I have a friend who, even though she applied to BYU for 3 consecutive semesters and kept a high GPA of 3.2+, never got accepted into BYU. She now goes to a state school.

Meanwhile, I know someone who is on a mission outside of the US and is convinced he will be going to BYU when he returns. He has a really bad GPA of 2.0 and has only taken a few classes at a local community college.

Do admission officers hand out acceptance letters to those who served a mission??

yes they do!

I don’t know about now, I suppose it’s changed a lot but back in the old days (60’s) definitely yes.....automatic. I got in with a freshman year 1.8, no questions asked, after my mission. Probably saved me from Vietnam, or at least from being drafted.

Righto, Bob! I never asked to go to the Y; I was told I was going to the Y...

Did they make you take that class they thought would help us 'dummies' keep up?

I believe the course was, “Bone Up on Your Studies.”

Well, although I never took the class I did do better after coming back. Everyone thought it was my two years worth of training and such...but I knew it was fear of getting drafted if I screwed up again. Fortunately I stayed on top of things till 1970 and the first lottery ;....Got a nice big number 5 months before graduation. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t unpatriotic, just unconvinced. But, as you know the answer is yes, in those days at least, RM was a ticket into BYU. Different time, different life.

What's wrong with hoping you won't get drafted?

I'd turned 25 so I'd lost my 2-S deferment and had passed my draft physical, and then I got my draft notice. I appealed and the first draft lottery was held on the Monday night before my Thursday final appeal. My number was 365. I blew off the appeal with a telegram, telling them that as soon as my number came up, I'd be there.

Mine would have been a easily written human interest story but no one knew about it, except for all the times I gabbled on about it over the next few weeks.

365?....bingo !!. I was 303, and from a draft board with lots of enlistments. (Inner city Chicago). We were pretty bulletproof safe, weren’t we. .....and Cate, there is nothing wrong with not wanting to be drafted, but in those days avoiding it or not was a kind of litmus test to measure ones patriotism. Like I said, differemt time, different life....especially for me.

BYU-H was a one semester scholarship in 1999. Dont know if it has switched now or not. Plenty of haoles took advantage.

It wasn't for this Cowboy (early 70's, OMG)
I didn't have a good GPA & they wouldn't let me in, just back from my 'labors'.

I know I got accepted to Southern Virginia University in 2001, run by LDS businessmen and professors but not owned by the church.

They offered me a "Returned Missionary Scholarship" i.e., discount.

I opted to put the RAD in Radford University instead.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2011 11:51AM by athreehourbore.

Atta person...

I went to Longwood. My mom went to Southern Seminary (before said LDS businessmen took over). I considered going there myself back in the days when it was still a women's college because I was into horses. Sad to see how Mormon Buena Vista is now.

I'll have to go out there one day next summer and check it out. I'm sure it's a pretty little town.

I remember as a teenage girl a neighborhood mother on my street lamenting the fact that her daughter was going to Radford as it was done in "early American cinder block." That's all I know about Radford.

Back in the day (early 70's) they did. I graduated HS with < 2.00 gpa. Post military, post mission, I got right in.

Just sayin'...

Ron

I got in with just my RM status. No ACT no SAT, unimpressive GPA but things have changed a lot since then

Same story: unimpressive GPA but RM so I got in. I have to wonder what my path might have been otherwise. I would have stayed in Southern California and likely attended College of the Canyons and CSUN or CSULB. I did attend CSULB after the Army for my teaching credential. Great experience there.

From what I've seen, I would say no... My brother had a 3.7 GPA and he is an RM and he never got in. He ended up just going to UVU in Orem,UT

My secret as a woman no less to getting in to YBU was waiting until I was a junior to transfer because all the stupidass mindless brainless young women who only went out there to get thie Mrs. degrees and dropped out.

One suspects that tuition hikes elsewhere have put a lot of pressure on BYU admissions.

There are only about 5,500 freshman and sophomore men at BYU, and presumably over 20,000 guys come off missions every year.

http://yfacts.byu.edu/viewarticle.aspx?id=93

The church makes no secret about what they want from their Universities. They want young Mormons to meet and marry and have children. Returned missionaries are viewed as valuable assets that need to be retained. After all, these guys have already proven that they can "take it in the ass and beg for more" otherwise they wouldn't have finished the mission...right?

While it's true that YBU and YBUi are at capacity the RM candidate will get a slot over a non RM with the same GPA every time.

