[ALUmnus]

Wanted to take a quick survey of the room. So my daughter is currently trying to decide on a college. I really have become disillusioned with LU, and honestly she could (and should) do way better than Liberty. However, we're local, she has friends going there, and College for a Weekend cast its spell on her. So, just in case LU is her choice...


What was your Major at Liberty? And do you feel it prepared you for your career field? Were you able to get into the graduate school of your choice?


Personally, I was a Business major and wish I had chosen a different path, but I think my education was pretty good.

[stokesjokes]

Psych major, masters in counseling- I felt well-prepared to enter the workforce and now have my LPC. I can’t say anything negative about the psych program.

Also, my wife has 2 nursing degrees from LU and is now a nursing prof. Very rigorous school and develops great nurses!

[rtb72]

Same...Psych major and received my MA in Public Administration from Marshall. In my opinion, the Psychology program is very strong at LU and I have known several licensed counselors who have their Master's degree from LU. All of them are very complimentary of the program.

[JK37]

SMGT major with minors in psych and coaching.
MBA

Coached college basketball for 15 years - felt well prepared.

Opened a financial planning practice 2+ years ago, and felt well-prepared for that.

All that said, there are some fields that require a specific degree, and others that don’t. While my degrees can be traced pretty directly to my two careers, I feel I would’ve been just as prepared had I majored in something else.

The total LU experience was for more impactful to me than the content of the textbooks I read (or skimmed) while I was at LU.

[Cider Jim]

Were you able to get into the graduate school of your choice?

I'm not an LU alum, though I did earn 6 hours with a 4.0 in upper-division history courses to meet a prereq. for the doctoral program at Ole Miss.

Regarding graduate school preparation, our Honors Program alumni I have been accepted into 7 of the 8 Ivy League graduate schools (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Brown) as well as graduate schools at Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Vanderbilt, and Chicago.

And for Ballcoach, Honors alumni have gotten law degrees from Alabama, and vet. degrees from VT.

[Sly Fox]

I love this topic. I have a son who is a sophomore studying ECON at Texas A&M. And my oldest daughter is a senior waiting on scholarship numbers to stack up to determine which state school in Texas she is going to choose: UT Austin, UT Dallas or Texas A&M. Neither of my older two had LU among their choices for a variety of reasons. But my third may be a very different story.

I majored in Broadcast Management (then called TV-Radio Management) which ultimately was probably a poor decision for early in my career which wound up being broadcast journalism. No one was handing a multimillion follar operation into the hands of someone in their early 20s. But ultimately the management & business classes wound up significantly helping me in my second career in corporate communications consulting.

Never did grad school because I couldn't justify it in my career paths from a ROI perspective. But I never say never.

[LU 57]

I majored in Business with a concentration in marketing way back in 1994. I felt like the coursework prepared me just fine. I was ultimately accepted into a training program at a brokerage firm with folks from UVA, UR, And some Ivies.

However, it took a lot of hustling on my part to land the opportunity. I sent out a metric ton of resumes and was turned down for a lot of jobs. I believe part of the challenge was the lack of alumni base at that time, as well as very little on campus recruiting.

I was a decent student at LU but like many had other priorities. When I went back to business school at VT I think I finished with a 3.8 or 3.9, so I was definitely prepared.

Lastly, my son chose VT, my daughter is at LU. For a lot of reasons, I wish my older son chose LU and I hope my younger son does. My daughter is studying Early elementary education and absolutely loves the place. She is whatever they call a prayer leader these days and has applied to be an RA for next year.

[LU 57]

I love this topic. I have a son who is a sophomore studying ECON at Texas A&M. And my oldest daughter is a senior waiting on scholarship numbers to stack up to determine which state school in Texas she is going to choose: UT Austin, UT Dallas or Texas A&M. Neither of my older two had LU among their choices for a variety of reasons. But my third may be a very different story.

I majored in Broadcast Management (then called TV-Radio Management) which ultimately was probably a poor decision for early in my career which wound up being broadcast journalism. No one was handing a multimillion follar operation into the hands of someone in their early 20s. But ultimately the management & business classes wound up significantly helping me in my second career in corporate communications consulting.

