Brigham Young University — 1973 to 1977
— Brigham Young University — 1973 to 1977
My years at the BYU after my mission, 1973-1977, were grueling, challenging, but filled with wonderful experiences and accomplishments. I lived in John Hall with Scott Brady (a former missionary companion) for two semesters, in Deseret Towers for one summer, and then in a small apartment in the home of a Mrs. Carlisle for the remainder of the time. I had the opportunity to go the Madrid, Spain on a semester-abroad, which I have written about in a separate section of my history. I majored in Microbiology and minored in Spanish, graduating Summa Cum Laude. Following are some of my favorite memories of these years.
I enrolled at the BYU immediately upon graduating from high school, and took a full schedule of classes during the summer of 1970. One of the classes I took that summer was Calculus. I found myself in a class full of pre-medical and pre-dental students. I was intimidated at first but soon found that I could master the material and compete with these older students. My professor was a Dr. Gill from India and I enjoyed him immensely. I was one of the few students that received an “A” in the class, much to my delight and the chagrin of the older students. I remember explicitly that at one time during the class, Dr. Gill gave us an extremely difficult mathematical problem as part of an assignment. Everyone in the class struggled to solve this problem. I remember that I worked on this problem for two days, and finally solved it! I felt great elation at having solved this problem, and also at having the other students ask me how I solved it.
All students were required to take English 111 to fulfill general education requirements. My professor for this class was Gary Elmore and I liked him very much. We had to write several essays and themes for this class, and he told me that I was the best writer he had ever had in his freshman English classes at the Y. This was very gratifying.
I think my greatest joys at Brigham Young University came from excelling in the difficult pre-medical classes I had to take, especially my chemistry classes. I remember well my experience in inorganic chemistry during my sophomore year. I loved the material, I loved the professor, and I loved competing with the other pre-medical students for an “A” grade. I ended up with the highest point total in the class at the end of the semester, and Professor Pack put the following note on the final grade printout which he hung outside his office: “Congratulations to Michael Taylor for achieving 958 out of a possible 970 points!” Yes, I gloated over that for several weeks.
The hardest class I took during my college career was Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis, an upper-division chemistry class. I have never studied harder in my life for anything, before or since. I took the class during a summer semester, and I literally did nothing else that whole summer but concentrate on that class. If I remember correctly, only myself and one or two other students earned an “A” in the class. The final examination for that class was the hardest test I ever experienced, but I was extremely prepared for it. I got 198 out of a possible 200 points. Our professor put our tests and our scores in a box outside of his office at the semester’s end, and I was furious when I discovered that some other student in the class took my test, knowing that I had done all the problems correctly and wanting to compare his answers with mine. I fumed about this for 2 days and then asked Professor Dalley if I could have another blank copy of the test, and I retook the test just so I could have this visual reminder of the countless hours of effort and work I put into that class. The second time I scored 200 out of 200 points.
My years at the Brigham Young were some of the hardest and yet some of the happiest and fulfilling of my entire life. I gained a deep love and respect for the university and the standards which it espouses. That love and respect has only grown and deepened over the years.
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