Most guides to student health list the buildings. The things that actually catch students out here are not buildings — they are thresholds, queues and a requirement almost nobody reads until it blocks their registration.
Both BYU and UVU provide health resources that are cheaper and more accessible than anything off campus. But each of those resources has an eligibility line, and if you are on the wrong side of it, "free counseling for students" is not a description of your situation. This guide leads with the rules, because the rules are what decide whether the door opens.
The Requirement Nobody Reads: BYU's Health Insurance Rule
This is the single most financially consequential health fact for a BYU student, and it is not optional.
BYU requires students enrolled at three-quarter time or more to carry health insurance year-round. The threshold works out to roughly 9 or more credits in fall or winter semester, and roughly 4.5 or more in a spring or summer term.
The part that surprises people is that it is opt-out, not opt-in. If you do not report qualifying private coverage before the deadline, you are enrolled in the BYU Student Health Plan automatically and the premium is charged to your student account. If that charge sits unpaid and unwaived, it can become a financial hold that prevents you registering for classes — which is how a health-insurance form turns into an academic problem.
Four details that trip students up every year:
- The waiver is annual, not permanent. You declare or re-declare coverage each fall. Being waived last year does not carry you.
- BYU verifies waivers with insurers during the year. If your reported information cannot be confirmed, you can be enrolled anyway.
- Losing coverage mid-year has its own path. If you come off a parent's or employer's plan, there is a window to enroll in the Student Health Plan rather than going uninsured — but you have to act on it.
- International students face a stricter test. Coverage from an insurer based outside the United States is generally not accepted; the requirement is the BYU plan or a US-based, ACA-compliant plan.
If you are on the Student Health Plan, the economics point at campus. The plan is designed around the Student Health Center, with a low flat charge for an on-campus office visit rather than a deductible to work through. Going off campus for something the Health Center could have handled is where students quietly spend money they did not need to.
UVU's structure differs — check UVU's own student health pages for its current insurance policy rather than assuming BYU's rule applies to you.
Campus Health Centers
BYU Student Health Center
Northwest corner of 900 East and University Parkway · 801-422-5156
Primary care at student rates. It covers routine medical visits, immunizations, lab work, women's health services, allergy shots, TB testing required for some international students, pharmacy needs and referrals to outside specialists.
What it does not cover: true emergencies (go to an ER), dental, vision, or complex specialist care.
One practical note about the address. University Parkway crosses between two address grids — it is 1650 North in Provo and 1200 South in Orem — so directions that quote a grid number rather than the corner can send you the wrong way. Navigate to the corner.
UVU Student Health Services
UVU Campus · 801-863-8876
Primary care, immunizations, health screenings and referrals for enrolled students. The scope is somewhat narrower than BYU's, but the core services are comparable.
When the Health Center Is Closed
Campus health centers keep campus hours. Students get sick on Sunday nights, over Thanksgiving, and in the dead middle of winter break — precisely when the cheapest door is locked. Knowing the next tier down before you need it is worth real money.
Urgent care is the middle tier, and it is the one students skip. The mental model that works: urgent care is a doctor's office with evening hours, walk-in access and an X-ray machine. It is not a small emergency room. Utah Valley's three main networks — Intermountain's InstaCare clinics, Revere Health's urgent cares, and CareNow in Orem — all run seven days a week with extended evening hours, which covers most of the gap the Health Center leaves.
The cost gap is the part worth internalizing as a student. An urgent care visit generally bills like an office visit plus any tests. An emergency room visit stacks a hospital facility fee — the price of walking through the door of a building that maintains trauma bays and around-the-clock specialists — on top of separate physician fees and emergency-priced imaging and labs. Insurers price the difference into copays too, with ER copays typically running several times an urgent care copay. For a genuine emergency none of that matters and you should go. For a Sunday ear infection it is the difference between a copay and a bill you will still be paying off in the spring.
One trap specific to this valley as it grows: freestanding emergency rooms look like urgent care from the parking lot and bill like the emergency rooms they are. Read the sign before you walk in.
After urgent care closes, a virtual visit is usually the realistic option short of the ER. Our guide to urgent care versus the ER in Provo maps every clinic and hospital in the valley and the logic for choosing between them.
