BYU Culture

These are my answers to some scholarship requirements here are BYU, I think I was hating BYU when i actually wrote it...my counselor at the scholarship office emailed me the same day i sent this in and wanted to know how i was doing...hahaha.  Mads told me to put it up here so here it is Mads!

“What is the BYU Culture?”

BYU is a culture chalk full of extremes.  We have the religious extremist who try to impose their person beliefs on everyone around them.  Granted this is a religious university so this is tolerated and expected, however there are all sorts of extremist on campus.  Liberals who find fundamental mormon living ridiculous, there is also a sense of being alone among this overcrowded campus.  One can walk around campus all day and never feel like he is welcome or seen.  There is an interesting unspoken rule here on campus.  Unless you are close friends you do not talk to each other while walking around. It is funny that you can be so close to so many people and not know any of them. It feels like BYU culture seems to mimic that of a large metropolis in which one must fend for themselves and make no mistakes or you will be thrown to the curb and left behind. Also for some reason unbeknownst to me the mustache is making a come back. I hope that this does not become a big part of BYU's ever "evolving" culture, I pray that we skip the seventies! On a more serious note the culture is fun when one finds his group of close friends that make living in Provo bearable.  So in summary the BYU culture is very diverse in the smallest way possible to still be labeled diverse.  Sure there are extremes, but since everyone is so opinionated you lose the sense of difference here.  Its like politics, take away the party names and the parties are exactly the same. 

“Are you successful or are there frustrations in this culture?”

I dont think anyone can ever have success without a great deal of frustration.  Take for instance my success in my writing class.  I love to write I even have a blog now! I mean I feel so very technologically advanced.  But to get an A on my papers I have had to work my tail off!  A poem that I got an A on took about 30 drafts to get into the final product, that was frustrating and oh so annoying.  However when i try to say whether or not I am successful within the BYU Culture I am perplexed.  I want to say that yes I do! Because here within this culture you are somehow judge as a good mormon depending on how well you fit in with those who live the perfect BYU life.  Sadly I do not fit in perfectly but I do have my place here and I love it.  BYU is a great institution that does strive to make us into the best people we can be.  For that I am grateful, even if it does lack in many things that I personally see as important.  The greatest frustration from me is that fact that BYU demands near perfection out of its alum, but then in most cases refuses to help by claiming that services designed to help students are too overwhelmed.  I would answer stop letting so many people in, it would sure open up the parking lot a lot more. Take as an example the science classes, I sit in these rooms with 300 other students and learn absolutely nothing, which is not good considering I am a science major! Oh yes, the culture of BYU is a fun one that is for sure.  But it is survivable and we try the best we can! You cant really ask any more then that.