As I share our experience, two quick points: this was a major trial for a young man who has had his eyes set on BYU for as long as he can remember, and in the grand scheme of things being rejected by BYU is not the end of the world. The disappointment of not achieving a major life goal (initially) will hopefully prove to be a character building moment that will shape our son's future for the better.

Many of you have taken an interest in our son's admissions situation. It has been a bittersweet week. We've resigned ourselves to the fact that he won't be attending BYU his freshman year. That's a tough pill to swallow. After pursuing every connection we had, plus many made available to us through others, we have no more insight into BYU's decision and no hope for a reversal. Despite that continued disappointment, we have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and concern expressed by dear friends and strangers alike. Dozens of CBers have reached out to lend words of encouragement, offer their contacts at BYU, and express their sadness at our situation. This experience has reconfirmed what I have always known but sometimes lost sight of in this crazy world: there are so many good people in this world. Nothing quite reinforces our belief in humanity like the kindness of a stranger. Thank you, CB.

I'd like to share what insight we have gained into the current BYU admissions process. This will be long and perhaps boring. You've been warned. I'd like to shed some light on the mystery and myth around the admissions process. I do not claim that the information I'm about to post is perfectly correct. It will be as true as possible to the information that has been shared with us this week. Feel free to verify and correct any of the information I post.


-The Admissions Office

BYU admissions is under new leadership. According to several BYU employees, both faculty and administrators, outsiders' influence over admission decisions has been greatly reduced. We had friends reach out to very senior leaders of very influential departments at BYU, only for these leaders to express their dismay at our situation and express their own frustrations with the new admissions philosophy. One major leader informed us that he had personally written letters of recommendation and advocated for four applicants this year. Of the four, the one he felt was least likely to be admitted was the only one of the four to get in. This is of course anecdotal but representative of many different examples shared with us by our connections.

In years past it was not uncommon for an initially rejected applicant to have a program or department head go to bat for him with the admissions office for help in reversing the decision. This is how my younger brother made it into BYU. He was initially rejected, but the MDT (Music Dance Theatre) program wanted him so they went to bat for him and got him in. I'm sure this can still happen but we have heard department heads say that those cases are now very few and very far between.

I was referred by a friend to an individual very close to the admissions committee who as recently as two years ago was able to re open an application, review it, and overturn the the denial decision. He informed me that he no longer had that authority and influence. When asked if he could shed light on any specifics (or just something!) that could help us know the rationale for our son's rejection he said that he could open the application and review it, but that he wouldn't be able to to share anything with us anyway and that he had no idea how things are being weighted now.

To sum up, the admissions approach is now very different. I'm not commenting on whether or not this is bad or good. Just stating that it is different. It's a new era in BYU admissions and I don't know what they're looking for.



-The Application

Many folks have made comments, suggestions, or asked questions regarding our son's application; that maybe there was an error, or he did not have strong enough ecclesiastical endorsements, what influence if any does a seminary teacher have, etc. Here are the sections on the new application with my commentary:

-Educational History: your normal stuff here. Your high school, transcripts, and test scores


-Recommendations:

---Ecclesiastical Endorsement: the applicant is interviewed by his/her bishop and then stake president. I am a bishop and can confirm that the endorsement from bishops and stake presidents consists of selecting one of two options: endorse or do not endorse. There is no space for comments like there used to be. A priesthood leader cannot comment on or advocate for an applicant. I am a fairly new bishop so I have no idea when this change was made. I confirmed that my son was "endorsed" by both me and our stake president.

---Seminary: The applicant's seminary teacher rates the student on a number of different characteristics and then has space to write a recommendation. Our son was seminary president all four years, on time, happily participated, and contributed much to his classes. I would advise parents to let your child's seminary teacher know of his/her desire to apply to BYU and help them understand the importance of their recommendation in the process.


---School: you must include a recommendation letter from a high school teacher

---Other: you can choose to have anyone else write another letter of recommendation. Our son chose another teacher from school.


