There are many differences between BYU and UCLA. As an expert on both schools I would like to put in writing a response to the question I so often receive: "Which school do you like better, BYU or UCLA?"
I first attended BYU after my sophomore year in high school. I left a summer with my friends at home because I was led to believe that my four siblings would be at BYU for the summer and it was a great excuse to quit football without my friends making too much fun of me. When I made irreversible plans for BYU I discovered that all of my siblings but one had decided they needed the summer off. I was left with my brother Stuart’s condo and my knack for survival. I had a lonely summer, occasionally spending time with my lone relation at the enormous university, and the rest of the time in lonely solitude, too young to associate with the elderly Freshmen, just out of high school.
When I became an elderly Freshmen, just after leaving high school, I faced the hardly difficult decision of remaining home for five months or heading once again to Provo, Utah, where I would hope to fit in with the new elderly Freshmen, just out of high school. I indeed chose Utah, where I would spend four months playing and learning before UCLA, the first school of my choice would accept me.
After my first semester at BYU I left Provo for Los Angeles where UCLA had finally come to its senses and invited me to join them. This was my plan all along. I knew that I was leaping from one extreme to the other, but I won a game of Twister against my whole family home evening group, and took second place in the limbo at a dance; I was flexible. I have now attended a semester and a summer term at BYU and a full half of a quarter at UCLA so I feel aptly prepared to compare the two.
BYU was fun. At BYU the women were plentiful. At BYU everyone there had a common bond, and everyone who didn’t really wasn’t part of everyone, they were part of someone else. Church was present in the minds of the students, in the classrooms, in the prayers of the dining centers, in the University art… At BYU there were many different people who did many of the same things in the same way. All of my professors at BYU were white and most of them male. All of my associates at BYU were white and most of them female. BYU was a peaceful place for it. Sure there were skinheads walking around and parading as women, but we all liked the ones who cooked for us better so we didn’t care much about them. Sure there were many colors at BYU but most played sports and we cared greatly about them and their culture. BYU exposed us to their culture by showing its students how to dance the way people from outside Utah danced hundreds of years ago. Nowadays most people of color don’t dance that way, but the way they do dance is not allowed at BYU. In the classroom everything was taught with the background of Mormon doctrine. While the finer points of this doctrine was disputed from time to time by the highest crust of scholars (highest crust because they rose to the top by disputing), the general principles of the gospel united all subjects and thoughts. In our united mind existentialism is false and Jell-O tastes good. Other questions such as evolution were left open by all but the upper crust. The intellectual mindset of the university was stable by all but those in the spotlight. Large regions of calm could be found by immersing oneself in the pot while all the dissention rose to the top like boiling bubbles. What most people overlook about these bubbles of feminism, cramped intellectual freedom, and all sorts of other radical beliefs in both directions, are that bubbles are vapid, mostly air, and they soon pop and leave the pot cooler for all their activity. So the bubbles attracted a lot of attention as they rushed past the students on their way to the top, but they did little to disturb the unity that can be found very few other educated places on the Earth.
UCLA is united in its own significant way. UCLA is united in respect. At UCLA most people will declare their utmost respect for all people of all races and all actions. These same people will associate distinctively with their own race and those of their own activities. Despite these clicks, all here are united in the idea that respect is paramount to society. The results of this resect are the openness and diversity of the student population as a whole. Of course, smaller divisions divide the campus along race and activity lines. Those who party and engage in sex ally in fraternities and sororities and largely avoid others. Those who believe homosexuals deserve more rights largely segregate themselves. Those who believe there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet largely segregate themselves. The respect still unites all these people, but curiously, this respect more often than not results in ignoring the differences of other people. This is humorous in that many people are different solely to attract attention to themselves and their differences, but here everyone is so concerned with respecting others in every way that their differences disappear in others’ minds as much as others’ differences disappear in theirs. The result is a varied student body that cares little about the individual variants, but greatly values that the variation is present. A UCLA student might very well criticize a BYU student for his lack of acceptance of differences. At first sight this might appear to contradict the universal acceptance a UCLA student embraces. Upon closer inspection, in the mind of the UCLA student the BYU student has denied the most important virtue, respect for others. I would defend the BYU student by saying he would probably be even more accepting of many things if the chance were there for him to do so. The simple lack of a varied population prevents BYU students from drawing so many circles around themselves, but I believe that were it possible the BYU students would not contain themselves as exclusively as the UCLA student does. The exception to this rule would have to be the UCLA students acceptance of divergent actions. As the church condemns some actions, so does the BYU student.
The greatest exception to the general segregation of the UCLA student body is the classroom. In the classroom all ideas are welcome and all combine in education. Of course the bond that ties all BYU students together is the gospel which is eternal truth. When an idea is not brought up in class because it is not in line with eternal truth it is no great loss for building knowledge according to truth. Discussing ideas that are not in accordance with the gospel does promote understanding of other people and their viewpoints. In the classroom setting the presence of a diverse class is beneficial to learning about the way other people think and the rationale of why they behave the way they do. If an idea were brought up at BYU that conflicted the gospel truth, chances are that people would look at the questioner funny and not understand why they bring up such points unless out of ignorance.
Now I have completely lost myself in generalizations about the two schools and stereotypes surrounding them. I would take this chance then, to disclaim this essay. I understand that almost every word in this essay is a raging generalization and some may have gotten you steamed. It is good to let out steam once in a while so the rest of the boiling water cools off. I cannot interpret the results of my observations and I am sure that there is much more to even the small points I addressed here, but I am weary of typing so I’ll finish with this. I don’t know which school I like better. All I can tell you is the same thing I told people before I left BYU for UCLA. They are very different. And if I have made UCLA look inferior here, understand that it is never cold here and I live ten minutes from the beach. That is all.