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Anyone looking at sending their child/ren to the Ivy Leagues should do some major investigating. They now have official "sex weeks" at these schools and are sanctioned by the administrations. Type in that term and you will find numerous articles on this; it is getting so bad alumni are getting concerned. As one article said,"This is not the education parents thought their children would be getting at Yale." My nephew goes to a small state college in Colorado, pays a fraction of the cost CU students pay, and he gets the same professors and smaller class size. It will be your child's home for 4 years; make sure you know what they are getting in to.

It never crossed our minds that our daughter would go to a Christian college after we completed our homeschooling journey. Not that we were against it. We just never thought about it. We just figured she would go to one of the local universities in the Miami area. And she is a honors student with great test scores. But the Lord had a different plan. When we first visited the university during one of their 'homeschool days', our daughter and my husband and I had a peace. We visited 2 more times for open houses and we still had a peace that this is where the Lord wants her to go. We will be taking her in a month to begin her freshman year.

I seem to remember the book Outliers having a very interesting section about the quality of education at smaller, lesser known schools. It was very encouraging!

Lee, I'm just getting into the high school years and your writing has been so encouraging to me. You show a level of grace that is often (sadly) hard to find in homeschooling circles.

I read an article saying that employers don't care very much at all if a job applicant has gone to an Ivy League school, or any well-known school. They care most about your college major and what skills you can bring to their company.

Amen, Amen, Amen. This post gives me comfort in knowing that this walk is hard for all. I commend you for being so transparent in helping others. I personally appreciate it and hope my boys will have a similar outcome for their future. I sure am trying....God Bless.

I had the grade point average to go to an Ivy League and was encourage to go to Cornell University by my school counselor. I changed my mind and did not want to become a veterinarian instead I wanted to pursue my hobby which was riding horses. I also wanted to experience NY but not live in the city so I chosed Pace University in Pleasantville, NY. Not only did Pace have the top equestrian team in NY, Pleasantville was only a train ride away from the city. I enjoyed the suburbs of Pleasantville and the entertainment of the city. I got my BBA in Marketing/Advertising and Promotions. Oh, and Pace is a top notch school.

Well said...thank you

I appreciated the contribution Coleen above made; the link to the book review emphasized the point exactly. Even Christian colleges, desiring to be 'accepted' to the secular community, compromise Scripture. Like how Christian kids will compromise what they believe in order to stay friends with non-Christians. It's important to teach children to identify the worldviews in question: Moral Relativism, Narcissistic Hedonism, Autonomous Hedonism and Reductive Naturalism. If they have a good handle on that, and on the truths of Scripture, and strong apologetics, they have a headstart on identifying ideas that seek to hack away at faith. It's part of our education to address Worldview in this way.

I highly recommend The Deadliest Monster http://www.amazon.com/The-Deadliest-Monster-Introduction-Worldviews/dp/0972089039/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&;qid=1371220245&sr=8-1&keywords=the+deadliest+monster

It helps kids understand the foundations of different worldviews. Even if kids go to a secular school, if they are prepared they can make it, in spite of and even because of the opposition to their faith. Ideally their education will be for the purpose of "Glorifying God" in their life, not merely for preparation for a career. Who we are after education is the purpose of the education, after all.

Your article really struck me - but for the opposite reason you might think! I realize I've been judging for the opposite reason. After all, how could a Christian parent send their child to a secular school where their faith will be ridiculed and belittled (at the least)?

I've known too many students who lost their faith in God in such an environment. But, when I think about it, I also know some students who were shining lights for Christ in dark places. Only you and your child can decide.

Excellent article, and right on time for us and our 14-yr-old daughter just starting homeschool high school. Our now 25 yr-old-son went to a private Christian college, and his music professor turned out to be a godly mentor and close friend to him. He thrived in this setting. Other young people may prefer the setting of a big university, but it wasn't for us.
Thank you, Lee, for reminding us to follow our hearts!

I definitely agree. Our first obligation is to provide the education that our child NEEDS in the environment that works best for him/her. Some secular colleges have stated agendas for trying to indoctrinate our children away from faith and godliness. Even "Christian" college may not be the answer for everyone as you can see in my friend's book review: http://upatdawnreadytowork.blogspot.com/2011/06/already-compromised-book-review.html

Isn't it interesting that George Washington never attended college, (but he did receive his surveyor's certificate from The College of William & Mary), yet he seems to have done alright?

Thank you for this article, Lee. My daughter has two first cousins who are either attending or graduated from Yale. Because my daughter is gifted academically, I too was made to feel that she "should" go to Harvard or another Ivy League school. Yet, she was not interested in going to school across the country. I am happy that she has instead chosen a state school that is far enough away from home for her to have an independent adventure but not so far that we wouldn't be able to afford to see her more than twice a year!

Our local community college has a professor who left Harvard to teach here because he wanted to actually teach students instead of supervising a teachers aide and spending his time "getting published". He said many undergraduate classes in Ivy league schools aren't even taught by fully trained professors. Forget it! I will be strongly discouraging my kids from attending Ivy league schools.

I love your reasoning! MORE magazine frequently published an article about those so-called "top colleges." Far too often, they aren't being considered much of a value, even considering their high price and reputations. Undergraduate classes are being taught by graduate students (not professors or even instructors). My daughter does attend a small Christian college. It was her first choice college and she also had near-perfect ACT scores. One of their selling points was that they do NOT have a graduate school, and thus, their classes are all taught by full professors or associate professors. She did have one "visiting" instructor in her piano classes - she came from Julliard in New York!

Lee,

I, too, completely agree with your comments. My always homeschooled, bright daughter is now a 1st year student at a very small Christian college in Florida, about 3 hours from our home. (Thanks to dual enrollment & CLEP she entered as a sophomore, but that's another great homeschool story.)

We didn't even consider an Ivy League education for her. We, and she, wanted her to continue learning in a Christ-centered environment, where she is taught Truth, and wouldn't have to constantly "filter out" the humanistic teaching in every class. After all, one of the reasons we choose to homeschool was to pass on the faith, and this has influenced the world view of every class and everything else we've done in our homeschool. We wouldn't want her to be taught from a worldly perspective now or ever! It doesn't matter to us how "prestigious" anyone, or everyone, thinks that the Ivy League schools are, or what their feelings are on where our bright girl should have gone.

Our daughter made the final decision on which Christian college to attend & is thrilled with her choice! She has made several friends and they even meet together to pray & read Scripture together. Praise God!!

I agree with you Lee. It is the child's choice. When my boys were in school in the gifted program the parents were pushing these kids so hard telling them that they needed to buckle down to get into "whatever ivy league school they wanted" but they didn't seem to look at the child's interests at all. It doesn't matter to me what college they attend as long as it fits their needs and gets them where they need to be in the career of their dreams.

Great article and so much truth! If home schoolers have fought for anything it is freedom of choice.

It is my opinion that the so-called Ivy League schools are nothing more than a breeding ground for liberal status seekers. While this may be a generalization I lived in Cambridge for many years and have to say left with a very bad impression of Harvard students.

The Christian student that attends an ivy league will need to be very well grounded in his or her faith and highly adept at apologetics. While we certainly need students like this to attend these schools the fact is at 18 years old they are few and far between.

We are called to glorify God, not home schooling and sometimes that means following the path the culture is on but usually not.