Level with me: how bad is Liberty University?

[sanantone]

You have to know how your particular field will react to a Liberty University degree. You also have to know how your desired employers will react to a Liberty University degree. A police department won't care where you got your criminal justice or psychology degree, but a biology laboratory might care that you got a degree from a place that fails to use the scientific method. You also have to consider the prestige of where you're trying to work. If you're trying to get a job at a low-paying organization that struggles to get applicants, then any accredited degree will do. Generally, government organizations couldn't care less about the quality or reputation of the institution. They have to treat all accredited institutions the same.

This is for educational purposes: You can graduate from a diploma mill and publish because you don't even need a degree to publish. No offense, but being able to publish does not tell us what the reputation of a school is. People are usually concerned about getting jobs in industry or in academia. What is most important is how employers will view your degree. If you're just trying to do adjunct work, then a Liberty University degree will be fine.

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1) The school promotes an openly evangelical Christian world view. They take the Bible literally and yes, are openly against homosexuality, are very pro-life, prohibit alcohol on school property, prohibit members of the opposite gender inside the dorms, and espouse the other characteristics of evangelical Christianity. Some non-religious folks and many left sided politicians have a problem with this. For this reason many folks shy away from it, as they are convinced a degree from a Christian school will be a red flag if they try to get a job in academia or government. They are afraid of being automatically labeled as homophobic, or pro-life, or otherwise intolerant themselves... YMMV

I am very liberal and not Christian at all yet I have 2 master's degrees from a Christian university. Many colleges have a religious affiliation but that doesn't mean religion is in your face like it is at Liberty. Religion is in every course at Liberty. Religion was not in any of my courses at Amberton. When I attended Charleston Southern University religion was in every class and it had nothing to do with the course. I left after 1 term because I wanted to learn about business not religion.

With all due respect, please do not paint this with a broad stroke. " Religion is in every course at Liberty." I will try be exact as I can. Yes, it is part of the multiple choice test you have to take to get into the course (asking about Champions for Christ). The multiple-choice test are five questions. Yes, in some classes it is a small part (American Christian Heritage), but it was not in my Comps courses (911, 912, 913 and 914). It was not in my Dissertation courses. It was not in my Slavery and the Western World Course with Dr. Joe Super. So, please do not paint the picture that is the way with each department.  As I stated before, religion was not forced down my throat. Look, for the OP, it is his decision to make. For you, ss20ts, you are not a fan of LU. To each their own. YMMV!!!!!!!~

A course on the history of slavery is one of the few non-religious courses where religion should be mentioned. The Baptist denomination did split over the issue of slavery, but I guess that would draw negative attention to the disturbing history of the SBC and how the founder of Liberty University was a segregationist. In contrast, a person in another thread said that their communications course turned out to be a course on how to convert people to Christianity.

[Tireman4]

My take: With all due respect, this is the last time I will speak on this. I only gave my opinion on LU from my perspective. I was giving my opinion, which only counts in horseshoes. I stated at least twice, your mileage may vary.

Q) This is for educational purposes: You can graduate from a diploma mill and publish because you don't even need a degree. If you're just trying to do adjunct work, then a Liberty University degree will be fine.

A) With all due respect, this is your opinion. You are entitled to such, and I can respect it, which I shall. I stated before that LU's History Program is not yet 6 years old. There is great research going on and yes, they are being published. I do think ( as opposed to you) that publishing does reflect on a program. We can agree to disagree. You are quite versed on Political Science, Criminal Justice and Government. I am not.


Q) If you're just trying to do adjunct work, then a Liberty University degree will be fine.

A)) Again, this is your opinion. I will respect your opinion. I disagree with you. That is what makes us both great folks. I think as the program grows and gets more of a firm footing, you will see more and more folks get Tier One jobs. It is about publishing (gosh, there is that word again) and teaching. You know this. You have been in interviews before.


Q) A course on the history of slavery is one of the few non-religious courses where religion should be mentioned. The Baptist denomination did split over the issue of slavery, but I guess that would draw negative attention to the disturbing history of the SBC and how the founder of Liberty University was a segregationist. In contrast, a person in another thread said that their communications course turned out to be a course on how to convert people to Christianity.

A) I can only speak the courses I took. You did not teach it, Dr. Super did. You can Monday morning quarterback it all day long. Does not mean you are right nor he. Yes, I know about Falwell, but this is about the history program at LU. I appreciate your commentary, and I respect your opinion. I am not here to defend LU, just to talk about my experiences.

