I'm A College Student Now

Yep. You did, indeed, read that correctly. Mary Jo, the epitamy of NOW's worst night mare (as some have said) is enrolled in college.

Before you think my 'hard-core' anti-feministic world view is leaving, let me explain (no, no...I'm not against women going to college...I just think it's preferrable for women to remain under the authority of their spiritual head, by living under his roof). I haven't moved hundreds of miles away. I still live at home with my parents, and will remain happily fulfilling the role of stay-at-home-daughter until the Lord allows me to be a wife (at which time I will happily fulfill the role of housewife). I enrolled today in The Homestead College of Bible and Graduate School. I am thoroughly thrilled to see what the Lord will do with this course.

The way it works is...each book of the Bible is worth a certain number of credit hours. So, the entire program is based on studying the Bible. With each book, you read through it twice and then listen to lectures, and do assigments, a project, and an essay about the book of the Bible. This continues until you have gone through all 66 books, at which time, a Bachelor's Degree is obtained (assuming you earn passing grades).

The school was founded by Arnold Pent, who some of you may have heard of through a book called 10 P's In a Pod. The book is about the upbringing of his 8 homeschooled children. His son, Dr. David A. Pent, is now President of the school. After some correspondance, my Dad decided to call him (we looked up his number in the white pages...he and his wife live not far from here). Today, Dad and I went over to his home to talk about the program, and I'm officially a student now. I'm much looking forward to the opportunity of growing my knowledge of God's Word.

Besides being able to obtain a college degree by studying my Bible at home, one wonderful thing about the school is its quite affordable tuition. My entire education will be under $5,000. That is considerably less than any educational institution. My Dad said that for me to earn a college degree at most places, the only way to do it without going into debt would have been for Mom to work. So, this is a real blessing, and I'm quite excited about the opportunity.

They have a number of payment plans. Homeschoolers receive a 25% discount on tuition. They can pay as little as $75/month. This isn't going into debt to pay for college. If you don't pay, then you just don't continue on with the school until you do. It's that simple. If a married couple does the course together, they receive a 50% discount on one person's tuition. After meeting Dr. Pent, I am confident that this will be a great, learning experience; I thoroughly enjoyed his fellowship, and I think his ministry is very glorifying to God.

I know the whole post wasn't solely about frugality, but since it's "Frugal Friday" at Crystal's blog, I figured folks might be interested in hearing about it. So, in addition to announcing my enrollment, I'm adding the post to frugal fridays.