Your Child's Education: UVU or UofU

For an undergraduate does either matter, or is BYU-I just as good?

I would say that it totally depends on the degree, costs (scholarship?), and location. It could be a differnt answer for each child and situation. I'm partial to BYU-I because that's where I went and I feel that I got a good education (Business Management degree) and it has the same brand as BYU Provo without being quite as academically challenging. For my first job the company required a 3.5 GPA and my manager kept telling everybody that I went to BYU in Utah and I eventually stopped correcting him. :D I might not have gotten a 3.5 at BYU Provo but the name recognition probably helped me get that first job with a large global company.



And as much as it would break my heart from a sports perspective if my child received a full ride scholarship to the U of U for a program that they are best in state in it would be hard to tell him/her that they couldn't go there because of my sports fandom.

BYU-I seems miserable. UVU is not a bad school. Neither is Utah State.

U of U is going to have a much better network for finding a job after school. UVU and BYU-I are making strides, but aren't close yet in that front.

Mars wrote:

BYU-I seems miserable. UVU is not a bad school. Neither is Utah State.

I'm not following you here - how does BYU Idaho "seem miserable"? (whatever that means)

ABYUFAN wrote:

BYU-I seems miserable. UVU is not a bad school. Neither is Utah State.

I'm not following you here - how does BYU Idaho "seem miserable"? (whatever that means)

Miserable as in the opposite of enjoyable. Much stricter than BYU with a much smaller town and much harsher, colder weather and no football. See also: Awful, terrible, no good.

Mars wrote:

Mars wrote:

BYU-I seems miserable. UVU is not a bad school. Neither is Utah State.

I'm not following you here - how does BYU Idaho "seem miserable"? (whatever that means)

Miserable as in the opposite of enjoyable. Much stricter than BYU with a much smaller town and much harsher, colder weather and no football. See also: Awful, terrible, no good.

And you've been there and witnessed this or are you just parroting a popular counter-culture theme? Because my experience is quite the opposite.

ABYUFAN wrote:

ABYUFAN wrote:

BYU-I seems miserable. UVU is not a bad school. Neither is Utah State.

I'm not following you here - how does BYU Idaho "seem miserable"? (whatever that means)

Miserable as in the opposite of enjoyable. Much stricter than BYU with a much smaller town and much harsher, colder weather and no football. See also: Awful, terrible, no good.

And you've been there and witnessed this or are you just parroting a popular counter-culture theme? Because my experience is quite the opposite.

My wife attended BYU-I. When I would visit her when we were dating, I was surprised at how enjoyable I found the area. The lack of intercollegiate athletics is a definite negative, but the cold weather can be offset if you're lucky enough to attend the summer and fall sessions.

ABYUFAN wrote:

ABYUFAN wrote:

BYU-I seems miserable. UVU is not a bad school. Neither is Utah State.

I'm not following you here - how does BYU Idaho "seem miserable"? (whatever that means)

Miserable as in the opposite of enjoyable. Much stricter than BYU with a much smaller town and much harsher, colder weather and no football. See also: Awful, terrible, no good.

And you've been there and witnessed this or are you just parroting a popular counter-culture theme? Because my experience is quite the opposite.

It's not cold?

Mars wrote:

Mars wrote:

Mars wrote:

BYU-I seems miserable. UVU is not a bad school. Neither is Utah State.

I'm not following you here - how does BYU Idaho "seem miserable"? (whatever that means)

Miserable as in the opposite of enjoyable. Much stricter than BYU with a much smaller town and much harsher, colder weather and no football. See also: Awful, terrible, no good.

And you've been there and witnessed this or are you just parroting a popular counter-culture theme? Because my experience is quite the opposite.

It's not cold?

It's enjoyably cold.

ABYUFAN wrote:
[Rexburg]'s enjoyably cold.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/95/62/0b/95620b46dceb9894a7977ce8bd2cb717.gif" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

If my kids don't get into BYU I'll probably recommend CSUMB which is a 15 minute commute. I could see UVU or BYU-I as decent options. I'd rather my kids go to any of the UC schools than UU though I'd have to sit down with them and review the ROI for each school.



Depends on aspirations. If they want to be a teacher, I'll try to dissuade them, but if that doesn't work I'll tell them to go the cheapest route available. If they are aiming for a professional school I'll tell them to go somewhere they can get good grades and focus on whatever test they need to take. If they want medicine I'll recommend they go somewhere they can do some research.



Most college degrees are useless apart from signalling to an employer you can deal favorably with bureaucracy. Engineering, Accounting, statistics, CS, maybe finance. Can't think of many useful degrees these days. Even stats and CS are probably better learned on your own. They could take plumbing or welding at the CC down the street and be better off than just about any degree at a 4 year school. If they aren't doing something like that I'd recommend the entrepreneurial degree.



If all else fails I'll tell them to be a leach and work for the government. At least then someone I know will be getting all the money they're taking from me (just finishing my taxes, sorry).

I've got nephews, nieces and cousins at BYU-I or graduated in the last 5 years. All of them went in with Mars attitude, all of them ended up loving it there.

If you're looking for connections, uofu probably better, but the social life at BYUi seems much better than all the above from what I've heard of people who transfered to BYUi from USU, uofu and UVU. anectodal evidence, but it's all I've got.

I personally think I'd have enjoyed BYUi more than provo.



PS, I think what JVQ mentioned above is spot on regarding education.

If my children aren't able to get into BYU Provo, BYU-I is a decent option. I don't live in Utah, so would not encourage them to apply to Utah schools. There are good/better state schools here.

Gunk wrote:

If my children aren't able to get into BYU Provo, BYU-I is a decent option. I don't live in Utah, so would not encourage them to apply to Utah schools. There are good/better state schools here.

I agree. BYU was just rated as the best value school in the country; I have to believe that BYUi would rank higher in that category than out of state tuition for UVU or UofU.



I'm glad to hear the positive experiences about BYUi. The only thing I really knew were the tropes repeated here, the mild resentment I felt at having the value of my BYU degree diluted with the rebranding of Ricks, and stories from two different people--one in his 40s and one in his early 20s--about roommates sleeping with their GFs.



But my oldest son, now a HS soph, has the horses to get in to BYU, but not the drive to get the GPA needed. BYUi may be a good option for him; we'll be going out to visit on our drive West this summer.



Southern Virginia University is another good option for liberal arts (take that for what it's worth).



Ultimately, though, the thing that matters most in terms of branding is your terminal degree. And unless they're going into something like CS, they're most likely going to need a graduate degree. That's when it matters; only then should they consider paying tuition higher than a church school, because that's when it will have a higher ROI.



But as for the specific question of the OP, I don't have enough information to answer the question. The U is a better school, but there is an overt anti-church stain to the school; on the plus side, there's also a very strong institute. My sense is that UVU is an up-and-comer for those who live nearby. There had been a sense that it was a magnet for kids who didn't qualify academically or ecclesastically but whose parents wanted them to go to be close to BYU--kind of the fallacy of sending a kid on a mission to straighten them out. I don't know how true any of that is anymore, though.