Anyone have any experience or opinions about this college?

Anyone have any experience or opinions about this college?: Olivet Nazarene University
https://online.olivet.edu/

I'm looking at some specific things, but sometimes I come across these small "Christian" colleges and wonder how they fare. My current Master's is from Anderson University in South Carolina which also seems to bill itself as a "Christian College" but none of that ever came up during my entire Master's Program (DL) - it simply didn't enter into it and was never part of my experience, but I wonder how other schools integrate (or not) their "faith" position into the programs they offer and if that tends to water things down, or how having a school that is affiliated with something like that looks to hiring managers, etc.

Some of these smaller Christian schools are a good bargain - which is why I ask. We have a few locally - Mt. Vernon Nazarene ("The Naz" as it is affectionately known here) and Ohio Christian University - but we are surrounded by other schools with religious affiliations that no one seems to mind: Ohio Dominican, Ohio Wesleyan, and even Capital University in Bexley is attached to a Lutheran Seminary, but mostly people in the region just think of it as a great law school - so there doesn't seem to be a stigma there.

Anyone else have experiences with things like this?

 

OK, I had a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivet_Nazarene_University#Controversies. After that, my opinion was formed.

 

Mine, too.

 

It would appear they teach through a literal biblical filter. This is anti-science and anti-scholarship. What that means for something calling itself a "university," I'll leave to others.

 

I prefer "The Nazz" by Lord Buckley - lyrics here: https://genius.com/Lord-buckley-the-nazz-annotated

"Yes! I can feel it! Now you see The Nazz a-comin' on so strong and so fine and so great, talkin' about when's he gonna appear next, what did he do there, he put it down once for the cat, the cat dug it, didn't dig it. Put it down twice, dug it, didn't dig it. Put it down the third time, the cat dug it - wham! - walked away with his eyes buggin' out here 'n' there bumpin' into ever'body."

Yeah...

 

Yeah, that’s the kinda stuff I’m afraid of. Anderson has a reputation as being rather strict on campus, but as a DL student, none of that ever seemed to come up- I actually drove down to Anderson for my graduation after completing the degree online, and it was a lovely campus and the school has an interesting history.

those controversies don’t sit well with me at Olivet.

but when I think of “ The Nazz” I think of Todd Rundgren.....

 

Right - his band back in the 60s. I thought maybe he got the band name from Lord Buckley - but I just checked and it's from a Yardbirds song -"The Nazz are Blue." Everybody called Rundgren's band "The Nazz" but officially, they were just "Nazz."

Todd Rundgren is around 72 now - what a survivor! Almost as old as I am (77), but I never got to lead a musician's life, so ...

 

Did a bit of reading - the Yardbirds may have picked up the word "Nazz" via Lord Buckley, so the word may have gone third-hand to Rundgren. Interesting stuff here on Richard Myrle "Lord" Buckley, 1906-1960. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/blindmanfr/the-nazz-are-blue-t239.html

Anyway, back to our regular programming. Mt. Vernon Nazarene is really not my style, as I said.
Lord Buckley - a real Pioneer. A white, ex-lumberjack, talking Black jive in a segregated America. "The" pioneer of Standup.

 

Yes - there definitely seems to be something to that, although they are a regionally accredited B&M school - which usually ticks the appropriate boxes. I was interested more in the Executive Coaching certificate program from their Parrott Institute - where I'm not sure the "Biblical perspective" would enter into it much. It's affordable and seems to be a rather unique offering in my searches for those kinds of coaching certificate programs (or other "life-coaching" certs) offered by actual B&M universities (If anyone knows of any others, I'd love to see them!) . It's too bad the school has this baggage - for example, I would never want a degree from Liberty University or Regent University because of their associations with the Falwell and Roberston camps, both which I despise.

 

• Leadership Coaching for Organizational Performance (LCOP) at American University, tuition $10,950 (online only)
• Executive Coaching Certificate Program at Berkeley, tuition $9,500 (online or in-person)
• Executive Coaching Diploma Program at Emory University, tuition $9,000 (blended, mostly online)

Are these the types of programs you're asking about?

 

Thanks, Dustin - yeah these are kind of what I'm talking about. Those are good finds, I think that how I even ended up finding Olivet was because their program is...about $2500. Compared to the ones listed, it seemed like a bargain.

 

Not a factor with the kind of coaching that you're talking about - but I noticed their programmatic accreditor for the Athletics Training program at Olivet has placed them on probation. They're in good shape with other programmatic accreditors. Wonder what's up...

https://www.olivet.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/disclosures/Institutional-Program-Accreditation-Approval-or-Licensure.pdf

 

Or you could have a look here!

https://www.instituteofcounselling.org.uk/counselling-courses?catid=18

 

Here's the lookup page: https://caate.net/search-for-accredited-program/

Olivet's accreditation history is here, from that page:

Looks like they repeatedly fell below the Board of Certification (BOC) pass rate. According to this program at NIU which went through the same Probation followed by Withdrawal process, "The CAATE requires programs to maintain a three-year aggregate first time pass rate for the BOC of 70% or greater". I can't find any sources on their actual pass-rate though. NIU was required to post their data but I don't see any by Olivet.