-Essays: the applicant has four 2,000 character essays to write. Here are the prompts from this year:

1. Describe a topic, idea, or concept (other than gospel related) that you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more about this? (Our son wrote about his love for music, especially the electric guitar)

2. Have you become aware of a significant need in your family, school, and/or community? Please explain how you have worked toward meeting that need. (He wrote about the need in our family for leadership among his siblings as we dealt with a significant family trial)

3. Briefly describe a time that your efforts have fallen short, a goal was not accomplished, or an aspiration was not achieved. What steps did you take to recover from this defeat? What resources did you use? How and why are you different today? (He wrote about a significant injury sustained his junior year that prevented his competing in the state wrestling championship and how this experience helped him strengthen family, friendships, and his faith).

4. We strive to create a rich and varied educational environment through admitting students with diverse:
Goals
Interests
Skills and talents
Life experiences
Perspectives
Cultures
Tell us your story. What will you contribute to our university community? Be specific.

Our son is no Shakespeare but he's no Gordon Monson either (zing!). His essays weren't perfect but they were solid. They should not have hurt his chances, especially considering the rest of his profile.


-Activities: The instructions read "While you have most likely been involved in many different activities, choose two examples that will help us get to know you as an individual."

---Activity 1: Select an activity you would like to write about. Please provide a short description of the specific activity. How long have you participated in this activity? Why did you choose to participate in this activity? How have you benefited from your participation? (Our son chose to highlight his years in student government)

---Acitivity 2: Rinse and repeat (He wrote about his selection to and participation in the Atlanta Braves Leadership Institute)

That's it. Personal and academic info, recommendations, and 6 essays (two specifically about your two chosen activities). It's up to the applicant to weave other activities (if he so chooses) into the contents of the other essays. You officially get to write about two activities. No longer can an applicant check all of his/her activities from a list of provided options. There's not even an official box to check if your son is an Eagle Scout (egads!).

Here are the official options available to our son for getting into BYU (still his end goal) as explained by the admissions office:

1. Attend BYU this summer as a visiting (not admitted) student. In the past students who didn't get admitted for Fall semester could be admitted to summer term and then continue on to fall semester as admitted students. Not anymore. If a student chooses to attend as a visiting summer student any credits earned in the summer could be used as credits earned towards the total required before applying as a transfer student (24 credits minimum).

2. Not enroll anywhere and reapply by Aug. 1 for admission to Winter semester. We were told he could reapply for winter. They implied that since his application would essentially be the same that their decision would likely be the same. Some folks say it is much easier to get admitted for Winter. Could be. Could be a waste of a semester as well.

3. He can attend evening classes as a non-admitted student to make progress towards earning his needed 24 credits to apply as a transfer student. From what I can see the evening offerings are limited and probably wouldn't be the best choice for him. Might work for others.

4. Take classes at the BYU Salt Lake Center. The Salt Lake campus has better class offerings than what I can see of the evening classes, but comes with its own set of pros and cons.

5. Go straight on his mission and reapply post mission. Again, the implication from the admissions office is that the only thing that will have changed on his application is his returned missionary status and that this would be a gamble as well. Our son wants to complete a year of school and have a true freshman experience before his mission. Not a viable option for him.

6. Go to another school, earn 24 transferable credits, and apply as a transfer student. This is our son's preferred choice.


Our son, as stated above, will likely attend somewhere else this upcoming year, head on his mission, and apply as a transfer student. He still wants to end up there. He is evaluating his other acceptances and scholarship options. Oh, side note: the admissions office confirmed that had our son been admitted he would have been awarded a half tuition scholarship. Ouch. So his grades and ACT score were good enough for a scholarship, but not good enough to get in. Gotcha.

I've commented to a few friends that this experience reminds me of the one time I had my heart broken by someone I thought I truly loved. I had invested a lot of time, energy, and emotion into that relationship. Suddenly it was over. I was devastated for a day, angry the next, and she was dead to me by day three. I was fortunate I could move on that quickly. We do feel a bit like jilted lovers. My relationship with BYU runs much longer and deeper. BYU owes me nothing and didn't make me any promises. Yet we have invested an enormous amount of time, energy, sacrifice, emotion, money...you name it...into preparing our kids to get into BYU. Even though BYU has their new"holistic" approach I feel my son deserved a spot regardless of their approach or admissions philosophy. By any measure he met or exceeded the standard. I'll move on eventually, but it might take a bit longer than three days. He's handling it like a champ. He's a much better person than I am. Hopefully by this time next year I will have moved on and we will be celebrating the acceptance letter of our 2nd son (who has a very similar profile to our first). Either way, I promise not to bore you all with more sad or happy tales. Thanks for listening.