Our daughter chose this university for three reasons: it is a "Christian" school, it had the…read moremajor/minor she wanted, and for its location. I'll start with the positive. The location is beautiful. And we were thankful that the two degrees she was seeking were both offered at one university. Unfortunately, we were completely disappointed with the lack of Christian elements. We simply didn't find the Christian components we had hoped for. Even during the orientation week, meetings with parents didn't involve an opening prayer, and the focus wasn't directed towards a daily walk and relationship with Jesus. Our Christian life shouldn't be reserved for just Sundays; our hope that Jesus would be honored in what was happening on campus simply didn't materialize. Maybe this is just the state of our world, but as an example, we were very unhappy to find out that at the time of registration, the university had a lesbian in charge of housing. Additionally, one of our daughter's professors was a lesbian. While they were both kind, we disapprove of that lifestyle based on the teaching of Scripture. By hiring these women to play significant leadership roles, the university seems to be condoning that lifestyle. How is this an appropriate choice when choosing leaders for a Christian university? Our daughter also shared with us that in a different class, the professor asked the students about where they thought they would end up after they passed; not one person other than our daughter said "Heaven" because of salvation through Christ! Sadly, our daughter had great difficulty finding quality Christian friends. We also had issues with the billing procedures of the university. The bill we received to start her sophomore year omitted her housing charges. After taking a significant loan out to pay for what we thought we owed for the school year, we were advised of this mistake and had to pay the amount out-of-pocket. It was $6,000 in total! Though it was their error, there was no compensation on our behalf. Additionally, though she should have been given priority regarding her housing location due to her disabilities, due to this error, her room wasn't assigned to her until shortly before she arrived for her sophomore year rather than early in the summer months. The disabilities department was disappointing as well. Rather than go to bat for her, she had to advocate for herself in many instances. In one specific situation, a professor expected her to attend class regularly while our daughter believed she could do the class virtually. When those wires got crossed, the disabilities department would not play the role of advocate for our daughter and she received a failing grade; she had to retake the class the following semester. We were also disappointed in learning that on long weekends, the campus pretty much shuts down, including the dining options. Unlike many students who live nearby, our girl was stuck alone on campus (we live many states away) without the provision of food. One time she was alone during the aftermath of a hurricane with a ghost town of a campus and without power. We could share more, but needless to say, she had a terrible experience. She is no longer enrolled in GWU and is much happier doing her studies online with another college. If you are seeking a university that will saturate your son or daughter with God's Word and provide a rich Christian education that challenges their relationship with Jesus, we would encourage you to look elsewhere. Should you choose to enroll your son or daughter at GWU, we hope your experience is better than ours.
