Prospective College Student Questions

DrHuk&Duck

DrHuk&Duck

Active member
Elect
Joined
Nov 5, 2024
Messages
470
Reaction score
170
Points
43
Location
Florida
We are considering PCC as a possible candidate for my daughter to attend a couple years from now. No concrete plans are being made at this point in time because we’re still about two years away from filling out applications. I apologize in advance if my post seems negative, but I want to get my concerns aired. I could write a separate post on why I favor PCC, but that’s probably not relevant for now.

As a little backstory, I did visit PCC once as a teenager on a youth group trip, but I think we were only there for a night or two and we never revisited, so my knowledge is limited. (Being from South Carolina, my church was very pro-Bob Jones University, so PCC just wasn’t really on the radar very much.) Also, I attended a non-Christian college, so again, my knowledge is limited. Anyway…here are my questions and/or concerns:

1. Accreditation. Although I am glad the college is accredited, I’m aware that it is nationally accredited by TRACS rather than regionally accredited. This is a concern because if she decides to transfer from PCC to a regionally accredited institution, my understanding is that the prospective school may not accept the course credits. Also, nationally accredited schools are perceived as delivering a lower quality of education.

2. Academic rigor. From my research, the admissions standards at PCC are pretty low. The minimum GPA is 3.0. Compare this with, say the University of Florida, which requires a 4.0 (or higher).

3. Rules. I’m glad for a safe school with strict rules, but there’s strict and then there’s silly strict. I don’t want my kid to go off to school and resent being there because it’s silly strict. I feel like there needs to be a balance between treating the kids like young adults, but also some level of being sheltered and held accountable.

4. Job prospects. This kind of goes back to my accreditation comments, but I’m curious how graduates do with their career paths and/graduate school applications elsewhere.

5. Fun. I don’t want my kid attending Party University, but at the same time, you only get one shot in life at being 18-22 years old, and I want her to not feel like she’s stuck in a boring environment. Do kids, despite the strictness, still enjoy themselves?

I’d welcome any question/answers/comments, particularly from current or former students, faculty, parents of students, etc.
 
DrHuk&Duck said:
3. Rules. I’m glad for a safe school with strict rules, but there’s strict and then there’s silly strict. I don’t want my kid to go off to school and resent being there because it’s silly strict. I feel like there needs to be a balance between treating the kids like young adults, but also some level of being sheltered and held accountable.
Click to expand...
The rules are the big and only gripe about that school. None of the other pro's will outweigh it if one 'falls in love' while there.

My advice is find a school where your daughter can govern herself, and trust her to do so, just like men are expected to do at the beaches. (y)
 
My only personal contact with Pensacola Christian College was a very positive experience, spending several days with a group of 26 PCC students and their tour group leader in Mexico in 1981. But a lot of former PCC students would describe their experience as a student there as very negative. The Internet is full of their "gripes of wrath." Some of these complaints are from years ago - maybe things have improved since then.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeRant/comments/soqqwe/a_bit_on_my_time_at_pensacola_christian_college
talk.collegeconfidential.com

Pensacola Christian College - Insight From a Previous Student

Negative reviews are written by ‘worldly’ students who have not been able to adjust to the atmosphere of a ‘Christian’ college and are whining! Right? Well, as a prospective student, that is what I thought and I couldn’t have been more wrong. I majored in nursing at Pensacola Christian College...
talk.collegeconfidential.com talk.collegeconfidential.com
https://www.reddit.com/r/college/comments/33ua3n/as_a_former_student_at_pensacola_christian_college
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pensacola/comments/w67jkq/pensacola_christian_college
 
My brief one or two days experience is a bit fuzzy because I was only 15 or so at the time, and I knew in my house it was Bob Jones or bust (I chose bust, meaning I had to pay my own way through state university), so I never really looked hard into the school. I’d visited BJU on numerous occasions, so I was aware of strictness in Christian college settings. I do remember thinking that PCC was just as strict, but possibly even more so. However, at the same time, I also remember thinking the atmosphere oddly seemed a little less uptight among the student body than Bob Jones. I chalked it up to being in Florida and being a school near the beach rather than the setting of Bob Jones.