Stunted

How about if you are a 'minority'? In 2010, a small Catholic High School in our area graduated a Mormon girl who went to BYU on a full scholarship--she had a 2.8 ( I know, I wrote a recommendation--not a very enthusiastic one, but a recommendation nonetheless because she really worked hard) and was a Phillipino Mormon (the first graduating Mormon from that high school, ever).

She got in with a scholarship, no problem.

I think it had everything to do with her status as a miniority--her grades certainly didn't earn it.

And she is back in town, going to a Jr. College. Seems she couldn't deal with the ostracism the lily-white folks at BYU dealt her. She honestly thought they would welcome her with open arms.

BYU seems to be more about accepting people who they want to keep Mormon than anything else.

For example, my friend's girlfriend applied there for this coming fall semester and got in, and I was absolutely flabbergasted. I knew this girl. She was dumb as nails (couldn't have had more than a 2.0 GPA), and had had sex with her old boyfriend multiple times. However, she got baptized into the Mormon cult last year, applied to BYU, and got accepted, no questions asked.

Meanwhile, another friend of mine applied. She had > 3.0 GPA, was the leader of the Track and Field club, and came from a long line of Mormons. Her dad was the bishop of her ward, and she had gotten her Young Women's Medal Thing. But nope, no acceptance for her.

So BYU accepted the stupid, immoral, but recent convert girl over the perfect example of Mormonism with good grades. I figure they thought that the smart girl was probably going to stay Mormon even if she didn't get accepted, while the recent convert needed to go to BYU or she would fall back into her "sinful" ways.


SIDENOTE: Why do people call it YBU? I can't think of a reason, and I can't find it in the abbreviation topic either.

YBU is "Why be you?," implying people who go there are mormon automatons... pod people.... etc.

Of course, I'm willing to entertain other interpretations....

Its not about RM or not. its about whether or not a person has been given official LDS Inc charity case/ special project status.

If you are the pet project of some G.A., mission pres, regional authority or influential S.P. or bishop, you will get funneled right through BYU. IF not, then you better have impeccable academic credentials, damn good luck and be able to fight & claw like Hell to make your way along.


Seen it a 1000 times, some fucktard with inside connections
-dumb asses who cant tie their own shoes somehow plowing through the impossible system at BYU, while some other bright qualified person cant make any academic progress or get anything else done.

MY friend not only got accepted, but *somehow* shot to the head of the list around about 200 other couples for BYU housing.
NOW HOW DID THAT HAPPEN! - he was the designate pet project of his influential mission pres.

I could have paid triple tuition & they would have just as soon
ran over me with a bus as do anything else for me.

I know ppl dont like Packer,but when he told his family that not all of them could keep going to BYU there was a bigger message going on there. The family's insider privilege at BYU had simply been stretched beyond all insider capacity, even for a MORmON ASSpostHOLE.

You people know absolutely nothing.

Please signify by raising the right hand.

The best advice you can give someone who wants to go to BYU-Provo is to spend a year at your local college, achieve a high grade-point, and be lucky enough to be chosen to go on a foreign language speaking mission. That will almost insure you will get into BYU if you had at least a B+ average in high school.

If you really want to attend there, then

on the application part: Favorite Primary Song

Insert: I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

Do not list: Popcorn Popping or I am Child of God

It's a sure way to be accepted every time! :D

No SAT, no ACT, got into the Y solely on my RM cred.

I never applied to BYU but I did send them my ACT scores, which were pretty high.

They subsequently sent my parents (yeah, not me, but my PARENTS) a letter that said, more or less, "Ummm... your son has sent us his... uh... ACT scores, but he hasn't... uh... submitted an application...".

Cowards.

Yes they do. I used to work for admissions. They get extra points for a mission. At the same time, you can get your points somewhere else too. BYU used to have a chart, which showed what they're looking at and how important the section is. Not sure, if it's still up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2018 05:53PM by goldrose.

I Escaped from Ricks, went on a mish (67-69) met a great gal in Spanish Fork, applied but was (GASP!) Denied.

I always thought it was partly due to my 'convert' status...

I seem to recall that being an RM is worth one additional point on the evaluation scale, meaning, not as much as you would think.

When I was at Ricks they showed up enmasse in October and were married off by Christmas or New Years

I have little doubt that being an RM increases your chances of getting into BYU.

However...

Freshman class acceptance is the toughest at any college. An RM with some "community college" likely isn't going in as a freshman, which also increases his/her chances.

And 3.2 isn't a "high" GPA. With AP classes and such, that's average or below. There are plenty of schools where a 3.2 will let you get in (if you've got good SAT/ACT scores and have some other things going for you), but also plenty (especially big schools) where it's nowhere near high enough.