Degree Opportunities at Liberty University
Liberty University appears in our ranking of the 30 Most Affordable Online Bachelor’s In Finance.
Liberty University offers its students the choice of nearly 300 undergraduate degrees and more than 300 masters degrees. There are also 32 doctoral programs at the historically Christian university. Those programs are housed within 17 colleges at the university, which also features a school of law and a school of medicine for students of those disciplines. The school has an incredibly large number of students enrolled in online classes with more than six times the number of students enrolled online than in residential, traditional classes at the Lynchburg campus. The university strives to provide degree programs of the same academic quality online as would be found on campus in a traditional format.
The school has received a variety of accolades for its programs including recognition as a military-friendly school with flexibility and valuable options for military students and veterans, as well as recognition by Niche as a school with high-quality online programs in the areas of value, academic rigor, and diversity. Some of the programs a student may consider at the bachelor’s degree level are in areas like music, nursing, law, government, and education. Liberty University also has degrees at the graduate level in those areas, as well as degrees in the visual arts, communication, business, and behavioral sciences. Doctoral programs are available in the areas of nursing, government, divinity, behavioral science, business, education, and music.
The programs in divinity and religion at Liberty University are highly regarded and are available in many specific and interesting areas of faith. While many universities affiliated with Christianity will offer generalized degree programs in religion or religious studies, Liberty University offers several highly focused degrees including a Bachelor’s Degree in Biblical and Educational Studies, a Bachelor’s Degree in Religion, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Christian Leadership and Management. Some of the areas of study where students may focus while enrolled in one of these programs include Evangelism, Christian Counseling, Biblical and Theological Studies, and Christian Ministries. Students may use one of these programs and foci to launch a career in the ministry, or they may continue into one of the many graduate-level programs at Liberty University.
Areas of focus at the graduate level for graduate-level study include Christian Apologetics, Community Chaplaincy, Global Studies, Leadership, and Pastoral Ministries. Students may also find degree programs in Worship, Biblical Studies, Church History, Discipleship, and Church Ministry, Homiletics, Pastoral Counseling, and Theology. After receiving a graduate degree at Liberty University, students should feel well prepared to enter the workforce in an environment of their choosing, or they may continue their studies at the doctoral level in one of the many areas available for study. One area that may offer students a complementary educational experience is the Behavioral Sciences unit where students may focus on Community Care, Supervision, or Counselor Education. With the wide array of programs available at Liberty University, a student can likely find just about any degree program that suits their interest whether it’s one within Divinity and Christianity or another program that will lead to secular work.
About Liberty University
Established in 1971, Liberty University is a large school in Lynchburg, Virginia that offers degrees and educational programs to more than 15,000 students at its suburban campus of 7,000 acres, as well as online degrees to an estimated 100,000 students. Affiliated with the Christian faith, the school is one of the largest such universities affiliated with Christianity. Each student who enrolls as a freshman at Liberty University must take three Bible study classes during their first year. The school also requires that students abide by a code of behavior that restricts contact between men and women. The university is commonly used as the site of speeches made by candidates for the Republican Party. The school’s official colors are red, white, and blue, and the sports teams at the university play as the Liberty Flames and the Lady Flames in NCAA Division I games.
Liberty University Accreditation Details
Liberty University holds a variety of institutional, programmatic, and regional accreditations with the most important accreditation coming from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The association has given its approval to Liberty University to award degrees at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. Some of the programmatic accreditations Liberty University holds include approval from the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education for the Athletic Training program and accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs for the Ph.D. Counselor Education and Supervision program, the M.A. in Marriage and Family Counseling program, and the M.A. Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. The school’s business programs are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs, and that accreditation includes degrees that range from the associate to graduate level of study.
Liberty University Application Requirements
There are many admission factors that Liberty University takes into account when deciding on a student’s application. Those decisions include the student’s high school GPA, the scores achieved on the SAT or ACT, the student’s essay, and how consistent a student has been over the course of his or her academic career in grades and focus. The average student at Liberty University has achieved at least a 3.15 high school GPA, 1020 on the SAT, and a 20 on the ACT. The university also recommends that students take a variety of courses in high school to prepare for study at the college level. Those classes include four units of English, two or three years of mathematics, two years of laboratory science, two years of a foreign language, two years of social sciences, and four units of electives.
Tuition and Financial Aid
Liberty University is a private school and requires the same tuition rates for students in a given program whether they’re part of a residential program or an online program. Rates for the residential program at the undergraduate level starts at $23,800 per year. Students who live on campus will also pay between $4,600 and $7,500 for room costs and between $3,780 and $4,180 for a dining plan. Students will also pay a variety of additional fees that include a student health fee, student activity center fee, and an optional auto registration fee. For graduate-level programs, students will pay $545 per credit hour in most cases but may pay different fees for certain programs like the Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling, which is charged as a block rate of $2,850 per semester or the Master of Biomedical Sciences, which costs $650 per credit hour.
Students enrolled at Liberty University are eligible for all types of traditional financial aid including government-backed loans, private loans, scholarships, and grants. Students should submit a FAFSA form to secure a financial aid package from the university, as well as apply for private scholarships and funding opportunities. Some students may qualify for Federal Work Study programs when they attend classes on campus. Students are eligible for financial aid at Liberty University whether they enroll in one of the online degree programs or an on-campus program.