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Brigham Young University (BYU) was founded as Brigham Young Academy in 1875 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has grown to become the largest private university in the United States and one of the world's largest church-affiliated schools, with an enrollment of roughly 32,400 undergraduate students at the beginning of 2003. BYU is located in Provo, Utah, with extension campuses in Rexburg, Idaho (Brigham Young University-Idaho), and La'ie, Hawai'i (Brigham Young University-Hawaii) serving an additional 12,000 students. The main campus sits on approximately 600 acres at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains and includes 333 buildings.
Students from every state in the nation and from many foreign countries attend BYU (in 2001, 110 different countries were represented by more than 1,600 BYU students). Although students are not required to be Mormons, about 95% do belong to the Church. Everyone attending the school must agree to adhere to a strict honor code. The BYU honor code governs academic behavior, morality, and dress and grooming standards of students and faculty, with the aim of providing an atmosphere consistent with the principles of the Church. Students must commit to: being honest, chaste and virtuous; abstaining from illicit drugs, alcohol and tobacco; using clean language; and abiding by the guidelines for dress, grooming, and housing. For example, skirts and shorts must reach to the knee and male students may not sport beards or goatees without special permission.
Church tithing funds subsidize roughly 80% of the cost of education at BYU, allowing affordable tuition for its students regardless of their membership in the Church, although tuition for students who are not members is one-and-a-half times the listed rate. In addition to fulfilling broad general-education requirements, students must complete 14 semester hours of religious education.
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