Bethany Global University
- 4 Year
- BLOOMINGTON, MN
CollegeGrad School
Bethany Global University Reviews
Rating 4.22 out of 5 18 reviews
Bethany Global University is a wonderful community of students coming to deepen their faith through the courses offered. Also what’s unique to the school is the 13 month internship your junior and half of senior year. Many students come not only to deepen their relationship with Jesus but to also go on internship. I have enjoyed my time here at Bethany as I’ve formed close friendships with my classmates and am close to finishing up my senior year.
One positive aspect of BGU is the tuition paid model. This model helps students to further their education and not go totally broke. Another good thing about this school is its vision of equipping people to share their faith with others. But those two aspects are about as good as it gets. This school is teeny so everybody pretty much knows everybody else. While this can be a good thing, it also harbors a community of putting on face and trying to look perfect to those around. It can also get to be a bit cliquey between groups of students. Probably the biggest issue that this school faces is its lack of good leadership. Those in charge can get to prideful and often ignore the truth, even when it is staring them in the face. Some professors are barely qualified for their teaching positions and they are not very understanding of students super busy schedules. There are many required activities that students must engage in and the homework loads are beyond those of other universities.
I have taken a few classes through BGU over the past year to get a head start and have decided to enroll in the midwifery program in the fall. The staff, including the admissions counselors and financial advisors, have been intentional with my needs and my schedule. Living across the country and taking classes on my own has been difficult, but they have been a great help. I am excited about the program for many reasons. The university is faith-based, which will be a great foundation when meeting new people and plugging into the community. My dream is to open my own chain of birth clinics all over the world, and my first step will be to go through BGU in order to learn about all of the different cultures and needs worldwide. I am also anticipating living on campus and being able to learn in a classroom with other students that are going after the same thing. So far, my experience as an online BGU student has been excellent, but I cannot wait to be on campus and connect with others!
My overall experience at BGU has been one of ups and downs. I cannot lie, as I have been slightly disappointed multiple times by the faculty here. Some of the decisions made by the higher-ups have adversely reflected back upon themselves, as most of the time the changes end up only benefitting themselves and further hurting the student body.
The people and education are good and well informed. It is nice to be around a good community and environment.
The people at BGU are amazing. They have checked up on us and guided us so much and we have not even been to campus yet! The people are welcoming and just all around good people. They all really have a heart on fire for the Lord and I am excited to be able to go to the school in the fall.
Most of the online classes take place while on internship overseas. The best part comes from interaction with other students in other places. This adds valuable alternate perspective. I personally preferred the wide latitude and flexibility of the generally self-learning style. At times though, this made it kind of hard to discern assignment objectives. However, it does promote "taking ownership" of your own learning and allows you to take it in directions of interest. The real learning comes when you step our your front door into foreign culture all around. For people with self-motivation, the online format on internship really allows students to go far and deep into areas that really interest them. The addition of more visuals from the professors could make this format even better. On the whole, this format suited me quite well.
The best thing about Bethany is the people you get to meet. Some share about experiences and wisdom gained from all over the globe. Others prepare to change the world. Passionate active people abound. This program demands a great deal of time and energy. For some people, it simply becomes too much. For instance, more of the mandatory events should be optional. For married people, the student's spouse needs to immerse in the community as well or else it puts a big strain on marriage. As for perfectionists? Lower your standards a bit for the sake of survival! While the required work on campus provides good life experience and lower costs, better efforts could be made to match students to areas of natural gifting. The absence of this adds to the strain. The global internship overseas is awesome. This is what truly sets the program apart. I tolerated much of the time in MN but really loved most of the 15 months in Asia. If nothing else, BGU is unique. By the end, you've truly done a lot.
The community aspect is amazing. It is easy to make friends and people are very genuine. If you actively pursue spiritual growth, you will find it here. There is no other school like this one where you get to be a missionary while earning your degree. One area of growth for this school is leadership. Many students have negative experiences of leadership (including myself). I told a leader how I felt once about my experience with her and she then proceeded to give me a bad performance review of my job on campus.
Bethany global is my other best opinion for special education on think college for the beyond limits program I would gladly recommend this college for me to attend but I have to do life blessings first.
The online experience paid my work off to get me into Minnesota Bethany global online learning can take you on a quest.
Though I am certainly appreciative of the community of believers at the college, whom I'll certainly be friends with for a lifetime, I do find the academics and practicality of the college wanting. To a degree, I almost feel like this was a glorified VBS in college format. Most of the courses don't actually teach you much on the topic of theology and missions, as I believe most of the homework could be completed without ever actually sitting in the classes or the information provided could easily be found online. They also have a high turnover rate of students and a very low conversion rate who graduate and go on to become missionaries. It appears that out of every graduating class, roughly 30-50 percent of the class will drop out of the program, due to the inadequacy of the education or falling away from the faith, and for every graduating class, maybe one or two graduates will actually go on to do missions.
Most classes are in person, though you would utilize a student portal to turn in work. Most of the professors struggled to use the portal so it could be frustrating at times decerning the expectations of the classwork. the portal itself operated fine however and rarely did I ever run into issues with the program.
Bethany Global allows freshman only to take their courses online. Once you are overseas your junior year then all of your classes will be online.
I love Bethany Global University! They are good at what they do, and have found their niche in the University scene. It's different from other schools, but I do not necessarily see that as a bad thing. I love the education I am receiving and the opportunities that go along with it!