characteristics of different loans, and pick the one that works best for you.

###Know What You Can Expect to Make Once You Graduate

You might not have a major yet, and that’s fine, but you probably have a rough idea of what you’d like to do, and that should be taken into account. Often, you’ll have to start paying off your loans after you have been out of school for a year, and you want to make sure you are going to have enough to live off while beginning to pay off your debts.

###Set a Limit and Stick to It

Taking out college loans may be unavoidable, but you don’t have to be excessive. Determine how much debt you’re willing to take on, and then find alternative means to cover the rest. Take on a part-time job, or maybe even consider a brief stint in the military. It feels like a huge sacrifice now, but the payoff will last your entire life.

College debt is rough. Prices have only grown higher over the past decade, making college often financially intimidating. Here are a few stats you should know:

$26,000 average amount owed per borrower

60% of US college students take out loans to help pay for school

10 Years: The average time it takes to pay off your loans

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Mercer conducted a survey to understand the skills that employers most commonly look for when seeking entry-level job candidates.

The survey report provides insight into the skills that employers need so that schools can better prepare high school and college students for entry into the workforce. Here’s a look at the details:

78% of HR professionals indicated that reliability was one of the three most important skills

55% of entry-level job applicants possessed the desired level of critical-thinking skills

49% of HR professionals indicated integrity was one of the three most important skills

69% of entry-level job applicants possessed the desired level of respect

When it comes to getting a job, your education matters, but not at the expense of the “small stuff.”

Guess again. Graduate school is actually a very different animal, and the sooner you’re clear on the differences, the more equipped you’ll be to succeed.

###Classes

Undergraduate

You do a lot of work outside of class, but the classroom is the nucleus of your studies.

Graduate

Your coursework is mostly there as a foundation for your own study beyond the classroom.

###Campuse Life

Undergraduate

Your campus is your entire world. You may venture out, but you’re largely tethered to it.

Graduate

You’re in the campus, but you’re not of it. One exception: the library.

###Structure

Undergraduate

Your education is more or less mapped out for you from your freshman year on.

Graduate

You’ll have a structure to your grad school career—but you’ll determine what it looks like.

###Professors

Undergraduate

Your professor is basically your boss.

Graduate

Your professor is more like a mentor who can affirm your independent study.

If a lot of people are honest, the life they thought they’d have—or the one they once said they want—isn’t exactly how it’s turned out. A big part of that is because of education.

Studies suggest only 46 percent of Americans complete college once they start—that gives the United States the worst college dropout rate of any developed country.

Even among the people who earned a bachelor’s degree, you’re likely not following the same path you planned. That’s why experts estimate just 27 percent of graduates work in a field or industry related to their college major.

46% of Americans complete college once they start

But it’s not too late: 2017 can be the year you take the action steps to get the job you always wanted, advance in the career you have or develop aspects of your life that have nothing to do with work at all.

If that’s what you want this year to be like, we made RELEVANT U for you.

This section is a content extension of our higher education directory at RELEVANTU.com. The following pages answer some of your questions about undergrad studies, grad school, seminary and some of the issues you’ll face.

We want it to help you take informed next steps to make the next season of your calling a reality.

According to the 2016 Forbes list of top 25 colleges, that doesn’t hold up. For the most part, schools that started faith-based, like Harvard and Yale—departed from their roots about a century ago. But what about the schools that didn’t?

“Hundreds of other colleges and universities have not left the Bible behind, often to great success,” reports Forbes. They specifically named Notre Dame, Georgetown University, Boston College and Davidson College, all of which appear in Forbes’ top 25.

Actually, of the best-ranked 130 schools in the U.S., 25 are Christian. That’s almost 20 percent.

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###Give yourself time

If possible, you should apply months or even a year before the deadline to allow yourself plenty of time to do your research, talk to the faculty and make sure that you’re both a good fit for each other.

###Study your career

Different grad schools provide very different educations, and if you know what you want your finish line to look like, you’ll know how to run the race.

###Talk to the faculty

Once you’ve narrowed down the pool a little, don’t be afraid to send a few emails to your potential instructors. Any resulting conversations will tell you more about the school than any campus visit ever could.

###Visit the campus

Wherever you end up, you’ll be there almost every day for the next couple years, and deciding to go there sight unseen is like buying a house before scheduling a walk-through.

If you are, awesome. But if you’re like most of us, chasing your dreams hasn’t exactly been easy. Maybe you tried the college route and life got in the way. Or maybe the degree you got hasn’t led to the life you want to have.

Believe it or not, the United States has the worst college dropout rate of any developed country. Just 56 percent of students finish within six years, according to a 2011 Harvard study. And a similar report says only 46 percent of Americans complete college once they start.

But even if you’re in the 46 percent who earned a bachelor’s degree, you’re likely not following the same path you started.

A 2013 study by the Federal Reserve Bank found just 27 percent of college grads had a job that was closely related to their major. Of course, people change their minds and God calls his followers to new places. That’s not the case here: 60 percent of college graduates can’t find work in their field, according to job placement firm Adecco.

If either of those are you, it’s not too late. New clarity can breathe new life into your educational journey.

We made RELEVANT U for you. This special section is an extension of our interactive directory at RELEVANTu.com, and we want it to help you take informed next steps to make your calling a reality.

According to a study from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a college education is still worth the money. In their research, economists Jaison R. Abel and Richard Deitz determined that an individual who had a college degree could expect to make $1.2 million more from ages 22 to 64 than their peers who have just a high school diploma.

The report also notes an increase in career earnings for people who had associate degrees compared to those who stopped after high school.

Maybe I can dispel a myth or two and supply few tips to help you go in as a Christian and, more important, also leave as one. 

1. A Christian School is No Place to Put Your Faith on Autopilot.

First things first: life at a Christian university is hardly a free ticket to faith for the next four years. Strong faith comes from a relationship with God, not from surroundings—at school or on a mission field in India. Don’t naively assume that choosing a Christian college over a secular one will make you more of a believer.

2. Take Advantage of Opportunities.

Wait, attending a Christian university doesn’t boost my faith? So why go?

If you show up to church and do nothing to engage, have you grown any? Christian higher ed is largely the same. At LeTourneau, where I go to school, every floor of every dorm has at least one chaplain who hosts a weekly devo. Does that make me a better Christian? Not if I don’t show up. But when I do, I my faith can grow through conversation with fellow believers.

3. Don’t Overexert Yourself.

All right, so there’s a bunch of opportunities to grow in faith if you go to a Christian university. Better seize them all, then, right? Wrong. I learned this one through hard, personal experience: doing everything is a great way to run yourself into the ground. Quiet time with God is as important to a faith journey as mission trips. God is more interested in your love for Him than your resumé.

4. Don’t Expect a Carbon Copy of Your Home Faith Environment.

Too many students who grow up in a certain branch of Christianity reach college and are dumbstruck by so many new perspectives. Some Christians might be (gasp!) more liberal than you. Or more conservative. Here’s your opportunity to see your faith from a different perspective. And hey, look at that, you’re learning. And that’s what you came for, right?

5. Find a Mentor.

Just find one? Where? In the Craigslist mentor section?

As it happens, Christian universities have a great solution to your mentor search in the form of faculty. My professors at LeTourneau are as concerned about my faith and wellbeing as they are about my grades. Many of them are more than willing to come alongside for individual students.

6. Break Your Bubble.

Universities put a lot into making their campuses really, really nice. True Christianity rarely is so nice. And the point is to get your hands dirty. Go off-campus and help someone. There’s usually a group of people on campus already doing this. Find them and join in. Don’t let your four years at school be about you alone. Show the love of Christ to the less fortunate in your new community.

7. Expect Dating to be Strange.

In some Christian circles, dating is synonymous with “trying to marry as quickly as possible.” Consider yourself warned.

In the end, every person’s college experience is unique. It may challenge you; you may have the best time of your life. Wherever you end up, God put you there for a reason. Enjoy it, learn from it, and walk across that stage a better person for all of it.

