What Are Christian College Students like?: A Survey

What are their social attitudes, their goals, and their vision for the church?

Many stories are told of how multitudes of Christian students came to choose to attend a Christian college. Some chose it for the academics, some to escape from the sinful world; others made the choice because that was where their parents studied.

Seeking to develop a profile of the Christian college student, the Association of Evangelical Students (an affiliate of the National Association of Evangelicals) talked with students and administrators and surveyed students at several Christian colleges; some of the results are shown in the accompanying graphs.

According to the survey, students attend Christian colleges primarily because the colleges are Christian (see fig. 1). Whether the students sensed God’s leading or wanted to grow as Christians, they clearly wanted more than just a college education. Christian distinctives were a major part of their decision. Other reasons show generally why students chose one particular college over another.

Asked about college programs, some 30 percent said they had transferred from other colleges, mostly secular, and about 10 percent said they planned to leave their present college to attend another. Most of these students were less than 200 miles away from home and fairly evenly distributed among urban, suburban, and rural areas. About one-half of the students had reservations or questions about returning to their home areas.

To determine which social habits they found to be acceptable, students at four Christian colleges were asked how they felt about six “worldly practices” (fig. 2). About 60 percent felt that listening to rock music and social dancing would not compromise their Christian witness. Dating non-Christians, performing rock music, and drinking alcoholic beverages rated close behind, but were not as acceptable (40 percent). Students at all four schools rated smoking as least acceptable; 25 percent at one school felt it would not compromise their witness.

Vocational interests were top-heavy in interpersonal professions (fig. 3), with counseling, church work, education, and the ministry the most popular choices. Social work and business rated relatively high, while medicine, communications media, agribusiness, and politics rated rather low. “Students persist in preparing for vocations they know are full,” one administrator said, probably referring to education majors, although another mentioned there are new opportunities in Christian school education. All said that homemaking was by far the largest single vocational goal.

Christian college students overwhelmingly feel “God is preparing them for a special ministry,” though 15 percent do not know specifically how God is working with them, and an additional 35 percent said they had trouble understanding that calling. Three-fourths of those surveyed felt that they would be involved in “full-time Christian service.” Many, however, made a distinction between full-time ministry in a vocation and being a full-time Christian. Each, they felt, is full-time Christian service.

Spiritual renewal is what Christian college students think is the greatest need in the church, according to the survey (fig. 4). Following in order of importance are the needs for better leadership, better evangelism, better worship services, stronger youth groups, and stronger Sunday schools. The students seem to recognize the shortcomings of the church today, and realize their responsibility to deal with them. They may well approach these problems in a new way, however, because more of these Christian college students are beginning to see their faith as drawing them into the world rather than separating them from it.

Will the students attending Christian colleges naturally gravitate toward the core leadership of the Christian community in the future? Some will, of course; but as the Christian community seeks ways to meet changing world needs and as growing ministries such as Inter-Varsity, Campus Crusade, and Youth for Christ help students on secular campuses grow spiritually as they desire, the Christian college less and less can claim a monopoly on dedicated young people.

“Many Christian leaders have secular college or university backgrounds and some Bible training through seminaries, Bible colleges, or Christian graduate schools,” said Jimmy Locklear, director of public relations for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.

The future seems to be bright for the Christian college and its students—as long as colleges are committed to acquainting their students with the real world and simultaneously instructing them in the Christian way of life, nurturing them to full and responsible Christian maturity.

G. Douglas Young is founder and president of the Institute of Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem. He has lived there since 1963.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.