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I'm heading up to BYU Utah this fall and I'm pretty nervous about it. I was just wondering if any Hatrackers have experiences there, good or bad, that they could share. Thanks for any help Posts: 137 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Brinestone (my wife) and I just graduated from BYU in April. I really enjoyed my time there. There are also several other BYU grads and students around, too.
Are there any specific sorts of experience stories you were looking for?
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Ummmmm....not really but if there's "anything you wish you knew when you were a freshman" that you could share with me, that would be very appreciated
Posts: 137 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Get involved in a club or something. Go see Divine Comedy (a student comedy troupe). Get to know your professors. Also, try to find out which professors are good and which ones are bad, and pick your classes accordingly.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Become best friends with someone with Dining Plus.
Don't get discouraged by the big classes. Even if you know you won't be missed, go to lecture anyway.
Perfect Attendance makes a huge difference. No matter what, just *go* to class. It's why you're there.
Americal Heritage is a beast of a class. Once again, GO TO EVERY LECTURE AND LAB and DO ALL THE HOMEWORK. Take it from someone who...uh...learned the hard way.
Take HEPE online if you can be honest about it.
There's a geology block class by Professor Skinner. I took it last winter and loved it. He's really cool and you suddenly have tons of spare time the second half of the semester.
There are practically hundreds of clubs at BYU. If you're bored, it's your own fault. I did YJuggle my freshman year even though I didn't know the first thing about juggling, and had lots of fun.
There's an honors Book of Mormon Class that was my favorite ever...I think the teacher's name is Griffith.
If you know what you want to do, great. If you don't, don't worry about it quite yet. I wondered what I wanted to do with my life for a year and a half before getting accepted into my major just this past semester. It was a scary year and a half, but it was time I really needed. I'm still planning to graduate in 2007, but I might need a spring term in there somewhere.
Make friends and have fun. Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Ooh, yes! HEPE online is awesomely easy. So is Physical Science 100 online. For me, American Heritage was also a piece of cake, but I took it during spring term (less homework). If you can afford to do spring and summer terms, I'd recommend it. It's a good way to get through those general ed classes that you don't want to take.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I did American Heritage Honors and really, really enjoyed my class.
Heimdinger, or some variant, was the professor. . . young guy, very charismatic, lots of enthusiasm.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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In regards to your Book of Mormon classes (or any other religion classes) I have two words for you: Stan Johnson. He is one of the only religion professors at BYU that doesn't believe that religion classes should be harder than Bio Chemistry and Astro Physics combined.
Posts: 194 | Registered: Feb 2005
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I recently went there for a youth conference, so I'll warn you: don't climb trees and don't have waterfights. ^_^
Posts: 290 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Here's one: don't turn off your B.S. filters just because you're at an LDS school.
I know it's not everyone who does this, but a lot of kids who go to BYU (and their parents) believe that there is something magical about BYU that prevents the faculty from presenting and the students from being exposed to anything spiritually harmful, or damaging to the student's testimony. (For non-LDS 'rackers, yes, this really is a concern of many LDS students and their parents. They worry about being corrupted in college, and think BYU is the "safe" way to go.)
Hopefully, you already have the tools to discern right from wrong, good from evil, wise from foolish, etc. Don't stop using those tools just because you are at BYU.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Well, in that respect, it probably is safer than other colleges. There aren't going to be frats and wild parties and drugs and all that stuff. But that doesn't mean it's Zion.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Have Geoff tell you about the film department at BYU if you want the hair-raising stories.
I have a friend who was a film major, but switched programs when he became uncomfortable. Turns out that even in Provo, you can get girls to take their clothes off if you tell them it's for a movie.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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JB:"Well, in that respect, it probably is safer than other colleges."
Actually, it's not. It can be, but because so many people naively assume there's nothing to worry about, it becomes easier for people to take advantage of that naivete. The pitfalls are not seen because they are not expected, and big problems can result.
At a school where the major problems are all out in the open (e.g. wild parties, drinking, etc.), it is easier to avoid them, and so in a sense that school might be "safer". At least, for a certain kind of student.
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Take Paul Merrill for a religion class. I would suggest being very careful when selecting religion profs. I had my worst (spiritual) experiences in religion classes from profs teaching their opinion as doctrine. Paul Merrill was by far the best I had.
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Turns out that even in Provo, you can get girls to take their clothes off if you tell them it's for a movie.
WHAT? If I'd known about THAT, I would have stayed!
I left for the opposite reason — the fact that they self-righteously condemned me as a danger to the department because of my outspoken opinions.
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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UofUlawguy: Are you speaking from experience or just hypothesizing? 'Cause I don't know anyone who was "taken advantage of" because of their naivete.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Since I'm naturally a bit of a rebel, I think I thrive more, spiritually, in an environment where my religion makes me different from other people.
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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That's funny that two people in the same department can have such different experiences.
My friend's favorite class - Documentaries - was cancelled because the class projects that came out of it so often had so much nudity in them.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I would imagine that, whether intentionally or not, at BYU there are two main groups - LDS, non LDS.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I just looked at the comments on ratemyprofessors.com (thanks EL JT de Spang!) for all of my profs for fall semester (except one who wasn't listed) and they look pretty good----a couple sound kinda scary but I guess you can't always get the good ones...
Posts: 137 | Registered: Apr 2005
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But the second of those two main groups accounts for about 2 percent of the population of BYU. Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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One of my best friends from college is working in SLC, and he has literally been ostracized for not being LDS.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Really? My office is over 50% not LDS. It seems there are a lot fewer LDS in Salt Lake City than there are in Provo.
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Ummm...I think it's gonna be Geography with a global emphasis, but I have no idea of what I want to actually do after college. Right now I'm just looking for something to study that I'll be interested in and hope it takes me in the right direction.
