It's far from a settled situation, however. The following year, when Jacob will have graduated and Stephanie will be a senior, is uncertain.

As is the case for Stephanie, LDS students attending schools with few church members may have to take additional steps to realize certain spiritual goals like marriage.

For Ryan deMik, the challenge was missionary service.

Having grown up in a military family, the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., seemed like a natural fit for deMik. But his decision did not come without prayerful consideration, and deMik made a promise to the Lord that "nothing would deter" him from full-time missionary service.

"I always had that in the back of my mind while I was at the academy," he said.

The problem, according to deMik, was that at the time, Navy wasn't very accommodating to LDS students who wanted to serve missions. A good percentage of those who left for missions didn't return to the academy.

"It had a very high attrition rate and very few guys left (for missions)," he said.

In fact, because of an admittedly difficult first year scholastically, deMik was told by an academic dean that if he left for a mission he wouldn't be able to come back. But deMik and his friend, also a student at the academy, had resolved to become full-time missionaries, and both left school to serve. That year, they were the only two LDS students to do so.

He ultimately was allowed back, and deMik graduated in 1997. That year, nine Midshipmen left to serve missions.

"It completely opened it up," he said. "It just became a lot easier."

· · · · ·

LONG BEFORE STEPHANIE Baker's housing concerns arose, her older brother, Darren, was a student on an Ivy League campus facing a unique situation for an LDS teenager.

"I was accustomed to students (in Utah) who can choose who their roommates are," Linda Baker said. "That was when we discovered that, their freshman year (at Harvard), they were not allowed to choose their own roommate."

Darren's freshman-year experience was a mixed bag. Although he was put in a four-person apartment where one student had substance-abuse issues, his roommate was Catholic and shared many of the same values as Darren. While at school, Darren met six other LDS students who eventually all served missions and became roommates upon their return to school.

"I thought, in the future I've got to pay more attention to whether they're allowed to choose their own roommates or not," Baker said.