was an indicator of a successful life/career. The academic paper said no. The school one attended has no bearing on success.

What they did find as a bearing on success was which school a person may have applied to attend. That is, take 2 people, both graduated from BYU, one applied to UU and BYU. The other applied to Yale and BYU. The paper found that the second would have a more successful career.

I don’t recall if the paper postulated why. I have always thought that attitude and desire for success is as important or more so than the degree or institution one may attend.

As an example, a friend has a PhD from Stanford and headed a research group at LAM Research in San Jose. His research group consisted of other PhDs from UofIll, MIT, UofChic, etc. My friend would complain of how entitled these guys were and didn’t put in a lot of hard work. I asked if he could only keep one guy who would it be. He said he had a guy on staff with a BS degree from DeVry Institute that worked harder than anyone and he would keep him!

I think the person that has his eyes above the horizon, that has aspirations and dreams, is the one that does what is necessary to get ahead. Not because they want to get ahead more than others, but because they work harder, think incessantly about their responsibilities, and this combination results in innovation and discovery.

So, carryon our UVU brethren, and before you apply at UVU, apply to BYU also and you will succeed.