Because of LDS missions, prolonged graduation, and early marriages, graduating classes often lose definition at BYU. For those who are counting, however (and based on the theory of a four-year bachelor’s degree), the freshmen who entered BYU this fall make up the class of 2000.
So what are this year’s 4,277 freshmen like? Well, other than the fact that most of them were born in 1978 and they constitute–theoretically–the class of ’00 (Does this mean Cosmo will finally graduate?), they’re probably much like the class of ’99. The office of Institutional Studies reports that 99.1 percent of the freshmen are members of the LDS Church, 68.8 percent are from the Mountain and Pacific States, 57.5 percent are women, and their average high school GPA was 3.68. And if you sit and talk with a few of them, it’s plain they’re not very different from any group of freshmen over the years–quick to laugh, idealistic, and thrilled to be at BYU. (But that was before midterms.)
However, they do realize their place in the world and what awaits them–which may be a bit different than what awaited other classes. “When we’re the leaders, it’s probably when a lot of things are going to go on so fast it’s going to make our heads spin,” says freshman Liz Darger from Boise, Idaho. “So many things are going to be happening; there are going to be wars all over. If you just look at what’s going to happen before the Second Coming, that’s exactly what’s going to be happening. And we’re going to be the ones that are either taking care of it or not taking care of it. What better way to prepare than by being here?”
