Miss Jill's Myth Busters #1: BYU Admissions

“You know Mary from the ward? She got a 34 on her ACT and was valedictorian of her class, but she got rejected from BYU because she is from Utah. Can you believe that?”

No, I cannot believe that, because I worked in a division of Admissions when I was 19. Sorry friend, but at least back in those days, Mary’s application would have been accepted automatically, unless she didn’t have an ecclesiastical endorsement. Those Utah rumors exist to make people justify their rejection. In my opinion, however, it is harder to be accepted as a transfer student than a new freshman.

Although I was eventually the victim of a workforce reduction and restructuring, I loved that job. After they cut half of the staff, my friend pointed to the Director’s new desk and said, “Look, there is our replacement.” In their defense, most of the time we had nothing to do and sometimes my co-workers would sneak downstairs and prank me from a courtesy phone in the lobby. Although of course, I would never dream of doing this, I had access to everyone’s grades and could check if people’s crushes were worthy of their affection.

I also got to see some interesting things:
• A letter of recommendation from one of the Apostles that read, “I don’t actually know Applicant, but her dad is my doctor and is a very nice man.
• A letter of recommendation from a member of Congress (applicant had TERRIBLE grades) on official letterhead: “I strongly support this application, because the applicant is an outstanding young man. He also happens to be my grandson.”
• An admissions essay in which the applicant described, in poetic detail, the romantic, bacchanalian night in which she lost her virginity. That sure beats the essay template, "After being the only (or one of the only ) Mormon(s) in my school, I would love to be surrounded by people who share my same values." I can't knock it, because I probably wrote that.
• An ecclesiastical endorsement that said, “Do not admit this applicant under any circumstance. She is a member of a polygamous cult and will proselytize.”

If you take nothing else from this post, just know that if you are a Utahan applying to BYU, don’t give up hope. You don’t have to go through a more rigorous application process based on proximity to school. If that were true, wouldn’t our classmates from Provo have been embryonic Nobel Laureates?