BYU rankes in the top 70 (USNWR like USC, STANFORD and 4 other PAC 12 institutions. BYU Ranks in the top 100 by Forbes that ranks additional national universities and colleges in the humanities, arts and letters areas that USNWR ignores.

Boysenberry State is unranked completely by USNWR and it ranks between 600 and 650 by Forbes. The LOWEST academic ranking of any B12 program is West Va at 400-412 (usually hovers in there). The lowest PAC 12 program is usually Wazzo and Oregon State. Utah has really improved its game academically the last two decades and is under 200 in Forbes and around 110-115 by USNWR.

Again Boysenberry is NOT in the same class or spoken in the same breath as programs in the top 100 either way, Please do not pretend its much more than junior college for mouth breathers. Look its getting better, but it isn't Idaho or even ISU. Yes it has some excellent sports teams, but its facilities are smallish and unimpressive. Its television appeal is a gimmicky blue field because the Boise market simply isn't significant.

The academic side of USC/Stanford, etc. that YOU mentioned and BYU all share similar interests and compete for the same students. By the way, where I work full time, we cannot recruit BYU graduates in engineering, applied physics fast enough. Our problem with students with similar educational backgrounds is that they party too much and often their rap sheets by age 24 precludes them from ever working in our critical national security field. BYU students are GOLD. I spent most of last Thursday with a mentor-recruiter for our "firm" (arm of the Department of Energy) and he is NOT LDS. But he said he actively recruits and hires hire as many BYU graduates as he can. When he finds a gemstone at another program, Nevada, UNLV, CAL, Stanford, USC, Colorado, if he can hire them it's usually because they are LDS. I asked why and he said, they have been out in the world, many speak helpful but difficult foreign languages, they are dependable, they have no arrest record, don't do drugs. Now are you going to hire a Kid like that and pay for him to get his masters degree, or hire a graduate from 619th ranked Boise State that may also be LDS but couldn't write a proposal to save his/her bacon? Quality of education MATTERS. HISTORY and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY MATTER.