I have two years of college left and I am planning on going to Utah state. I am 18 years old. What is the Mormon influence like there? Will I get a somewhat real college experience there? I basically see my options as either Utah state or University of Utah. The reason I am thinking Utah State is because it is not a commuter school and it seems like a very social place. I am not considering going out of state so this isn't an option. Obviously it has a high Mormon population, but will I still be able to have some fun???

By the way I am a Finance major and I plan to go into Law if this makes a difference.

USU is Utah's best kept secret...It is a land grant college that is athe third largest school in Utah. It is farily conservative but has a diverse population. Many students are active LDS but many are not. Many kids come from throughout Utah,Idaho and Wyoming...

While it is in Utah and many people are LDS I never felt LDS pressure..If you attend you will find a niche that you fit right into no matter what your feelings on Mormonism are. An excellant school with an excellant and beautiful campus. I graduated in 1988...I love USU so I am a little biased.

you will have as much fun at USU as you want..you will definately get the college experience you expect...

You'll find about anything you want there. I went from USU poli sci to UofU Law School many moons ago.

By the way, I think Finance and Law are a good combination.

Good luck.

I hated it there, as did another fellow who I talked to months after getting back. It really depends on if you can get along with Mormons or not. I had many bad experiences and it was there that I decided once and for all to leave the church. Maybe it was the fact that I went up starting in the spring semester. It's a place where you have to know people because it is SUPER clicky. Besides that, I tried to talk to many people and they wouldn't talk to me back.
1. I was talking to a girl and she left me in the middle of our conversation without saying goodbye for her friend, not that it was a two-way conversation anyway.
2. I was talking to a girl and tried to get her number from her friend. Her friend said, "As long as he's a worthy priesthood holder!" I called her anyway. (She never called back).
3. Never once had an actual conversation with my cousin's room mates. My fault? Perhaps at least halfway or more, but people up there generally don't like talking to you unless they've already validated you somehow, I've noticed.
4. Groupthink is REALLY intense up there. You can try to be yourself and you'll just get icy stares from people, as they look at each other and wonder how to respond.
*Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with my looks, unless being too good-looking is a bad thing, in which category I would fall in except for when it comes to the prettiest girls. Just sayin'.
After a while, I got so incredibly sick of people, that even when pretty girls tried to talk to me, I'd just avoid them cause they were (probably) Mormon.
And that's about the end of my bad experiences that I care to recollect right now. F*ck USU!!! Go secular or go home.

It was a mixed group, and this one said she was down in Salt Lake for the holiday break and found the atmosphere there stifling...

I'm just passing stuff on; I used to visit a cousin in Logan as well as a friend--who later went on a mission. Both were attending USU, and both were liberal Mormons...

I recounted the gossip from the "good old days of Jack Ford" (story was the Secret Service used to keep the local police away from parties if you invited Jack).

She couldn't believe that one...

Better than YBU is my guess (whether the Happy Valley original or the Idaho clone), but that's about all is my guess...

I was at a wildlife seminar a few years ago that featured a USU "ecologist," and the guy struck me as just another TBM in denial...

We even had a few of those at U...

This was in 1969-70, but my sophomore room mate at the UofU transferred from Utah State because she didn't like the cliquish Mormon environment. Just to be fair, this was a long time ago, she lived the LDS dorms which she hated and she wasn't the easiest person to get along with.However, she was very TBM.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2010 09:55PM by bona dea.

Looks like for the most part I won't have a problem there.

Go to the U. I did my first 2 years at USU and last 2 at Utah (graduated in 2003). Logan is too small. The institute of religion has more enrolled than the university. It's BYU Jr. For example the university asks all professors to avoid school related things Monday night so students can go to FHE - that kind of thing. And kids who aren't Mormon sometimes tend to over compensate with naive over-the-top partying (extasy, unprotected sex, . . . ). If that's what you're into, you'll find a better variety in SLC anyway where there's way more to do. There's more of a commuter aspect there I guess, but those who don't are just as big as entire USU. And you'll find a HUGE local superiority complex from Cache valley locals at USU. And getting a job afterward is WAY easier at Utah. With a math degree I probably would have had to teach high school math had I stayed there, but I got a job at overstock.com in SLC and now I'm an SAS programmer consultant in LA making low 6 figures. And they take academics a little more seriously at Utah, classes aren't so easy.

....but the goody goody lds powers squashed that long ago.
I think USU is more controlled by the morg than ever before. The church knows everyone can't go to BYU so they want to control USU too. The Utah legislature also threatens to cut their budget if they don't stay in line with COB CEO's wants.

There are diverse social groups at USU but they rarely intermingle. If they do, often it is on a superficial level.

