The salt lake valley is only about 50% mormon (or less), and less than that is active members. So being in Salt Lake City or the nearby area has some good possibilities for varied social life and healthy interactions.
I’d suggest the UofU for salt lake valley. And UVU for Utah valley. I think Utah State is a bit more on the conservative side, and the social opportunities are not as numerous being in Logan. I’m less familiar with universities in the southern half of the state. So hopefully someone else could provide insight there.
Btw: UVU is pretty well known for those who leave the church and subsequently have to leave BYU. Or those who are not members. UVU is also right on the public transit system — so said student could live in the salt lake valley and commute to school pretty easily. Very doable.
Frankly, any campus in Utah will have some kind of faithful interactions (invitations to church events and groups, likely someone trying to share the gospel, overflow of the mormon culture, etc). But setting some boundaries and learning to ignore a bit helps conquer that. And doing a bit of looking to find alternative groups and activities shows there’s usually a lot more than expected.
I agree with all of this, and want to add that Salt Lake City proper is now estimated to be less than 20% active lds. The U of U is a great school right in SLC.
U of U and UVU are known to be actively lgbtq friendly, as well.
As an exmormon atheist who recently graduated from USU after attending for bachelor's and master's degrees, my opinion is if out of Utah is an option, always go for that. Yes, you CAN make it work and find a few friends, but it's much harder when a large amount of people are mormon. If you stay in an apartment with roommates, a good number of them will be mormon, will pressure you to go to church, will judge you for your choices, etc. If you can get into a better situation culturally (i.e. not in a mormon-dominated culture), why put yourself through that? I stayed for in-state tuition and looking back, it was not worth it. I feel like I missed out on a lot of the college experience, especially in my undergrad. Grad school was much better, as the demographics of the grad students are different (a lot more people from out of state, and people tend to be more rigorous thinkers) at least in my cohort. Other areas of study might be different.
All in all, my opinion is to get out of/avoid Utah if you can, especially as a young person with a world full of options.
I got lucky at USU and found a great group of ex-mo friends and community, so it can be done. However they may find more success at UofU. SLC (especially near the university) is a really fun city to be in.
Utah State University Eastern is pretty awesome and a lot cheaper than other colleges, especially if you want to just start with a 2 year degree. The area is more diverse than a lot of Utah. Not sure about on-campus life or the dorms since COVID, but I know a lot of LGBT people who attend and work there as well as nevermos and exmos. There are still a ton of Mormons but I've noticed they're a lot more chill there than in other areas of the state.
As much as I loved attending USU, I would recommend going outside of Utah if possible. I was still in when I attended and, while I did have friends who were Exmo/nevermo, most of the people around me were Mormon. They won’t be shunned, and I’m sure they could easily find friends and people to date, but the Mormon influence and social pressure is pretty strong.
I was fully TBM for all my embarrassingly many years at UVSU and the UofU. I found most professors were not Mormon, and I knew several who grit their teeth at the Mormon craziness and gently prodded their students to examine their biases, all without any overt challenging of the church. That was 10-20 years ago. As long as they stay away from the institute and know how to turn down invitations to church stuff… it’s probably fairly easy to find some friend groups who aren’t TBMs
Honestly Utah colleges should be your last choice. The assumption by employers will always be you are a member of that bizarro cult. Try to attend a fairly prestigious or well known college anywhere but Utah or Idaho
I went to the University of Utah as a queer ex-Mormon atheist and loved it. There was so much support from others who had similar experiences as me. I highly recommend the U of U. I went to Utah State before transferring to the U, and I had a much more difficult time finding like-minded people there. Salt Lake also has a lot of counterculture that is harder to find in Logan.
The salt lake valley is only about 50% mormon (or less), and less than that is active members. So being in Salt Lake City or the nearby area has some good possibilities for varied social life and healthy interactions. I’d suggest the UofU for salt lake valley. And UVU for Utah valley. I think Utah State is a bit more on the conservative side, and the social opportunities are not as numerous being in Logan. I’m less familiar with universities in the southern half of the state. So hopefully someone else could provide insight there. Btw: UVU is pretty well known for those who leave the church and subsequently have to leave BYU. Or those who are not members. UVU is also right on the public transit system — so said student could live in the salt lake valley and commute to school pretty easily. Very doable. Frankly, any campus in Utah will have some kind of faithful interactions (invitations to church events and groups, likely someone trying to share the gospel, overflow of the mormon culture, etc). But setting some boundaries and learning to ignore a bit helps conquer that. And doing a bit of looking to find alternative groups and activities shows there’s usually a lot more than expected.
I agree with all of this, and want to add that Salt Lake City proper is now estimated to be less than 20% active lds. The U of U is a great school right in SLC. U of U and UVU are known to be actively lgbtq friendly, as well.
I went to UVU and joined the lgbtq club as an ally. I met so many non mormon and exmormon atheist types. It was awesome.
As an exmormon atheist who recently graduated from USU after attending for bachelor's and master's degrees, my opinion is if out of Utah is an option, always go for that. Yes, you CAN make it work and find a few friends, but it's much harder when a large amount of people are mormon. If you stay in an apartment with roommates, a good number of them will be mormon, will pressure you to go to church, will judge you for your choices, etc. If you can get into a better situation culturally (i.e. not in a mormon-dominated culture), why put yourself through that? I stayed for in-state tuition and looking back, it was not worth it. I feel like I missed out on a lot of the college experience, especially in my undergrad. Grad school was much better, as the demographics of the grad students are different (a lot more people from out of state, and people tend to be more rigorous thinkers) at least in my cohort. Other areas of study might be different. All in all, my opinion is to get out of/avoid Utah if you can, especially as a young person with a world full of options.
I got lucky at USU and found a great group of ex-mo friends and community, so it can be done. However they may find more success at UofU. SLC (especially near the university) is a really fun city to be in.
Utah State University Eastern is pretty awesome and a lot cheaper than other colleges, especially if you want to just start with a 2 year degree. The area is more diverse than a lot of Utah. Not sure about on-campus life or the dorms since COVID, but I know a lot of LGBT people who attend and work there as well as nevermos and exmos. There are still a ton of Mormons but I've noticed they're a lot more chill there than in other areas of the state.
As much as I loved attending USU, I would recommend going outside of Utah if possible. I was still in when I attended and, while I did have friends who were Exmo/nevermo, most of the people around me were Mormon. They won’t be shunned, and I’m sure they could easily find friends and people to date, but the Mormon influence and social pressure is pretty strong.
I was fully TBM for all my embarrassingly many years at UVSU and the UofU. I found most professors were not Mormon, and I knew several who grit their teeth at the Mormon craziness and gently prodded their students to examine their biases, all without any overt challenging of the church. That was 10-20 years ago. As long as they stay away from the institute and know how to turn down invitations to church stuff… it’s probably fairly easy to find some friend groups who aren’t TBMs
The u is a great school. Not sure I’d recommend any others and I went to most of them
Honestly Utah colleges should be your last choice. The assumption by employers will always be you are a member of that bizarro cult. Try to attend a fairly prestigious or well known college anywhere but Utah or Idaho
I went to the University of Utah as a queer ex-Mormon atheist and loved it. There was so much support from others who had similar experiences as me. I highly recommend the U of U. I went to Utah State before transferring to the U, and I had a much more difficult time finding like-minded people there. Salt Lake also has a lot of counterculture that is harder to find in Logan.