The goal of the class “Wasting Time on the Internet” isn’t totally clear, but has something to do with pondering the literary value and poetry of stuff like the junk on YouTube and listicles filled with GIFs of old Saved by the Bell references. The professor/poet behind the course told VICE, he was inspired to start the course because he was “very tired of reading articles in The New York Times every week that make us feel bad about spending so much time on the Internet, about dividing our attention so many times.” Either that, or he just wanted to teach a class that simply involves him just sitting around while students aimlessly goof around on their laptops …

A visual arts major, Sulkowicz has created a performance-art style senior thesis called Mattress Performance or Carry That Weight. Until the alleged rapist is expelled from school—and she is no longer forced to share a campus with him—Sulkowicz is carrying a dorm-room mattress with her wherever she goes. In a video about the project, she explained, “I was raped in my own dorm bed, and since then that space has become fraught for me. And I feel like I’ve carried the weight of what happened there with me everywhere since then” …

According to the White House, as many as 20 percent of all college females are victims of sexual assault. The Obama administration has also created a new task force to review complaints and provide resources to victims, like the newly-launched notalone.gov. At a press event, Education Secretary Are Duncan said, “In terms of what’s morally right there, the moral compass, whatever we can do to have fewer young women and young men having to go through these types of horrific incidents, we want to do that” …

Here’s what they uncovered: Men are most likely to find a wife at Christian schools including Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary in Iowa (67 percent of men met their wife-to-be at the school), Harding University in Arkansas and Martin Luther College in Minnesota. For women, the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana (where 70 percent of female graduates married an alumni!), Michigan Technological University and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, were the schools were they would most likely meet their future husbands. You can go here to see a full list of their findings, which for the most part, is dominated by small Christian colleges …

I remember cramming for my church history final with fear and trembling. I remember crying on the first day of my ethics class because I was so moved by the lecture. I remember going to Haiti as part of a class trip, and having my world turned upside town. I remember plowing through Hebrew by memorizing endless flash cards. And I remember trying to decipher my German theology professor’s lectures, because his accent caused “world” and “word” to sound exactly the same to me.

Many days seminary felt like drinking from a fire hydrant. I absorbed so much information as I prepared for ministry; it was both exhilarating and overwhelming. This abundance of knowledge is both a strength and a weakness: it equips the called, but it can also puff one with up with arrogance, producing the Annoying Seminarian Syndrome that afflicts far too many of us.

Fortunately, the Holy Spirit is Lord over the process, and as time goes by he takes our little lump-of-clay selves and molds us into beautiful vessels of grace. It takes time, and the sculpting is hard, but the Master Potter knows exactly what He is doing.

Looking back, seminary was only the beginning of my education. It laid a foundation that I have spent the last six years building upon, and each year has been a new chapter in my learning. It’s easy to think that you steal away to seminary for three years and then emerge fully prepared for ministry, but the reality is quite different. Seminary is only the first leg of the educative marathon.

Conversely, ministry doesn’t begin once you graduate. In fact, ministry doesn’t even begin outside the school. Instead, your first opportunity for ministry begins in the classroom. In fact, she might even be sitting right next to you.

According to the Association of Theological Schools, the 2011-2012 academic year saw the following demographic breakdown among M.Div. students:

• Women: 29.6%
• Blacks: 16%
• Hispanic: 4.3%
• Asian: 6.4%
• White male: 44%

Depending on the seminary you attend, these percentages will differ. In some seminaries the male to female ratio is about even. In others, the numbers are far more skewed. The average percentage of female M.Div.’s at evangelical seminaries, for example, is just 21%.

And why should this matter to you, seminarian? In my doctoral research, I’ve learned that students in numerical minorities are more likely to experience feelings of anxiety and self-doubt. What’s more, these emotions can translate into academic disadvantages. When students belong to a numerical minority, their academic performance is frequently inhibited, and their overall experience is more difficult. In fact, it can be downright miserable.

My conversations with women and minorities have borne up these findings. Students report feeling unwelcome, or simply invisible. One African American woman described feeling like a “tree,” that her white male classmates simply looked past her, and that her presence was about as valuable as the birches that peppered the campus grounds. Others reported feelings of isolation and loneliness. Some women even experienced hostility from male classmates because they were thought to be a sexual temptation.

It is disheartening to hear of these experiences in seminaries. Seminary, of all places, is an institution designed to prepare students for ministry. Seminaries exist to help form students in the model of Christ, who famously touched people on the margins and saw the unseen. Why, then, are seminaries perpetuating marginalization rather than upending? And what does this mean for the future of the Church?

To be fair, it’s easy to get tunnel vision. When I was in seminary, I saw my task as mostly academic. Get in, learn, get out. I viewed my classmates as doing the same, and I wasn’t much concerned with how they felt.

But let me encourage you, seminarian, not to make the same mistake I did. Rather than view the classroom as a sanitized bubble, separate from the world and from ministry, view it as a part of your formation. Rather than concern yourself solely with knowledge, concern yourself also with the process of becoming.

Now is the time to form the habits you will carry with you into the church. So love and serve your fellow classmates the way you will one day love and serve a church. Look out for the vulnerable members of your seminary community, in the same way you will care for the vulnerable members of your church community.

And finally, remember that how you live during seminary, and the practices you adopt, are just as important as the knowledge you acquire. I suspect we might all do seminary just a bit differently if we viewed it not through the narrow lens of academia, but the more holistic lens of Christian mission.

This article was originally published on sheworships.com.

On August 20, 2005, I drove onto the campus of Valley Forge Christian College in my red 1994 Pontiac Sunbird. Little did I realize what was to come. The professors would deepen my view of faith. My roommates would reveal how self-centered I could be. I would attend a conference in Washington, D.C., that would include meeting Mark Batterson and spending an hour in a U.S. senator’s office.

This was my experience at a Christian college. It may not be yours. By the same token, not everyone is Donald Miller, rediscovering their faith at a non-Christian institution like Reed College. Your time in college will have similarities to other people’s experiences, but your experience will be unique to you.

The college search allows Christians to recapture their sense of calling. God has wired each person with strengths and abilities. A college campus becomes a place for students to cultivate their calling in and out of the classroom.

Of course, this can happen at both a Christian and non-Christian college.

Problems arise when students in the recruitment process make generalizations of Christian and secular campuses. My friend Seth graduated from Penn State University with a degree in math education. He actively committed to a Christian organization on campus, made lifelong friends and even met his fiancée there. My friend Alex graduated from Liberty University with a degree in aeronautics. He made wonderful friends on campus, became a flight instructor and is getting married next summer.

What does this mean for you?

As an admissions professional at a college, I advise future students to visit both Christian and secular campuses. Ask graduates of both campuses about their experiences. One of the worst mistakes you can make is choosing a college without having all of the facts.

When you consider a college, you are ultimately deciding on the campus that will prepare you and give you opportunities to find your place in God’s Kingdom. In Christopher Unseth’s RELEVANTmagazine.com article, “[3 Reasons Christians Should Consider a Non-Christian College](https://relevantmagazine.com/relevant-u/undergrad/3-reasons-christians-should-attend-non-christian-college),” I agree with his underlying question, “Which type of college will nurture your faith the most?”

But on the other side of the spectrum, here are three reasons to consider a Christian college:

1. You will have the opportunity to seek God’s direction for your life among those who have been there before.

One of the most difficult practices for this generation of college students is listening, but maybe God speaks more often than we realize through other people. Students in a Christian college not only have godly professors as a resource, but also many upperclassman who are just a little further along the road and can lend their tips and wisdom from experience. More than likely, you will face challenges at college that seem beyond your wisdom. These challenges could include changing your major, relationship issues, a crisis in faith and more. The environment of a Christian college can be a wonderful place to find answers to your life questions because you are surrounded by people who are listening to the voice of God along with you.

2. You will learn to humbly live out the Gospel among other Christians.

In his book The Inner Voice of Love, Henri Nouwen said, “Dare to love and to be a real friend. The love you give and receive is a reality that will lead you closer and closer to God as well as those whom God has given you to love.”

Christians are not perfect. You are not perfect. Your time on campus will help you communicate the Gospel to roommates and classmates who may hurt and irritate you. Even more, you will become the benefactor of grace. Living with people is difficult, but as Nouwen points out, the love of God leads us to care about others while also drawing us closer to Him. A Christian college is simply a place full of imperfect people learning to follow Christ together.

3. You can seize opportunities to make a global and local impact.

One of the questions you can ask students from a prospective campus is, “Where are the best places to serve on and off campus?” Many Christian colleges sponsor missions trips, study abroad programs and urban ministry opportunities. And when you’re living in a rich community of faith while learning with others, you’ll be equipped well to take your learning off-campus and put it into practice.

Christian campuses often empower students to make a difference by starting their own clubs and ministries. At Valley Forge Christian College, I am always amazed at how students are making a difference. Two students began selling their art pieces with the proceeds going toward an organization that frees young women from prostitution. Three other students went to Korea last summer to teach English. I could go on and on, but ultimately how you want to make a difference while you are in college is up to you. Finding a campus that shares your passion is a vital part of your experience.

Attending college is one of the most significant times of your life. It is a time when God will begin revealing to you who He has called you to be. A Christian college can be a marvelous place to go through this process.

Complicating the semi-utopian vision of my escape from home was the nagging question of whether my faith could survive anything but a Christian education.

My college list was a mix of private, public, Christian and non-Christian institutions. Presumably, I would happily attend my top choice, which was most certainly not Christian. But when the letter came, I felt totally unequipped to make such a huge decision—it felt as though the choice I had to make might stifle my relationship with Christ rather than going somewhere that would nurture it.

