Comments about ‘BYU's blue-chip recruits not limited to athletics’

I really respect this kids brilliance, but if I have to make a choice on which I will be watching on Saturdays, I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with football over the math competition.

Here's another example about how the environment of BYU is the attraction for high caliber kids. And in each entering BYU freshman class there are hundreds of "Dittmer's." It just underscores the widening chasm between what BYU is about as opposed to state schools in the region. And if your mind can fathom it, seeing a kid unravel a complex mathematical problem can be just as exciting as a touchdown pass--unless your identity is all wrapped up in football wins and losses.

Just a side-note: As I recall, BYU did not recruit Ty Detmer "hard". Ty and his father recruited BYU. They made an appointment with LaVell Edwards and brought high school game films to show the coach. Then LaVell offered Ty a scolarship. Am I wrong?

He's a mathlete.

I teach at a community college and sometimes see a brilliant student. This kid has no need for a tiny college, so he's doing a great thing for himself by going where he can challenge himself. I hope for the best for him.

You may be right, but who would want to live & study under all those rules?

We need to read a lot more stories about students who are excelling in other areas than athletics at BYU. I enjoy the sports programs, but I also enjoy the success of other programs.

I seem to remember recently a story about a star academic freshman being able to do research with his professor discovering a major find and contributing to the research in a big way. Isn't that as important as a touchdown?...Maybe more important in the long run. Let's hear about more student academic successes. Go Dittmer...Go Cougs!

Ruels are what make life livable. A better question would be: who would like to live without rules?

Incidentally, I can think of roughly 30,000 people (BYU's student body)that "want to live & study under" BYU's rules.

Who would want to live and study under all those rules? Having experienced both BYU's "rules" and those at Georgia & MCG, I know which I prefer, hands down. I'll take BYU anytime. And evidently, so would the 6,954 admitted freshmen for summer/fall terms this year, and the 7,384 admitted for the summer/fall terms last year, as well as the thousands of others who apply every year but don't make the cut. Sure, there are some in that group who decide it is too restrictive and try to buck the rules once they are in, but they are a very small minority. Most are there because they really do want what BYU offers, and feel it no imposition at all to abide by such standards.

Who would want to "...if you love me, keep my commandments?" Only Christians. Most BYU students live far above the BYU standards on their own moral compass taught by their parents and church. BYU rules are for those who can't figure it out and need some help.

The "rules" at other schools include binge drinking, casual morality, etc. It all depends on whose rules you want to follow.

Don't all the best physics prospects go to the UofU where they can aid in cold fusion research?

When I was a freshman at BYU, I never saw a professor. Most classes were taught by their assistants, but that was 25 years ago. I guess things have changed.

It's good to see good kids with high aspirations going to BYU. Good for both the kid and the school.

To Ghost. Must have depended upon your classes. When I matriculated at BYU in 1961, I never had a class that wasn't taught by a professor. I attended three other universities over the course of obtaining my BS and MS and found that at BYU you were more likely to be taught by a professor than at the other schools.

Ty chose BYU, he was not on BYU's radar until he and his father traveled on their own dime to Provo and convinced LaVell, against his initial perceptions, to offer Detmer a scholarship. Turned out well for everybody.

I thought this was a clever article comparing athletic recruiting to academic recruiting, but when I read that this math wiz was LDS and planning on going on a mission, I though boy that is a shocker that he chose BYU over Stanford or MIT. Most kids that live outside of Utah that are LDS dream of going to BYU, they dont care if they have been accepted to other more prominent school.

That was probably the first and only one of your many comments that I've actually enjoyed. Not bad.

"mathlete" is an instant classic.

Ghost - did you graduate from BYU? Because almost every class I had was taugh by a professor. Class of 94.

Great article and "mathlete" truly is an instant classic.
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I attended BYU 1969-1981 (literally a long story) and almost always had professors teaching my classes.
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RE: BYU having more grads obtain doctorates than Stanford, MIT, and (or?) Yale, this could be for the same reason that brown horses eat more hay than white horses eat: there are more of them. It would be interesting to see the *percentage* of grads from each school that obtain doctorates.

My father attended BYU in the 50's, when the main requirement was that you were breathing, and even that would be waived if your tuition check cleared. In the three years I was there in the late 70's and early 80's, I could not have been admitted as a senior under the criteria that I got in as a sophomore-I had a year and a half at a JC-, and my daughter, with a GPA almost a full point higher than my old high school grades, and an ACT score about the same, was waitlisted for two months before being admitted.
BYU has evolved in the last few decades from just a church school to one of the most academically rigorous institutions in the West. Increasing numbers of non-LDS students are attending to access some of the top notch, nationally ranked programs BYU offers.
And it is still a great Football school!