Brigham Young University

Brigham Young University (BYU) is a private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System (CES) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

BYU offers a variety of academic programs including those in the liberal arts, engineering, agriculture, management, physical and mathematical sciences, nursing, music, and law. Its undergraduate and graduate programs are organized into 11 colleges and schools at its main Provo campus, with some colleges and divisions defining their own admission standards. The university also administers four satellite campuses in Jerusalem, Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C., and London, while its parent organization, CES, sponsors sister schools in Hawaii and Idaho. The university is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research spending and doctorate production".

Almost all BYU students are members of the LDS Church. Students attending BYU agree to follow an honor code, which mandates behavior in line with teachings of the church, such as academic honesty, adherence to dress and grooming standards and abstinence from extramarital sex, same-sex romantic behavior, and consumption of alcohol and other drugs. Undergraduate students are also required to complete curriculum in LDS religious education for graduation regardless of their course of study. Due in part to the church's emphasis on missionary service, nearly 50% of BYU students have lived outside the United States, 65% speak a second language, and 63 languages are taught at the university regularly.

BYU's athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the BYU Cougars. All sports teams compete in the Big 12 Conference except for men's volleyball which is a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. BYU's sports teams have won a total of 14 NCAA championships and 26 non-NCAA championships.

History

Early days

The origin of BYU can be traced back to 1862, when Warren Dusenberry started a Provo school in Cluff Hall, a prominent adobe building in the northeast corner of 200 East and 200 North. After some financial difficulties, the school was recreated in the Kinsey and Lewis buildings on Center Street in Provo, and after gaining some recognition for its quality, was adopted to become the Timpanogos branch of the University of Deseret. When financial difficulty forced another closure, on October 16, 1875, Brigham Young, then president of the LDS Church, deeded the property to trustees to create Brigham Young Academy after earlier hinting a school would be built in Draper, Utah, in 1867. Hence, October 16, 1875, is commonly held as BYU's founding date. Young had been envisioning for several years the concept of a church university. Said Young about his vision: "I hope to see an Academy established in Provo ... at which the children of the Latter-day Saints can receive a good education unmixed with the pernicious atheistic influences that are found in so many of the higher schools of the country."

Classes at Brigham Young Academy commenced on January 3, 1876. Dusenberry served as interim principal for several months until April 1876, when Brigham Young's choice for principal arrived—a German immigrant named Karl Maeser. During this period the future U.S. Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland and future U.S. Senator Reed Smoot attended. The school did not become a university until the end of Benjamin Cluff's term as president in 1903. At that time, the school was still privately supported by members of the community and was not absorbed and sponsored officially by the church until July 18, 1896. A series of odd managerial decisions by Cluff led to his demotion; however, in his last official act, he proposed to the board that the academy be named "Brigham Young University". Many opposed, saying the school was not large enough to be a university, but the decision ultimately passed.

In 1903, Brigham Young Academy was dissolved and replaced by two institutions, Brigham Young High School (BY High) and BYU. The BY High class of 1907 was ultimately responsible for the giant "Y" that remains embedded on a mountain near campus. The Board elected George H. Brimhall as the new President of BYU. Under his tenure in 1904, the new BYU bought 17 acres (69,000 m2) of land from Provo called "Temple Hill". After some controversy among locals over BYU's purchase of this property, construction began in 1909 on the first building on the current campus, the Karl G. Maeser Memorial. Brimhall also presided over BYU during a brief crisis involving the theory of evolution. The religious nature of the school seemed at the time to collide with this scientific theory. Joseph F. Smith, church president at the time, settled the question for a time by asking that evolution not be taught at the school. Over time, students and faculty found a way to reconcile the factual elements of evolution with the church's teachings. Even though a few at this time described the school as little more than a "religious seminary", many of its graduates from this time would go on to great success and become well renowned in a variety of fields.

