Utah State University

Date: Mar 13 2008
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm from here, and semi-mormon. I grew up with mormonism but am not currently active. Just like a lot of the comments on here, if you are non-LDS be careful. But again, I'd love for a ton of non-LDS people to come to USU for more diversity.

Most of the LDS people here have just grown up with tons of other LDS people, they don't purposely discriminate against non-LDS peoples. They just forget. They forget that not everyone is LDS, and sometimes if you aren't they assume you are a hardcore partier, who drinks and gets high.

The LDS Church has a lot of activities for students, so the social scene here for people who aren't interested in attending things like that is limited. You mostly have to go to the LDS social, or end up going to a party with a ton of drunk hicks, with a ton of their drunk townie friends who don't go to school. Or, end up doing nothing.

I, personally, feel as if there isn't a lot of emphasis on an academic lifestyle. There really isn't a lot of that coffee-shop (LDS people try to refrain from caffeine, especially coffee caffeine) intellectual type thing going on. Since I've been here there hasn't been a lot of fun activities that are school sponsored. Some of the dances are fun, especially the paint dance. The HOWL was supposed to be fun, it has a reputation of being the biggest Halloween party in the state of Utah, but this year (and I guess last year), its sucked because of influence of a certain group of people.

This campus has a huge population of married people, or very close to getting married people. Which, can lead to a lot of a dating scene because everyone wants to get hitched…and fast. But, you'll find the vast majority of those people are LDS. So, the dating scene can be very limited if you don't want a LDS or religious person, or if you don't want a wild partier.

It seems like a lot of the girls (especially the ones who's wardrobe seems to come solely from Hollister, American Eagle, and Aeropostale, plus Uggs or Phat Pharm shoes) are going to being teachers, or majoring in Family and Consumer Science. If teaching elementary school or high school is your thing USU has an amazing program. Ditto with our Space and Mechanical Sciences, Agriculture, and I've heard but I don't know the facts, that the Political Science department is the best in the state (other than BYU). If its not the 2nd best, its definitely just tied with U of U.

There is a definite school spirit here, Aggie apparel is everywhere. We have amazing sports (except for Football). Our basketball team is one of the best in the league. Truthfully, some of the diversity of USU comes in from Athletics. Most of the out of state people I've met are LDS and White. They just either couldn't get in to BYU, or didn't want to be somewhere "that mormon".

The surrounding town is boring. There are a few good places to eat, 1 dancing club, and if you like outdoor sports you are gonna have A LOT TO DO. This is definitely an outdoor activity town.

Don't get me wrong, I love USU. I am an Aggie! But, I just can't wait to go to graduate school somewhere ELSE!