Search for a College

by Martin King                                                                                                     Vol. VI, No. 5, June 1993

[Selection of a college is one of the most critical decisions parents and youth face. The impact will affect the student throughout his or her life. Though decisions have been made for those entering college in the fall semester 1993, the following article is offered in the hope it will be of help to those families with youth who will enter college in 1994 and later. It is reprinted from the Indiana Baptist.]

My wife and I have two daughters attending a Southern Baptist university, one a freshman and one a sophomore. Aside from concerns over roommates, exams and 8:00 a.m. classes, they seem very pleased with the school. But four years ago, when we started looking at Baptist colleges, I never thought this day would come.

We decided when the girls were very young that we wanted them to have the opportunity to go to a Baptist college or university with faculty, students, and staff sharing the same values important to us. Baptist colleges provide opportunities to go on mission trips, revival teams, BSU retreats, and encourage summer missions service. And, what better place for the Lord to introduce our daughters to fine, Christian, Bible-believing young men than at a Baptist school?

Of course there are other Christian schools and even secular colleges that might meet these requirements, but we felt their best opportunities were at a Baptist school.

However, most of the Baptist schools are a full or even two days drive from Indiana, making weekend visits difficult. So we spent three summer vacations visiting Baptist colleges. The first summer, when the girls had barely finished their freshman and sophomore years of high school, we went west and southwest to schools in three states. The next summer we went south and southeast to schools in three additional states. The third summer, we confirmed the final choice with a trip for freshman orientation. We also made a few visits on long weekends and one spring vacation.

We started early, took the time necessary to visit a number of schools (ten or twelve, I think), and found a school both of our daughters, my wife, and I are pleased with.

We learned a great deal along the way and offer the following advice to other Baptists facing similar circumstances.

1.) Make the search an ongoing matter of family prayer. Begin praying now about what school the Lord would have your children attend, and bathe the entire process in prayer. Emphasize to your students the importance of their prayers concerning this matter. Seek the Lord's leadership and follow His directions.

2.) Contact the Southern Baptist Education Commission for information. This is one we learned too late. I plotted locations of colleges on a road map and used it for two years before discovering the Education Commission produces a map with every Southern Baptist academy, Bible school, college, university, and seminary identified. The reverse side of the map lists every major area of study available at each school. The Commission also publishes a monthly magazine which includes in each year's January issue the tuition and fees of the colleges and universities. Their offices are in Nashville. Call 615-2442362 for an order form.

3.) Establish criteria for the schools you want to consider. Those criteria may change as you visit campuses, but you will need to narrow the list from the 53 SBC schools. Consider:

Size: Most of the schools are probably 1,500-2,500 students, but they run the gamut.

Location: How far do you want to drive or fly? Will the student have a car capable of going the distance, or will parents need to take time off work to make several round trips a year?

Degree Programs: Most Baptist schools seem strong in business, education, music and/or nursing with many other majors available. Larger schools have the same degrees as state schools in Indiana. (Students seem to change their majors as often as roommates, so selecting a major may not be as important as you think.)

Cost: 1992-93 tuition and fees at SBC four year schools range from $4,870 to $12,620 with most in the $6,000 range. One school may seem more expensive but have more scholarship money available to minimize the cost difference.

Conservative vs. Liberal: We were looking for a conservative school where the administration and faculty believed the basic fundamentals of the Baptist faith and were active in local Southern Baptist churches. We had a very difficult time and didn't find everything we had prayed for, but selected a school with fairly strict campus policies, a mission-minded BSU, required chapel, and a spiritual atmosphere on campus. It was not what we were looking for, but it was the best we could find.

4.) Write to the schools that meet your criteria. Ask for catalogs and scholarship information. Create a file for each school. We used pocket folders. Review the material and begin to eliminate some schools or at least prioritize them. You want a list of those you intend to visit.

5.) Arrange campus visits. There are advantages of visiting on regularly scheduled high school days. Schools will usually schedule one in the Spring and one in the Fall. High school days usually include displays by student organizations and academic departments, meetings for parents, tours, discussions with faculty and students, and often conclude with a football game or Christian concert. These special weekends are helpful, but you don't need to limit visits to these planned events. Schedule your visit with the admissions office when it is convenient for your family. During a campus visit talk to students and ask lots of questions.            (I like, "If you were president of the school for a day, what would you change?") Talk to faculty (although they are often not available on weekends) and ask lots of questions.

Go to the bookstore. Read through the textbooks. Notice what type of secular material is sold – books, magazines, music, clothes.

Go to the library. Your student will spend a lot of time here – so should you. Is the library computerized? Is the collection large enough for in-depth research? Are the policies and hours accommodating to the students rather than the staff? (I don't understand any college library closing on weekends.)