What is the root of this anxiety? It is simply our wish to prioritize God’s purpose in our lives. To many, this wish translates into pursuing a completely, utterly and purely Christian education, par excellence. Yet this anxiety can translate into a missed opportunity for a Christian to fulfill the commission of Christ, which says to “go into all the world” and preach the gospel—with a heavy emphasis on the whole of the world.

It is also apparent that this anxiety can be misplaced. Christ lives and breathes at even the universities far-removed from any foundation of faith. We only have to think about Donald Miller’s experience at Reed College to see how Christ offers unique chances for students to share God’s love in non-Christian colleges across the country.

There are at least three big reasons why one should consider attending a non-Christian college. Of course, it’s not for everyone. But for those who struggle with the same dilemma that I faced on the brink of graduation, consider this a hearty assurance that going to a non-Christian college is not necessarily a choice to stymie your Christian faith. Rather, it can be a choice to engage with challenging new ideas and develop a greater understanding of what it means to follow Christ into the whole world.

1) Universities are a modern mission field, and non-Christian schools need you.

Being at college is like being at a giant, non-stop sleepover. Maybe this is a frightening image but I mean to only convey the closeness which you find between yourself and new friends. Many of your friends will have never read the Bible or even met a “normal” person who calls him or herself a Christian. Your dorm is the starting line for several years of intense friendship forging and within these new relationships, your walk with God will reverberate throughout the lives of your friends.

Gabe Lyons, in his book, The Next Christians, describes three types of Christians: separatists, blenders and restorers. This third group, restorers, is composed of those who thoughtfully engage the culture around them. These people do not restrict themselves to purely Christian and culturally separate settings of practice, but carry their faiths into every aspect of their lives, including their colleges. Be a restorer and join the movement that likely already exists at your future place of education. Think about the Christians who are already in positions to minister at a campus. They are praying for more students who want to share Christ’s love in their difficult mission field.

2) Your faith strengthens in adversity.

First, we should dispel the rumor that college will destroy your faith. Scholar Christian Smith has shown that attending college increases your chances of maintaining your faith. But the real question is, which type of college will nurture your faith the most? The answer is quite personal. If you are someone who enjoys the intellectual challenges presented by friends over why you believe what you believe, then you are ready to do the necessary research to answer the tough questions that inevitably arise in a non-Christian environment.

Coming out of college, you will be thankful to have met adversity with a willingness to learn about your own positions and the positions of others. If you are truly in love with the truth of Christ, then objections to your faith by others will only result in you developing a deeper understanding of it.

3) Christian schools aren’t necessarily safe havens for your faith.

While many have had wonderful experiences at Christian colleges, there is room for debate about whether your faith is “safer” going to a Christian college. At my own college, I met a friend who spent a semester at one of America’s most quintessentially conservative Christian colleges. He wrote a book about the experience and one of his conclusions was the general similarity between the students at the Christian institution and the students at secular schools. The students suffered the same sorts of pressures, anxieties and moral dissonance at the Christian school as at my school. It was a good reminder that your faith is not necessarily going to thrive at a Christian or non-Christian college, it will thrive only if you decide to make it a priority in your life.

At my university, we Christians rallied around one another and prayed for each person in our fellowship group. We supported one another, we offered hope to each other and our lives were, for the most part, happily engaged in the hardest mission field we will ever face. The wonderful support in the adversity we encountered did more to bolster our faith than I could ever imagine somewhere else. Most colleges are equipped with terrific pastors and organizations with whom you can partner and walk through the mission of college together.

I wish to appeal again to God’s great mission for you in the world: share the good news, in love, with your neighbors and friends. It’s a common trope amongst Christians that the mission field exists not only across oceans but also in our own backyards; so what about our institutions of higher education? If you are ready to answer this call, join your sisters and brothers in the trenches of this wonderful place we call college.

Wasting your education is easier than you might think, and doesn’t just happen by forgetting to study. Here’s a list of six surefire ways you can sabotage your next four years.

1. Fail to become a student of culture, by isolating yourself from anything new or uncomfortable.

We’ve all heard it: College is a “dark place.” It’s full of liberals, postmoderns, party-goers, religious fanatics, environmentalists and other “dangers” to your faith. You’ve been told to avoid these people, hole up in a nice Christian community and work on that law degree. This is your only hope for escaping higher education. But it needn’t be so. College is a blend of cultures, races, religions and political views. You’re going to meet more people who are different from you than who are like you. You might even become friends with these people. And you will be better for it. The best decision I ever made in college was to move in with a Jewish roommate; Some of my best friends from college are Iraqi Shia Muslims. My relationships with those people have not only given me a broader view of the world, but they have stretched and strengthened my faith in ways that it wouldn’t have been otherwise.

2. Accept “sexy” new worldviews without critically examining them.

According to a recent study, more than half of you will experience religious decline during your college years. As hard as your youth pastor tried, you may not be prepared to defend your faith in the marketplace of ideas that is college. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You will be introduced to some compelling arguments that combat the philosophies you grew up with, and some arguments that seem more compelling than they really are. You will learn that responding with a simple, “You just have to believe” or “It’s something you just feel,” won’t cut it; it actually belittles your skeptical friends by assuming they are emotionally inferior. College is a great chance for you to get a good, long look at some competing philosophies. Study them, respect them, savor their complexity. But don’t buy into them if you haven’t given Christian apologists an opportunity to respond. The Bible is full of complex issues, and Christian history is full of thoughtful people who have wrestled with them, if you care to look. In most cases, Ecclesiastes 1:9 is applicable: “There is nothing new under the sun.”

3. Don’t have a crisis of faith.

During your four years or more in academia, you will probably challenge the intellectual foundations of your long-held beliefs, and you may even have doubts. This is a good thing. In fact, a crisis of faith in early adulthood is probably the best thing for your faith. Earnest soul searching leads to a deeper, more genuine faith. By searching for solutions to your unanswered philosophical questions you’ll learn a great deal not just about your religion, but about yourself. While the pursuit of truth is important, remember that it is a means to an end. Don’t get caught in “seeker” mode. Many self-proclaimed “truth seekers” unintentionally assume that they are more intellectually sincere than firm believers. As G.K. Chesterton pointed out in his book, Orthodoxy: “Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”

4. Believe that your studies don’t matter to God as much as “ministry” or “spiritual things.”

If you went to youth group in high school, you’ll probably spend your first few weeks of college searching for the right campus ministry. Eventually, you’ll find one that meets your needs, with people you like. Good for you. You’ll have a great freshman year. Come sophomore year, things might get more challenging. You’ll lead Bible studies, organize outreaches, run charity drives or all three. By junior year you may notice a widening disparity between the amount of time you spend doing “spiritual things” and all the rest: your studies, your classmates, your extracurricular activities. By senior year, you may look around and realize that you don’t have any close non-Christian friends. Without knowing it, you’ve made mistake #1. Again, it needn’t be so. All of your college experience is spiritual, not just the Christianity-related activities. Bible studies and prayer meetings are not the only acts of worship you can do in college. The use of your God-given mind in diligent study is an act of worship, even if you’re just memorizing vectors. The use of your body in athletics is a recognition of God’s good creation of the human body. The very act of using words to convey an idea (in an essay, or a story) displays the image of God, who created the universe through words.

All of these things are immensely spiritual before any “spiritual” element is attached to them. Your education’s spiritual significance is not measured by the amount of formal ministry that accompanies it, because it is already spiritual by nature.

5. Isolate yourself from other Christians.

All of this information about “spiritual” and “non-spiritual” things might make you think you don’t need to bother with all that formal ministry stuff. You might be thinking, I can get all the spiritual exercise I need by writing research papers and without a stuffy Bible study, thank you very much. And you would be wrong. Even if you can write very spiritual research papers, how do you expect to hear God’s voice in college if you’re not regularly interacting with His people? Most of Jesus’ commands simply can’t be done in the singular, but require participation in a group. These groups are often messy, disorganized, uncool or even flawed. And they are certainly full of flawed people. But the alternative—going through college on your own—is far worse.

6. Fail to let your faith inform your craft.

How does a Christian civil engineer design a bridge? Answering this question as it relates to your field is the heart of your education. The Gospel is applicable to all parts of life, including your profession. It should make your work look different from the status quo. This doesn’t mean that your bridge has “John 3:16” painted across its side, or that non-Christians make bad bridges. I don’t know what it looks like to build a bridge in a Christian way. But If you’re a civil engineer who is allowing your faith to inform your life, it’s your job to figure that out. The gospel gives us a compelling means, over time and with many mistakes, to become the ethical professionals the world needs us to be. That’s adulthood. And that’s what college is all about.

