The University of Utah

As someone who fancies myself to be a reasonably intellectual person, I found the University of Utah classroom to be friendly and intellectually stimulating. The professors and other departmental functionaries are always happy to give you their time and are very approachable and surprisingly cheerful and funny.

The academic environment in my departments was actually quite rigorous, relying less on testing and more on serious papers (often, only one or two 10-30 page term papers) and intelligent participation in classroom discussions. Students who take extra time to converse with their professors about class subject matter outside the classroom also tend to score more highly, as I think they should. There are a lot of bright people at the University of Utah and a lot of excellent faculty; taking the time to get to know some of them was one of the better experiences of my life.

For a university of this size (it's quite large), the number of mammoth-sized classes that I had to contend with was surprisingly small. As an underclassmen, I rarely had classes that exceeded 200 in size; by the time I was doing senior-level coursework, most of my classes were 15-40 people large and by the end of the semester I would generally feel quite familiar with other students in my classes.

Notice that I've discussed only academics thus far. That's because there is NO NIGHT LIFE and NO SOCIAL LIFE in Salt Lake City. It's the nature of the place; the entire state of Utah is very devoutly Mormon and as such, things such as drinking or even going to a PG-13 movie after 10:00 PM are frowned upon, really in an almost puritanical way. The University of Utah is easily and by a large margin the most liberal few square miles in the entire state of Utah, and you will find that there is a lot of dislike and distaste for "those liberals at the University of Utah" in the suburbs surrounding Salt Lake City. For most residents of the state, the respected school is the less rigorous, but much more conservative rival school, Brigham Young University (BYU) whose students are not even allowed to wear shorts or have facial hair!

But I digress. For academics, Utah is a solid school with a very high cost/value ratio compared to most other schools in the nation. I would consider Utah to be among the "best" of state schools because of the number of programs in which it is nationally ranked, something that most people outside academia don't even realize (check the NRC rankings, for example).My degree from Utah, along with good recommendations from its respected faculty, got me accepted into an Ivy-leage school for graduate work--so don't discount Utah as a great foundation for an academic career. Just don't expect to be drunk too often...

5th Year Male -- Class 2001

Friendliness: A+, Social Life: C-

I'd have to disagree with most of the reviews I've read. Although the "U" has a reputation of being a commuter campus you can have a great experience there if you take the initiative to get involved. I was active in student government, my department, the greek system and I lived in the dorms for 2 years. I have lived in NY city, Washington DC, Northern California, and Orlando Florida...So I know what I am talking about when I say Salt Lake City offers a competitive array of activities Skiing, Hiking, theatre, Ballet, Nightlife (yes they have it, clubs, parties, you name it), Sporting events, and the world famous Sundance Film Festival. Whatever your intrests you can find a way to indulge it at the U. As for the student body being closeminded and "too Mormon" I think this is also an unfair catagorization. I found a diverse array of ideas and viewpoints inside and outside of the classrom. If anything there was a conscious effort to compensate for prevailing Utah conservatisim by leaning more to the left. Especially amongst faculty and staff who have been recruited from all walks of life and all regions of the country and world. Momon does not = closeminded, if you disagree with me on this point I think you need to open your mind and make friends with an LDS person so you can see they are as independant-minded and tolerant as any other religious group. One of the so called negatives mentioned in a previous review was that many of the students are "old" because they have served 2 year missions for the LDS church. These are students who have spent 2 years completely imersed in the culture of foreign nations. When they return to Utah they bring with them a wider view of the world, apreciation for different ways of life, and two years of priceless experience. I spent many a fascinating night sitting in the dorms talking to students who had lived in counties like Sweden, Russia, France, Japan, the Phillipines, and South Africa. My only regret about my time at the University of Utah is that I spent too much time partying and having fun and not enough time hitting the books.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000