A Bible college and a seminary both teach Scripture seriously, and the two are often spoken of as though they were the same thing. They are not. The clearest difference is simple: a Bible college is undergraduate study, and a seminary is graduate study — and that one distinction shapes who each is for, how long each takes, and what each qualifies you to do.
New Geneva at a Glance
- Tuition
- $300 / credit hour
- Format
- 100% online
- Tradition
- Confessionally Reformed · Westminster Standards
- Founded
- 1993
- Programs
- Certificate · MACM · M.Div. · Th.M. · D.Min.
- Status
- 501(c)(3) nonprofit
The short answer
A Bible college is where you might earn your first degree. A seminary is where you go afterwards, usually because you are preparing for ordained ministry or for teaching the church at depth.
What a Bible college is for
A Bible college offers undergraduate degrees built around Scripture. Students typically arrive from secondary school and study the Bible alongside general education subjects, often with a practical concentration — youth work, worship, missions, Christian education.
The aim is formation and grounding. A Bible college graduate leaves with a bachelor’s degree, a serious working knowledge of Scripture, and frequently a first ministry role. For a great many faithful servants of the church, that is exactly the right education and the story ends there, well.
What a seminary is for
A seminary trains people who are already graduates, most often for the pastorate. The work is specialised rather than broad: biblical languages, systematic theology, church history, exegesis, and pastoral practice, taught at graduate level.
The distinguishing feature is usually the biblical languages. A seminary M.Div. expects you to read the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek — not to translate devotionally, but to preach from the text itself. Very few undergraduate programs carry that, and it is the single most common reason a church requires seminary rather than Bible college for ordination.
Do you need a Bible college degree before seminary?
No. Most seminaries expect a bachelor’s degree, but they do not generally require it to be in Bible or theology — and admission requirements vary from school to school, so confirm them with the seminary itself. Students arrive from engineering, teaching, medicine, the military and business, and the seminary supplies the theological training from the beginning.
A Bible college background is an advantage — you will meet the material already knowing where Habakkuk sits — but it is not a prerequisite, and its absence is not a disadvantage worth worrying about. Some of the best-prepared students are those who came to the work later, from another vocation entirely.
Which one does ordination require?
Usually seminary, and usually the Master of Divinity. Most Reformed and Presbyterian churches expect a candidate for Teaching Elder to hold an M.Div. or its equivalent, including Hebrew and Greek and a full systematic theology sequence.
But this is decided by your church, not by the school. Acceptance of any degree for ordination is determined by your own church — so ask them directly before you enroll anywhere. Their answer is the one that governs.
New Geneva’s 100-credit M.Div. is built to meet standard ordination requirements for Teaching Elders in Reformed and evangelical denominations, including Hebrew, Greek, and the ST 502–507 systematic theology sequence. New Geneva is an affiliate member of the Association of Reformed Theological Seminaries (ARTS) and is authorized by the Colorado Department of Higher Education under the Degree Authorization Act as a religious institution.
What about a Christian university, or a divinity school?
Two more terms cause confusion, and both are worth untangling.
A Christian university is a general university — nursing, business, education — taught within a Christian framework, with Bible as one department among many. It is undergraduate in the same sense a Bible college is, but far broader in scope.
A divinity school is a seminary, generally one attached to a larger university. The word is older and the setting is different; the level of study is the same. If you see “divinity school”, read “seminary”.
Which should you choose?
It is less a comparison than a sequence, and the honest question is which stage you are at.
- No degree yet, and you want Scripture at the centre of it — a Bible college.
- You hold a bachelor’s and are pursuing ordination — a seminary, and almost certainly an M.Div.
- You hold a bachelor’s and want serious theological grounding for lay service — a seminary, but a shorter master’s rather than the ordination track.
- You are not yet sure this is your path — audit a single seminary course before committing to either.
Where New Geneva sits
New Geneva Theological Seminary is a graduate institution: a confessional Reformed seminary founded in 1993 in Colorado Springs, holding the Westminster Standards, and training students from across the Reformed and evangelical church.
It offers the M.Div. for those preparing for ordained ministry, the MACM for lay leaders wanting depth without the ordination track, the Th.M. and D.Min. for advanced study, and a Certificate of Biblical Studies for those beginning.
If you are weighing seminary against Bible college and are not yet certain which stage you are at, the least expensive way to find out is to sit in on a real course. Your first New Geneva course is free to audit — the real class with the real professor, no application and no examinations. Additional courses are $100 each.