DO:

• Start the application process one to one-and-a-half years before you plan to enroll.
• Try to submit all application materials at one time.
• Have at least two other people read and proofread your application and essay.
• Ask for reference letters at least six months before your deadline.
• Keep a copy of everything you submit.

DON’T:

• Leave blank spaces. Always leave some explanation for missing information.
• Put off financial aid and scholarship applications until you are accepted somewhere.
• Write in script. Type as much as possible, and handwrite carefully in print.
• Apply and let it lie. Follow up with admissions after a couple weeks.
• Get too creative with personal essays. Be honest, clear and thorough.

The good news? You can still get energy in healthier alternatives. Fatigue is often caused by dehydration, so drink water as much as you can. Don’t skip breakfast, keep healthy snacks like granola on hand and take time to actually sit and enjoy lunch. If you really need the caffeine, a cup of coffee with skim or soy milk is OK. Of course, the best defense against fatigue won’t be found in the refrigerator but in at least seven hours of sleep.

Maybe a traditional post-graduate education isn’t for you; maybe your special interests demand a different degree. Or maybe you just like raising a couple eyebrows when asked about your studies. If so, here are some of the most unique academic pursuits grad schools have to offer:

Master of Arts in Folklore

The University of California at Berkeley offers courses that “investigate our endless fascination with, attraction to and revulsion at awesome spectacles—displays of the marvelous and monstrous.”

Master of Science in Gaming and Casino Management

It might seem shady, but the rapidly growing industry merited an emphasized hospitality degree from Drexel University.

Master’s in Meat Science

Vegetarians need not apply to this carnivorous college program offered in several livestock states.

Master of Fine Arts in Blacksmithing

The University of Southern Illinois has been churning out expert metalsmiths since 1968.

Master of Science in Packaging

Boxing, bagging and wrapping are more complex than we knew, which is why dozens of schools offer this degree.

Share class materials.
Look for students who don’t mind sharing the cost of books, DVDs, technology or other course materials.

Craigslist it up.
What gadgets, furniture or instruments can you afford to live without? Price and post it while you have the nerve.

Talk to your employer.
If you are already in a stable job you’d like to keep, it never hurts to ask if they might honor your commitment and contribute to the cost of your tuition.

Think practically for Christmas or birthdays.
Gift lists are fun—but not always practical. Put thought into what you really need, or ask for financial support.

Teacher’s Assistant

If you don’t mind being in the classroom a bit longer, aspiring academics can tutor and teach alongside a professor.
Median part-time salary: $15,000

Fitness Instructor

You’ll likely only have to work a few hours a couple nights a week, and your workout routine won’t go by the wayside.
Median part-time salary: $12,500

Library Assistant

Jobs that allow time to catch up on class reading are always a good option.
Median part-time salary: $15,000

Creative Freelancing

You probably need a creative outlet as it is; why not make a little money on your design, photography or writing?
Median part-time salary: $18,000

Research Assistant

Check with your university for upcoming research projects that could provide a learning experience and temporary work.
Median part-time salary: $22,000

Though many students pursue post-graduate education with hopes of getting a high-paying job or to bolster their résumé during a recession, a lot of them have a greater good in mind. With suffering economies around the world, an increasing emphasis on social justice and a growing knowledge of environmental needs, many students are demanding degrees that allow them to confront these issues—and schools are rising to meet that demand.

For starters, an MBA isn’t just an excuse to put on a suit and tie for class presentations. Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a survey conducted by the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education ranks MBA programs by their social and environmental impact. It looks at the availability of courses that contain social, environmental and ethical content, how often the student is exposed to such content, and how many courses specifically deal with the intersection of social issues in for-profit business. Since 2009, the Aspen Institute has seen a 38 percent increase in how many required courses of finance departments pertain to social, ethical or environmental content.

“The financial crisis caused schools to be more introspective about what they are teaching,” says Judy Samuelson, Aspen’s director of business and society. “They were criticized for being part of the problem, and not part of the solution. And that has created an environment where faculty can innovate and make change.”

About a quarter of graduate degrees are business-related, with another 20 percent of undergraduate degrees falling into this field.
“The reason we are seeing change is that the millennials are demanding it,” Samuelson says. “[They] want business to be seen in the context of the big issues of our day.”

The Top 10 MBA Programs with Social and Environmental Emphasis

1. Stanford Graduate School of Business
2. Univ. of Notre Dame
3. Yale School of Management
4. Northwestern University
5. Univ. of Michigan
6. Cornell University
7. Univ. of North Carolina
8. UC Berkeley
9. GWU School of Business
10. Columbia Business School

In an effort to save you some research time (and a possible nervous breakdown), we spoke to several admissions counselors from various types of educational institutions (Christian university, state school, media school and private college) about the most important elements to consider when deciding on a school.

Below is what the experts have to say about what they have to offer—and what you need to do to find your perfect fit.

The Experts:

• Larry Hoezee: Executive Director of Resident Enrollment Management for Liberty University; private, nonprofit, Christian, Lynchburg, VA
• Ian Fisher: Senior Assistant Dean of Admission at Reed College; private, secular, liberal arts and sciences, Portland, VA
• Jamaal Curry: Admissions Counselor, Colorado State University; public, secular, research university, Fort Collins, CO
• Mary Beth Plank: Vice President of Admissions, Full Sail University; private, for-profit, entertainment media, Winter Park, FL

What are the benefits of attending a private Christian school?

Larry Hoezee: A private Christian university offers opportunities for you to learn how to defend your faith and ground yourself in the Bible. Students
at Liberty gain an understanding of the major tenets of Christianity, and explore topics important to morality and faith.

What are the benefits of attending a private secular school?

Ian Fisher: Private, secular institutions tend to attract people with open minds and a strong sense of inquisitiveness about the way the world works. Whether students come from a religious or secular background, they gather at non-religious institutions to challenge their own ideas and the ideas of others, to encounter new and unique perspectives on the world, and to revel in the diversity this sort of atmosphere can offer.

The small nature of private colleges tends to create groups in which students can meet and engage with people from diverse points of view, simply because class sizes tend to be so small.

What are the benefits of attending a school geared toward a specific field of work?

Mary Beth Plank: Full Sail University’s philosophy is to give our students a complete education that brings together hands-on experience, traditional classroom work and industry- specific career development throughout their education; that unique combination will allow our students to gain the knowledge and tools they’ll need to succeed in this industry.

What are the benefits of attending a public state school?

Jamaal Curry: Our students go in a lot of directions after graduation, and I think the college/university should act as a springboard to help students get in that direction they want to go in.

But really, I think it comes back to the best fit. I could see benefits to going to a private school if that’s where the student feels like they would get the most out of their college experience. But public state schools are nothing to shake a stick at. We both have large and small classes, both might have athletics and other ways for students to get involved. But if you happen to be a resident of the state of the public school you’re interested in, it doesn’t hurt to have that cheaper tuition.

What are the most important things students should consider when deciding on a school?

Hoezee: Include God in your college search. Pray about the universities you are considering, and look for the school where God is calling you. Consider what you want to major in, and whether you are looking for a fast-track to a specific career or prefer to explore many academic disciplines. Does your personality lend itself to a large campus community, or would you prefer to be a big fish in a little pond? Seek out the counsel of your parents and friends who have been through the college selection process.

Fisher: Because students frequently change their subjects of academic interest, I think it’s most important for students to consider the academic philosophy of the institutions to which they intend to apply. How are classes taught? How big are they? How involved are faculty? Do you have opportunities to engage in research in a wide range of departments? Answering these questions can be helpful in determining the kind of environment that is best suited to educate a particular student. Of equal consideration is the kind of students that attend. One should ask, “Are these the kinds of people I want to spend four years learning and growing with?”

Plank: Our admissions department is committed throughout the entire process to helping those who are interested in attending Full Sail, guiding them through each step and answering any questions they may have along the way. The first step in the enrollment process is to schedule an interview with an admissions representative, which will give those interested in attending Full Sail the opportunity to ask any questions they may have and, most importantly, determine whether Full Sail is right for them. Anything that’s on their mind—from housing and scheduling to curriculum and financial aid—please ask us. We want those who are interested in attending Full Sail to make an informed decision when it comes to one of the most important choices in their life.

Curry: I tell students they will spend a lot of time and money at an institution, so they want to make sure it’s a good fit. Each student’s process may be different, but one thing to consider might be location—do you want to go far or stay close to home? Also, location relative to the beach, mountains or other activities you might be interested in. One big component are the programs the school offers. Also, the size of the school, cost to attend and opportunities to be involved while in school, and even post-graduate connections. Our alum can still access several services within our career center.

There are so many things to think about, and it’s a big decision. But even with all the practical and pragmatic things to consider, don’t completely leave out the emotional side. How do you “feel” when you’re on campus? Do you feel like it’s a good fit for you, and also are you a good fit for the school? This is why I strongly encourage students to visit colleges and universities they’re interested in, if it’s feasible both time-wise and financially.