[sanantone]

1) The school promotes an openly evangelical Christian world view. They take the Bible literally and yes, are openly against homosexuality, are very pro-life, prohibit alcohol on school property, prohibit members of the opposite gender inside the dorms, and espouse the other characteristics of evangelical Christianity. Some non-religious folks and many left sided politicians have a problem with this. For this reason many folks shy away from it, as they are convinced a degree from a Christian school will be a red flag if they try to get a job in academia or government. They are afraid of being automatically labeled as homophobic, or pro-life, or otherwise intolerant themselves... YMMV

I am very liberal and not Christian at all yet I have 2 master's degrees from a Christian university. Many colleges have a religious affiliation but that doesn't mean religion is in your face like it is at Liberty. Religion is in every course at Liberty. Religion was not in any of my courses at Amberton. When I attended Charleston Southern University religion was in every class and it had nothing to do with the course. I left after 1 term because I wanted to learn about business not religion.

Very true. Liberals do not have a problem with Christian schools. Even though Baylor University is conservative, it has a very good academic reputation. Then, there are other Christian universities that are more secular outside of their seminaries or divinity schools, such as University of Incarnate Word, Texas Christian University, and Southern Methodist University, where they don't shove religion down your throat in non-religious courses. I haven't come across any left-leaning person who has a problem with the academics of those schools. 

Liberty's biggest problem isn't that it is a "Christian" university or even that it's a conservative Christian university. Its reputation is hurt by its low graduation rate, open admissions policy for online students, having far more online students than on-campus students, teaching that Young Earth Creationism is a science, being heavily involved in politics as a non-profit organization, hypocrisy displayed by sexual scandals among its leadership, engaging in potentially illegal business activities, being founded by a bigot who lived in the 20th and 21st centuries as opposed to the 1800s, and failing to protect victims of sexual assault. On a related note, the one time Baylor's reputation was hurt was when it failed to protect victims of sexual assault.

The last time I checked, most left-leaning voters in the U.S. are still Christians. A university or an individual can be Christian and liberal.

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A) With all due respect, this is your opinion. You are entitled to such, and I can respect it, which I shall. I stated before that LU's History Program is not yet 6 years old. There is great research going on and yes, they are being published. I do think ( as opposed to you) that publishing does reflect on a program. We can agree to disagree. You are quite versed on Political Science, Criminal Justice and Government. I am not.

A)) Again, this is your opinion. I will respect your opinion. I disagree with you. That is what makes us both great folks. I think as the program grows and gets more of a firm footing, you will see more and more folks get Tier One jobs. It is about publishing (gosh, there is that word again) and teaching. You know this. You have been in interviews before.

As an applicant who is trying to get a tenure-track position at a 4-year university, yes, you want to have publications on your CV. However, academic journals do not consider the reputation of the institution you graduated from because you don't need a degree at all to publish in most journals. I think we can all agree that University of Phoenix and Capella do not have good reputations, but graduates of those schools still manage to publish. 

As for getting tenure-track positions, academia is very elitist. Departments rarely hire from departments that are ranked far below their own. If you're applying to a tenure-track position at an unranked department, then your degree being from an unranked department won't matter. Will Liberty's PhD program in history ever become ranked? I don't know. There are a lot of PhD programs in history out there, so it's hard to compete for a rank. In comparison, there are far fewer doctoral programs in criminology, so PennWest (formerly California University of Pennsylvania plus other schools) managed to become ranked in criminology. 

Since the OP is pursuing a master's degree in linguistics, if they want to teach at the college level, their only options are adjunct/lecturer work or a tenure-track position at a community college.

[Duneranger]

Liberty has a REAL legit MEDICAL school, among a myriad of other graduate programs

Some of the schools recommended on here are absolutely a joke and borderline scams but Liberty is bad?

It has a Christian slant and one of its leaders was "out there" for sure, but the school is solid and great for military types. In some areas of academia it might raise an eyebrow (or bring forth biases) but for 99.9% of purposes it's fine.

Its utterly bizarre how much flak it gets on here when people push schools with dubious reputations at best.

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1) The school promotes an openly evangelical Christian world view. They take the Bible literally and yes, are openly against homosexuality, are very pro-life, prohibit alcohol on school property, prohibit members of the opposite gender inside the dorms, and espouse the other characteristics of evangelical Christianity. Some non-religious folks and many left sided politicians have a problem with this. For this reason many folks shy away from it, as they are convinced a degree from a Christian school will be a red flag if they try to get a job in academia or government. They are afraid of being automatically labeled as homophobic, or pro-life, or otherwise intolerant themselves... YMMV

I am very liberal and not Christian at all yet I have 2 master's degrees from a Christian university. Many colleges have a religious affiliation but that doesn't mean religion is in your face like it is at Liberty. Religion is in every course at Liberty. Religion was not in any of my courses at Amberton. When I attended Charleston Southern University religion was in every class and it had nothing to do with the course. I left after 1 term because I wanted to learn about business not religion.