There was one odd thing I remember hearing the adults discuss about PCC back then. Apparently there’s a PCC radio station, but I guess it was somehow affiliated and not affiliated at the same time. Anyway, there were apparently some CCM-leaning songs played on the campus radio station that were not approved for students to listen to if they, for example, had those same songs on a CD. So, basically, the standards of the college radio station weren’t necessarily meshed with the standards of the college. I always thought that odd….
 
Dr. Huk, I presume that you feel that it may be okay for your daughter to attend PCC, in spite of their controversial decision to cancel the gig by the King's Singers 2 years ago.

I

Thread 'PCC Cancels Singers Appearance Because One Is Gay'

There is a big fuss over Pensacola canceling an appearance of a British group called the King's Singers because of the gay lifestyle of one of the singers. A no-win situation for PCC - they paid the performers anyway for the canceled gig. They would have been heavily criticized by their own constituency if they had allowed the performance to proceed, just as Bob Jones University was savaged years ago by David Cloud and many others for having the gay crooners called "Cantus" appear on campus.

"Students, parents and staff members had complained to the administration, saying that...
 
illinoisguy said:
Dr. Huk, I presume that you feel that it may be okay for your daughter to attend PCC, in spite of their controversial decision to cancel the gig by the King's Singers 2 years ago.

I

Thread 'PCC Cancels Singers Appearance Because One Is Gay'

There is a big fuss over Pensacola canceling an appearance of a British group called the King's Singers because of the gay lifestyle of one of the singers. A no-win situation for PCC - they paid the performers anyway for the canceled gig. They would have been heavily criticized by their own constituency if they had allowed the performance to proceed, just as Bob Jones University was savaged years ago by David Cloud and many others for having the gay crooners called "Cantus" appear on campus.

"Students, parents and staff members had complained to the administration, saying that...
Click to expand...
It looks like I actually commented on that thread a couple years ago under my slightly altered handle. I still feel the same way. It wouldn’t bother me for a group to have a solitary gay singer in a group. I’m sure if they host the Florida Orchestra, odds are there’s several gay performers. That being said, I’m not the one calling the shots and the school has the right to do as they wish based on their doctrinal beliefs, just like a Catholic or Mormon college.
 
I've been to PCC for Teacher Conferences which were the best. Its an all round great school. The education for teacher or nurse whatever is great. Go for a visit with an open mind. I wish you the best
 
It's been about 10 years since we had a serious thread about PCC and their rules. I wonder if they still hand out demerits to girls for escaping burning dorms without putting on a skirt first to cover up their pajama pants?

The most substantial discussion we had was about the silly rules in th 2006 student handbook, but to be fair to PCC, that was almost 20 years ago.

Things about PCC that still raise red flags for me: requiring students to check in or out of campus or go only to approved locations (most students are adults and should be treated as such, including freedom of movement without requiring permission, within the bounds of law and Christian conduct); or requiring attendance at Campus Church, which robs students of opportunities to pursue membership in, participate in, or serve thriving Christian congregations off-campus.
 
Last edited:
What does she want to study? And, how *she* feel about all of the potentially excessive and restrictive rules that she might face at PCC?
 
I’ll try to address the different posts at once….

Right now we’re still two years away from having to make a decision, so we’re still early in the process. She has private college taste with parents who have public school money. Outside of PCC, we just can’t afford accredited private colleges. Most of them are in the ballpark of $40,000 - $50,000+ per year (tuition and room/board). Also, I refuse for us to go into that level of debt making repayments for years as we are getting older and having to start focusing on retirement a couple decades from now. Her grades aren’t bad, but they’re not good enough to qualify for a scholarship and tuition reduction.

She wants to do nursing, and PCC has an excellent nursing program, which is also accredited. I haven’t heard her voice concerns about the rules at PCC. She is the type of person who can follow rules fine, even though she might not be on board with them. I’m hoping maybe a PCC graduate or parent of a student can give us an update on rules. Like Ransom mentioned, colleges evolve, so they may not have some of the same strictness they did twenty or thirty years ago.

