Transfer Guide
Many queer students at BYU evolve in their understanding of who they are and what their gender identities and sexual orientations mean for them. For some students, it reaches a tipping point where they decide to leave. Transferring is a complex and personal decision, and it isn’t the choice for everyone. However, if it is your choice, we’ve included a few steps below to help guide you in beginning the transfer process.
Discontinuing at BYU
The first step is to announce your discontinuance. Details regarding discontinuance can be found here: https://catalog.byu.edu/policy/discontinuance.
You will also need to ensure any honor code violations are resolved before transferring, as existing violations may result in a hold on your transcripts.
Finding a new School
The second step is finding a university that is right for you.
Credits
One of the biggest considerations for transferring is how many of your academic credits are eligible for transfer. All public universities in Utah take a sizable number of transfer students from BYU every term, so most have established course equivalencies for BYU classes. Outside of religion courses, it’s typical for all BYU courses to be accepted toward your degree. If you have questions about your particular major requirements, we recommend reaching out to the major advisor at your new school.
You can also look up exactly which credits will transfer at transferology.com. After creating an account, simply input all the BYU course numbers you’ve taken to see their transfer eligibility.
Cost
Depending on your situation, you may be confronted with a variety of new financial challenges. Tuition at BYU for members of the Church is relatively inexpensive compared with other private universities. Switching to a local public school may be feasible, unless you don’t have residency in Utah.
If you have lived in Utah for over twelve months and you are not claimed as a dependent on your parents’ tax return, you may already meet the qualifications for residency.
If your home state is in the western United States, you might be eligible for a tuition reduction program called Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE). It allows out-of-state students to receive significant tuition discounts.
In addition, The OUT Foundation’s community of alumni and friends across the world have donated large sums to help students who need to transfer away from BYU. The amount we can offer will depend on how many applications we receive. Click here to apply.
Grades
Since schools tend to prefer transfer students who can demonstrate their ability to handle coursework, grades can be another obstacle to enrolling. At most institutions, admissions offices are typically looking at overall GPA and GPA from your most recently completed semester.
If your grades have suffered as a result of being queer at BYU, you can make your case to your new school’s admissions office. If they reject it (which they might), some schools allow you to appeal through their LGBTQ+ resource center. We’ve provided a list of those centers for several schools below.
Generally, if you underwent hardship, admissions offices would like to see that you have a handle on things now. If your grades are currently low (less than 2.0 GPA, excluding religious courses), you might want to consider doing a semester at an open-enrollment school first to show your resiliency. Or, just complete your degree at an open-enrollment university.
Open-enrollment schools in Utah include Salt Lake Community College, Snow College, Weber State University, Dixie State University, and of course, Utah Valley University.
Essays
You may be concerned about filling out a lengthy application with essay responses and getting letters of recommendation. Fortunately, BYU and Ensign College (formerly LDS Business College), are the only schools in Utah that require essays for admission. Other schools may have an optional “additional comments” field. This should be used to explain issues around low grade performance and why you feel confident about your future now. If you’re applying with a high GPA (3.0 and above), it won’t hurt your chances to leave this comment field blank.
Essays are commonly required for scholarship applications and may be required for students applying to certain closed majors, especially STEM or pre-professional programs. Students who are applying for these should get some help proofreading and editing their essays. We have several volunteers to help out; check the comments on this tweet to get in contact with these generous souls.
LGBTQ+ RESOURCES
When looking for a new school, we highly recommend reaching out to a university’s LGBTQ+ resource center to assist in this process. Links for several schools in Utah are listed below:
University of Utah: https://lgbt.utah.edu/
Utah Valley University: https://www.uvu.edu/multicultural/lgbt/
Utah State University: https://inclusion.usu.edu/lgbtqa/index
Weber State University: https://www.weber.edu/lgbtresourcecenter
Questions and comments
If you have any additional questions or comments about the transfer process or ways we could improve this guide (including more information specific to BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii), please reach out to us at info@theout.foundation.
