BYU Independent Study Applies to DETC

A degree from BYU

I for one certainly wouldn't mind holding a degree from a top notch school like BYU. Where do I sign up?

I hope this forum discussion doesn't continue to deteriorate into a highly sensitive and debatable history lesson about "Mormons" and Brigham Young.

I heard a fellow New Yorker once say, "Utah, where's dat? by Texas?" Who cares?

 

I work for a company run by a family deeply ingrained in the Mormon faith. While I am not of this faith, I have spent some time researching and understanding it, so I can understand the leadership culture. With the distinct exception of a bias against facial hair (I have grown and shaved a beard several times due to this pressure), I can honestly say that the values fostered are of a high moral character and geared to values that seem a cut above what I have run into in many other companies.

Conversations that digress into name calling, categorizing, and usage of the term ‘racist’ are very dangerous, short sighted, and say much about the character of the individuals that expound them.

DEL

PS – The bias against facial hair, as I understand it, goes to a decision to ‘clean up’ the perceptions and practices of the faith dating back about 100 years or so.

 

If so, it wouldn't be much off the beaten track than the comment you made about BYU women. In light of that, I'll say yes. BYU does have a lot of good looking women. I married one of them, too.

BYU is a very good school. I would not say all departments are wonderful but I believe they have strong engineering programs. I felt very prepared for my field after BYU...eventhough I did not stay in engineering very long.

Later on, I took courses from BYU via independent study. I was thinking of getting a general studies degree but it didn't work out...either because I left the church or else because they don't allow degree holders to get a general degree. They officially told me that I could no longer take courses due to my church status, though. Non-LDS may take courses but ex-LDS may not. Things worked out fine for me, though. I ended up amassing credits toward a USNY program.

 

Stigma

I can understand the point that graduating from a private religious school (any denomination) may carry with it some sort of social stigma.

I sincerely hope its not the case but its possible some employers, for various reasons, may avoid graduates from religious type schools. On the other hand, some employers may actively seek them in the hopes they have higher standards. Who knows?

 

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Good point! Perhaps it isn't an issue at all!

 

Pepperdine ain't too shabby either!

 

I have never had an issue. Degrees from BYU, "The Y", seem well received. My wife has never had an issue either.

For BYU graduates, the stigma might be more attached to Mormonism rather than BYU. Many people group the LDS in with oddball splinter groups(many mainstream Christians think the LDS are an oddball religion). The LDS Church has been trying to get away from the term "Mormon" because splinter churches, such as the polygamists in Colorado City, also use that term.

Bing

 

Rich: "But does anyone want a degree from a school named for an incredible racist?"

Rich was referring to Brigham Young . . . but what about the schools named for Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Andrew Johnson, and Grant, all of whom owned slaves, which seems an act of incredible racism to me.

John Bear, who went to a high school that dumped the
name "Warren Harding" after his corrupt deeds became
better known. At least he didn't own slaves.

PS: I guess Rich was referring to this charming quote from Mr. Young:
"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so." (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 10:110)

 

The Journal of Discourses are often used as citation fodder but they do seem to be problematic. Is this in context? Likely not. I've seen this one before and I think he was referring to sexual sin...as I don't believe they could marry black people back then. In the same breath, why not use this from Brigham Young, "For their abuse of [the Black African] race, the whites will be cursed, unless they repent." (Journal of Discourses, Vol.10, p.110)? That doesn't sound too racist to me.

In 1836, Joseph Smith, brought Elijah Abel into the church. He was a runaway slave. I would venture to guess that few churches back then would have even welcomed a free black man. Brigham Young later sent Abel out as a missionary. Abel held a high office in the church, too. He was a Seventy.

Bing

 

Descendent

I find it ironic that the latest news and research is suggesting that whites are descendants of the black race.

Its time we stop believing that the earth is flat and the center of the universe and the sun revolves around the earth and so forth!

 

Delta: "Its time we stop believing that the earth is flat and the center of the universe and the sun revolves around the earth and so forth!"

John: Amen, as it were. This morning's Portland Oregonian reports that 48% of Americans believe, along with Mr. Huckabee, that humans were created exactly (biologically) as they are now, less than 10,000 years ago.

 

Although I attended public universities (Arizona State, Cal State, Fresno) my degrees are from religiously affiliated schools: Brigham Young University (LDS) and La Sierra University (Adventist). There was no stigma at College of the Desert or Cal State San Bernardino--where I used to wor--or at Northeastern Illinois University, where I now work. Although La Sierra is not well-known (it used to be part of Loma Linda University), I have always found my BYU bachelors and masters to be well accepted by employers colleagues and my consulting clients in the 16 years since I earned them.

 

I think there is an understanding that schools like Georgetown and Notre Dame are only religious to the extent the individual wants them to be.

There are a large number of students at institutions like those who, if judged by behavior, are just as liberal and secular as those that might be found at a public university. This makes is unwise for an employer to generalize graduates as having certain beliefs.

Take a school like Bob Jones, and that's an entirely different matter. I suspect BYU is somewhere in the middle.

 

Tony, why the name change?

 

does this include the hairy ones? Or are they a genetic mutaion?

 

Well, my username for Degreeinfo has always been "Anthony". That is the name on my "official" stuff (publications, conference presentations, profesisonal associations, my university website, etc.). When I did a "cut & paste" from my outlook signature into my Degreeinfo preferences (adding the AECT listing), the name was Anthony, rather than Tony (to be honest, I did I did not pay much attention). A few Degreeinfo friends have contacted me regarding some of my professional stuff that they found via Google. Almost all of that is listed under Anthony Pina, rather than Tony Pina.

It's still just lil' ol' me, Tony.

Tony

 

I think he might have meant the name change of one of the universities you studied at.