What qualities do you look for in your students?

Hoezee: For the past three years, Liberty has received a record number of applicants and has had to close enrollment for the fall semester. As a result, we strive to accept students who are academically strong, interested in growing in their faith and enthusiastic about attending Liberty. We look for students who will whole-heartedly embrace the university’s mission of training champions for Christ.

Fisher: The admissions office seeks students with a genuine passion for academics and an innate curiosity in intellectual pursuits. We strive to fill the campus with mature and ethical community members who engage in respectful and spirited conversation about the best way to shape a college community. Students who respectfully engage in discussion with passion and enthusiasm are the perfect fits for Reed.

Plank: Full Sail believes, “If you are serious about your dream, we will take your dream seriously.” Students that attend Full Sail have a passion and dedication for their future career and are looking to obtain the knowledge and real-world experience that will help them realize their career goals in the entertainment and media industry.

Curry: When we review an application, we use a holistic review. Part of that means we are looking at the student academically and personally. Within the academics, we’re not just looking for
a GPA and test score, we also want to know how you got there—Honors, AP, IB classes, etc. Also, what are the trends in your grades—down, consistent or up from freshman year? We want to see what you do in your free time—work, sports, community service, etc. We want to see that students are involved and engaged right where they are in high school, in hopes that will translate right into college. We want to see well-rounded students who are making a difference or at least want to make a difference. And while
we love 4.0 GPAs in admissions, we also want to see that you are engaged in your community (school, family, neighborhood) and not just solely focused on the books.

What financial aid options does your school offer?

Hoezee: More than 95 percent of Liberty students receive financial aid. In fact, last school year Liberty awarded the most student state grant aid in Virginia. The university also awards scholarship funds based on academic performance and financial need. Veterans and military students may also be eligible for additional scholarships and benefits.

Fisher: Reed is an institution that offers financial aid solely on the basis of financial need. Our average financial aid package of $33,000 includes loans, grants and work-study opportunities. About half of the Reed student body is on financial aid.

Plank: Many people have commented about the positive experiences they have had while working with Full Sail’s financial aid team. We take pride in having a staff that is committed to working one-on-one with every person that enters our doors in search of financial assistance.

Curry: Financial aid in and of itself is a broad range of money sources, and we offer lots of aid to our students. Last year, CSU awarded somewhere in the range of $180-$200 million in aid. We offer grants, scholarships, loans and work-study to students who qualify. We are also excited about our new initiative for Colorado families called the “Commitment to Colorado,” in which we will pay either half or full tuition for students whose families meet certain guidelines.

Does your school have programs or organizations for Christians?

Fisher: As a secular institution of higher learning, Reed strives to provide an environment that is open to all denominations and faiths. At Reed, “Oh For Christ’s Sake” is the long-standing club for Christians. In addition to regular meetings to discuss Scripture and talk about issues of faith, many students find time to attend church on a regular basis throughout the Portland community.

Curry: Several national Christian organizations have a presence on campus—Campus Crusade for Christ, Navigators, RUF [Reformed University Fellowship], etc. Plus, there are several local churches that have Bible study or meetings on campus or locally. There are lots of ways for students of the Christian faith to be connected on campus.

Are there job opportunities both on and off campus?

Hoezee: Yes, there are hundreds of federal work-study jobs available to students on campus and posted on the human resources website. Many job opportunities and internships are also available in the Lynchburg community.

Fisher: Yes. In addition to job opportunities in various on-campus offices, Reed’s career services office frequently publishes lists of jobs and internships available for students both in the city of Portland and the United States at large. Faculty also assist students in tracking down summer employment.

Plank: At Full Sail, we share our students’ passion—and their drive to turn that passion into a rewarding career. Our innovative approach to curriculum means they’ll be getting a real-world education that combines project-based assignments and industry-standard workflows, giving them working experience while they’re still in school. Our Global Professionalism Standard program helps develop their interpersonal and professional skills. Throughout their time at Full Sail—and even after graduation—the career development department will be available to provide guidance to help students plot their career course.

Curry: One of the best things about CSU is the relationship the school has with the city of Fort Collins and its business community. Many local businesses employ our students and CSU employs many in the community. Students can also work on campus in a variety of arenas—the university bookstore, library, residence halls, labs, departments, etc. Once students get to campus, I think they’ll see just how many opportunities there are. But no one is going to come knock on your residence hall room door and ask if you want a job. Like anything else, take the initiative, look on RAMweb, look in our campus newspaper, etc., and pursue that job you might want.

College is exciting. You get to live with a couple thousand other young adults as you all begin to form identities, and there’s the possibility of romance. So, what’s the best way to enter this new dating world—if at all? And when should you become "Facebook official"?

Here are 10 tips to help you create healthy dating relationships in college.

1. Prioritize Friendships

Finding a new love and ditching your friends is the biggest mistake people make. It’s so easy at the beginning of a relationship to get lost in the giddy infatuation you’re both feeling. However, making time for both your romance and your friendships is vital to maintaining balance, happiness and healthiness. Having time apart with friends helps couples avoid becoming too intertwined and suffocating each other.

Your friends are also people you can trust and lean on when issues arise in your relationship. They’ll be there for you and be a strength if you have to go through a breakup. In addition, keeping friendships a priority in your life will help maintain your sense of self and identity. Too often, people lose themselves in relationships. Your new love doesn’t necessarily have to like all your friends, but if they love you, they’ll respect that you need time for both friends and love in your life.

2. Put Faith First

This is a tough one. Some might
think: “We get along, have fun together, are attracted to one another … religion won’t be a big deal. Right?” The thing is, the whole point of believing in something is that it should be a big deal in our lives. It should impact our morals, lifestyle and everyday choices.

Think about some of the issues a dating relationship between people of different faiths would create, and work through what your answers to these tough questions would be:

Should we go to church, or to temple or to the mosque together? Do we go separately?

What are our respective moral beliefs? Can we agree about cheating, modesty, lying, gender roles, etc.?

Will we consult a higher power when dealing with problems?

Do our faiths cause us to have opposing lifestyles?

3. Decide When to Start Dating

Some people try to come up with guidelines for what dating looks like. While each relationship will be unique, it’s worthwhile to have a specific set of conversations before starting to date.

Have you both talked to God? When we look to God for guidance and confirmation, He will provide it—given time and patience. Prayer is a powerful thing, and asking God to guide you both as you consider dating will most likely help you get on the same page about moving forward into a relationship or not.

Have you talked to others? God has put friends, parents and others in our lives to provide insight and wisdom. If you are thinking about a romantic relationship, talk to a friend, a trusted adult or your parents for advice. All of these people will have your best interests at heart. They might see a positive or negative about your potential relationship that you don’t see. Having the blessing and support of those closest to you will help strengthen your relationship.

Have you talked to him/her? Maybe that sounds a little obvious, but it’s important. If you aren’t on the same page about what you’re both looking for, there will be hurt feelings and issues to work through pretty quickly.

Have you talked to yourself? This question has to do with understanding why you want to be in a relationship. If you’re not looking to serve and give to the other person, it may be a good idea to wait on dating. Love requires sacrifice and unselfishness. It’s OK to feel like you might not be able to give to anyone right now. It’s also OK to feel like you’re mature and ready. Either way, take some time and self-reflect before dating someone.

4. Discern the Purpose of Your Relationship

We can often overlook the purpose of dating as feelings of love and excitement overtake our senses—especially starting college, where everything is new. However, it’s important to pause and clarify the expectations both people have about this new relationship.

For some, the purpose of dating is about finding a spouse and seeing how compatible you are for marriage. For others, dating is more about a social status, wanting to have a close friend of the opposite sex or not wanting to be alone. Understanding what each of you want out of the relationship will create a healthy and united place for love to grow.

5. Figure Out When to Update Your "Status"

So, when does one update a Facebook status from “Single” to “In a Relationship” or vice versa? Broadcasting the state of your relationship on social networking sites is a relatively new phenomenon, and because of that there aren’t really any accepted rules or guidelines. The easiest way to deal with this is to change your status when both people agree to do so. That means you talk about it and agree to be “In a Relationship” or “Single”—or you can remove your “status” altogether.

If you post your romantic life online, be prepared for both positive and negative outcomes. Not everyone will be mature, and it’ll sting if you happen to be dumped and the entire Facebook world knows. So think it through. Privacy has its merits.

6. Let Them Down Easy

Most of us know how to say yes when someone we like asks us out. But what if the person who wants to be more than friends is someone you don’t really want to date?

The thing to always remember is kindness. It takes a lot of courage and vulnerability to put yourself out there. So don’t lie, laugh in their face, blow them off or give out fake numbers and fake encouragement.