Dental and Vision: The Two Gaps
Both campus health centers exclude dental and vision, and neither guide to student life in this valley tends to say what to do about it.
Dental. Student health plans at BYU and UVU may carry limited dental coverage, but it varies by year and by plan — read your own benefits rather than assuming either way. The cheapest route in the valley is the UVU Dental Hygiene Clinic in Orem, 801-863-7608, where supervised dental hygiene students do cleanings, exams and X-rays at a fraction of private rates. The trade is time rather than quality: appointments run around three hours because a student is learning as they work, and you generally see the same student across visits. For a healthy mouth that needs a clean, it is the best deal available to a student here, and it is open to anyone rather than only to UVU students. Our guide to finding a dentist in Provo covers the rest, including the lower-cost options for bigger procedures.
Vision. Routine eye exams and glasses sit outside campus medical care entirely. If your plan includes a vision rider, use it; if not, treat it as a normal out-of-pocket purchase and shop it like one.
Mental Health and Counseling
BYU — Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
1500 Wilkinson Student Center · 801-422-3035
Free, confidential individual, group and couples therapy from a large staff of doctoral-level clinicians and supervised trainees.
Eligibility: CAPS serves students at three-quarter-time enrollment and above. This is the detail most write-ups omit, including earlier versions of this page. A student who has dropped to a light load — which is exactly what a struggling student often does — can fall below the line at the moment they most need the service.
The honest queue. CAPS itself cites roughly three to six weeks for a first individual-therapy appointment during busy stretches. Earlier versions of this guide said one to two weeks; that was optimistic, and an optimistic number is worse than no number, because a student who thinks help is a fortnight away stops looking for alternatives.
Three ways to work with that reality rather than against it:
- Say the word urgent. Crisis capacity is handled separately from the routine queue, and practices hold slots for people who say so plainly.
- Ask about groups. CAPS' group therapy program is generally faster to enter, carries no session limit, and for a large share of common concerns is the evidence-backed first choice rather than the consolation prize students assume it is.
- Use the after-hours route if you need it. CAPS takes daytime crisis walk-ins, and outside those hours a psychologist is on call 24/7 — call University Police at 801-422-2222 and ask for the counselor on duty.
On length of care: CAPS works on a short-term individual model and refers outward for longer-term therapy. Rather than plan around a specific session count, plan around the shape: short-term individual work, unlimited-length groups, and a referral if you need something ongoing.
UVU — Mental Health Services
SC 221 · 801-863-8876 · free for enrolled students
Eligibility: individual therapy requires 9 or more credit hours during the semester, or 6 or more in summer. Below that threshold, the free therapy groups are open with no session limits — a genuinely lower barrier than BYU's equivalent.
TimelyCare gives every UVU student free 24/7 virtual counseling, which is the single most useful thing on this page for anyone whose bad nights do not fall inside business hours. UVU's psychiatric services line, for the medication side, is 833-372-3388.
The two campuses are not interchangeable, and earlier versions of this guide implied they were. BYU has the deeper clinical bench and a daytime walk-in; UVU has the lower barrier for part-time students and a 24/7 virtual option. Which one is better depends entirely on your credit load and what time it is.
Crisis Resources
If you or someone you know is in crisis:
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988, free, 24/7, or chat at 988lifeline.org.
- SafeUT — Utah's own free statewide app, connecting anyone in the state to a licensed crisis counselor by chat or call. It is built for students and it is chronically under-known on this campus.
- Crisis Text Line — text HOME to 741741.
- BYU after hours — University Police, 801-422-2222, ask for the on-call counselor.
- Immediate danger — call 911, or go to any emergency room. Utah Valley Hospital, Timpanogos Regional and Orem Community Hospital are open 24/7.
When Campus Counseling Is Not Enough
Campus centers are short-term by design. Utah Valley has unusually good low-cost options for what comes after, and two of them are run by the universities themselves for people the counseling centers cannot serve:
- BYU Comprehensive Clinic — open to the entire community, not just students. Individual, couples, premarital and family therapy plus assessments, delivered by advanced graduate students under licensed supervision, on a sliding scale the clinic lists at roughly nothing to twenty dollars a session, and free for BYU students. Self-pay only, no crisis or after-hours service.
