Quote Originally Posted by LA Ute View Post
Kind of a finishing school for the faith's best and brightest (mostly those growing up outside Utah)? Also a place to meet and marry, and to form connections that will last after school? And a way to establish an employment network for LDS grads? All of those are extra-educational goals for BYU, it seems to me. One danger is the creation of a sort of elitist aristocracy. That would include a lot of young people who think they're better than others, and that they graduated from an elite school (which is hard to get into because so many highly-qualified LDS kids want to go there, not necessarily because the education itself is elite). When I am recruiting law students from both Utah and BYU I find excellent candidates at both places and we have hired many from both, but I am often amused at the way BYU law students talk about how elite their school is.
Why do you hire them? You are less petty than I am.

Why do you say "mostly those growing up outside Utah"? I assume BYU still has a pretty high percentage of Utahns?

I went hiking with a church friend on Sat. Some of his kids have gone to BYU. He says at graduation, they have spouses and kids walk along with the graduate? "Walking with Skyler is his wife Brianna and their two kids Jaxsyn and Maydyn." Is that real? How did I never hear about that before? So, yeah, a place to meet and marry is a big part of it all.

I think the elitist aristocracy is real in the years immediately after high school. I've had missionaries use false modesty and say they go to school in Utah instead of saying they go to BYU (as if it were AJ telling people he goes to school in Boston). But the aristocracy dies out shortly after college age, when said elitist is the 2nd counselor in the ward sunday school presidency. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've had almost no BYU alumni in my church leadership.