Dart Boi
2/5
My time at Freed Hardeman was not particularly hard. I did fine in my classes, and had a halfway decent friend group. My family that graduated from Freed are doing great, and I am happy they loved their time there. When it comes down to it, Freed-Hardeman does a joke job of what it sets out to do. Let's start with the atmosphere. It is touted as a Christian environment that is welcoming to all, when it is simply not. Being a private school sitting in south, you have a permanent setting of "Southern Living." The predominately white students are mostly extremely preppy and high strung, staying in their own friend groups, talking about money, Southern Tide and their trucks. They do not care about anyone but their own personal friend groups and interests. Exclusivity is HUGE at Freed-Hardeman and the students who were not Church of Christ or whos PARENTS were not in the upper-middle class, sadly, got dismissed a lot. The same students who acted this way were a lot of times the ones in chapel leading services, which brings me to the next point. I understand that Chapel is a big thing for many, and for me and my spiritual life, it was uplifting and great. Freed-Hardeman runs into the issue of forcing students to go there, and gives them a limited amount of skips. This is one of many things the school does to control you even more than the surrounding town of Hendwrson already does. Want to be an adult and be out past midnight? Let your dorm mom know you will be late. Is that good enough? Ha! No. You have to have a reason. Want to take off for the weekend and go somewhere on your own? Better let the dorm mom know, because apparently she is your actual mother. My parents were aggravated to receive phone calls from my dorm mother in the middle of the night because I was out doing what I wanted to do. Even they thought it was ridiculous. Education wise, for the money, just forget it. That was part of the reason for me transferring to a state school. If you are not studying Bible, education, or Nursing, you will not receive a decent education at all. It is catered around the faith. Funny enough, the college courses were the only things on the campus that I could find that held true Christian values.
After I left Freed-Hardeman and transferred to a STATE university, I found actual Christians who weren't there to show off. Freed-Hardeman ended up being a waste of my time, a damper on my soul and spirit, and made me dislike the South even more.
Also you have an alchohol and drug problem. But all the kids there are beautiful Christian children so I'm sure it's okay. Right?