While you are at the library, read through back issues of the student newspaper. You always find out more about what happens on campus and the character of the campus from the student newspaper than from what admissions sends you. For those schools in which you are most interested, a subscription to the student newspaper would be helpful if you can get one. A subscription to the state Baptist paper would help keep you up with the school.

Ask admissions for a list of current students and recent graduates from your state. You may find that someone from your city or association is on campus or a recent graduate. Call them.

While on campus, ask to see several dormitory rooms in several residence halls. Newer dorms are often reserved for upperclassmen, not freshmen.

Take notes and have your student take notes. Your son or daughter probably won't want to walk the campus taking notes, but at least have him or her write down likes and dislikes at the end of the visit. After five or six campuses, they start to blur.

Take a few pictures. Yes, your student will think, "We look like geeks", but when you get home, the photos will help remind you of what you saw.

Ask about future and current priorities at the school. Do plans include a new music building when the school needs dorms or a library?

6.) Stay in touch with those schools in which you are interested. They will send you notices of future high school days, but don't really get serious until they have received entrance exam scores. During the student's high school senior year, some schools call almost weekly wanting to know if a decision has been made and whether their school is still being considered.

7.) List those schools acceptable to you and your student. Which ones might you want to visit again. During subsequent visits spend more time with faculty, financial aid and in assessing social life on campus. Most schools will arrange for prospective students to spend a night in a dormitory with a student.

8.) Send applications to several schools early in the student's senior year of high school. Application fees are minimal, and additional deposits are often refundable prior to dates usually in the Spring, so it doesn't cost much to apply.

9.) Wait for financial aid information. Be sure to obtain a good book or two on financial aid. The schools will often negotiate with you and add a few hundred dollars additional aid if they want your student.

10.) Prayerfully and jointly decide.

A Baptist college or university may not be what the Lord wants for your student. There certainly are Godly men and women at other Christian and state-supported schools. Indiana Southern Baptists have strong BSU work on many campuses. But if God leads you and your son or daughter toward a Baptist school, I pray these observations will be of some benefit.

[Editorial Comment: How the Kings must love their daughters to spend that amount of prayer, time, effort, and expense in choosing the right college! You may want to save this article for future reference when you child or grandchild approaches college age. There are several additional comments you may find helpful.

In Martin King's second paragraph note that they were seeking a school with “faculty, students, and staff sharing the same values important to us." Unfortunately, you should not assume that identity of values simply because the school is affiliated with a state Baptist association. There are many schools that proclaim themselves Southern Baptist but whose faculty and staff do not necessarily believe in the historic tenets of orthodox Christianity. Do you want your student to be taught that Genesis is full of myths, that Jesus did not walk on the water but on rocks just below the surface, that the miracles were either made up or have naturalistic explanations, that the spiritual message of the Bible is true but that it contains hundreds of contradictions and certainly cannot he relied upon in the realms of science and history? These are the kinds of things taught at many so-called "Baptist" colleges and universities. These are the kinds of things you need to be on guard about as you seek the right school.

The article mentions BSU (Baptist Student Union) several times. A biblically oriented BSU program can certainly be a great help to young people away from home for the first time. But the fact is that the effect of the BSU will inevitably depend upon the campus advisor (usually just one young man or woman) at that particular school. All too often reports coming to me from students indicate that some BSU programs are either utterly lifeless or completely liberal. Parents and youth should in their pre-enrollment campus visits talk to several student members of the BSU and should quiz the BSU advisor thoroughly. Be frank and persist until you are convinced he or she is frank. This is not a time to pussy foot around observing the social niceties. Your child's eternal life is being invested in that school, that BSU program.

There is a frequent tendency for us common folk to he in awe of academicians with lots of letters following their names, letters like M.Div., or Ph.D. We too often assume that because a man is a college professor, dean, or president that his motives are pure, his brand of Christianity orthodox, his judgment flawless, and his pronouncements beyond question. Nonsense. Absolute nonsense. It may help as you visit campuses to remember the old saying, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." The point is, don't let ANYBODY snow you. Don't let them tap dance around your questions without giving you a real, straightforward answer. Be polite. Be kind. But be firm and insist on real communication. Don't let them blow smoke. After all, we're talking about investing thousands of your hard-earned dollars and, even more important, four formative years of your precious child's life.

Finally, note that after spending three summer vacations visiting colleges and a great deal of additional time in the preparation and evaluation, "We had a very difficult time and didn't find everything we had prayed for..." that is a sad comment upon even the best of our Baptist schools. Remember, we are certainly enjoined to be as innocent as doves, but also as wise as serpents. We are speaking of your beloved son or daughter.]