Poll: Most education of a known convert

[falafel]

Here's a very thoughtful article I found linked on Times and Seasons about a Stanford undergrad who converted to the LDS church.

I need to go meet that guy. Then I can finally respond to this poll! I just hope the guy remembers my name so that it will count.

[Moliere]

There can be no real purpose of this poll. I thought it was an interesting question, and that is all. Obviously any one of us could know fifty converts from high school, and one convert that had a PhD, and our answer would not reflect the average reality. Who knows? I just dropped what I thought might be an interesting question to see if any interesting insight came out of hte answers. That was it. As it stands, it appears that many people have known someone who has completed a PhD before they were baptized. I think it would be interesting to hear what these people had degrees in, to see if any picture of the 'educated convert' emerges.

This poll is sort of like an old polaroid, shot from the hip. We shake it gently and watch as an image appears. It will probably be crap, but who knows?

To make any sort of projection on converts as a whole would obviously be wrong (I think we can all agree on this). Having been on this board a short time it is obvious to me that most of the posters are well educated and hold more than an undergraduate degree. This usually means that we associated on a daily basis with people on the same education level. Therefore your numbers will tend to skew towards the "more educated" side than you would find if you ran a similar poll on utefans.net.

[Jeff Lebowski]

There can be no real purpose of this poll. I thought it was an interesting question, and that is all.

Think anybody will buy that?

[Slim]

On a related note. I used to hear all the time that there was a positive correlation between education level and activity in the church.

This was impressive to me until I realized something.

I baptized a few dozen people on my mission who had a high school equivalent education or less. Most of those shortly went inactive (something that I used to feel really bad about). Those who went to Central/South American missions know what I'm talking about. I think the huge number of uneducated converts who inevitably go inactive skews this aforementioned correlation.

[CardiacCoug]

My wife's father is a highly-educated adult convert.

It would be interesting to verify that the average educational level of a new adult LDS convert is much lower than the average final educational level of an LDS person who is born in the covenant. I have no doubt whatsoever that this is true.

[Jarid in Cedar]

My wife's father is a highly-educated adult convert.

It would be interesting to verify that the average educational level of a new adult LDS convert is much lower than the average final educational level of an LDS person who is born in the covenant. I have no doubt whatsoever that this is true.

Would you do that with a statistical analysis to include developed countries only? If not, then your statement is a easily correct, but misleading.

[CardiacCoug]

Would you do that with a statistical correct to include developed countries only? If not, then your statement is a easily correct, but misleading.

True -- you would have to correct for the fact that most of the Church's growth is in developing nations.

I'm pretty sure that the statement would still be correct when limited to the U.S. and Europe.

[RobinFinderson]

Think anybody will buy that?

Here are my biased hunches, laid out plain for those of you who want to see an ulterior motive in the poll:

I would guess that on average, the higher a person's education, the less likely they would be prone to accept the gospel.

I would also guess that for those people who are highly educated who are receptive to the gospel message, they are more likely to remain steadfast in the faith. Whatever it is that helps them get over cognitive dissonance is developed enough to balance out faith and the kind of reasoning that is often part of a highly educated person's life.

I would guess that a vast majority of people convert to Mormonism in their relative youth, and the likelihood of conversion drops significantly as one gets older. I would guess that marrying an active Mormon would be the one factor that changes everything.

I would guess that active members who are highly educated are far more likely to be closet apostates, though I suspect this would be far more true for members 'BitC' than for converts.

Of course none of these biases can be supported or refuted by the results of this poll.

[Surfah]

I'll see your PhD coverts and raise you all a Jewish convert.

(I don't know his education, but he is a Financial Planner )

[il Padrino Ute]

I'll see your PhD coverts and raise you all a Jewish convert.

(I don't know his education, but he is a Financial Planner )

When I was going to mortuary school, I attended a fireside in Orange County and the speaker was a gentleman who was Jewish when he converted. I don't know what he did for a living, but it was a great fireside and he was a tremendous individual.

I guess this answers the SU's question, eh? If a Jew can be a Mormon, doesn't it stand to reason that a self-declared former Mormon can be Hasidic?

[LA Ute]

Here's a very thoughtful article I found linked on Times and Seasons about a Stanford undergrad who converted to the LDS church.

I liked that piece. Which goes to show that the old saying about blind squirrels and acorns is true.

[LA Ute]

I'll see your PhD coverts and raise you all a Jewish convert.

(I don't know his education, but he is a Financial Planner )

Our last stake president is a Jewish convert. It was cool to go to his house and see his bar mitzvah photo up on the wall. Great man, an intellectual.

[Indy Coug]

There was a guy in a past ward that was born Jewish, became a Pentacostal minister and then joined the church. We had another Pentacostal minister convert close to the same time.

[wuapinmon]

I'll see your PhD coverts and raise you all a Jewish convert.

(I don't know his education, but he is a Financial Planner )

I'll raise you a Jewish physician convert.