Regardless, at the end of the day, between our bank account and her grades, I believe it will probably boil down to a state college or PCC.
 
DrHuk&Duck said:
I’ll try to address the different posts at once….

Right now we’re still two years away from having to make a decision, so we’re still early in the process. She has private college taste with parents who have public school money. Outside of PCC, we just can’t afford accredited private colleges. Most of them are in the ballpark of $40,000 - $50,000+ per year (tuition and room/board). Also, I refuse for us to go into that level of debt making repayments for years as we are getting older and having to start focusing on retirement a couple decades from now. Her grades aren’t bad, but they’re not good enough to qualify for a scholarship and tuition reduction.

She wants to do nursing, and PCC has an excellent nursing program, which is also accredited. I haven’t heard her voice concerns about the rules at PCC. She is the type of person who can follow rules fine, even though she might not be on board with them. I’m hoping maybe a PCC graduate or parent of a student can give us an update on rules. Like Ransom mentioned, colleges evolve, so they may not have some of the same strictness they did twenty or thirty years ago.

Regardless, at the end of the day, between our bank account and her grades, I believe it will probably boil down to a state college or PCC.
Click to expand...
K. From a purely advantagous point of view, scholarship can only benefit from the kind of austerity dictated by the afore-mentioned and bemoaned rules. So there's that. The question is...does your kid have the fortitude for it?

But...y'all goin' in with your eyes open.

If you go PCC, you know what you're getting into. Don't come back crying to us.

Oh...you'll gripe regardless, no doubt, and unless you endowed your kid with a ton of sand, she'll transfer.

But your griping will be from the valley. Not from the mountain top. I won't have any qualms saying, I told you so.
 
Ekklesian said:
K. From a purely advantagous point of view, scholarship can only benefit from the kind of austerity dictated by the afore-mentioned and bemoaned rules. So there's that. The question is...does your kid have the fortitude for it?

But...y'all goin' in with your eyes open.

If you go PCC, you know what you're getting into. Don't come back crying to us.

Oh...you'll gripe regardless, no doubt, and unless you endowed your kid with a ton of sand, she'll transfer.

But your griping will be from the valley. Not from the mountain top. I won't have any qualms saying, I told you so.
Click to expand...
The choice will be hers. The options for choosing will be supplied by her parents.
 
They appear to be loosening up on some of the standards at PCC - women are now allowed to wear pants after 4:45 PM! (See 2024-2025 Student Handbook, page 20)


I wonder if prospective students are allowed to visit PCC and live on the campus for a trial period. In 1972, as a new convert, my church tried mightily to get me to drop out of a liberal denominational college and start all over at Bob Jones University. They took me to BJU where I lived in their dorm for 5 days. After that experience, I decided that life there as a student was definitely not for me!
 
DrHuk&Duck said:
My brief one or two days experience is a bit fuzzy because I was only 15 or so at the time, and I knew in my house it was Bob Jones or bust (I chose bust, meaning I had to pay my own way through state university), so I never really looked hard into the school. I’d visited BJU on numerous occasions, so I was aware of strictness in Christian college settings. I do remember thinking that PCC was just as strict, but possibly even more so. However, at the same time, I also remember thinking the atmosphere oddly seemed a little less uptight among the student body than Bob Jones. I chalked it up to being in Florida and being a school near the beach rather than the setting of Bob Jones.

There was one odd thing I remember hearing the adults discuss about PCC back then. Apparently there’s a PCC radio station, but I guess it was somehow affiliated and not affiliated at the same time. Anyway, there were apparently some CCM-leaning songs played on the campus radio station that were not approved for students to listen to if they, for example, had those same songs on a CD. So, basically, the standards of the college radio station weren’t necessarily meshed with the standards of the college. I always thought that odd….
Click to expand...
When I was at BJU in 1971, we could not listen on radio to any southern gospel groups, any music like the carpenters, etc etc
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top