BYU is a wonderful university that provides a unique experience and several opportunities to its students. While this university benefits many, not all who wish to share in the experience are able to. BYU attracts many high-achieving students from the country and around the world who want to share in the tradition of academic excellence and spiritual enrichment that the university offers. However, the high demand for this university among church members also means that several academically well-off individuals come to be considered unqualified, despite exceptional academic records.
According to the BYU admissions statistics for 2012, incoming freshmen had an average high school GPA of 3.8 and an average ACT score of 28. While these requirements are manageable for many students, several students who wish to go to BYU are unable to do so, despite high performance levels in high school. While I am aware that it is impossible for everyone who applies to BYU to be accepted, I still feel that there are several prospective students who are denied the opportunity to come to this university, despite the fact that they could succeed.
I acknowledge that this circumstance is unfortunate for many, and I wish it was otherwise. However, I do not believe that there is a practical solution for this situation. Making accommodations to allow more students to be able to attend the university would have a ripple effect that would reduce the availability of services provided by the Church to the university students, such as tithing-subsidized tuition. If it were practical to expand the university to allow a greater number of academically capable students to attend, I would love to see it happen. As for now, I believe this is an issue that will remain unsolved.
Sources:
http://yfacts.byu.edu/Article?id=82
http://saas.byu.edu/tools/b4byu/sites/b4/?new-freshman/entrance-averages/
The only problem that I have with your proposed solution is that when you expand BYU's acceptance rate, it degrades the value of the education for the rest of us. The fact that we jumped the academic hurdles in order to get here makes our presence here more impressive.
ReplyDeleteIt is a sad fact that many intelligent, capable students are not allowed to come to BYU (in fact, I come from the only High School that has a cap of allowed students to BYU).
That being said, there is a reson why I am here instead of a Community College. These high standards keep this school competitive, and our degrees are worth much more when the bar is so high.
We made it into a tough University, we should be proud. I don't condemn those who don't make it here, but there are plenty of other choices.
I enjoyed reading through your post. I too agree that there are some students that are intelligent and driven to succeed, however, did not quite make certain requirements. I think that BYU does take this problem into consideration because they will allow certain students to enroll in the Summer semester before being able to have a seat for the Fall. If Summer semester is successful, they can stay for Fall semester. I just bring this up because that is what happened to me.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that the BYU experience is only given to a select few and sometimes I my self wonder how I even made it in with such a large pool of successful students out there wanting to be accepted. All I can say is that the world is a cruel and unfair place were everything doesn't happen the way it should. It's a dog eat dog world and sometimes you have to work the system.
ReplyDeleteI think that the high standards BYU holds in admitting students is what makes it a great university. We are considered some of the best of the best and we should be proud of our accomplishments. I agree though that there are some students that are denied who definitely could succeed at BYU, but most every university has to deny students that are capable of succeeding, not just BYU.
ReplyDeleteThis problem occurs everywhere in the education world. It has now become accepted that if you lift up a pencil a couple times, you'll graduate high school. We(society, teachers and administrators) put such a focus on increasing graduating rates(as if that's the sign of success) and by doing so, often lessen the commitment on the part of the student needed to achieve that goal. So, the real question is, when do we stop handing people their education?
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