LDS college kids will go out have sex,party and drink, but then they will bear their testimonies the next day,...I know the church is true.... blah blah blah. Mormons will not consider marrying a non-mormon because they don't have the same "values".The non-mormon may actually have better morals and habits than them, but if NOT LDS the non-mormon is below them on the "Jesus loves me more" scale.

Mormon college students are the biggest hypocrits known to man. LDS student members will use/ take advantage of anyone until they find the "right" mormon person to marry or insist that person convert. Mormons are programed to take advantage of other's feeling and emotions. I think it is a mutated DNA trait.

A friend of a friend recently left his mission because he realized the church was not true and had studied his way out. Like a lot of LDS boys he had to do some repenting before he left for his mission. His rich parents of course, were unhappy he quit his mission. He came home,started to live a normal non-TBM life and then BAM! He refused to talk to any of his non-TBM friends and has been "brainwashed" by a TBM girl who HAS to have a temple marriage. He has now cut off all friendships with anyone but very devote mormons and is a now total jerk. But his LDS family is happy.

This a typical story of the shear pushiness and power of fanatical mormons and GA's. I'm sure the church did not want to lose a child of one of their rich members. The pressure on that poor smuck must be so intense.

Stephen Covey.......bleh!!! Not my favorite.

http://mormonlife.com/story/1811-covey-to-join-usu-business-school-faculty

If this is true you should contact the Civil Liberties Union. Utah State receives federal funds and it unconstitutional to have religious activities sponsored by the university receiving fed funds. File a Feferal complaint!

Utah state has been horrible on my daughter. She's only been there a few weeks and has been bothered by missionaries at least 4 times and people she hopes to be friends with find out she's not LDS and they are very rude and ask why she's there at Utah state. Then they never friendly again. I've contacted campus police because she doesn't feel safe. The missionary's are let into the dorms then go to each pod of rooms, knock on the door and ask if there are any non Mormons there and her room mates feed her up to the missionary's immediately. I've paid a lot of money for a good education and this is ridiculous. I'm going to contact the school and file a serious complaint.

I think she should have a talk with the dorm's RA (resident advisor.) She should say that she's feeling harassed for being a non-Mormon, that her roommates are not respecting her, and that she would like to switch to live with fellow non-Mormon roommates.

She should also have a chat with her roommates and tell them that she has zero interest in meeting with church missionaries, and they are not to refer her.

I'm sorry that she's having a negative experience. To be fair, we've heard from non-Mormons and exmos who have done well there. Perhaps she can find some student groups where she can fit in.

The girl is not (yet)the well-informed and experienced adult you are. Sometimes our fledglings need serious parental involvement.

Adjusting to college is a big step, with an increase in academic demands, being away from home and much that is familiar, having to make new friends and make major adjustments. I don't think an 18-year-old girl should have to deal with such additional stresses as JLem described.

Of course we want our kids to gain independence and learn how to adjust and cope with difficult situations, but what JLem is describing, if accurate, is beyond the pale. If that were my kid, I'd attend to this matter personally and would be in Logan in short order: first, to find out for myself exactly what the situation is, and second to look after my daughter's interests. Suppose this girl's situation is so serious legal intervention is necessary? It takes a parent to help work through this kind of of cr*p.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2016 01:15AM by caffiend.

I think college is the ideal time to start learning how to solve such problems. RAs are in the dorms precisely to be problem solvers.

summer Wrote:
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> I think college is the ideal time to start
> learning how to solve such problems. RAs are in
> the dorms precisely to be problem solvers.


I agree, Summer. My dad retired as a professor from BYU seven years ago. He said at the start of his career, it was unheard of for a professor to be contacted by a student's parents, but that by the end, there were a few every semester who were contacting him and other profs about their kids' grades. These same parents were often in contact with dorm officials, deans, student affairs employees, and others on campus.

The helicopter parent thing is getting out of hand. Most college students are legal adults. Those who are not (my wife started BYU at 16; I was 17 my first semester) can be handled on a case-by-case basis, but, for the most part, shouldn't be enrolled in regular colleges or universities if they cannot manage their own affairs. There are universities with programs for college students who are younger than the traditional starting age of eighteen or almost eighteen. Parents should seek out such programs if their offspring are bright enough for university but not sufficiently mature to function in traditional college settings. In any event, professors and other university officials do not want to deal with parents and are not doing college students any favors by aiding parents in managing their children's affairs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2017 02:56AM by scmd.

JLem Wrote:
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> Utah state has been horrible on my daughter.
> She's only been there a few weeks and has been
> bothered by missionaries at least 4 times and
> people she hopes to be friends with find out she's
> not LDS and they are very rude and ask why she's
> there at Utah state. Then they never friendly
> again. I've contacted campus police because she
> doesn't feel safe. The missionary's are let into
> the dorms then go to each pod of rooms, knock on
> the door and ask if there are any non Mormons
> there and her room mates feed her up to the
> missionary's immediately. I've paid a lot of
> money for a good education and this is ridiculous.
> I'm going to contact the school and file a
> serious complaint.