Never did grad school because I couldn't justify it in my career paths from a ROI perspective. But I never say never.

I waited until I was 34 to go back. Had to take a calc class at community college which was funny, mainly because I had to reteach myself Algebra. It was challenging, particularly with young kids, but was ultimately very rewarding.

[ballcoach15]

Phd in softball.

[aredd33]

Exercise Science.
First 5 or so years out of college worked in the field in a personal training type role in a gym (among many other responsibilities). Felt very well prepared for what I was doing. I have since moved on to a completely unrelated field. No grad school.
Certainly no complaints about my time at LU.

[Purple Haize]

Phd in softball.

You should ask for a refund

[lawdawg2002]

Government - Didn't get into either of my top two choices for law school, but did get into my third. I don't think LU hurt me getting into law school. LSAT score was high, gpa was too low from not taking my core classes serious enough. I don't think LU hurt me at any law firms, but when I left law and went into academia I know it it did. I've had a couple of other faculty members tell me that it came up in the hiring process.

[lawdawg2002]

Also, I have a first year daughter who decided between LU and a top ranked public school. She chose the state school, but has left the door open to transfer to LU if she feels God direct her that way. My son is deciding between Texas A&M, University of Georgia and Cornell. He really hasn't been very interested in LU. I think he could be persuaded to go to a Christian college, if he knew he could be surrounded with critical thinkers.

[Cider Jim]

My son is deciding between Texas A&M, University of Georgia and Cornell. He really hasn't been very interested in LU. I think he could be persuaded to go to a Christian college, if he knew he could be surrounded with critical thinkers.

Does your son know about LU's Honors Program and its 740 students who are critical thinkers and get accepted into Ivy League graduate schools? LU has more almost 200 more Honors students than they have varsity athletes.

[olldflame]

My son is deciding between Texas A&M, University of Georgia and Cornell. He really hasn't been very interested in LU. I think he could be persuaded to go to a Christian college, if he knew he could be surrounded with critical thinkers.

Does your son know about LU's Honors Program and its 740 students who are critical thinkers and get accepted into Ivy League graduate schools? LU has more almost 200 more Honors students than they have varsity athletes.

I'm not sure who is the more dogged recruiter, HF or Cider.

[Sly Fox]

Let the record show that my son grew up heavy on critical thinking through classical education. Critical thinking in the hands of a contrarian can result in some pretty unpredictable idealogies. My son has actually been a bit surprised at his state university in the lack of critical thinking in his early classes. He certainly found people who shared idealogies with him but whom had little reason to back up their beliefs. And while he is a believer, suffice it to say politically he would have been an outcast at LU. But strangely the academic liberty that he thought he would find outside a Christian environment hasn't been the utopia he expected. Just like those Christian classmates he engaged growing up who just repeated the same tropes from their parents he finds those with his current views at A&M doing the same just from a different background. As a result, he's significantly adjusted his views but not to the point where he'd be a fit in Lynchburg. It seems the next generation takes what they see in Scripture and has a decidedly different view of how they believe Jesus would apply it today. Just my two cents from a dad in your position, lawdawg2002.

My daughter is a completely different story. Geography is her issue with not considering LU. She essentially drew a circle within three hours of home to determine her boundaries. And as a loving dad, I am good with that idea. My youngest is nothing like her older siblings and is in LU gear whenever possible. She sits and watches games with Dad and is mentored by perhaps LU Equestrian's most celebrated alum. All that adds up to Liberty being squarely in her choices as a HS freshman. Of course I hope some of our board/administration's issues are better resolved by then.

[lawdawg2002]

@Cider Jim Thanks. I will get him to look specifically at the honors program because I would prefer that he go to a Christian college. He wants to go into resort management and two of his choices have really good standalone programs coupled with great business schools to get an MBA while he gets his bachelors degree. The other is run by a family friend, so he would be ahead of the game in networking. Money is also a thing because with two of the schools he would still have virtually all of his 529 money when he graduated.

