I
am just going to step right in and say that
I came to BYU as a Mormon and left as
an Atheist. This was 100% due to my own
research and by no offense toward me by any student
or faculty member. I simply learned through the course
of my studies that humankind is capable of anything without
God and that a belief in the supernatural begins with
a belief in the superiority of others. Now to my
actual review of the university, BYU is great! My
favorite part of the BYU experience was the fact that
the people I worked with on a daily basis were
very diligent and hardworking. There was not much unfriendly
competition and the friendships I made at BYU enriched me
as a person. The faculty were very approachable, many
had an “open-door” policy and were willing to drop what
they were doing to discuss anything, even personal problems.
Oftentimes I could get to the professor easier than I
could get to the TA.
The campus is beautiful.
The grounds are well maintained and graffiti/gum/garbage is removed very
quickly by the ground crew. I worked as a
custodian for several months and the attitude is that people
from all over the world see our campus and we
need to make sure they see only the best.
This added to the overall feeling of the campus and
made me feel safe at anytime of the day or
night (especially when walking home from late night project work).
The equipment is all very new and very up to
date. I have gotten experience with hardware that I
am now using in industry. The lab facilities were
nice and well maintained. Undergraduate research is big at
BYU which means that the nice equipment is not just
reserved for graduate students. I was working on undergraduate
research from my junior year and the experience I got
was amazing.
The only problems I can see with the
campus is that a small portion of the population is
very “Utah Mormon”. For those who haven't heard this
term before, it basically means very close-minded Mormons that
don't just follow Mormonism but some kind of super-Mormonism.
They are extremely concerned about getting married at BYU which
made dating very difficult. It was like a job
interview for all eternity. The religion classes (16 credits
are required) were mostly taught by these “Utah Mormons” and
oftentimes the lessons were very intolerant of individualism and free
thought. This is my main complaint of the university.
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