<p>Can someone tell me which University is the least strict and Conservative? I want to have a great college experience without being tide down to so many rules and policies. I got Accepted to Biola, Apu, Pepperdine, and Westmont. They are all good schools Academically and i like the fact that they are faith based too but i don’t want to be surrounded by a bunch of bible thumbers that always judgmental about what I do. I have a very personal relationship with God but i still want to go out, party and have fun. If someone can help me out that would be great.</p>
<p>Pepperdine is by far the least strict of the SoCal Christian universities.</p>
<p>One way to find this out is to take a look at each university’s code of conduct in the student handbook.</p>
<p>Biola: <a href=“Student Life Blog - Biola University”>Student Life Blog - Biola University;
Pepperdine: <a href=“http://seaver.pepperdine.edu/studentlife/handbook/”>http://seaver.pepperdine.edu/studentlife/handbook/</a>
Azusa Pacific: <a href=“http://www.apu.edu/judicialaffairs/handbook/”>http://www.apu.edu/judicialaffairs/handbook/</a>
Westmont: <a href=“http://www.westmont.edu/_student_life/student_handbook/studentconduct-process.html”>http://www.westmont.edu/_student_life/student_handbook/studentconduct-process.html</a></p>
<p>Biola’s handbook is pretty conservative. Their code of conduct prohibits “sexual activity outside of a marriage between husband and wife,” which includes premarital, extramarital, and same-sex relationships; they also have a specific prohibition on same-sex relationships separate from that clause. Possessing pornography, smoking (on or off campus), and participation in ‘student organizations not recognized by the university’ are all also prohibited. They also have an extensive [treatment</a> of other topics](<a href=“http://studentlife.biola.edu/handbook/policies-procedure/academic-appeals/"]treatment”>Student Life Blog - Biola University) like dancing (choreographed dancing is allowed; free dancing and college sponsored dances are not), entertainment (no rated R movies), and dress (no short shorts, halter tops, short skirts, strapless shirts, etc.) You’re also required to go to 30 chapels per semester, which is about 2 per week for a standard semester.</p>
<p>Azusa has a prohibition on same-sex romantic relationships and on premarital/extramarital sexual contact (and they only recognize marriage between a man and a woman). Students are not allowed to drink or do drugs on or off campus, and they cannot possess porn. Full-time students must attend chapel 3 times a week, with no exceptions.</p>
<p>Pepperdine does not allow drinking on campus or at university-sponsored event, but students who are of age can drink off-campus. Their statement on sexual relationships is crafted in such a way to make it clear that they don’t approve, but don’t necessarily prohibit it. It’s a little bit murky - they say that students can face sanctions for sexual misconduct, but refuse to say outright whether premarital/extramarital sex counts. They also have an LGBT support group on campus, although it is not a positive group per se (they stress that they don’t condone same-sex relationships, but that they feel LGBT students can benefit from having a place in which they can share questions and struggles and say that they will sanction individuals who harass LGBT students).</p>
<p>Westmont makes it pretty clear: “The college does not condone practices that Scripture forbids. Such activities include but are not limited to occult practices, drunkenness, theft, profanity, and dishonesty. Such activities also include sexual relations outside of marriage and homosexual practice. Westmont further recognizes that Scripture condemns “sins of the spirit” such as covetousness, jealousy, pride, and lust. By their very nature, these sins are more difficult to discern. Because they lie at the heart of the relationship between the individual and God they are of central concern to the Westmont community.”</p>
<p>I don’t have any direct experiences with these schools, but given people I know and what I’ve heard about them, I would say Pepperdine is the most lenient of the four, followed by Azusa Pacific. Biola is a pretty conservative campus. I don’t know anything about Westmont.</p>
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You’ll find this anywhere. Try carrying a Coach purse at Oberlin or eating a McDonald’s burger in front of your friends at Brown. You’ll hear the judgment!</p>
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<p>They’re Fendi snobs?</p>
It sounds like your looking for these; http://finance.yahoo.com/news/top-100-college-party-schools-235300018.html;_ylt=A0LEVv47dvNUKl4A2U0nnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTEzbnFzY2JwBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMgRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1lIUzAwM18x
Why go to a school who’s rules and culture disagree with your desired lifestyle? If you want to take your faith seriously, go to a christian college. If you want to party, go to a party school. It will make your college experience and the people in your school’s college experience better.
Jesuit schools tend to be more liberal than other Christian schools.
False dichotomy. Plenty of Christians party, and plenty of heathens don’t.
@juillet (as always) offers excellent guidance.
@informative, Really? I’m am surprised at that. I always thought the Jesuits were more “hardcore” considering that they were the “militant” sect of Catholicism (just what I heard on forums)
Jesuits are more like the science sect of Christianity than the militant sect. Their order is focused on finding truth through science, I believe.
Jesuits are “militant”? In what world?
Jesuits tend to be more progressive than a lot of other RC orders. But RCs, in general, are not opposed to drinking the way a lot of evangelical or Pentecostal Christians are.
An evangelical Christian would likely find more students like himself (teetotaler or not) at a big state flagship that has Campus Crusade or InterVarsity than at an RC school.
@Informative & @lucietheLakie I’m not sure how true this is (for all I know It’s just a hoax) and I’m not trying to argue but you guys seem to know quite a bit about Jesuits (at least more than I know), and I am curious about this, so this is what I read about Jesuits Oath and it seems somewhat “hardcore” http://www.reformation.org/jesuit-oath.html so is there any truth in this? In my research I found people saying yes and no regarding the truth of it.
Sorry about hijacking your thread OP lol
@Ultimablade, I have NO idea who runs that website, but it seems rather out there.
I’d refer to more mainstream sources for information like the link I included up-thread or this:
Or you can just wiki Jesuits. Pretty clear about their focus on science and social justice.
@LucieTheLakie When the Jesuits were founded in the 1500s, they served as the ideological “shock troops” of the papacy during the Counter-Reformation and wars of religion. Read up on the St. Bartholomew’s Massacre in Paris in the 1572, during which Jesuit-led mobs hacked to death thousands of Protestant Huguenots (including the famous education reformer Peter Ramus). Tracing the evolution of the Jesuits from their quasi-Machiavellian origins to their 1970s turn towards Marxist liberation theology is an interesting project indeed!
Jesuit schools are pretty normal, they are not conservative, imo. \
Not sure what you mean when you say you want “party”.
Believe me, there is plenty of partying going on at my daughter’s Jesuit University.
There is partying at every school. It’s just a bigger part of the culture at some schools. Students who party at evangelical schools are more apt to lie about it. If you know you want to party, go to a school where you aren’t forced to lie in order to fulfill the requirements of a conduct code with which you don’t agree.