Former Principia Students, who are former Christian Scientists, answer some of the most common questions they’re asked about their Principia experiences.
1) Why did you attend Principia?
“Good” grants and scholarship combinations made it appear affordable (which it was not, in either case). The small, quiet campus was a promising break from an overcrowded high school experience and I didn’t want to face thousands of new faces who were likely to be drinking or otherwise more rowdy than I wanted to handle.
2) Did your experiences at Principia impact/influence your views of CS?
Yes – knowing that a lot of students who attended Prin left CS after, I thought it was a shame that Prin turned so many people off of the religion. In hindsight, their draconian policies were probably helpful in highlighting the absurdity of the religion as a whole. One regret was that while I felt like a “bad” CS at Prin, I got more into CS after leaving. I did gradually ease away from the religion a few years after leaving Prin, though.
3) If you had a do-over would you attend Principia again? Why/why not?
Yes – I would take it less seriously, but the friends and the campus made it worthwhile: I would have gone under at a larger school and Prin was a comfortable size.
4) Would you recommend Principia to a young CS?
No – a similar experience can probably be found elsewhere with less baggage.
5) Please share one positive experience and one negative experience about your time at the school/college
Positive………………….
Negative – total lack of confidentiality when dealing with RCs; nosy RCs who would shame single students for not having a boyfriend but would hound students who were dating, assuring them that if anything was amiss/a violation of the code, they’d be caught.
This site offers support resources to help individuals negotiate a transition in a manner that best fits their needs and convictions. We do not advocate any one particular path but acknowledge that there are many legitimate pathways that can be personally and spiritually fulfilling.
It’s funny, I know someone who works in financial aid who claims they never get complaints and that most of the loan repayment plans are very low, but I’ve heard many people having problems with them. I think this particular employee honestly doesn’t handle the complaints because they’re pretty open about most of the bad stuff at Prin, but I think that again shows lack of transparency even within a single department.
I don’t think stockolm syndrome relates to horizontal friendships with people in the same position, but I’m not an expert 🙂