We all instinctively know that treating people unfairly is wrong. Yet, despite our innate moral compass, dozens of incoming BYU students each year are still treated unfairly. Let me explain. There are two general types of BYU applicants: incoming freshmen and transfer students. Both types of students are treated the same in most aspects. Both must have excellent grades, must live by the honor code and must pay the same amount for tuition, housing and books. However, there is one big difference in the way BYU treats these two types of students. The incoming freshmen can receive academic scholarships upon entrance to the university; the transfer students cannot. This isn’t fair treatment. BYU administration should allow transfer students to be eligible to apply for academic scholarships upon entrance, because all admitted students deserve to be treated equally.
You may not be familiar with the constraints BYU has set on academic scholarships for transfer students. Transfer students must wait until they’ve completed at least one full semester at BYU before they can even apply for academic scholarships, while freshmen can apply upon acceptance to the university. Obviously, this is not equal treatment and shouldn’t be allowed. Even though the academic scholarships will be more competitive for incoming freshmen if we open the scholarships to transfer students, we should let incoming transfer students apply for academic scholarships, because it will make BYU a more just, fair and enriching college.
Loriana Goulding
Wildomar, California