Campus

The main campus in Provo, Utah, sits on approximately 560 acres (2.3 km2) nestled at the base of the Wasatch Mountains and includes 295 buildings. The buildings feature a wide variety of architectural styles, each building being built in the style of its time. Views of the Wasatch Mountains, (including Mount Timpanogos) can be seen from the campus. BYU's Harold B. Lee Library (also known as "HBLL"), which The Princeton Review ranked as the No. 1 "Great College Library" in 2004, has approximately 8.5 million items in its collections, contains 98 miles (158 km) of shelving, and can seat 4,600 people. The Spencer W. Kimball Tower is home to several of the university's departments and programs and for a long time was the tallest building in Provo, Utah, and the Marriott Center serves primarily as a basketball arena and can seat over 19,000, making it the tenth largest on-campus arena in the nation. On Sundays, nearly all of the buildings on campus are utilized to host church services.

Museums

Several museums on campus contain exhibits from many different fields of study. BYU's Museum of Art, for example, is one of the largest and most attended art museums in the Mountain West. This museum offers research and study opportunities to students and educational programming to the general public. The Museum of Peoples and Cultures is a museum of archaeology and ethnology. It focuses on native cultures and artifacts of the Great Basin, American Southwest, Mesoamerica, Peru, and Polynesia. Home to more than 40,000 artifacts and 50,000 photographs, it documents BYU's archaeological research. The BYU Museum of Paleontology was built in 1976 to display the many fossils found by BYU's James A. Jensen. It holds many vertebrate fossils from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and is one of the top five vertebrate fossil collections in the world from the Jurassic. The museum receives about 25,000 visitors every year. The Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum was formed in 1978. It features several forms of plant and animal life on display and available for research by students and scholars.

Performing arts

The campus also houses several performing arts facilities. From 1964 to 2023, the Harris Fine Arts Center (HFAC) was the primary building for all fine arts and performing arts on campus. To replace the HFAC, the Music Building opened in winter 2023, and the Arts Building opened in fall 2026. The Music Building features a vineyard-style concert hall which seats around 1000 people, in addition to a 250-seat recital hall for smaller performances. The Arts Building's mainstage theater seats around 800 people, in addition to the building's smaller Studio and Black Box Theaters.

Organization and administration

BYU is a part of CES. It is organized under a board of trustees, with the president of the church (currently Dallin H. Oaks) as chairman. This board consists of the same people as the Church Board of Education, a pattern that has been in place since 1939. Prior to 1939, BYU had a separate board of trustees that was subordinate to the Church Board of Education. The president of BYU, currently C. Shane Reese, reports to the Board, through the Commissioner of Education.

The university operates under 11 colleges or schools, which collectively offer 194 bachelor's degree programs, 68 master's degree programs, 25 PhD programs, and a Juris Doctor program. BYU also manages some courses and majors through the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies and "miscellaneous" college departments, including Undergraduate Education, Graduate Studies, Independent Study, Continuing Education, and the Honors Program. BYU's winter semester ends earlier than most universities in April since there is no Spring break, thus allowing students to pursue internships and other summer activities earlier. A typical academic year is broken up into two semesters: fall (September–December) and winter (January–April), as well as two shorter terms during the summer months: spring (May–June) and summer (July–August).

Academics

Admissions and demographics

Of the 14,067 freshman students that applied, BYU accepted 70.2% of them. The average GPA for these admitted students was 3.86 with an average ACT of 29.5 and SAT of 1300. In 2004, a National Bureau of Economic Research study on revealed preference of U.S. colleges showed BYU was the sixth-most-preferred choice among students from the Intermountain West, between Princeton and Brown.

Students from every state in the U.S. and from many foreign countries attend BYU. (In the 2005–06 academic year, there were 2,396 foreign students, or eight percent of enrollment.) Slightly more than 98 percent of these students are active Latter-day Saints. In 2006, 12.6 percent of the student body reported themselves as ethnic minorities, mostly Asians, Pacific Islanders and Hispanics. In 2025, the racial breakdown of students was 80.6% white, 9.3% Hispanic or Latino, 4.5% multi-ethnic, 3% Asian, 1% Black, 1% native Hawaiian, and less than 1% American Indian. The racial composition of students at BYU is mostly non-Hispanic white, and BYU is considered one of the least diverse of the top 100 universities in the United States.

