(03-05-2013 02:55 PM)AtlanticLeague Wrote: (03-05-2013 02:50 PM)Dukes09 Wrote: (03-05-2013 02:48 PM)AtlanticLeague Wrote: (03-05-2013 02:37 PM)Dukes09 Wrote: I'm going to be honest, but if you look at the us news ranking, liberty is 65th south regional school. That's not saying much there.
I don't know if they're one of the worst schools in va, but they're the worst of the regional universities.
There are unranked national schools that may be lower, but it's hard to tell when they receive no ranking.
Edit: upon further examination, they are ahead of Norfolk State and Virginia State. Not dead last.
A far cry from W&M/UVA, let alone VTech/W&L/Richmond/etc.
Christopher Newport, Longwood, and Radford are all better schools.
Saying one school is better than another school is a very difficult thing to say, especially today. I am not a Liberty graduate nor am I a fan of the institution. I find it hard though to make a case that the school is not successful and seen to be on the rise by many in the academic community. A large number of the schools mentioned as "being better" would give their left arm to have even a small percentage of Liberty's endowment. As for their online education and its success, you need to read a number of journals that cover higher education. They as well as many others who know where higher education is moving will tell you that the number of colleges, especially private liberal arts institutions, will soon begin to dwindle due to the cost to attend. Online education has grown dramatically over the past five years, and with continued advances in digital technology, it will in the not to distant future be the predominant way in which people obtain a college degree. Just take a look at what Coursera is doing with some of the major colleges across the country right now.
As for Liberty, the fact that they are in good standing with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools tells you more than anything that they meet the grade for a good college education. Ironically, if people need to worry they need to be concerned with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You may want to take a look at this article (
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/12/2...clear.html ) and see how much trouble they are in with the SACS over the academic fraud there and how concerned they are about being on probation with SACS. As for UVA, well they were almost put on probation last year over how they fired the President before rehiring her. They received a warning which is very embarrassing for the institution. You will see that covered in the same article. It is also ironic that the same President at UVA was chastized by the board before being fired for wanting to greatly increase online education at UVA. You may also want to see how scared UNC is of being put on probation in this article. (
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/27/2...n-its.html ) They are actually" spying" on professors to insure they are in fact holding the class the kids signed up to take. I think most would agree that outright academic fraud at a major flagship university outpaces anything that Liberty has done or probably ever would allow itself to do.
As for what Jerry Falwell taught and said, you do not have to like it or agree with it, but it does not mean that you can't get a good education at the school. You probably did not know that Wake Forest was founded by the Baptists and was run very strictly under Baptist doctrine for many years such that you could get thrown out of school for dancing on campus up until 1959. I do not think anyone can say that Wake is not an extremely good school and that UNC, UVA or any other state supported institution should not compete against them in athletics or allow them to have been admitted to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The only point I am trying to make is if you take the emotion out of it and look at the facts you might see a totally different picture.