University of Utah | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Memoria

Class: Junior
Major: Philosophy
Gender: F

High School: Jordan High School
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

Name one thing you'd change: If I could change anything about Utah, I would have everybody be more open-minded. I preface my statement by saying that I have lived here my entire life and this problem has been evident for the whole of it. It seems that people here are either ignoring you completely, (that is, if you're a pedestrian!) condemning you based on religious beliefs, or just otherwise trying to get you to change your ways instead of being more tolerant themselves. The culture in Utah does not see the dangers in censorship and will not hesitate to shut down people and ideas which do not conform with Church Doctrine. Even in spheres (such as a University) where religion should not have influence over policy somehow a religious agenda continues to be inserted into everyday life. The Best thing about Utah: The cost of living in Utah is very cheap. I'm buying a condo downtown for less than $100,000 where in a more metropolitan city I'd have to pay at least triple that for a much worse and smaller place.

Academic Life

Class participation: Class participation is not common. It seems that in every class I've taken, and I'm a junior now spanning multiple departments, there are maybe 3 people who ever speak up and everyone else just sits there like a zombie hoping for an edible brain to stumble by. My professors that like a lot of class participation have seemed frustrated and have resorted in many cases to bribes and punishment to get the deadwood to speak up. When they do, it's just to parrot back something that has already been said. Getting a job or learning for learning's sake? I think that it is definitely geared for the workforce. This is evidenced by popular opinion of graduate degrees in any field other than law, business or medicine and the liberal arts entirely which is, "Why bother?" I think people here are so focused on starting a family and getting to be "Adults" (whatever that is supposed to mean) that they've lost curiosity and ingenuity. People here, instead of taking courses they are interested in but are ignorant about, take courses as easy as possible and as similar to previous courses as possible.

Student Body

LGBTQ Groups on campus: I am an active member of the Queer Student Union at the U, which is an organization for LGBTQ students. They were wonderful in helping me get the courage to come out of the closet to the rest of my friends and eventually my family. It was also great to be able to make friends who were in a similar situation. Politically aware? I do not think that students are politically aware and active. Everybody on campus has an opinion on important issues, but when it comes down to it, they rarely have the basic facts, and even more infrequently, actually do something about the issue. In the rare instances when a student is both aware and active, it is usually from a radical right position condemning us all to Hell for being Atheists... or a PETA fanatic condemning us to Hell for wearing leather.