currently I'm an exmo teen with a year and 2 months left before I can move out. I've always really liked SLC and want to go to the U of U (to be closer to home and because it's the school i want to go to, atleast for a few years)
Anyway, now I'm not so sure because i don't want to live in a really 'mormony' city or go to a really tbm school. Do I have anything to worry about? I dont want to sound picky but i want an idea of what to expect.
thanks :)

As a current student at the U, I can most assuredly tell you the answer to your question is both. Compared to, say... Los Angeles, it is a very mormon city. However, compared to most of the rest of utah it is a very liberal city with a lot of secular (or at least *more* secular) people. They still have funny laws, but there are actually bars and clubs (even strip clubs, if you're into that kind of thing). They don't brag about how mormon they are in most cases, and, in fact, in all of my classes I have met and know of more non-mormons (mostly nevermos) than mormons.

Most people who never really lived in Utah will say that SLC is very mormon... but people who've lived both sides of the coin will say the opposite.

As a grad of the U of U who now lives in another state I say YES SLC is a mormonie city, but I did not notice it so much until I moved to another state. There is definately a Zion Curtain but it is felt less in SLC than in other cities in Utah.
When you live in another state, then you notice the Zion Curtain when you visit SLC or talk to TBMs or even non-TBMs there. The culture is very much influenced by the church. There is no real separation between church and state.
The U of U is a good school and you can find lots of non-TBM ppl around. The campus has fewer TBMs b/c the real intense ones go to BYwho? Anyway, that is my take.
BTW - for those of you who have lived in Rome for example, is the Catholic church as dominant as the mormos in Utah?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2012 02:23AM by enoughenoch19.

enoughenoch19 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> BTW - for those of you who have lived in Rome for
> example, is the Catholic church as dominant as the
> mormos in Utah?

No. Also, I don't see much difference between Rome and the rest of Italy.
IMO what makes the Catholic church "dominant" here is the HUGE number of Roman, paleo-Christian, medieval, Renaissance and Baroque churches. Every church is like a museum: mosaics, sculptures, frescoes etc.
However, art has nothing to do with mentality.

Utah is the mormon state. That's a fact now and for the forseeable future. Starbucks is doing quite well if that helps. I'm sure that regular mormons are not making coffee successful in Utah. Every gas station and convenience store sells cigarettes. They aren't just selling them to people passing through. I'd say UofU would be fine for you. There were plenty of mormons in my field of study. I did OK, but the return missionaries were difficult to compete with. They worked together. I felt guilty trying to study club with them when I didn't do the mission and didn't go to church. The other groups were difficult to assimilate with from out of state for me. I was caught in a pinch. I did my best. I did ok. That was 19-20 years ago. I'm sure things are a bit different now.

I've had two kids attend the U. You can find what you look for. There is a big institute and Mormons flock to it. But never mos do fine. My youngest DD (never mo) is currently in grad school there and lives in the Sugar House area. She loves it! Lots of restaurants, bars, and shopping within walking distance. Of course, it seems like heaven after being raised in Utah County.

If you live on campus, try the international dorm. Interesting people from all over the world live there and they are usually serious students. The partying in the freshman dorm drove my kids crazy.

A really awesome nonreligious Utah school is Westminster College.

It's a private which means it might cost a bit to get in but if you have good grades, you may be able to get a scholarship. Check into it!

Isn't Westminster connected with the Presbyterian church? I thought it was when I lived in the area (late 1960s, early 1970s).

Live in Salt Lake City. It is the closest thing you will find to living in a normal state.

but it's a very liveable place if you visit or if you are single and don't live there or have a family with children

I've mentioned this before but it could be of use to you:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0104.mencimer.html

This also might be useful:

"Salt Lake City is a white working class and lower middle class city which bases its "status" on superiority to SLC's downtrodden and marginalized dark skinned hispanic and Native American minorities. Salt Lake's population of white working class and lower middle class strongly resent the presence of middle class, educated, attractive, and of course interracially partnered and married black people, especially black women. If your girlfriend is biracial or very fair skinned with caucaisian textured hair then you may not experience such harsh resentment. However, a middle class brown or dark skinned woman partnered interracially will suffer great hatred. The mormon culture, even by those not LDS, worship marriage and relationsips as major value of one's worth. The white working class and lower middle class women of Salt Lake are competing, crying, and longing for any half way good looking, employed, and outdoorsy white man to commit to them. The white women in Salt Lake are conditioned to believe that they are better and certainly more attractive than a black woman. Your girlfriend will be viewed as taking you off the market and it is a small city with very little anomynity and you may suffer some painful emotional repercussions. However, honestly, if your girlfriend is inarticulate from the hood and a walking stereotype, then you will have no problem because she will not be considered a threat. Hope this helpful and you should vacation here for a long time and your girlfriend should interview at many places, maybe even work during the vacation to feel things out past the "I'm smiling and being extra nice to prove I'm not the racist I am" phase. Mormons do follow a doctrine of friendliness and kindness and they have mastered these qualities co-existing with instutuionalised and passive racism."

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/salt-lake-city-area/73589-interracial-couples-salt-lake-city-transplants.html#ixzz1jXdygeP1

oops, wrong link--try this instead:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/salt-lake-city-area/1125341-relocating-year-new-york-city-salt.html

SLC is a Mormony city relative to most cities of the world outside of Utah. That is to be expected because so many of the U students are Mormons. But, relative to Provo, BYU, and most other smaller cities, it is not Mormony.

At the U, you can find anything you want--Mormon, Exmormon, etc. It is a great school.

I saw a black man on TV once. His name was Gary, he played a little kid named Arnold. Can you imagine? He even moved to Utah. But, some mean white lady hit him on the head and he died.

Ouch!

Two Native Americans who warmed right up to me when I spoke of the Indian Placement Program and its horrors, and another gal from the south part of the valley who was really knowledgeable on this stuff and said she'd visited this site...

Salt Lake is pretty liberal, about 55% non-Mormon and 45% Mormon, and Salt Lake Mormons are more likely to be Democrats than those from elsewhere in the state...

If support is important you--and I think it is in college--then either Utah or Westminster would be a reason choice for you.

Utah & SLC are HOT in the summer & freeze ur arse off COLD in the winter.

If you're a skier, that might work for you.

If weather is important, try SoCal or someplace more moderate.

but then I had only recently blown it off and a lot of mormy stuff probably seemed normal and I wouldn't have noticed it. I think it would bother me now. Even just watching clips of the TV news or reading print news stories from Salt Lake, the Mormon stuff jumps right out and gets on my nerves.

My brother who now lives in Minnesota (and hates the Mormon church even more than I do) would tell you it's very mormony. He and his nevermo wife couldn't wait to get the hell out of Utah. But they were living in South Jordan, not Salt Lake City.

Oh, and my son who was never exposed to Mormonism except when visiting family in Utah now lives in Park City, and he thinks *that's* mormony.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2012 03:37PM by munchybotaz.

Moving there in a few days. This thread bummed me out.

If you say "The Church", anywhere in Utah, it means Mormon.

I would try and find a school where if you say "The Church", people assume St Peters in Rome.

SLC obviously has some Mormon aspects to it, but I wouldn't consider it "mormony" in the least. The city and the University are fairly liberal places.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2012 02:12AM by snb.

Live in the avenues or the Sugarhouse area and it isn't bad.Loved the U. Mormons go there, obviously, but so do a lot of other people and most of the professors are cool.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2012 01:58AM by bona dea.

i feel a lot better about moving there, believe it or not. i love the idea of meeting other exmos there :)