Edit: Spoke too soon, I found it on the CAATE website, way down on this page: their first-time pass rate was 65%, while their total pass rate was 95%. So most students did eventually pass but not enough on the first try.

 

Thanks, Dustin. Good and thorough job.

 

I was about to react to this with "Huh? Todd Rundgren? Why that guy?"

But then I remembered Tom Petty. If THAT dude can be killed by drug use (did anyone see it coming?), anyone can. Anyone.

 

It's really important to consider one's relationship with the notion of "coaching."

If it is one's desire to become a certified coach, only the first of those three does that. (It is an ICF-accredited ACTP.) The second makes no mention of ICF certification at all, while the third does mention it, but it is not an ACTP. (The hours earned could be used towards getting certified, however.)

If you're going to brand yourself a coach--especially if you're going to do coaching exclusively, you really should become certified through the recognized international professional organization, the International Coach Federation (ICF). There are three levels of certification, each requiring a specific educational certificate program and amount of paid coaching hours.

There are three levels of certification: Associate, Professional, and Master. ("Associate Certified Coach, Professional Certified Coach, and Master Certified Coach). The vast majority of coaches are not certified at all (there are no states that regulate coaching...yet). Anyone can call him/herself a "coach." (Doesn't make it so, though.)

Among members of the ICF, many seem (casual observation here) not to be certified at all. Many have the ACC, some have the PCC, and a very, very few are MCCs. (The ACC and PCC differ largely along the lines of experience--hours coaching. The MCC is another animal entirely. Most certified coaches stop at the ACC or PCC.)

I'm a PCC and a member of the ICF.

 

Thanks - yeah, I'm not really thinking I'd be branding myself as a coach per se, but if I ever find myself working as a consultant again, I feel like having some of those skills would be something that would come in handy. There are lots of coaching programs out there and a lot of them claim to "certify" you but many are their own certifications, which could mean anything, and aren't part of the ICF or the Board Certified Coach (BCC) certification and all that. If I were going strictly for a coaching career, I would probably look at Erickson International - it's expensive, and it isn't part of a college. My undergrad is in interpersonal communication, and I've often found myself thinking about Phase III of my career/life and thinking that I would be in a consulting position again at some point, and have been looking at Coaching type of certificate programs that are offered by B&M institutions/colleges as well as programs in leadership studies, entrepreneurship, etc. I've been and owner and part owner of small businesses, and a freelancer - I have a very mixed bag of skillsets and areas of knowledge at this point, lol.

The program at Olivet is through their Parrott Institute, founded by Les Parrott, who seems to have a legit set of qualifications, both secular/medical and theological. The cost of the program is also very affordable. ($2450 is what the digital brochure they sent me says - much less expensive than I thought it would be) It offers the ability to focus on business as your "specialization course" after completing the core courses.

I'm still very intrigued by the course and the surprising value(?)/cost of the program...but like I've said above, I'm leery of some of these Christian schools for some of the reasons already pointed out. :-(

 

Thanks - yeah, I'm not really thinking I'd be branding myself as a coach per se, but if I ever find myself working as a consultant again, I feel like having some of those skills would be something that would come in handy. There are lots of coaching programs out there and a lot of them claim to "certify" you but many are their own certifications, which could mean anything, and aren't part of the ICF or the Board Certified Coach (BCC) certification and all that. If I were going strictly for a coaching career, I would probably look at Erickson International - it's expensive, and it isn't part of a college. My undergrad is in interpersonal communication, and I've often found myself thinking about Phase III of my career/life and thinking that I would be in a consulting position again at some point, and have been looking at Coaching type of certificate programs that are offered by B&M institutions/colleges as well as programs in leadership studies, entrepreneurship, etc. I've been and owner and part owner of small businesses, and a freelancer - I have a very mixed bag of skillsets and areas of knowledge at this point, lol.

The program at Olivet is through their Parrott Institute, founded by Les Parrott, who seems to have a legit set of qualifications, both secular/medical and theological. The cost of the program is also very affordable. ($2450 is what the digital brochure they sent me says - much less expensive than I thought it would be) It offers the ability to focus on business as your "specialization course" after completing the core courses.

I'm still very intrigued by the course and the surprising value(?)/cost of the program...but like I've said above, I'm leery of some of these Christian schools for some of the reasons already pointed out. :-(

 

I consider Olivet to be one of the local B&M university options for students in my area, it’s a quick 30 min drive from my town (SW Chicago suburbs). I don’t have any 1st hand personal experience with the school, other than a few friends who attended adult night school masters programs (nursing and teaching, if my memory serves me) and a couple of kids of local families who attended right out of high school.

I would classify Olivet in the same category as Wheaton College (another local college), strong religious foundation . We have a number of Catholic Universities in the area as well (Saint Xavier, Lewis University, University of St Francis, Dominican University, Benedictine University, Calumet College of St Joseph), but I am of the opinion that the Catholic affiliations do not define as much as Olivet and Wheaton.

All controversies aside, Olivet is a small private school with a nice campus, plethora of programs, solid NAIA sports, and a good academic reputation. Olivet is a real school, I would assume that their programs are solid and well received by employers.

I haven’t heard much about any controversial issues coming out of the school. I would expect there to be “differences of opinions” when an institution has such a strong religious foundation.

I hope my perspective as a local helps!