Berea College Challenges

To be a Berea College student in the 21st century is to be given the opportunity of a lifetime- a high quality, rigorous, but ultimately low-cost education. While the majority of alumni and present students would reflect on their time at Berea positively, there are several unavoidable challenges that have the ability to cut a student’s educational career short, or make it very difficult; specifically the college’s notoriously demanding academic requirements and the stress that it can cause. Berean students have a very close-knit and involved community due to the small size of the student body, and this community has been found to be both united and separated during different periods in the college’s history, often involving politics. For many …show more content…
The largest of these issues are the difficult academic courses that all students encounter during their academic careers. While it is reasonable to say that this issue is not specific to Berea College, because it is possible to find similarly rigorous courses at other institutions, Berea is unique in that it presents the academically challenging equivalent of an Ivy League education without the benefits of one. Courses at Berea are designed to challenge students in this way, however, ultimately obtaining a degree from Berea College does not hold the same value in the professional world that a job from an Ivy League institution would. This is not to say that both degrees are not equally challenging, rather that employers would be more inclined to choose an applicant with a degree from an impressive school that they have heard of, and unfortunately Berea College’s influence does not spread far beyond the borders of Appalachia in the way that Yale’s does. For many students, however, the benefits of a Berea education outweigh the challenges. The college’s no-tuition promise ensures that students can focus on their studies and take advantage of internships and study abroad opportunities without worrying about how they will pay off student loans in the …show more content…
Every student at the college was accepted due in some part to their background, whether it be their race, class or region. Because of this, students are able to empathize with the struggles of their peers and have a foundational trait in common with the entire student body that unites them before they even personally meet. Often, Bereans are separated by other factors. Political affiliation, for example, is a particularly sensitive subject that tends to alienate those who do not fall into the majority. Berea is a largely liberal school, as many colleges are, however because it is also situated in a geographically conservative area the college often receives students who do not agree with the liberal ideologies of the majority. This tension can lead to disputes on campus as well as general feelings of unrest in student