This article continues a two-part series as students share the long-term effects of ATI’s teaching against college.

College was evil in my family. My parents have changed their views on this now, but still don’t put a huge emphasis on the importance of a degree. So now, I have 3 siblings whom they would completely pay for college, and none of them want to go. I just can’t comprehend it. I was the only one who attended “real” school for about half my life. The rest were all home-schooled their whole lives and I think this plays a big role on that. I have about a year left for my BA. I will be 30 by time I finish. I feel so behind. And school doesn’t seem as enjoyable as it once did. – A.K.

I “chose” to drop out when my family joined up. It still breaks my heart; I was made to scholar in community. Many messages were bound up with my “choice” to leave school: You are proud. You are a woman, thus incapable of independent moral choice. You were created to serve the men in your family–supporting them as they become world-changing leaders–until God directs you, through them, to marry. These ideas still make me want to retch. But that pain is nothing like the grief of lost time. When I left the program with my mind–a good two years after I left with my feet–I went back as fast as I could. School first. Then therapy. Then school again. – B.L.

I held off on regular college and did Verity, but I feel like the ideals of ATI really affected my ability to carry out my dreams, but I am going to go back one of these days! – A.M.

I’ve done well intellectually — I come from a family of readers, I married a reader, and I am a reader. I “married well” in that my husband’s job supports us comfortably. I like having no school debt. BUT, there is a constant current of anxiety beneath: if something happens to my husband, what will I do? I never even took the GED, much less got a degree. I can do a lot, but I don’t have the credentials to back it up. That is scary, and a situation I don’t want my daughters to be stuck in when they’re older. And it’s still embarrassing to me to admit that I don’t have a high school diploma or college degree. – S.J.

My parents tried to keep life balanced and we were given the option of college if we wanted, but that we didn’t have to go to get ahead. I ended up spending a year at technical school after a “gap year” in which I tried to figure out what I wanted to do. The only problem was that after 2 years, I discovered I didn’t want to be an orthodontic assistant for life! So I quit and joined a mission organization and have been on an adventure for the past 6 years, all without getting a guaranteed “paycheck.” Natural giftings have helped in working now as a language worker, director, and now manager. The only reason I’d go back to school was if I wanted to become a linguist and work more with languages, but I’d have to quit to do that…or do the distance/CLEP deal which isn’t for me. So, yes and no it’s hurt but not in advancing necessarily, just in expanding to do more of what I’ve discovered I enjoy. – L.E.

Even though it’s never really affected me actually getting an upper management position ever it affects me mentally and my self esteem big time! Never quite feel qualified even though I have employers pursuing me for the position. – C.D.

I got married at 19. No regrets there, but I graduated at 17 and could have gotten my Associates Degree at the community college by then. I wanted to SO bad. But that was pretty much – well very much – out of the question. College was definitely not an option at that time in my family. I am now 30 and have 84 credits toward my BA in Education. It is fulfilling but pretty inconvenient as a mom of four young children. The weird thing is, Mom mentioned something the other night about ATI. I said something about how college was frowned upon in ATI and she said “Oh wow, yeah, it was really looked at as evil wasn’t it? I forgot all about that!” I wanted to say, “Well, I remember it every night that I am up until 2 am studying!” Higher education still isn’t very strongly encouraged by my parents though. – W.P.

I went to college when I was 19. I only completed a year partially because I did not like the school but also because college wasn’t valued by my parents (and by parents I mean mother if you catch the drift). Instead of going back to college after my summer break I got married because it seemed like a logical step in life if I wasn’t going to get a degree. Yeah, I’m still shaking my head at that concept. My chosen field at this point is TV production and entertainment so a degree isn’t really necessary. However, I still kind of wish I had finished a degree. I think the discipline of college and the satisfaction of getting a degree would be a benefit. Also I imagine that I wouldn’t be so poor if I had a degree. – I.Q.

I was sent to HQ 2 months after I “graduated” from high school. I desperately wanted to be “the” lawyer that overturned Roe v. Wade, but my father said he’d rather God took me home than to see me enter such a dishonest profession. Besides, his vision for me was to be a wife and mother, and a working feminist would have brought him shame in fundamental circles. There are many days I feel as though I am paying for the life he wanted for me. I *will* go to college someday…probably entering the same year as my youngest child. – D.S.