The Jesus factor

[clep3705]

Just curious...I belong to quite a few message boards (this being the only selfstudy-type forum though) and this one is the only one that seems to be filled with christians. I see bible based handles, lots of quotes, etc.
Any theory on why that is? There's no religious connotation to the site...Is it just because the clep route is dominated by homeschoolers and homeschoolers are predominately christian?

Short answer: Yes.

Homeschooling isn't for everybody. Other Christians send their children to private schools when the available public schools aren't good environments. After spending so much money on private school, CLEP and DSST stretch the educational dollars further. It's not just the savings on tuition, it's the savings on shortening college by a year or more.

[burbuja0512]

I think that some of it may be that Christians feel very strongly about their religion and therefore will include a biblical quote in their signature or choose a Christian forum name.

There are lots of others here, including myself, that aren't very religious, but perhaps you don't recognize any significance in their forum names or don't see a pattern in their signature quotes. For example, I chose my name Burbuja because when I lived in Mexico, that was a nickname given to me (Burbuja is the blonde powerpuff girl's name) 0512 is my birthday.

Anyhow... I would also agree that a higher percentage of Christians homeschool and have large families. I homeschool my son, and I have even joined a Christian CLEP group on Yahoo because it's so difficult to find any secular groups out there.

I love that we are a very diverse group of people here. We have young and not-so-young, military and civilian, working and full-time students. In the real world, we probably wouldn't ever speak and I think it's so cool that through our shared goal of education, we've all become great virtual friends.

[Maniac Craniac]

DegreeInfo and DegreeDiscussion have their share, although at DegreeInfo, we generally don't talk about religion very often.

lots of quotes

Revelation 4:11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

[cookderosa]

I agree, it wasn't until recently that homeschoolers really began to think outside the box when it came to college. It used to be that Harvard, Yale and Ivy League where the goal. Now, the Big three are a growing trend among homeschoolers. I didn't know about this way of doing college until just a few years ago. I read a book about ADL methods, and decided that debt, lost time, bad peers, and liberal professors was not my cup of tea Incidentally, that book also taught me about InstantCert!

ADL by Voeller? That's the book that led me here too That was 2 degrees and several years ago, but I still suggest it to people!

On a side note, I got into a bit of a debate <cough> years ago on another board <cough> that a lot of members here are also members of...it was about homeschooling. IMO, I literally see distance learning, CLEP/DSST, ALEKS/Straighterline, etc. as "homeschooling for grown-ups" it's absolutely the same thing. Of course the main difference is we don't have compulsory attendance lol. But, I was shocked to see so many distance learners who were anti-homeschooling when, in fact, they were homeschooling "themselves" for credit. Anyway, sorry to take that so far off topic, I just think that homeschoolers naturally would embrace what is offered here due to the stereotypical resourcefulness that they bring to everything they do. Self-directed learning after 12th grade? Of course! And as MA2 mentioned, homeschoolers are disproportionately Christian, so it stands to reason that we'd see such a large subgroup of Christian homeschoolers here. And like Burbu said, it shows up in the siggy lines and user names- I think that's because this is a safe place to express yourself, ask questions, and share. It's rare that things get nasty here.

[methibosheth]

ADL by Voeller? That's the book that led me here too That was 2 degrees and several years ago, but I still suggest it to people!

Yep!, that book as well as College without Compromise by the Wightmans. Speaking of Voeller, I'm hoping to work for his new company (College Plus) as soon as I finish my degree.

[FinancialWorld]

Yep!, that book as well as College without Compromise by the Wightmans. Speaking of Voeller, I'm hoping to work for his new company (College Plus) as soon as I finish my degree.

ADL by Voeller was a terrific book. I haven't read the whole book (cause I'd heard most of the stuff from my brothers), but the part about speed reading, writing, and memory really caught my attention. I'm still trying to work on improving mine.

I'm also homeschool graduate, and a Christian (hope I haven't ruined my reputation here:o ). Probably most of you have heard of ATI, IBLP, Visionforum, NCFIC, Generations Radio, shell I go on? hilarious

[LaceyLady]

I am a Christian Homeschool graduate as well. Obviously we do not all have Christian usernames, quotes, etc. so there are probably many more Christians than the ones you know about. Although I tend to not have any quotes, but if I had one it would probably be a Biblical quote.

It was the book College without Compromise by the Wightmans that introduced me to credit-by-exam, the big three, etc. I am really glad I got that book.

I agree, there are quite a few homeschoolers on this forum, because studying and doing a degree at home is natural for homeschoolers. For the same reasons homeschoolers don't send their kids to school, they often don't send them away to college. Homeschoolers do tend to have large families and they often cannot afford to send all their kids to college through the traditional route. And homeschoolers do tend to be Christians, often it is because of their beliefs that they homeschool.

[PonyGirl93]

It ebbs and flows. People here might stay until their degree is complete and then leave, so our membership here has a lot of turnover. Right now we do have a log of homeschooling Christians. 6 months ago? next year? Who knows.

a LOG?? Is that how you feel about us?? Just a clump of useless people?!?!? milelol:

And then of course you have your Christians who don't have a Bible verse in their sig.... *cough* me.

ETA: I would just like to add that it was not "homeschooling" per se that pushed me to do CLEP/DL. The fact that I was done with high school but still had 2 more years was certainly a factor, but mostly I just could not stand the idea of sitting in classes that only partially interested me for four more years. I can't sit still I'm not a "stay at home daughter" or anything of the like, the whole idea of it repulses me, although I have a healthy respect for you wonderful home-making people

[cookderosa]

a LOG?? Is that how you feel about us?? Just a clump of useless people?!?!? milelol:

And then of course you have your Christians who don't have a Bible verse in their sig.... *cough* me.

ETA: I would just like to add that it was not "homeschooling" per se that pushed me to do CLEP/DL. The fact that I was done with high school but still had 2 more years was certainly a factor, but mostly I just could not stand the idea of sitting in classes that only partially interested me for four more years. I can't sit still I'm not a "stay at home daughter" or anything of the like, the whole idea of it repulses me, although I have a healthy respect for you wonderful home-making people

LOL good catch.

[Farmerboy]

I like that there are more homeschoolers here. I started lurking here in late 2006, when we didn't have a lot of homeschoolers. I don't remember more than 1-2 other than myself from back then. Now we are getting the STUDENT too, as opposed to just the parent, so that's a change in our demographic I think.

Can I claim to be one of the first as well?