If you navigate that campus you see a very large number of married couples wherein you strongly question what on earth the female in the relationship was thinking. The same goes for married alumnus.

Two theories I have considered:

(1) For whatever reason the female population at BYU (on average) is SIGNIFICANTLY more physically attractive than the male population. Anecdotally, from observations at sporting events they also seem to be more well versed in sporting knowledge (often times explaining what just happened and why in the game to the boyfriend/husband). It may be that attractive females are simply more intelligent than attractive males and are therefore more likely to have better grades/test scores and thus be accepted to BYU. I’ve often wondered if it would be a net positive for BYU to accept a certain percentage of “normal” dudes. Guys that have a 3.5 GPA, a 26 on the ACT, went on dates with actual girls in high school and participated in normal dude activities in HS. I don’t have any inside info but I’d wager there aren’t a lot of these guys at BYU these days. I think it would provide the BYU ladies a more logical choice and also dramatically improve the game day experience at sporting events.

(2) Many of these girls come to BYU from areas where there is not a large supply of what they might consider eligible marital partners. While they may well be gorgeous they’ve had a self imposed limited supply of suitors. When they get to this Celestial marriage Mecca they may not wait for the best available option but instead go with the first “super nice guy” who tells her he’s going to be a “rich” dentist one day.

These have been my thoughts as I’ve pondered the imponderable.