During his freshman year of 1933–34, Bascom won the Studio Guild Award for the best student art work of the year. He won that top art award again in 1936, as well as the Honorable Mention Award. He was a member of the BYU Art Club and the Canada Club as well as the Delta Phi fraternity. He was a popular entertainer with his cartoon drawings at the University Dames Club of which his wife Nadine was a member. He graduated from BYU with a degree in Fine Art in 1940. His fellow art students voted him "most likely to succeed" as an artist. He was a member of the Brigham Young University Alumni Association and elected to the BYU Emeritus Club in 1990.