[lawdawg2002]

@Sly Fox Thanks. It is scary how similar your son and daughter sound to mine. I think my daughter chose her school because it is close to home and dad is on campus most of the week; but she still gets to live "away" from home.
No matter where my son goes, I pray he gets in with organizations and friends who are serious Christian thinkers. I really feel for kids who are raised to be lemmings because too many of them sit in my office literally crying because their faith is so paper thin. On the other hand, the critical thinkers concern me also because they either come out like spiritual superheroes or their faith shaken.

[Sly Fox]

My son is an active member of a Bible study and also a member of a socialist organization. Seriously. He is also anxious to get home and debate his dad at every opportunity. But man do I love that kid. The fact he not only thinks critically but does requisite research to defend his positions makes me intensely proud. But maturity has a way of working out many of our disagreements. Kids these days ...

[lawdawg2002]

Lol. Sounds like he respects what you think since he wants to try out his new knowledge on you. Unfortunately, there are many students who don't care enough about what their parents think to even debate them. Those parents lose all influence on their kid's thinking.

[Yacht Rock]

Teaching the next generation strong critical thinking skills is a big reason why I moved from the tech sector into education. That's a good thing for kids to be looking for and you guys should be proud of your kids for focusing on that!

[Sly Fox]

Lol. Sounds like he respects what you think since he wants to try out his new knowledge on you.

I agree. Unfortunately I don't have all the time to do research that he possesses with having to actually support my family and pay his bills.

My apologies to ALUmnus for derailing what was a very good thread.

[stokesjokes]

My son is an active member of a Bible study and also a member of a socialist organization. Seriously. He is also anxious to get home and debate his dad at every opportunity. But man do I love that kid. The fact he not only thinks critically but does requisite research to defend his positions makes me intensely proud. But maturity has a way of working out many of our disagreements. Kids these days ...

You sound like a great dad, Sly.

[stokesjokes]

@Cider Jim Thanks. I will get him to look specifically at the honors program because I would prefer that he go to a Christian college. He wants to go into resort management and two of his choices have really good standalone programs coupled with great business schools to get an MBA while he gets his bachelors degree. The other is run by a family friend, so he would be ahead of the game in networking. Money is also a thing because with two of the schools he would still have virtually all of his 529 money when he graduated.

Have you looked into Wheaton? They always seem to have good scholarship coming out and seem to have more doctrinal freedom than LU while still maintaining generally orthodox evangelical theology. Seems like a good place to both have solid Christian community and to be pushed to think critically.

[JK37]

Let the record show that my son grew up heavy on critical thinking through classical education. Critical thinking in the hands of a contrarian can result in some pretty unpredictable idealogies. My son has actually been a bit surprised at his state university in the lack of critical thinking in his early classes. He certainly found people who shared idealogies with him but whom had little reason to back up their beliefs. And while he is a believer, suffice it to say politically he would have been an outcast at LU. But strangely the academic liberty that he thought he would find outside a Christian environment hasn't been the utopia he expected. Just like those Christian classmates he engaged growing up who just repeated the same tropes from their parents he finds those with his current views at A&M doing the same just from a different background. As a result, he's significantly adjusted his views but not to the point where he'd be a fit in Lynchburg. It seems the next generation takes what they see in Scripture and has a decidedly different view of how they believe Jesus would apply it today. Just my two cents from a dad in your position, lawdawg2002.

My daughter is a completely different story. Geography is her issue with not considering LU. She essentially drew a circle within three hours of home to determine her boundaries. And as a loving dad, I am good with that idea. My youngest is nothing like her older siblings and is in LU gear whenever possible. She sits and watches games with Dad and is mentored by perhaps LU Equestrian's most celebrated alum. All that adds up to Liberty being squarely in her choices as a HS freshman. Of course I hope some of our board/administration's issues are better resolved by then.

Does the board/administration issues have much impact on the experience of an undergrad? I don’t think it does.