I’m sure that most of us have heard horror story after horror story, from teachers and parents to random strangers, about colleges that are ready to make your life a living hell. I know I heard so many that I seriously considered skipping out on the whole college experience. Thankfully, I didn’t, and instead came to Regent University. Regent has dispelled so many of those false ideas for me and I’m sure I’m not the only one. So, while there are many more, here are just a few of the ways Regent has proven itself to be so different from the cautionary tales.
1. Friendly professors
I feel that this one is almost cliché at this point, but it is still too important not to mention. I heard so many stories about professors in other schools who made a point to weed out students, especially freshmen. I heard of lecture halls packed with hundreds of students and professors who purposefully set up their classes to make those students give up and go home. Whether or not this is true, I can’t say, but I can say that nothing could be farther from the experience I’ve had at Regent. I’ve had professors who wanted to speak to me individually and learn my name. I’ve had professors that go out of their way to encourage and support me. I’ve had professors that I truly respected ad enjoyed learning from, and I value that so, so much. But it’s not just me. Great experiences with professors are pretty common stories, to the point that one of my best friends regularly calls her favorite professor her “college dad.” Too cute, I know.
2. Dorms that actually don’t suck
Before looking at Regent, all the pictures of student housing that I saw made me think more of prison cells you were sentenced to rather than places you actually paid hefty prices to live in. Places with no windows or no air conditioning were all too common in my college search. It seemed that many of the older, prestigious schools that are often spoken so highly of featured older, not so prestigious housing that no one had anything good to say about. Thankfully, Regent offers dorms that are basically apartments, complete with kitchens and in-room bathrooms (thank God!). But what’s the most awesome about this is the fact that these apartment style dorms allow you a sense of what being an adult will actually be like. Most of us will move into small apartments with a roommate or two after college and Regent dorms are just the kind of practice that a perfectionist like me needs.
3. No hazing
I don’t know if it’s just that the people I know are extremely morbid, but it seemed like during the year or two leading up to college, everyone had a story about extreme college hazing gone wrong. As I am unashamedly a wimp when it comes to physical pain, I was definitely put off by these. Thankfully, reality has been very different from those horrific tales. Now, this is not to say that there are never issues with other students that can turn alarmingly physical, but the great news is that Regent never turns a blind eye to these sorts of issues. No sanctioned violence? Yes, please!