Rankings

U.S. News & World Report ranked BYU No. 110 (tie) in National Universities in 2025.

For 2025, the university's School of Accountancy, which is housed within the Marriott School of Business, received a No. 4 (tie) ranking out of 44 graduate programs rated by U.S. News & World Report.

The BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School has a No. 24 (tie) national ranking for 2026, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Graduation honors

Undergraduate students may qualify for graduation honors. University Honors is the highest distinction BYU awards its graduates. Administered by the Honors Program, the distinction requires students to complete an honors curriculum requirement, a Great Questions requirement, an Experiential Learning requirement, an honors thesis requirement, and a graduation portfolio that summarizes the student's honors experiences.

The university also awards Latin scholastic distinctions separately from the Honors Program: summa cum laude (top 1 percent), magna cum laude (top 5 percent), and cum laude (top 10 percent). The university additionally recognizes Phi Kappa Phi graduation honors.

Notable research and awards

BYU is classified as "Research 1: Very High Research Spending And Doctorate Production," the highest Carnegie classification. According to the National Science Foundation, BYU spent $137.7 million on research and development in 2023, ranking it 162nd in the nation for research revenue and expenditures. Scientists associated with BYU have created some notable inventions. Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor and pioneer of the electronic television, began college at BYU, and later returned to do fusion research, receiving an honorary degree from the university in 1967. Alumnus Harvey Fletcher, inventor of stereophonic sound, went on to carry out the now famous oil-drop experiment with Robert Millikan, and was later Founding Dean of the BYU College of Engineering. H. Tracy Hall, inventor of the man-made diamond, left General Electric in 1955 and became a full professor of chemistry and Director of Research at BYU. While there, he invented a new type of diamond press, the tetrahedral press. In student achievements, BYU Ad Lab teams won both the 2007 and 2008 L'Oréal National Brandstorm Competition, and students developed the Magnetic Lasso algorithm found in Adobe Photoshop. In prestigious scholarships, BYU has produced 10 Rhodes Scholars, four Gates Scholars in the last six years, and in the last decade has claimed 41 Fulbright scholars and 3 Jack Kent Cooke scholars.

Performing arts

Dance

The BYU Ballroom Dance Company is known as one of the best formation ballroom dance teams in the world, having won the U.S. National Formation Dance Championship every year since 1982. BYU's ballroom dance team has won first place in Latin or Standard (or both) many times when they have competed at the Blackpool Dance Festival, and they were the first U.S. team to win the formation championships at the famed British Championships in Blackpool, England in 1972. The NDCA National DanceSport championships have been held at BYU for several years, and BYU holds dozens of ballroom dance classes each semester and has consequently the largest collegiate ballroom dance program in the world. In addition, BYU has a number of other notable dance teams and programs. These teams include the Theatre Ballet, Contemporary Dance Theatre, Living Legends, and International Folk Dance Ensemble. The Living Legends perform Latin, Native American, and Polynesian dancing. BYU boasts one of the largest dance departments in the nation. Many students from all different majors across campus participate in various dance classes each semester.

Music

The Young Ambassadors are a song and dance performing group with a 50-year history at BYU. Prior to 1970 the group was known as Curtain Time USA. In the 1960s their world tour stops included Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. The group first performed as the Young Ambassadors at Expo '70 in Japan, and has since performed in over 56 nations. The royalty of Thailand and Jordan, along with persons of high office in countries such as India, have been among their audiences.

The BYU Opera Workshop gave the first North American performance of the Ralph Vaughan Williams opera The Pilgrim's Progress on April 28, 1969, directed by Max C. Golightly.

BYU has three concert bands, seven orchestras, and three jazz bands. BYU's touring instrumental ensembles include the Wind Symphony, Chamber Orchestra, and Synthesis (the school's premier jazz band), which have toured many countries including Denmark, Hong Kong, Russia, the British Isles, and Central Europe. Additionally, BYU has a marching band program called the Cougar Marching Band.

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