Posts: 137 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I've visited, but I was too young to really see things like that, but he says that anyone he meets outside of work, be it at the gym, the park, golf course, mall, whatever, ask whether he's LDS first thing. Or they assume he is.
When they find out he's not, end of conversation a lot of the time. I think he's especially talking about girls being interested in dating only within their faith.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:I think he's especially talking about girls being interested in dating only within their faith.
That's fair, though. Marrying within the faith is very important to most Mormons, so not wanting to date out of it just makes sense.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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JB:"Are you speaking from experience or just hypothesizing?"
Not quite either. I did not attend BYU. But I have been around BYU students, alumni, and boosters my whole life. I became aware of the perils of BYU when I chose to attend the U of U. I was taken aback by the reactions of the BYU folk I knew. They were certain that I would be led astray, or at the very least that I would be dodging beer bottles and thongs as I made my way to classes, in which classes I would be berated for my beliefs and required to accept all manner of anti-LDS indoctrination. If only I had chosen BYU, I would have been "safe".
I found this to be a very strange reaction, so as I attended the U, I took note of the differences in my experience and the experiences of the BYU students I knew. The first I noticed was, obviously, that all the warnings I had received were completely false. The second, which took longer to become apparent, was that the idyllic pictures of BYU life were equally false.
For example:
I never had a professor who was excommunicated for advocating doctrines the LDS Church considers false. Some BYU students did.
If any of my professors ever said anything that was directly contrary to my beliefs, I at least had the clear understanding that they were not representative of or endorsed by the leadership of my Church. BYU students rarely have this advantage.
If any student at my school was participating in activities that are repellent to my religious beliefs, they had no reason to hide it, or to pretend to be someone they weren't. Because of BYU's honor code, students must perforce hide any such behaviors from their peers, who then often end up finding out about them under disturbing or dangerous circumstances.
It was easy for me to separate in my mind the things I was taught by my professors and the things I was taught by my religion. I have found that many BYU students and alumni have difficulty making this distinction.
I was not tempted to place my school or any of its programs on a pedestal because of my love for my Church. The two were, after all, unconnected. I have had a number of conversations with BYU folk whose love of the LDS Church makes them unwilling or unable to bear any criticism of the school.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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quote:Originally posted by El JT de Spang: I've visited, but I was too young to really see things like that, but he says that anyone he meets outside of work, be it at the gym, the park, golf course, mall, whatever, ask whether he's LDS first thing. Or they assume he is.
When they find out he's not, end of conversation a lot of the time. I think he's especially talking about girls being interested in dating only within their faith.
I can't help but think that your friend is exaggerating. In 1990, Salt Lake was about 70 percent LDS, and I'd guess it's a little less than that now. And a pretty substantial number of people aren't active in the church.
I've lived most of my life in Salt Lake, and I've had plenty of non-Mormon friends, and I've never seen this "You're not LDS? I'm not talking to you anymore" attitude.
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JT, if it is important to them, then advocating that they date him in order to let him change their minds is NOT going to help his case there.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I don't think it's that blunt, and I'm sure he is exaggerating a bit, however, I doubt he's making it up. He feels ostracized, and he thinks it's at least partially because he's not LDS. Not being there first hand, I tend to believe him.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Going to BYU, for me, was kind of a hajj I wanted to immerse myself in Mormon culture at the center of Mormon society, and then leave and return to the normal world
Hey, kat, my wife is wondering if you know what those documentaries were about — how they justified doing nudity so often, particularly at the one film school in America where they would be most likely to be censured for it ...
EDIT: Now my sister is wondering, too You've started an uproar over here ...
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Lawguy: Fair enough. You make a lot of good points. I think the fact that a lot of people call the Y "the Lord's university" says a lot; those people always sort of concerned me. But a lot of the students I knew had a pretty good perspective on just what BYU is and isn't.
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JT: I'm confused, but oddly flattered. If that wasn't supposed to happen, don't tell me; my morning just brightened.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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A lot of non-LDS people in Utah feel ostracized, whether they really are or not. For example, if they are in business, they might feel like all the LDS business people are really chummy with each other, and that they are left out. If they are in high school, they might feel left out because most of the LDS kids go to seminary classes together. They might feel left out if their neighbors all go to the same LDS church on Sunday, and to the same periodic LDS parties. It's kind of like being with a bunch of people who have known each other for years and have a lot of inside jokes that you just don't get.
There are examples of real ostracism or exclusivity, too. Some people don't want their kids playing with neighbors who are not LDS (these people are completely whacked). Some people give preference to LDS people in their business dealings, often because they (wrongly) assume that LDS people are more honest. Occasionally someone really will ask what ward/stake you are in, or where you went on your mission. However, I have never personally experienced any of these things. The stories are always second hand. I do not doubt that they happen, but I cannot say that they are at all the norm.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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JB:"But a lot of the students I knew had a pretty good perspective on just what BYU is and isn't."
I am not anti-BYU (except in sports). But my advice to any prospective BYU student, or parent who wants to send a child to BYU, is to make absolutely certain that the student has the above perspective before going.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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There's at least as much bias coming from the U against BYU's supposed holier-than-thou/hypocrite dichotomy. IMO and from experience, the sense of rivalry is nurtured far more by U students. As for BYU itself, I thought it was a very nice, peaceful place to go to school. If there was rigidity, it was mostly avoidable.
That said, I had a difficult time adjusting to the place when I first came out from MN. It was a big culture shock. The first time I heard the bell tower chime "Come, Come Ye Saints" on the hour, I about fell over in shock. Were they serious?!
Socal chic, I am one who couldn't stand my Y-group. That's the little get-to-know-you exercise they put new freshmen through. Ugh. I hated that experience. But others enjoy it and make permanent friends.
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