Very true. Liberals do not have a problem with Christian schools. Even though Baylor University is conservative, it has a very good academic reputation. Then, there are other Christian universities that are more secular outside of their seminaries or divinity schools, such as University of Incarnate Word, Texas Christian University, and Southern Methodist University, where they don't shove religion down your throat in non-religious courses. I haven't come across any left-leaning person who has a problem with the academics of those schools. 

Liberty's biggest problem isn't that it is a "Christian" university or even that it's a conservative Christian university. Its reputation is hurt by its low graduation rate, open admissions policy for online students, having far more online students than on-campus students, teaching that Young Earth Creationism is a science, being heavily involved in politics as a non-profit organization, hypocrisy displayed by sexual scandals among its leadership, engaging in potentially illegal business activities, being founded by a bigot who lived in the 20th and 21st centuries as opposed to the 1800s, and failing to protect victims of sexual assault. On a related note, the one time Baylor's reputation was hurt was when it failed to protect victims of sexual assault.

The last time I checked, most left-leaning voters in the U.S. are still Christians. A university or an individual can be Christian and liberal.

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A) With all due respect, this is your opinion. You are entitled to such, and I can respect it, which I shall. I stated before that LU's History Program is not yet 6 years old. There is great research going on and yes, they are being published. I do think ( as opposed to you) that publishing does reflect on a program. We can agree to disagree. You are quite versed on Political Science, Criminal Justice and Government. I am not.

A)) Again, this is your opinion. I will respect your opinion. I disagree with you. That is what makes us both great folks. I think as the program grows and gets more of a firm footing, you will see more and more folks get Tier One jobs. It is about publishing (gosh, there is that word again) and teaching. You know this. You have been in interviews before.

As an applicant who is trying to get a tenure-track position at a 4-year university, yes, you want to have publications on your CV. However, academic journals do not consider the reputation of the institution you graduated from because you don't need a degree at all to publish in most journals. I think we can all agree that University of Phoenix and Capella do not have good reputations, but graduates of those schools still manage to publish. 

As for getting tenure-track positions, academia is very elitist. Departments rarely hire from departments that are ranked far below their own. If you're applying to a tenure-track position at an unranked department, then your degree being from an unranked department won't matter. Will Liberty's PhD program in history ever become ranked? I don't know. There are a lot of PhD programs in history out there, so it's hard to compete for a rank. In comparison, there are far fewer doctoral programs in criminology, so PennWest (formerly California University of Pennsylvania plus other schools) managed to become ranked in criminology. 

Since the OP is pursuing a master's degree in linguistics, if they want to teach at the college level, their only options are adjunct/lecturer work or a tenure-track position at a community college.

To be fair unless you go to a top 10-15 school in the US, you ain't getting tenure in a history track. This goes for for a lot of disciplines, but I know history very very well. Very FEW programs recommended on here will get you tenure at most colleges Most of the "hackable" BA degrees arent going to impress funded/ranked PhD History programs in the US. It is one of the snobbiest/elitist arenas out there along with classics.

There are thousands of unemployed PhDs out there. It's not just a Liberty problem.

I spoke with some of the History PhDs, there. For an online history PhD (very rare), it seemed decent, especially for an American History focus. It wasn't some hand waive BS like some of the other doctorates floated around here, they expect you to perform. Personally, it's not for me as I have no interest in the specialty areas their faculty focus on, but they have quite a few faculty who went to some solid history PhD programs.

[NotJoeBiden]

Liberty’s med school is bottom of the barrel with poor placements. Maybe it will grow, but their overall anti-science viewpoints such as creationism, anti-LGBT+, and other nonsense will make that hard. Heck they even have a Creation Studies program where you can get a whole degree based around the notion that evolution is a hoax. They will never be seen as a serious university for anything STEM since they are unable to teach such simple foundational knowledge.

[sanantone]

Liberty’s med school is bottom of the barrel with poor placements. Maybe it will grow, but their overall anti-science viewpoints such as creationism, anti-LGBT+, and other nonsense will make that hard. Heck they even have a Creation Studies program where you can get a whole degree based around the notion that evolution is a hoax. They will never be seen as a serious university for anything STEM since they are unable to teach such simple foundational knowledge.

