Getting To Know: University of Utah

Published by Stuart Nachbar at March 4, 2024

The University of Utah shares attributes with Ohio State and Georgia Tech.

Like Ohio State, Utah has one of the nation’s strongest football programs with a raucous fan base. Like Georgia Tech, The University of Utah played host to an international Olympic Games, gaining student housing and facilities. Salt Lake City was home to the 2002 Winter Olympics as well as the Paralympic Games. To no surprise, the University of Utah had the largest contingent of athletes from any American university competing in the 2002 Winter Games. The city has been selected to host the Games again in 2034.

Like both schools, the University of Utah is a member of the Association of American Universities. Only 38 public universities, including these three, are similarly acclaimed.

But there are also significant differences.

There are over 26,000 undergraduates versus 18,500 at Georgia Tech and more than 46,000 at Ohio State. But Salt Lake City, home to the university, aka “The U,” since 1850, is a far less populous city. It has just over 200,000 residents. Atlanta and Columbus have over 500,000 and 900,000 residents respectively.

However, a greater share of Salt Lake City’s population are students at The U, which also has over 8,400 graduate and professional students. If someone told me that the University of Utah was a more dominant institution in its home city than Georgia Tech or Ohio State I wouldn’t argue. And if someone told me that The U has a nicer campus setting than Ohio State or Georgia Tech, I wouldn’t argue on that point either. However, if you stray beyond President’s Circle, you might believe that the University of Utah is much newer than it really is. Located between downtown Salt lake City and the Wasatch Mountain Range, breathtaking desert sunsets and mountain views are daily seasonal occurrences at The U. If you love outdoor recreation and want a big school this might be your happy place.

The TRAX light rail system, built to connect the campus to downtown, was originally constructed for the 2002 Winter Olympic games. It now has 50 stations. Public busses are also available. It does not make sense to have a car at The U, though a bike is a good idea if you can handle hills. However, Luke told me that a car makes things more convenient. From the tours that I took online the parking on campus looked tight and mass transit access is free with a student ID. But a car will make it easier to get to outdoor recreation off campus.

The university’s appeal extends well beyond Mormons.

Interestingly, while Salt Lake City is the headquarters for the Church of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon church, they represent merely a third of the student body. But I had to wonder if their two-year missions had an impact on the four and six-year graduation rates. The most recent four-year graduation rate that I could find was 35 percent. However, the six-year graduation rate has hit 70 percent. The number of accelerated programs to an advanced or professional degree as well as the easy opportunity to gain in-state residency also impact graduation rates. Freshman retention is good, most recently 87 percent. But it did hit 90 percent for the students who entered in 2016, according to the university’s office of institutional research.

Further, less than half of residents of the state and Salt Lake City identify as members of the Church.

Yet the Church and Mormon beliefs influence a conservative leaning into state politics. However, the University of Utah has had some very generous benefactors, including the Huntsman and Marriott families, that other state universities would love to have. The university’s endowment as the close of the 2023 fiscal year was $1.6 billion, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers. That’s larger than some flagships in more populous states including sports rivals Arizona State University and the University of Arizona, which also have many more students.

The U, which will retain test optional admissions indefinitely, is not the most selective school around.

Eighty-nine percent of the applicants who wanted to come in Fall, 2022 were accepted. However, the yield rate, the percentage of accepted students who decided to deposit, was 29 percent. That’s higher than the yield rates for Rutgers (20 percent) or Penn State-University Park (19 percent) which enjoys a huge following among New Jersey students. The average GPA for the incoming freshmen at The U was 3.7. The middle 50 percent of scores for those who took the SAT was between 1190 and 1390. For the ACT it was between 22 and 29. This is slightly below what a New Jersey resident would find at Rutgers or Penn State, but about the same as it is for the University of Delaware.

Admission to the Honors College is by application with two additional essays.

Honors students have unique first and second-year housing options, including learning communities. Given that on-campus housing is tight-less than a fifth of all students live on campus-applying to Honors might be worthwhile. On-campus housing options are quite nice at The U. But there is a long wait list for upper-class students, and off-campus options can get pricy. Over 2,000 students are in the Honors College, about the same as there are at Rutgers-New Brunswick, which also has 10,000 more undergrads.

