Pensacola Christian College

It is necessary to first address the issue of occupation. My current occupation is unrelated to my field for two reasons. 1) I needed to earn enough money to get a vehicle to transport me to an occupation in my field, and 2) I have a friend who needed extra help due to a sudden increase in his business's workload. As of yet, I have not even applied for an occupation in my actual field, so to draw the conclusion that my college failed to prepare me for my future would be a gross misrepresentation of the facts of the situation. I am only undertaking my current employment for approximately three months.

The next issue to address is the question of preparation. I rated Pensacola Christian College as having only a small contribution to my success, not because PCC failed to prepare my to succeed, but because, before I went to college, I was already prepared to "succeed." Success is an extremely loosely defined term, and to say that PCC prepared any more than a small percent would be to 1) discredit the role that God has in whether or not we fail or succeed and 2) to discredit all that I had learned from parents, friends, and mentors in my 18 years of life prior to my enrollment in PCC. I believe that PCC contributed to my preparation as well as any college could have, but only someone who is a complete failure PRIOR to attending college, or who has not experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ prior to entering college, can attribute any more than a small percentage of their success to their college.

The final issue that must be dealt with is the college's reputation. Among fundamental Christians, PCC generally has a good reputation. However, when it comes to PCC's reputation, as a whole, to all sorts of people, because PCC is a relatively young college, and because the college chooses not to be accredited, the extent to which the reputation of the college helps in the business world is limited. Despite the fact that accreditation is really an arbitrary standard by which to judge the merits of an institution, the fact that PCC is not accredited CAN make graduate schools unnecessarily unwilling to accept undergraduates from PCC.

All these factors being considered, I believe that PCC offers an exceptional college education. The issue of accreditation is one that I understood prior to my enrollment there, and this is the main "problem" that bears consideration for those wishing to enroll there. All this means is that it is harder for a lazy student to graduate from PCC and go on to graduate school. A student who maintains satisfactory GPA and performs well on his graduate school exams (MCAT, LSAT, GRE, etc.), and who aggressively pursues graduate enrollment, should have little difficulty in advancing his education.

As an addendum to this, let me state that PCC is a CHRISTIAN college. There are many rules, and anyone going to college for the purpose of PARTYING rather than STUDYING may be greatly dissappointed. I found it to be an excellent place for both intellectual and spiritual growth, and despite the fact that I did not always agree with all of the rules or procedures as being the BEST, the college never dictated that I had to do anything WRONG (i.e., UNBIBLICAL). It did help me to understand how to do what is RIGHT (i.e., BIBLICAL), and for that I am grateful. PCC is an excellent choice to consider, particularly, I believe, for Christians looking for a "secular" (i.e., non-ministerial) education with a Biblical foundation.