Will I Be Challenged?

Of course, you’re going to college to get a good education. You want to be challenged – the last thing you’re after is a reprise of the high school classes you could ace by showing up and not a whole lot more. 

But how tough is college going to be? Will you be able to manage the workload and master the material? 

The answer is yes, a Lutheran college education will challenge you to do your best. But at the same time, the ways you’ll be challenged are so engaging and stimulating that it will feel like anything but drudgery. 

You won’t be sitting in a huge auditorium, trying to pay attention while a graduate assistant who’d rather be somewhere else drones on and on. You won’t be cramming fact upon fact into your brain so you can spit them back out on a multiple choice test that bears no resemblance to anything you’ll be asked to do in the “real world”. 

You will:

• be taught by professors, not graduate students

• take many small, discussion-oriented classes, where you’ll be expected to contribute to the discussion, to write both short and thesis-length papers, to make presentations in class, and to show what you’ve learned in essay exams

• take courses in the hard sciences, literature, social sciences, foreign languages, history and philosophy – no matter what your chosen major

• have many opportunities to study overseas or off-campus, and create your own independent study, and collaborate with your professors on original research.

Take Karl Fedje, for example. Karl’s math and physics education at California Lutheran University has included opportunities to do laboratory research in creating stable liquid foam structures, through the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates, and to spend a semester studying math in Budapest.

And at Roanoke College, Brian Clark augmented his double major in Environmental Science and Religion/Philosophy by spending one summer researching the effects of soil micro-organisms on plant growth, with a $2500 Merck Research Scholarship. He also did an independent study project, researching the effects of religious and philosophical viewpoints on policy decisions.

Percentage of graduates who said that they benefited from:

Many classes with less than 20 students

Lutheran College Graduates 90%

33% Public University Graduates

Majority of classes taught by professors

Lutheran College Graduates 96%

Public University Graduates 79%

Percentage of graduates who said they had an off-campus or international study experience:

51% Lutheran College Graduates

26% Public University Graduates

But now, back to that question: how tough is this going to be? The real answer is, about as tough as you make it – because in this kind of learning environment, you’ll keep setting your own “bar” higher. 

At the same time, you’ll be surrounded by classmates who are as engaged as you are – and by professors who sincerely want you to succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Whatever challenges you face (or create!), they’ll be there to help you figure out how to meet them.

Percentage of graduates who said they often had professors who challenged, but who helped meet challenges:

Lutheran College Graduates » 80%

47% « Public University Graduates