Since Liberty Online is so massive and has so many graduate students, I searched for tenured and tenure-track professors who have PhDs from there. I also searched for graduates of other popular online doctoral programs. Honestly, I didn't find many Liberty graduates outside of religious studies programs. I expected to see a lot more just because Liberty has so many students, and they also have in-person PhD programs. Now, some doctoral students have no intention of becoming tenure-track professors, but I still expected to see more PhDs from Liberty teaching as professors.

[Znow]

You guys are having a Liberty discussion without me? That’s where I went. Yup, this thread looks typical. I’ll start by saying if you’re questioning anything before you do it, it’s probably not for you. Don’t go to Liberty if you’ll resent it later. There’s a certain state school I wouldn’t go to even if my tuition was covered, and that’s fine. There’s a school out there for almost everyone. I enjoyed my time at Liberty and I thought it was more challenging than LSU, where my MBA journey started. Liberty’s instructors were great, and they grade papers very fast. I also liked that it wasn’t a teacher assistant grading my work. The assigned readings each week are a bit excessive, and they still recommended supplemental materials for those who want to torture themselves.

There was one course I had where there wasn’t biblical integration required, but pretty much every course includes it. It’s not in the courses material, it gets included in assignments. For example, discussion boards usually require five peer-reviewed sources and a verse from scripture to support your point.

I’ll also add that hardly anyone knows about Liberty at the state college I work at. The only people who knew about Liberty were guys following college sports because their football team is really good and their basketball team is decent, so they get some airtime on ESPN and Fox. Everyone else would ask me “what’s Liberty” and I just tell them “a private Christian school in Virginia” and then it’s back to work. Not everyone is hyper focused on where people went to school. They most likely care about where you’ve worked. But for those who are, I’m glad I went to Liberty as they’re in the US, ACBSP accredited, are R3 Carnegie Classified, and is actually in the college football video game instead of operating out of a strip mall.

[Duneranger]

Liberty’s med school is bottom of the barrel with poor placements. Maybe it will grow, but their overall anti-science viewpoints such as creationism, anti-LGBT+, and other nonsense will make that hard. Heck they even have a Creation Studies program where you can get a whole degree based around the notion that evolution is a hoax. They will never be seen as a serious university for anything STEM since they are unable to teach such simple foundational knowledge.

Pure delusion. 100% match  None of these match rates/specialties deviate from the usual DO school profile. No US med school is "Bottom of the barrel", considering half the docs I work with are IMGs and come from Carribean med schools and or random schools in the Philippines/India...but yeah Liberty is soooo bad.

https://www.liberty.edu/lucom/wp-content...-Final.pdf

[kt320]

I'm applying to Liberty University's MA in Applied Linguistics. I have avoided Liberty University because I've heard it has a terrible reputation. However, as I look for a US-based master's degree in Applied Linguistics, Liberty keeps coming up. 

I don't personally know anyone who has attended Liberty but I reached out to a couple of alumni on LinkedIn. 

Does anyone here have experience with Liberty's Applied Linguistics grad degree? I know Liberty is regionally accredited but I'm asking about reputation - not accreditation. I don't really have an issue with Liberty being a Christian-affiliated university. I'm not religious but I do enjoy learning about religion and culture. However, do people mostly associate Liberty with being homophobic, tolerant of sexual assault, etc. Because I'm not down with that.

Also, I'd love to know about the experience itself. What was it like to attend Liberty? Does the college require responding to discussion boards? Are there group projects? Are faculty involved?

I've only heard about Liberty online and I'm interested in hearing about people's personal experiences in an online grad program at Liberty. 

Note: Liberty checks a lot of boxes but it isn't the only program I'm considering. Just wanted to get some opinions from folks who are familiar.

If you're putting it on your resume, you're sending a strong (and I mean strong) message.  LU is a tele-evangelical, christian nationalist, Maga entity.  If that's the message you want when sitting across from an interviewer, then you're on the right path.

[NotJoeBiden]

Liberty’s med school is bottom of the barrel with poor placements. Maybe it will grow, but their overall anti-science viewpoints such as creationism, anti-LGBT+, and other nonsense will make that hard. Heck they even have a Creation Studies program where you can get a whole degree based around the notion that evolution is a hoax. They will never be seen as a serious university for anything STEM since they are unable to teach such simple foundational knowledge.

Pure delusion. 100% match  None of these match rates/specialties deviate from the usual DO school profile. No US med school is "Bottom of the barrel", considering half the docs I work with are IMGs and come from Carribean med schools and or random schools in the Philippines/India...but yeah Liberty is soooo bad.

https://www.liberty.edu/lucom/wp-content...-Final.pdf

Lol okay. Do you work for them or something? OP asked for an opinion about Liberty University so I gave mine.

I will repeat it with more clarity: in my opinion, Liberty University is not a competent school for STEM education.