Sure they get a tuition break for being members, but at what cost? They pay for it by giving up their right to religious freedom. If they start to question the religion, they get kicked out of school completely - they aren't allowed to just stay and pay the higher tuition rate.
Back in the early 1980s, I went to BYU as a new convert. While there, I met a couple of non-members, including a devout CAtholic girl and a devout Baptist girl. Both completed their degrees at BYU; neither joined. Why did they come? They liked the idea of a campus that mostly free of hardcore college partying and drinking. They felt like they recieved a good education, too.
25 years later, I still feel I recieved a darn good education and was well-prepared for my chosen field, which I have worked steadily in. Yeah I didn't like some of the cognitive dissonance between what I might hear in a religiong class compared to what I'd hear in biology or geology class.
It was the right place for me at the time--and I went to get an education. Not all of us were there for our MRS degree--I got my mine long after I left college.
My kids (who are inactive with me and don't believe any more either), don't want to go to BYU, and I'm glad--but they don't want to go to off somewhere with a hardcore party culture either.
if someone reaaaally wants to go to byu then why not join the lds church just for the tuition discount? it's all a sham anyway so why not play their game?
i'd do it in a second. but why would i want to go a mormon school anyway if i weren't a moron?
i did it in high school. they sent me to this private school to shape up --7th day adventist. years went by and they got fed up with rumors and this and that. sons of bitches told me they were going to kick me out of school for discipline issues 2 months before graduation (banged a few chicks, swearing, sacrilege, listening rock music..silly things like that..teenage stuff). i told them i 'repented' but it was just to gain time until the end of the year. i lined up for baptism.
there i was. taking baptism classes and all. i set the date for a week after graduation as a "present to god". never showed up.
got to stay until graduation, graduated just fine unlike my wingman who didn't "repent", saved my mom a headache or three, i was happy, they were happy. everybody won. even jesus.