Sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brigham Young University is a nationally ranked private research and teaching university in Provo, Utah. With more than 30,000 students representing every state in America and many other countries, BYU is the largest religious university in the United States. It offers highly competitive programs, from the liberal arts to engineering to business. Most of its students are undergraduates, but BYU also offers several quality graduate programs, including a world-renowned law school and high-ranking school of business.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prizes truth wherever it may be found. For this reason, the early Saints’ first orders of business upon settling in the Salt Lake Valley were to build a temple and a university. Soon, the Brigham Young Academy was founded under the leadership of Karl G. Maeser, and a network of schools and colleges was developed to provide quality education for every young person in the Church.
As the Church grew in numbers and spread beyond the boundaries of the American West, it was no longer feasible to maintain a network of schools that could educate every youth in Zion. Instead, seminaries and institutes of religion were set up to supplement other colleges and universities, allowing teenagers and young adults to complement secular learning with meaningful study of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church continues to fund Brigham Young Academy, now Brigham Young University, as well as its counterparts in Idaho and Hawaii and the LDS Business College.
Brigham Young University occupies a unique place within the Church and the world of higher education because of its dual loyalties to religious faith and academic rigor. A BYU education aims to be intellectually enlarging, spiritually strengthening, and character building, leading to lifelong learning and service. Its mission is to “assist individuals in their quest for eternal life.” By fulfilling this mission, BYU hopes to prepare students to give back to their families, communities, and nations. Brigham Young University seeks to bless not only the lives of its students and faculty but the Church, the various academic disciplines, and the world at large.
