Leaving UVU

The end of the semester finally arrived and finals went well. Grades were posted yesterday and although I no longer have a 4.0, I performed much better in my statistics class than I had hoped; I earned an "A" minus when I thought I would only earn a "B". This leaves my cumulative UVU GPA at 3.97 and when I factor these grades into my grades at BYU, my GPA will still be 3.95. I've been very blessed.

On that note, this was my last semester at UVU and I will be transferring to BYU in January; I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand, I am glad to be leaving a school that attracts so many underachievers who complain about 19 page reading assignments, who only turn in half their assignments, who shirk their responsibilities for group projects, and who think that high achieving students somehow hold them back. I would expect this more from Freshmen, but four of my five classes were sophomore level classes and it seemed like at least a third of the students in each of my classes exhibited the aforementioned attitudes and behavior. The sad part is that, although my professors are very dedicated and will do anything to help students succeed, they still have very low expectations and will give C's and B's to students who should really only be earning C's and D's... or F's. This is UVU's second academic year of being a full fledged university and it needs to raise the bar. It seems as though that the pervasive mentality is that this is a commuter school and still functions as a community college. But just because UVU is open enrollment doesn't mean that it should not have high standards. I would have hoped that these students would have been weeded out by this point (or more accurately: weeded themselves out). I can see why people call the school UVHS.

On the other hand, I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to continue my education after an extended interruption. It was because of UVU's open enrollment status that I was able to do this. As I mentioned, the professors at UVU are very dedicated and the small class sizes allow for them to give individual attention to students. There are also many dedicated students who are doing their best to create better lives for themselves. If I were to continue in the Information Systems program at UVU, I would likely gain hands on experience in working with systems, as there are more systems classes required for the degree at UVU than at BYU. However, it seems that BYU has a broader base of recruiters.

Notwithstanding these mixed feelings, I am very excited to move on to BYU and I know that it is the best option for me at this time. I still have to apply to the Marriott School after Winter semester, but I'm fairly confident that I will be competitive.