My personal background, so that you know, is that I am graduate of a B.A. and an M.A. from a Christian College.  I also taught for six years at a Chrisitan university in the Dallas, Texas area.  So, here are a couple more things you will want to consider when looking at your application to apply to take a course at a Christian college. 

When you start to fill out your application here are some tips that will help you stand out from other applicants.

• Letters of Reference – You may want to consider including with your application letters of reference. Some of the most effective letters come from pastors, church elders or deacons, or perhaps the choir director (if the case warrants it). Having others that confirm and testify to your Christian beliefs can go a long way to help you get accepted.

• Statement of Faith – One item that you will find that many Christian online colleges will require that their secular counterparts will not ask for is a statement of faith. You should have a brief (usually one typed page is adequate) summary of your testimony and what your faith means to you. Keep it simple and genuine as over indulgent testimony just sound corny and insincere.

In a few days or so (as soon as I can get a good list together) I am going to post several Christian colleges and univerisities you may want to check out that have online course offerings, or entire degree programs.  It certainly won’t be an exhaustive list, so right now I am looking at a way to narrow the focus in building the list.

• Part 1 – Before you apply
• Part 2 – Your application
• Part 3 – Some specific Christian colleges

If you are a Christian and you have already determined that the best way for you to get a college education is by attending college online then you may be looking for some tips for getting started. Christian online colleges offer the same types of education those other colleges online may offer the biggest difference will be that they actually have the same belief system that you have and incorporate God and Jesus into their curriculum.

There are several factors that you should consider as you begin to narrow down your choose of schools to attend. The application process for any school can be long and tedious when you are filling them out so have all the necessities together before you get started. Here are a few tips to help you with choosing an online college that will meet all your needs.

• Accreditation -The first thing that you need to do is check to make sure that the college you are looking at is fully accredited. It is unfortunately but oftentimes you can run into schools that are not properly accredited and then when you are ready to either transfer to another school or present your diploma you find out that the credits you have earned are non-transferable or not recognized as legitimate credits.

One of the things about some Christian colleges is they are not accredited by one of the nationally recognized, regional acrediting bodies.  Make sure it is.  You don’t want to waste any time or money on a course that won’t transfer or count for work credit.

• Requiring Help -Another very important thing that you will need to check is if you have problems understand the curriculum or need to reach the professor for any other reason how do you do it. With an online course your professor could have hundreds of students and may be hard to reach so you need to find out what the college’s procedures are with regards to needing help.

• Financial Aid – If you are worried about the cost of getting an online degree you may be pleasantly surprised to find out that many online colleges offer financial aid. Check with them first and weigh out all your financial options, they may also be able to send you toward some Christian based scholarships that you may have been unaware of.

Part 2 is coming soon.  We are going to discuss what to do after you apply and some of the things you need to know that might be different on a college application from a Christian collge.