Honesty and kindness are always best. If you don’t find the person attractive, simply say, “Thanks, that’s really flattering, but I’m going to have to say no.” Oftentimes, people try to come up with excuses like, “I’m really busy with stuff” or, “I’m not really dating right now.” But these things we say, that do in fact sound kind, are not the truth.

Telling the truth, and saying it in a sensitive way, will help the other person realistically deal with the fact that you’re not interested.

7. Maintain a Long-Distance Love

Many students enter their freshman year with the goal of maintaining a long-distance relationship with their high school sweetheart. In order to keep a faraway romance strong, there needs to be an equal level of commitment from both of you. Also, consistent communication via the phone or video chat is important as it allows you to connect verbally and visually and creates shared times together. Handling long-distance relationships takes a special amount of endurance and effort. Each couple will be unique in making this difficult situation work, and students should not feel guilty if it turns out to be too hard to maintain.

8. Avoid the Freshman Fling

It can definitely be a mistake
to rush into a relationship freshman year. Sometimes a freshman fling happens as a response to freedom—you’re living away from home for the first time, and there are no parents to check in on your love life. Other times, there can be anxiety about getting involved with someone before they’re all “taken.”

Whatever the case may be, it’s better to be slow and cautious when considering a relationship, especially during your first semester at college. You need time to know your new adult self, adjust to a new environment, classes and workload. There will be plenty of dating opportunities during your college years, and it might save a broken heart or two to gradually ease into a dating relationship.

9. Breaking Up is Hard to Do

It’s never easy, but sometimes it’s necessary. Here are a few things to consider if you are thinking about ending a relationship:

Don’t break up just because of conflict. Disagreements, tension and fights are normal as you become close with someone. If it gets hard, try working through your problems and/or seeing an on-campus counselor to help mediate. (Physical, verbal, mental or emotional abuse should never be tolerated. If you experience any type of abuse, get away from the person and seek help from a trusted adult/counselor immediately.)

Work through the questions listed in “Decide When to Start Dating.” They can all be applied to breaking up as well.

Always break up face to face. Facebook, Twitter, emailing and texting are not the right ways to end things. Everybody deserves the respect and time it takes to resolve things in person.

10. Balance Study and Love

It can be hard to focus on school when a new world of socialization and romance is available 24/7.

However, if you don’t want to flunk out freshman year, it’s vital to learn how to prioritize. School should always come before girlfriends and boyfriends. It’s perfectly fine to spend time with them, but you need to make sure you have enough time to devote to assignments and make it to class. If this seems difficult, most colleges have counselors and academic support centers to help you format a schedule that works best for you. You could also join a study group or ask your roommate to keep you accountable about finishing work and getting to class. It’s all about balance, which is unique to each individual.

Be aware that romance can easily eat up your time, and formulate some proactive plans to keep an equal balance between love and school.

I overslept by maybe 30 minutes, but it was too late. I knew I’d missed the exam. And I was well-aware of my professor’s rigid policy: Show up or fail. No exceptions. Even so, I skated as quickly to the auditorium as my little skateboard would take me, hoping to get there in enough time to beg for mercy—but the room was empty. Later, my professor’s email response (to my pleadings for a retake) showed no glimmer of empathy and no sign of budging. My previous A exam scores for the course would just have to get cozy with my new F, and because of scholarship requirements, I’d have to retake the class the next semester to replace my final course grade. All this because my alarm battery died overnight.

That was freshman year, and I learned my lesson: set two alarms.

Pretty much everything—from finger- painting in kindergarten to senior English essays—has focused on one thing: getting you into college. But here’s the thing: High school can be good at preparing you for harder classes, but rarely does anyone talk to you about the challenges you’ll face that can negatively impact your grades; mainly the new environment and the level of self- management it demands.

Here’s a look at how to make sure you succeed freshman year.

Being Your Own Manager

One of the biggest obstacles facing freshmen is a new responsibility of managing their own time and focus. “Students often struggle with the level of self-management that is required of them when entering college,” says Steve Graham, the dean at Laidlaw College in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Graham goes on to list that some students struggle with poor time management, lack of studying disciplines, overcommitment with extracurricular activities, worrying about career choices, missing home, etc. “We strongly advise that students see such personal challenges and growth as part of a hidden curriculum,” he says.

When Bekah Haddock, now a mother of three, was accepted at the University of Tennessee, she excitedly began her journey toward a nursing degree. But she admits it wasn’t long before challenges stood in her way. “I was extremely overwhelmed by the course load. In high school I never had to study to make A’s and B’s, so I never learned how to study and apply myself—nor did I care to.”

Then the distractions of college life only exacerbated these roadblocks. “I allowed being overwhelmed to let me give up. I was in a sorority and basically was the stereotypical sorority girl. Late nights led to skipping a lot of classes, falling behind, not catching up. You see where this goes.”

Sadly, Haddock never finished college. Over the years she’s played the “coulda, woulda, shoulda” game over again in her mind. She believes several things could have helped her succeed. “Obviously it would have helped to learn how to study. I would not have partied as much, or at all, actually! Surrounding myself with different people, seeing the big picture and how much my decisions in college would affect who I am today. I just didn’t have guidance. And I needed it.”

Haddock’s story highlights several obstacles and stressors all students may struggle with at any given time, if not all at once. It’s important to devote some time to thinking through these upcoming scenarios or evaluate any current issues you might be struggling with now.

Your new freedom also brings new responsibilities. There will be a lot of new decisions in an unfamiliar environment, and everything weighs on you to make things happen. So become your own cheerleader—pushing yourself into a new level of responsible self-management.

Unfamiliar Territory

Another contributor to students’ stress and possible cause for failing is the move from restrictions to more freedom. Kevin Otos, an associate professor of theater at Elon University, suggests: “When students fail out, it seems related to the transition of moving from a very structured environment to one that is less structured. As an adult college student, one has to create their own structure.”

Long gone are the days of solid blocks of classes through the week. Rather, you’re the one who arranges your weekly schedule each semester and selects your professors. And since classes are held at various times of the day, you have to manage your time between classes and plan ahead for upcoming assignments. Check out your campus and local area for prime studying locations. Many students find a place that works best for them, like a quiet corner of a library, a buzzing cafe or the sprawling campus lawns. Figure out what environment cultivates your creativity and fosters productivity.

There will always be something going on around you, vying for your attention— whether it be campus events, parties, part-time jobs, faith gatherings, Greek life or volunteering. Learn when to say no. Overcommitment is never healthy, especially when you are in a season when academics should be your main focus.

Good Habits to Keep

Graham has noticed that although many bright students sometimes can cope with the first stages of college by “winging it” at the last minute, their ability to do so won’t last long. “Students will hit a wall where they realize they can no longer wing it but need a more disciplined, methodical and planned approach. They will only realize this by failing to meet some requirement.”

Get into the habit of organizing your assignments according to what’s most important that week. Evaluate how long each assignment will take, and structure time for completing each task. Create a to-do list and keep track of your schedule and assignments in some sort of calendar, whether it’s with a phone app, computer program or a good old-fashioned planner. Jotting things down on miscellaneous pieces of paper isn’t going to help you.

Once you’re in your creative work space, turn off distractions like your phone or computer and dig in. We are a multitasking generation and need to master the art of discipline.

If you’re looking for more dynamic study methods, get creative. Make flash cards, create study guides, write out summaries, quiz yourself with friends, make up a mnemonic song. When reading textbooks or working on long assignments, set a timer and take breaks. Learn what works for you.

When it comes to completing assignments, nothing is more important than planning ahead. Mark Petitmermet of Oregon Health and Science University emphasizes that students should avoid procrastination. “Start on assignments, homework and activities as soon as possible,” he says. “This reduces the stress of knowing you have something due but not really knowing the details of what it will entail.”

Reflecting back on his college days, Otos says: “When I was a student and I was in a production, I had to begin major writing assignments a month or more in advance so that I could chip away at completing them in a way that worked with theater commitments. Some people could pull all-nighters writing and get the grades they wanted. I never enjoyed that and ultimately had to develop a strategy that worked best for me.”

What helped him was breaking up large, complicated assignments into 60- to 90-minute chunks and working on parts of an assignment over time.

Figuring out a method that works best for you is a major key to success.

Helping Hands on Campus

When Zoe Morgan, a business student at the University of Colorado, was struggling to pass a class, she met with a study group. “I had some friends in the class and we got together at the library,” she says. “We read over notes and asked each other questions.” She passed the course with a C. Morgan says she still could have improved. “I think it would have helped a lot to go into office hours and get help studying for tests, asking about the test format, etc.,” she says.

If you’re finding a course too difficult, it can be beneficial to email your professor or arrange a meeting to discuss the material and assess your progress. Most professors have open office hours and are willing to meet. Graham says sometimes students who need the most help wait until it’s too late. “There also seems to
be a shame dynamic where students just say, ‘I am fine,’ and then they are gone—withdrawn. We strongly encourage people to come to us early on if they are struggling—not come after the due date and say they have not been coping.”