- UVU Community Mental Health Clinic (Orem) — free individual, couples, family and group therapy for students and community members alike, also trainee-provided under licensed faculty supervision.
- Wasatch Behavioral Health — the public behavioral health authority for Utah and Wasatch counties, including the county's crisis infrastructure and mobile crisis outreach.
Our guide to finding a therapist in Utah Valley covers the licenses, costs, insurance routes and the question of faith fit in far more depth than belongs here.
Fitness and Physical Wellness
BYU Richards Building
Included for BYU students
One of the better university fitness facilities in the country: indoor pools, basketball and volleyball courts, racquetball, weight rooms, an indoor track and group fitness classes, all covered by tuition and fees. It is large enough that you can generally find space even at peak hours.
⚠ Three things about access that nobody tells you until you are at the door. BYU Student Wellness requires a facilities membership of every patron — in practice a signed liability waiver — and issues wristbands that are checked inside the building, so a student ID alone is not entry. University dress and grooming standards are enforced within the facilities, which its own staff job descriptions list as a duty, so ordinary gym kit is not automatically acceptable. And access is not students-only: BYU employees and dependents with a current ID card may use the Richards Building and the Smith Fieldhouse, spouses and dependents aged 5–30 free, with a paid same-day buddy pass available for a guest who must be accompanied by a member. Sort it at Member Services, RB 112.
UVU Fitness Facilities
Included for UVU students
UVU's recreation facilities include gym space, equipment and recreational programming, and have expanded considerably in recent years. UVU also runs The Project, its climbing facility, free to students on a sufficient credit load with guest day passes available to the public.
Outdoor Fitness
Free and always available: hiking Y Mountain, running the Provo River Parkway, the valley's bike network, and the outdoor exercise stations in several city parks. Provo's outdoor access is genuinely one of the best fitness resources here and costs nothing. See our Best Gyms Guide for paid options.
Eating Well as a Student
On campus: BYU's dining includes the Cannon Center, the Cougareat food court and the Creamery. Which building you live in changes this question entirely — Helaman Halls is dorm housing with a required meal plan and no in-unit kitchen, while Heritage Halls has kitchens and optional plans. If you are choosing housing, you are also choosing how you eat.
Off campus: cooking at home is cheaper. Our student meal prep guide turns that into a weekly system, and the student budget eating guide covers the shopping side.
Food insecurity is a real and under-used category here. UVU runs a food pantry with Community Action Services, plus Fresh Food Fridays from the on-campus GRIT Garden and a mobile pantry to satellite campuses. Community Action Services and Food Bank at 815 S Freedom Blvd has served the county since 1967. One rule worth knowing before you assume you do not qualify for federal help: under federal regulation, students aged 18 to 49 enrolled at least half-time are generally ineligible for SNAP unless they meet a specific exemption — the opposite of what most students assume — while below half-time the student restrictions do not apply at all.
If you are struggling with disordered eating, both campus counseling centers can help, and it is worth raising directly rather than waiting for it to come up. The National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline, 1-866-662-1235, offers support and referrals from clinicians.
Sleep
Sleep loss is the most common and most underestimated health problem among students here, and it interacts with everything else on this page — mood, immune function, academic performance and appetite regulation all degrade together.
The practical version: protect a consistent schedule even in heavy weeks, and treat the all-nighter as the false economy it usually is. If you cannot sleep on a persistent basis, raise it with a provider at the Health Center rather than absorbing it — insomnia is treatable, and it is frequently a symptom of something else that is also treatable.
Related Guides
- Finding a Therapist in Utah Valley
- The Complete BYU Student Guide
- UVU Student Guide
- Post-Mission Guide
- Making Friends in Provo
- Best Gyms & Fitness in Provo
- Urgent Care vs the ER in Provo
Last updated: August 2026. Eligibility rules, credit-hour thresholds, phone numbers, insurance deadlines and program details all change — confirm directly with your university's health services office before relying on any of them. This article is general information, not medical or psychological advice. Mental health is a sensitive subject: if any of this is personal for you right now, support is available 24/7 by calling or texting 988.
Frequently Asked Questions
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