If the school doesn't do anything, call the ACLU.

the thread police hate old threads

Well, it's been six years since the OP; jwood either went there or not, and now either has a job or not.

Party on Garth! Party on Wayne!

when I was teaching there circa 1970, there was a rumor among the faculty (most of whom were Mo of varying intensity) that the "brethren" had approached the USU prexy (can't remember his name now) with a proposal that if he'd get rid of some obnoxious faculty members, the cult would steer BYU student overflow USU's way. Supposedly he turned them down. Have no idea if the rumor was true, but

gives-you-an-idea-as-to-the-climate-ly yrs,

S

Current Aggie here. Overall the mormon influence here is pretty strong, but less than it is in Davis/Utah counties, the other Utah areas I've inhabited. Roommates are luck of the draw but where you choose to live also influences that. The best days to be on campus are Sundays, the gym/library are much less busy and ppl there most likely not tbm, good day to meet people. There is a secular student club up here that I'm signed up for but due to my work schedule I've been unable to attend the meetings so I'm not sure where it's like.
There is a lot of the typical Mormon bs that goes on, the missionaries troll certain parts of the campus area heavily.
Long story short, heavy Mormon presence, but enough non Mo's to make it worthwhile.

If you can trust your kid to an environment that's as shark infested as Utah schools, they'll be better prepared to deal with the real sharks in the business world. So what about clicks? They're a zoological exhibit. Feel free to rattle some cages.

My daughter graduated from USU last year in physics and enjoyed the experience in Logan. She isn't LDS and didn't seem bothered by the Mormon influence. She really liked several of her professors and seemed to thrive at the school. She is also gay yet was never distracted by some of the LDS propaganda. She thrived in spite of the Mormonism. She also had good roommates (important factor) who were ex-mormons or non-LDS.

She is now in law school and the program she was accepted to (Arizona State) provided a partial scholarship. She was not a top student in high school (somewhat average) but USU was the catalysis for her success. I think USU would be a good choice, especially if you want the traditional college experience. Plus, Logan and the northern Utah area is beautiful.

I assume USU went out of its way to nurture your daughter, being in the back yard of BYU. Empowering women is their way of sticking it to the man. Physics is tough. Great way to get you to think.

Which reminds me of my senior year in Physics. There was this unbelievably hot blonde literally throwing herself at me. Thanks to Mormonism, we never hooked up. Otherwise I'm sure the world would be up by a few blonde nerdy brats.

There were certainly very mormon cliques, but I had nothing to do with them, I had friends who were non-mormon, out of state no-mos, mormon, jack mormon, TBM. At any University you get out of the social life what you put into it. I visited USU a few weeks ago and traveled with several USU co-eds, non of them were overtly mormon, and they were friendly to even an old homely guy, so I would guess social life is still great at USU. My high school was controlled by two or three cliques that revolved around jocks and student government. When I got to USU I found people and especially young women very friendly and open, it was a great time to be young and away from home.

I am not in college yet but I have visited usu and to me it seems like a great college. My sister went to it and just went on an less mission. Please consider that there is a lot of things people do not know about Mormons and do not understand anything about them or what they do.

Please understand that most of us were Mormon longer than you have been alive. We indeed understand Mormons and what they do.

I'm proud to call myself an AGGIE too!

I was totally left alone when I went to USU in the 1980's. LDS is all around you, but when you go to class GAWD is left outside.

If you have enough balls to tell them to leave you alone, they will.

I had tons of fun when I was there, and NONE of it was through the church.

You decide to go there, and you will be glad that you did!

I graduated from the College of Natural Resources. B.S. Range Science, minor in Forestry. No one EVER looks at me as having gone to a MORMON school......but rather to a GREAT school.

I don't know how relevant the information is now.

When I went there a lot of 'law school' hopeful friends were encouraged to go there (USU) instead of a larger school like the UoU.

Maybe it was the less competition, I am not sure.

The college of business, competes with any other Utah school on placements and program.

The OP graduated 5 years ago and doesn't need advice about USU.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
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> The OP graduated 5 years ago and doesn't need
> advice about USU.

Even old threads can be interesting.

Old threads can also be annoying and confusing. This would be one of those, IMHO. I find it annoying mostly because the critiques are awful, based on what I've heard from working with USU graduates over the years.

iwenttothewoods and a few others have reasonable critiques. USU is just fine if you have modest problem solving skills for dealing with Mormons. Then again, I live 3 blocks from Temple Square, and spend very little time worrying about Mormon cooties, so maybe it is just me who doesn't have much of an immune response to Mormons.