There are many academic reasons to like the University of Utah, which include:

Lassonde Studios, home to 400 student entrepreneurs in residence
Undergraduate programs at the Kehlert School of Computing
Majors in the Eccles School of Business
BFA Programs in Ballet, Actor Training, Musical Theatre and Stage Management
Multi-disciplinary degree in Design
A unique College of Mines and Earth Science with some majors that are tough to find
Deep undergraduate program in Health & Kinesiology
The same is true for students interested in the environment or sustainability

Unlike University of California campuses, which have many “impacted majors,” virtually all majors are uncapped with the exception of programs such as Architecture, Nursing or performing arts that require studio or laboratory spaces. Many programs will have a “pre-status” in the admissions process versus direct admission. However, the university also has a Business Scholars program for students who seek direct admission to the business school. Admissions to engineering can be direct with a combination of grades and test scores.

Football successes have been impressive at The U.

The football Utes have been one of the best teams in college football since 2003 when Urban Meyer became head coach. Meyer was followed by former assistant and current head coach Kyle Whittingham who took over in 2005 after Meyer left for the University of Florida. Meyer went 22-2 in his two seasons at Utah, including two conference championships and two bowl wins. The second, which capped an undefeated season, was a 35-7 victory over Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl that made the Utes the #4 team in the country. Whittingham has built upon Meyer’s successes, going 11-4 in bowl games, and winning three conference titles, two in the PAC-12. The Utes will begin play in the Big 12 next season, along with former PAC 12 rivals Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado as well as in-state rival Brigham Young University.

The gymnastics and skiing programs are more successful than the football team.

According to the NCAA the gymnastics program is one of the seven “Blue Bloods” in the nation, along with Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, UCLA and Oklahoma that have won National Championships. The team, called the Red Rocks, has won nine titles, though the last came in 1995. The Red Rocks have averaged well over 14,000 fans per on-campus event at the Huntsman Center since 2010. That’s more than many college basketball teams do per game, even in a conference like the Big Ten. The ski team won its fourth consecutive NCAA title last season, its 16^th National Championship and fifth over the past six seasons.

If you care about politics of diversity, equity and inclusion, the politics of the present and future have to work.

The university aggressively promotes their student support services within their Center for Equity and Student Belonging in their admissions marketing. Part of the reason, in my view, is the university places high reliance on attracting students from other states, especially California.

While California is more liberal politically, the Golden State also has the second-largest Mormon population in the nation after Utah. The U participates in the Western Undergraduate Exchange to help recruit in the West and has a relatively easy path to claiming Utah residency to help reduce college costs. There are also other academic scholarships for residents and non-residents. The estimated cost of attendance for Utah residents is quite reasonable for a flagship state university.

As a result of costs and scholarship policies, students who graduated in 2022 and borrowed owed just over $20,000 much less than the maximum that they could borrow over four years ($27,000) or five ($31,000) through the Federal Student Loan program. Two-thirds of the class had no debt at all.

Utah is a “trifecta state” for Republicans.

They hold the governor’s office as well as both houses of the Utah legislature. Like other trifecta Republican states, there have been legislative actions and proposals on book bans as well as bans on gender-affirming care and bathroom access. In January 2024, Utah governor Spencer Cox signed a bill banning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offices on public university campuses. The same lawmakers also agreed to continue to honor a 2020 agreement between the university and the Ute Indian Tribe that includes supporting and promoting campus events to raise awareness of American Indian culture, such as the annual campus Powwow and Native American Month. This agreement also gives the university the right to use the Ute name to promote its athletic teams.

The catch phrase in the legislation passed and signed in January 2024 is “student success and support.”

Since the legislation was signed at the start of this semester, it is not possible to know how “student support” within the Center for Equity and Student Belonging will be redefined, and which programs will be continued, for the Fall 2024 semester. Outside of programs and activities designed to help people of diverse identities to thrive and celebrate their arts, history and culture, student support also includes academic, career development and mental health counseling, accessibility services, assistance to military veterans and adult learners, among other parts of a support structure.

To me, this legislation is counter-intuitive to nurturing a relatively large community that’s within a growing city and state that is attracting new residents at a time when other states are losing population. In addition, Salt Lake City also has one of the largest LGBTQ communities among US cities. Even though The Advocate, a media vehicle targeted at LGBTQ audience has not ranked cities since 2016, it ranked Salt Lake City seventh among the nation’s Ten Queerest Cities.

Conclusions

The University of Utah appears to be a great gateway to a nice life in the Mountain or Western states, as long as the academics, costs and politics work out. There are some impressive opportunities that are tough to find at other flagship state schools. It also helps to love the outdoors over all four seasons to appreciate the benefits of the community.