getting into BYU is kindof like winning the lottery, where you have some control over your chances.

Arguably, you could say that every student that gets accepted had received a $15k scholarship in the sense that they are getting a $20k per year, high quality private school, undergraduate education for about $5k.

I see people on both sides use the “faux defined benefit” argument in the past. Some will say “Do you know how much tithing I have paid as a parent over the last 18 years? This is just a small return on the investment”. Others would use the same argument but lamenting when their kid doesn’t get in.

I think that ByuI plus transfer solves some of this problem. I had a 4.0 and 34ACT and full ride to both BYU and USU, but chose USU because of the program I wanted to do, and think it was one of the best decisions of my life. At the time, BYU and USU tuition were about the same (we paid for some semesters when my wife didn’t have a scholarship). Now, however, even USU is about 160% the tuition of BYU at a bit over $8k per year, and that is for instate.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I understand some parents frustrations when on paper their kid looks as good/better than some others that got in and they are now looking at thousands more in tuition costs simply because their kid didn’t win the bYU lottery.

Edit:typos