Career Change

I guess I should give a bit more to the story. I originally went to Brigham Young University and graduated in Pre-Med in 1999 intending to become a Physical Therapist. I was accepted to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and earned my Masters in Physical Therapy in 2001.

After graduating I started work in Heppner, Oregon as the Director of a small clinic while helping the Heppner High School football team (the Mustangs) as both the trainer and a bit as the kicking coach. I worked as a PT for 3.5 years focusing mainly on sports rehab. In my first year of PT school however, I already knew that I would be getting my MBA. I began searching on BYU's MBA home-site since both my brother and my uncle had graduated from the Marriott school previously. That home page that I spent so much time on, devouring information and hoping for acceptance has now included a bit of me. In an attempt to promote the program by showing profiles of specific students, BYU chose me as their poster-boy. http://marriottschool.byu.edu/mba/ (I'm not getting any royalties)

In July of 2004 I took the GMAT as my initial step towards school and did well enough to get in. A 640 is not the greatest score a person could get, but it's certainly not the worst, and with my level of prep (next to none) I was satisfied. I also got into one of the best schools in the country, so says the Wall Street Journal. Their 2007 rankings place BYU as the #1 regional school in the country. The WSJ separates the 18 so-called "national" schools that typically draw applicants from across the country and have class sizes from 500 to over 1000 per year. Regional schools include the other three hundred and some odd schools at Universities across the country who typically have class sizes from 50 up to a few hundred.

BYU's class size is relatively small but is increasing. Class sizes have typically been in the 120's over the last few decades but with new construction thanks to a grant from the Marriott family, BYU is increasing it's class size. I was in the class of 2007 which included 118 students. The class of 2008 has just under 140 and the class of 2009 is just under 160. It is my understanding that BYU intends to increase their class size over the next 3 years up to 250 full-time students per class. In speaking with Jim Stice, BYU's MBA Director of academics, their biggest concern in expanding the class size so rapidly is the dilution of talent that typically comes with it.

Typically GMAT scores have averaged around 650ish over the last 5 years. The class of 2007's average was 660. The first year of expansion with the class of 2008 saw GMAT scores dip to an average of 648. This was a bit of a concern for the administration, but they forged ahead with their expansion plans. The class of 2009 that was just admitted averaged 661 and was a huge encouragement. The WSJ rankings over the past few years have had an effect on the quality of students who view BYU as a solid option. BYU has gone from 6th to 5th to 3rd, and finally to 1st over the past 4 years. The WSJ has just recently begun ranking B-schools and BYU has come out looking very good in these recruiter driven rankings.

In my next post, I anticipate relaying my Internship experiences. I was lucky enough to have two internships that I would have had no chance at getting had I not been at BYU.