"My question is, are they ready to make some important steps into adulthood?" said Pat Beau, director of retention and testing at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, an engineering school in Rapid City, S.D.

Beau, who is also a high councilor and an adviser to the school's LDSSA, has a checklist that he asks LDS parents to consider. It includes asking whether the student takes initiative to go to church and serve in callings; whether he or she takes responsibility for academics; how he or she feels about seminary; and whether he or she chooses good friends and has demonstrated good decision-making.

"That doesn't necessarily change once they're in college," Beau said. "In fact, it becomes more complicated."

For deMik, it's a matter of conviction.

"I would ask (students) if they're ready to stand up for their testimony," he said. "You're going to find that your testimony is going to be challenged.

"If you're willing to put in the hard work to go to school, you're going to have to put in the hard work to stand for what you believe."

Some LDS students are more prepared than others. Those who already have completed some type of degree or missionary service usually can make a smoother transition than an incoming freshman. Also, Line suggested students from Utah sometimes struggle compared to those who were used to living in areas with smaller LDS populations.

But if the student does have the requisite maturity, Line said, a positive experience is "absolutely" possible. Not every student can attend a church school, and "BYU is not for everyone," said Line, who has two degrees from the Provo school.

"I had countless students who were better served by being at a school like Purdue," he said. "They felt they could live their faith better at a place like Purdue."

As for Baker's three students back East, she's "cautiously optimistic" that the experience has been worth it: "There has been tremendous growth in each one of them in ways that I don't believe they could have had the same type of experience if they were at a school where they weren't in the minority."

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E-mail: ashill@desnews.com