Help Our Youth Choose Their Colleges
by Loren E. Swartzendruber
first published in the Mennonite
June 12, 2001
Parents
and congregational leader should take a more active role
in helping their youth choose a church college. It is impossible
not to influence the college choice decision; to say nothing
communicates that the decision makes no difference to the
church or to families, and the silence is, in itself, a
major influence.
Influencing our youth in their choice of college is justified
for the following reasons:
· studies show that parents are by far the strongest influences for their children;
· no adolescent is experienced enough to choose from more than 3,200 post-secondary institutions in the United States and Canada;
· there is a strong correlation between college attendance and later participation in the church.
One
research project indicates that college students (both in
church colleges and in other institutions) ranked parents
as the number one influence for their decision of where
to attend college. Campus visits ranked second, friends
third and college admissions personnel fourth. Friends in
the church influenced students to enroll in church colleges
while friends outside of church influenced peers to enroll
in other institutions. That parents are the strongest influences
in the choice of college is confirmed by several studies,
including those by Don Hossler of Indiana University and
Vivian Seltzer of the University of Pennsylvania.
What criteria do youth use to select a college? Perceived
academic prestige ranks high for some students. Following
a girlfriend or boyfriend is a priority for some prospects.
Campus appearance plays a major role. There is no question
that major universities with successful athletic teams are
attractive to our youth, even though athletic success has
nothing to do with academic quality.
Nice trees: The colleges of Mennonite Church USA are academically
strong by any objective criteria. Choosing a college to
follow a friend, while understandable form the perspective
of a young adult, seems shortsighted from the viewpoint
of an older adult. Our colleges know that attractive campuses
are important for marketing the institution, but having
nice trees hardly affects the educational process directly.
Church colleges simply cannot compete with the daily and
weekly presence of large universities in the popular media.
Parents and church leaders should actively counteract these
influences, which are so strong with our youth. A study
of more than 3,000 adults in more than 100 Mennonite congregations
showed that 81 percent of those who attended a Mennonite
college remained in a Mennonite congregation as an adult.
The overall numbers indicate that a high percentage of noncollege
attenders have become inactive in the church. This should
be sobering to any parent or church leader.
The correlation between college attendance and later church
participation begs other questions. Can church colleges
take total credit for theses results? Certainly not. As
faculty and administrators we know that we do our best work
with those students who come with positive family and congregational
experiences prior to the college years.
Denominational affiliation: Is it important to have our
children choose participation in a Mennonite congregation?
Some will argue that denominational affiliation is unimportant.
It is more important to me that our children choose the
Christian faith, but I believe every Christian chooses a
theological tradition. So-called "generic" Christianity
carries theological presuppositions that are as influential
as any denominational perspective.
What about those who want academic programs not available
in our church colleges? With few exceptions, general education
credits from the first two years will transfer to other
institutions. Parents and church leaders, if not the youth
themselves, should value the courses available only at church
colleges (even if the credits do not transfer). In addition,
the lifelong relationships formed at church colleges are
cited by alumni as one of the greatest benefits of their
experience.
Elementary years: National research indicates that he college
choice decision begins in the elementary years. Young children
are, or are not, predisposed toward college by several factors:
whether or not their parents attended college, their academic
ability, proximity to colleges and universities, the influence
of older family members. By early high school, most youth
can name a set of five or six colleges under consideration.
A majority of them will ultimately select one institution
from that smaller set. The obvious implication from this
research is that if parents and church leaders want to influence
the decision, they need to begin when the child is young.
Practical suggestions for influencing the decision toward
church colleges include the following:
· visit campuses with families or church groups;
· discuss one's own college experiences and relationships;
· purchase church college shirts, hat and other paraphernalia;
· gather information and do not make judgments without accurate data;
· support congregational student aid plans.
My experience and research indicates that many adults in
the church care about this issue but do not know how to
change the reality that their youth are making these life-changing
decisions with too little guidance. Some are afraid their
children will rebel. But that ignores our children's desire
to know what we think. Some adults choose to make decisions
about financial matters without having the facts. Unless
a student actually applies for financial aid, one simply
cannot know what the net cost is for attendance. Too many
congregational members are concerned that we should financially
support all our college students, no matter where they attend.
The fact is that we do support those who attend public institutions
when we pay taxes. Whether or not denominational identity
is important is a decision every individual has to make,
but it has a huge impact on the future of the church.
I have invested much of my adult life in the cause of Mennonite
education because of the impact church schools had on my
life (I also attended a Big Ten university for three years
to study pharmacy) and on those of our four children and
a son-in-law. Encouraging a greater percentage of our youth
to attend church schools (at any level) is not about the
financial health of our institutions; it is about nothing
less than the future of the church.