There are also other academic resources available to you. Most campuses have a tutoring lab, a writing center and academic advisors. Dalton Dennis, who studied English at Metropolitan State College of Denver, believes these resources can be helpful. “If you really are clueless as to how to study or can’t figure out why you’re
not doing well in something, talk to somebody,” he says. “College is full of people with experience and wisdom, [who are] willing to help. Your tuition pays for them to help. Don’t waste it.”

Look into what your college offers. Some campuses have a first-year advising department where freshmen can meet with advisors, attend workshops or receive tutoring. Writing centers can also offer assistance with assignments such as research papers, lab reports, essays and grad school applications.

Whatever your strategies may be, setting goals is crucial. But if you do happen to feel burned out, take a breather and get away for the weekend. Reflect on the season you are in and reassess short-term and long-term goals. It can be easier to accomplish the short- term goals when the big picture is at the forefront of your mind—graduation and the next season of your life.

You can thrive in college. Success isn’t necessarily dependent on how smart you are, but rather it’s dependent upon how you spend your time. As with most things in life, success is achievable with one element: effort. But with that it’s also important to realize sometimes the unexpected happens. What matters
is that you try. At the end of the day, a poor grade here and there doesn’t really matter—your future employer doesn’t care if you got a B instead of an A in psychology. What’s important is that you are learning, growing and preparing yourself with long-term goals in mind.

But make sure to set two alarms on exam day—just in case.

College is a bright and exciting beacon for many high school seniors. It can be an opportunity to shed some of the awkwardness of high school, to reinvent themselves in a new social setting. For others, college equals freedom from rules.

Even amidst the excitement, though, doubts still linger for many students: Will I fit in? Will I get homesick? Will I be able to handle the social and academic pressures? The crucible of college is intense and often confusing. While grappling with issues of faith, identity, sexuality, politics and the future, students are often on their own for the first time, managing their own diets, exercise, sleep habits, church participation and busy schedules. It’s a lot to deal with.

So how can students stay healthy during the first year of college? How can they deal with these issues while maintaining their sanity? To answer some of these questions, we sat down with Bob Neideck, director of Taylor University’s counseling center. Counseling students on a daily basis gives Neideck perspective on what joys and difficulties freshmen are facing—and how they can stay healthy.

RELEVANT: What’s happening developmentally and emotionally for freshmen?

Neideck: The biggest things freshmen are facing are separating from home and starting to develop some individual thoughts about life, ethics and relationships. Essentially, they’re making their thoughts their own. Also, they’re learning how to manage freedom. It’s the beginning of “entering grownup world.” They’re beginning to identify purpose and what they do. They might still be good at what they were good at in high school, but so is everybody else. So they’re struggling with [the idea that]: “While I used to excel at something, I’m now in the middle of the pack. Now where do I belong?”

Is that transition from high school to college tough for a lot of students?

Yeah, it’s a lot of change all at once, and all that newness is difficult to manage. Freshmen have to learn how to be comfortable somewhere new. Practically speaking, for students who are living in the dorms, [that newness] might just mean having a roommate for the first time if they’ve had their own room their whole lives. And on top of that, they’re learning how to manage new locations, new people, new schedules and new structures.

It’s a time to manage new perspectives on the world, too: They’re going to be around a lot of people who say they have the same beliefs, but may come at them differently. For them, it can be a challenge to learn how to broaden their ideas about the world and their faith.

What might that process look like?

Well, for some students, being a “Christian” meant how mom and dad raised them. And then they get to college and realize, “Being a Christian looks different for a lot of people.” For example, they might say, “Wait a minute, this is one of the best people I’ve ever met, but they think something differently about something like Old Earth and New Earth theories.” Or, “This person has a lot of doubts, but they’re still passionate about their relationship with God.”

Overall, it’s good to question and to be challenged because students are in the process of establishing their own identity.

What can hinder the identity formation you’re describing?

The process of making friends apart from home and high school is becoming more difficult for students because of Facebook and other technology. You’re not forced to disconnect anymore. But the more students can separate, can shift away from leaning on mom and dad for structure, the better.

Why is independence from home, and even their parents, important for freshmen?

Well, if you just reject everything you learned growing up and cut off mom and dad, that’s taking it too far. But it’s healthy for students to make decisions on how to manage their time, when they’re doing their homework and when they’re going to meals. It’s healthy to talk to people who believe different things about the world—political or faith perspectives. It’s healthy to say, “This is what I think, this is what mom and dad think, and they don’t exactly match right now.” That autonomy is a good thing.

How does pressure affect freshmen?

There’s pressure from expectation, from the feeling that: “My future depends on how I do in college. There’s a lot of money going into this.” Or: “Now I’m going to college. Now I’ll meet the friends I’ll have the rest of my life, and I’ll know exactly who I’m going to be the rest of my life.” That’s a lot of pressure on four short, formational years.

What about pressure once students get to college?

It is academically tougher and socially harder, and that all adds to the burden.
In college there’s so much going on, and many students are used to being part of everything in high school. So they wonder, “How I can I be part of everything in college?” There’s not a lot of external structure to rein that in. These are areas that mom and dad have always managed.

Is achieving balance difficult for most students?

Yeah, students are really lousy at saying no to stuff. They say, “I don’t want to miss anything—it’s college!” And when they haven’t learned to say no growing up, it’s pretty tough to learn it here.

So how can students live healthy and whole lives during this busy season?

Managing physical health is critical. During freshman orientation I give students the acronym H.A.L.T., which stands for “hungry, angry, lonely and tired.” You have to manage and meet your H.A.L.T. needs during college. You have to eat, you have to rest and you have to connect with people. [At orientation] I tell them they have to sleep, and they all laugh, because they don’t. But if you have too much to do that you can’t sleep, you’ve got to cut some things out. If you’re prone to anxiety or depression and you don’t sleep, everything is bigger and worse.

There’s added stress that can build up. When there’s a lot to manage and it feels like it’s spinning out of control, we can try to manage control. For example, we can start controlling our food or our relationships.

Do you see a lot of first-year students who are willing to talk about these deeper issues?

Actually, freshmen are our lowest users of our [counseling] services here at Taylor. They’re enjoying college and trying to fit in. They expect that homesickness and roommate issues are normal, so they deal with them on their own. Other issues tend to hit later.

Sometimes getting away from home means it’s safer to talk about these things if they weren’t allowed to have problems at home. They get to college and there are other people who are anxious or have eating disorders, for example.

How can freshman learn to be open and talk about their hardships? What hinders them?

We encourage our students that it is OK to struggle and to be broken in areas
of your life. We believe that sin and brokenness are a part of our world. We want to give students permission to have feelings of: “This is who God is. This is how I’m feeling. They’re not lining up.”

Guilt plays a big role, especially at a Christian college. Students pull out verses like: “ ‘I am a new creation.’ If I’m still feeling this, my faith must not be good enough.” We often have to unpack that before we can get to deeper issues, like anxiety, for example. We let them land on their faith questions wherever they land, and we let them have doubts, have questions or feel really strong in their faith. We want to be a safe place for them.

What unique challenges will freshmen at a secular school face?

There are different challenges, but they depend on a student’s goals, hopes and expectations for college. The academic experience and the tasks of becoming independent and separating from home are the same. However, the social and extracurricular aspects can differ. Students will have to work harder at connecting with people with similar beliefs—it won’t happen as easily. It won’t show up on their floor or in their dorms. They need to connect with those [Christian] groups on campus.

In addition to on-campus community, how can freshmen look for support through the Body of Christ as they start this new chapter of college, especially as they question in their faith?

We encourage our students to get plugged into a local congregation. Sometimes it’s good to go to a church that reminds them of home, but sometimes it needs to be totally different from their church at home. Either way, we want students to be around people who aren’t college students. We want them to be exposed to elderly people, or little kids, something bigger than what’s happening on campus. It’s important for students to get away from campus, to broaden their perspective.

What should they look for in a church?

The church can be a safe haven if they are teaching the truth, welcoming students and connecting them with people and resources in the community where they are living for their college years. It’s great for students to come to a church and be ministered to and to have others pour into them.

What’s your biggest piece of advice for freshmen?

College is the beginning of deciding who you are as a grownup and a serious step into adulthood; it’s not just an extension of high school. Understand that it’s a big deal, but overall, embrace the freedom and be excited about the challenge.

Child soldiers are forced to fight for their lives—and sometimes against their families. Earthquakes rock major cities, destroying thousands of homes and killing many. Women are promised a new life, but end up forced into a life of prostitution. Families hike for miles to get to a water source, only to become ill from the unclean water. Millions without homes wonder where they’ll sleep at night.