It is confusing because people are still trying to give advice to the OP, who has long since departed RFM and college.

i just want to know if tequila night is back.
tbm stands for true bullsh*t mormons

I'm so old I remember participating in a successful "Smoke In" in the union building at USU!

The secret is to find your own subculture. In the late 60's and early 70' that was possible. Don't know about now.

Do you remember the Briar?
Coffee and smokes.

I do remember the Briar. That's where the Smoke-In was held. There were TV cameras there for the event and I was afraid my parents would see me on KSL TV coverage. Luckily, they did not.

It sounds unbelievable in this day and age but back then smokers needed a place to smoke and The Bluebird was always full of students.

Another proud Aggie here (as much as I can call myself that after that Bowl Game yesterday...).

I started out as active LDS when I was at USU, but I grew up in a small New England college town. Coming to USU and being involved in church was quite the culture shock for me. Utah church and church back home were very different. I was always very uncomfortable doing churchy stuff while at USU. Eventually I became inactive and spent most of my time with non-LDS friends and dating non-LDS girls. When I chose not to be involved in church stuff, I felt like I was able to distance myself just fine from the LDS influence at USU. I felt like I ended up having a similar college experience to those I went to high school with back home.

USU is very much mormon controlled.
Do yourself a favor and go to the U.
USU is much different than it was in the 70's and 80's.
LDS missionaries with their backpacks are everywhere.

Aggie checking in here.

The Mormon influence at Utah State University is not as terrible as you might think. There is quite an interesting cultural dynamic there, however. While I'd guess that 60% of the students there are active practicing LDS, I'd put 20% of the student body in the decisively NOT Mormon category. There's probably about another 20% who are Mormon-in-name-only or less active. I basically can't speak to the influence of the 60%; I never spent any time with them. There were times that even forgot that I lived in Utah, because I never overtly felt the LDS presence other than the year I lived on campus.

The 20% NON-Mormon crowd has a pretty strong counter-cultural influence in Logan, which has both benefits and downsides.
Benefits of hanging out with the non-LDS 20% is getting a strong exposure to the typical college party life; plenty of drugs, sex and rock and roll (if you are looking for that kind of exposure).
Unfortunately, you end up seeing the exact same kids at every house party, Greek event, and bar. This creates a relatively tight-knit "community" which is perfect for people with high extroversion who don't mind drama or a tiny, inbred dating pool.
The other drawback includes the endless partying (Could just have been the friends I made, so keep that in mind). While I loved the people I got to know there, it seemed as though all they wanted to do for fun was smoke weed, drink, and occasionally experiment with harder drugs. While I am grateful for my exposure to these things, as the resident health nut, I always felt like the odd woman out when I refrained from partaking every weekend. Oftentimes, I'd suggest more "wholesome" activities like backpacking trips, hotsprings visits, visits to other cities etc., and I found that there was little interest in anything besides altering states of mind. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that there is anything morally wrong with partaking in drugs or alcohol, but binge drinking every weekend is only entertaining for so long.
Additionally, I wouldn't advise a recent young exmo to just jump into an environment where these "vices" run rampant without some sort of balanced context and a grounded worldview.

While I graduated from USU, I had the experience to live in SLC for a while and hang out with kids from the University of Utah. That was a much different experience. While my UofU friends still enjoyed some good bud and brews, they seemed to be more moderate in their participation. Social events didn't always revolve around the use of some sort of mind-altering substance, rather events revolved around a concert or a brunch meet-up. Additionally, the non-LDS UofU students seemed to be more goal-oriented and driven than the non-LDS USU students. There was a strong intellectual atmosphere lacking at USU, likely due to the higher academic acceptance standards at UofU. Overall, I believe that the people I met from the UofU rubbed off positively on me.

That being said, there is a much smaller sense of community in the university district up by UofU. It was more difficult to make friends- likely because the percentage of kids living in SLC under 22 years old is smaller. I admit to being mildly lonely while living in SLC; you might have a different experience.

Long story short; if you prefer to spend your time with more "intellectual" people your own age or older and want a more valued degree, your best bet is the UofU. You will just have to work harder to have a social life. If you want cheaper tuition with a decent education, can tune out the TBMness found in the 60%, don't mind having friends that spend all weekend partying, and want the typical college exposure to various drugs, USU is your school.

Edit: If you're going into Finance I'd go with Utah State-- the Huntsman business school is pretty good.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2017 09:08PM by iwenttothewoods.

Also, not to be weird but we might be related, although Wood is a pretty common last name. Do you have relatives in Cache Valley/Cedar City?

"jwood" last posted about six years ago.

Do you live in the Logan area?