The University

BRIGHAM Young University offers an exceptional educational opportunity for the well-prepared graduate student who is seeking an environment where learning experiences with dedicated scholars characterize graduate study. Established and sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, BYU is the largest privately owned university in the United States. The university president, Merrill J. Bateman, is directly responsible to the board of trustees, led by the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and composed of Church authorities. In a time of constantly changing human values and increased challenges for higher education, BYU holds steadfastly to a singular vision that combines reasoned and revealed learning. Along with extensive undergraduate programs, BYU offers master's and doctoral degrees in a variety of disciplines through fifty-three graduate departments. In addition, the Law School and the Marriott School of Management offer professional graduate degrees.

Founded in 1875 as Brigham Young Academy, the campus has grown from one building to 500 buildings on more than 600 acres. Its first class of twenty-nine students was taught by the academy's founding scholar, Karl G. Maeser. Now nearly 1,400 full-time faculty instruct 28,000 students. From its modest beginnings Brigham Young University has grown to become one of the nation's most distinguished institutions of private higher education. At BYU teaching and scholarly research are valued as essential complements of one another. Faculty and students work side by side in collegial scholarship enhanced by mutual commitment to the highest ideals of professional ethics and spiritual values.

Situated at the foot of the beautifully rugged Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains and bounded on the west by twenty-three-mile-long Utah Lake, the campus is the focal point of a city of 90,000 and a valley of 250,000. Beyond it to the south and east are spectacular areas of vast sandstone canyons and monoliths, several of which are national parks. Forty-five miles north is Salt Lake City.

The faculty at BYU have been schooled at some of the leading universities of the nation as well as of other countries, and many of them have achieved national and international prominence as teachers and scholars.

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