These problems and more are affecting people around the world right now. While some of these crises occur thousands of miles away, many people within a five-mile radius of your campus will experience some form of need today. It may be difficult to find the time and energy to devote to helping others during your first year of college, but it should be made a priority. The earlier you include social justice in your college life, the easier it will be to maintain it all four years and into the "real world" after you graduate.

From hosting events to raise awareness and funds for causes across the globe, to volunteering at local soup kitchens, college has a built-in focus on social justice, and brings with it a veritable smorgasbord of opportunities to get involved. We’ve put together a guide to help you navigate this new realm of practical, everyday steps as well as what organizations to look into helping in the long term. These five categories are also the focus of our new social justice magazine, REJECT APATHY.

Poverty

The faces of poverty can be seen anywhere—from city street corners to the shoppers in a grocery store. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 43.6 million Americans were living in poverty in 2009. Chances are you’ll encounter homeless people near your college, and there is most likely a homeless shelter and/or soup kitchen in your city. One way to get involved and help those living in poverty is to seek out a campus group that feeds the homeless or volunteers on a regular basis at a local shelter. This could either be a group unique to your college, or a campus chapter of a national organization,
like Convoy of Hope. If there isn’t one, consider establishing one.

While helping the poor, it’s important to remember not to treat them like a cause. Get to know them as people. If you find that you see the same people on the streets in your city on a regular basis, don’t just hand them a dollar and keep going—ask them their name. Rather than giving them cash to buy a meal, invite them to get food with you. Sit down with them and find out their story. It could be the difference between perpetuating the lifestyle they find themselves stuck in, and helping give them a way out of it.

Something else you might notice on campus could be an excess of food in the dining hall or cafeteria. Contact your college’s director of dining services and ask what the process is for recycling or donating food that isn’t used by the school. See if there might be a way the food could be donated to a local shelter, or if they’d be willing to let you take it to the streets yourself and distribute it. (This might involve checking with the city to see if there are permits involved in such distribution.)

On a global level, poverty is a vicious cycle millions find themselves trapped in. Microfinance is one way they can remove themselves, though. This system gives low-income individuals a loan to help start their own business, which they then pay back over the next several years. Microfinance organizations like Kiva and Acumen Fund have been on the rise in recent years as this method of fighting poverty has gained popularity.

Breaking the cycle of poverty can help bring an end to many other issues, not the least of which is modern-day slavery.

Loss of Innocents

Between current newspaper stories about modern slavery both in the States and around the globe, and the astonishing statistics recently released about abortion, the loss of the innocent and their innocence has been brought into the public eye more recently. There are upwards of 27 million people trapped in slavery today, and an estimated 100,000 children are in the sex trade in the U.S., as well as countless others trafficked into the country for forced labor.

The first step is educating yourself. Not For Sale, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, seeks to educate people to become everyday abolitionists. They have several different resources on their website specifically geared toward college students to help you get started. In addition to fighting slavery stateside, they help women who have been forced into prostitution in other countries.

On another local level, try to find the time to become a Big Brother or Big Sister, or volunteer at an elementary or middle school to make sure kids have a good, reliable influence in their lives. Stories have come out recently about young girls who rebel and seek approval from someone other than their parents, only to be duped into believing an older man is interested in them. Once she runs away with him, though, she finds herself trapped in prostitution. Ensuring girls have a positive influence in their life reduces the chance of this happening.

Just like the young women and men who fall victim to trafficking, unborn and unwanted children need others to advocate for their value. Recent research has revealed startling abortion rates.
A study earlier this year found that 40 percent of pregnancies in New York City every year are aborted—two times the national average. Organizations like Bethany Christian Services and Catholic Charities seek to help women get through their pregnancies and then go through the adoption process, rather than have an abortion. Do some research in your city and see if there are similar organizations that counsel women.

Slavery and other forms of lost innocence can only survive when they aren’t discussed. Bringing this issue to light guarantees that one day slavery will truly be abolished.

Violence

Another hidden issue that has come to the forefront is that of violence and unjust war. When the atrocities in Darfur made their way into the media, it was one of the first times such news hit the mainstream circuit—and it has only been on the rise.

One major element of this issue is children forced to fight in wars around the world. Children in Uganda are kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army, while others in Asian countries such as Burma and the Philippines are forced to join military service. While child soldiers are typically found in different countries, there are ways to raise awareness on your campus to help free them. Look into hosting a showing of Invisible Children—which exposes the plight of children kidnapped and forced into war in Uganda—or As We Forgive—which documents the long road to forgiveness after the genocide in Rwanda. At the event, speak to the audience about this difficult issue and how they can help.

A local violence issue is domestic abuse. One statistic says a woman is assaulted or beaten in the U.S. every nine seconds. To help minimize this problem in your area, or to help women who are part of this statistic, seek out a local women’s shelter or search for one through the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence’s website.

Whether it’s a child running for his life through the jungles of Africa, or a woman deciding to make a new life for herself in the U.S., there’s something you can do to help them on your campus.

Creation Care

Taking care of the environment might seem like a “back burner” issue in comparison to others, or perhaps just a trendy cause. But creation care is both a scriptural mandate and an urgent need. From news about the latest natural disaster to seeing a local park taken over by trash, caring for the Earth has become another important issue.

An easy way to fight this problem in your everyday life is to pick up any trash you see on the ground while walking to class. If there aren’t enough garbage cans on campus, try talking to a dean about getting more trash and recycling bins placed on the grounds. Also, ask what the process is for recycling on campus. Obviously, a lot of paper will be used and consequently thrown away. Make sure the proper steps are in place to reduce, reuse and recycle on campus.

Renewal is a student-led creation care organization that hopes to inspire, connect and equip Christians to answer God’s call to be good stewards of His creation. The organization hosts a day of prayer where students around the globe pray for restoration and peace—both for the environment and for other social justice issues affected by it.

Creation care goes beyond the usual turning out the lights when you leave a room (though that’s still an important step). Making it a point to include such small steps while also pursuing bigger changes, like community recycling centers, can make a huge difference in ensuring the Earth stays healthy for generations to come.

Preventable Disease

While great strides have been made in the world of preventable disease, there is still a long road ahead. Surprisingly, the answer to ending most diseases
is simple: clean water. Nearly 1 billion people are currently living without clean water, meaning they can’t wash their hands or bathe properly, leading to more disease spread throughout their communities.

Organizations like Nuru Intl., which seeks to help end extreme poverty, hold campus events where students walk with a five-gallon bucket filled with water for a certain amount of time or distance. This action demonstrates what millions of people go through on a daily basis to bring water—which is most likely unclean—to their family. Try connecting with an organization to hold a similar event on your campus.

While many diseases are water-borne, malaria is passed from person to person via mosquitoes that are infected with the disease. World Vision ACT:S, the organization’s network of young people living according to the Book of Acts, now has a campaign called ACT:S to End Malaria that educates people on the far- reaching effects of the disease. Through ACT:S, college students can host events to raise awareness and funds for bed nets that keep people from being bitten and infected with malaria.

Whether hosting an event on campus to inform your community about a humanitarian issue happening on the other side of the world, going into your city to help at a local organization or picking up trash on the way to class, getting involved and engaged in any way possible is an important facet to add to your college life. Educating yourself on social justice issues is just as important as the degree and education you’ll receive at the end of your time in school—and it will prove priceless in the long run.

For those who aren’t familiar with the term, “edutainment” is—well, education that entertains. In recent years, the field has made impressive advancements as teachers have tried to keep up with technology and the ever-changing methods of this multitasking generation.

Today, a higher education course could be instructed through a hybrid of media: podcasts, e-books, YouTube, etc. Professors can conduct in-class texting polls and receive instant results. Contemporary curricula include online games, collaborative blogging or classroom smart boards. Films related to the course concepts are often incorporated for viewing and analysis. More than 120 schools now utilize Second Life, a free network of 3D virtual worlds, to create new environments for socializing, learning and branding. Then there are mostly-fun-but-also-practical enhancements, like the artificial ski slope added to Liberty University’s campus. It gives students an extra recreational choice while also adding to the school’s club sports.

While edutainment makes knowledge easier to digest and apply, it also prepares students to be familiar with the technological developments in their chosen field. For example, students across the degree spectrum have a growing need to be instructed with tablet technology. Some schools even provide tablets to new students, like Adelaide University, which gave iPads to the 702 students who majored in science this year.

“In two to three years, tablet technology will be used increasingly across more areas; in the workplace, in restaurants and further within the health service. It will become part of normal day-to-day interaction,” says Ian Wilson, founder of the site iPadInEducation.co.uk.

As you can see, college means a heavier course load, but the approach can still be lighthearted and diverse. Edutainment proves that classes don’t have to be predictable to be effective—In fact, they could even be fun.