<p>I've always wondered why BYU's business school isn't ranked higher than it is...This is one reason I think the USNews is way off. If you take an objective look at BYU's Marriot School of Business, it's hard to think that there is a school that produces more quality, business intelligent, versatile graduates than this school. Considering that a majority of the students who attend there have served 2 year mormon missions (which includes selling their religion to perfect strangers in, often times, a foreign land--learning in depth their culture, language, and etiquette). What can prepare a young man/woman more for sales, and business ediquette than doing this? No wonder the friends of mine who have graduated from there have been recruited and worked for places like Bain, Goldman Sachs, the Big 4, etc. Just name a highly respected, multi-billion dollar company, and I wouldn't be surprised if a BYU grad was working in a high profile position there.</p>
<p>As far as the quality of the students who attend BYU, well there admission standards aren't exactly cake either...a buddy of mine got a 35 on the ACT, aced 6 AP tests, had a 4.0 GPA, ran his own window washing business while in HS (which he sold for $28,000 after a year of building it), played varsity football, track, and wrestling, was a member of like 10 clubs, SB president, and still had to put his best foot forward to get accepted to the Marriot school.</p>
<p>Oh well, I guess the "real world" has it right, anyway. Since company's are recruiting BYU Marriot grads like crazy. Ranking or not, when it comes to the real world, functionality of the recruit matters a heck of a lot more than the name on their diploma.</p>
<p>I always felt that the "Missions" that Mormans go on are very benefical at building strong sales and personality skills. There is no question about that in my mind. However, requiring people to go on Missions is a far different thing than comparing it to the quality of business school programs at BYU. You are talking about apples and oranges.</p>
<p>"However, requiring people to go on Missions is a far different thing than comparing it to the quality of business school programs at BYU."</p>
<p>Huh?</p>
<p>And I agree that Marriott is underranked, primarily (in my opinion) because of its affiliation with the LDS church, which isn't cause celebre among academics.</p>
<p>I think the fact that upwards of 70% of students who attend the Marriot school of business are bi-lingual from actually living in other countries, learning their culture and language, learning strong leadership skills, to communicate effectively, persuade others, set and achieve goals, and ultimately having a heightened level of maturity is exactly why the Marriot school would be a STRONG business school. These students aren't learning how to lead, have ethics, get along with people they may not really like...they already KNOW all of that...instead, they are focusing all their studies on advancing their knowledge of a particular element of business (accounting, marketing, economics, management, etc.)... see my point? </p>
<p>However, I think comparanza makes a good point in that the BYU business school is ranked lower because of its Church affiliation. By the way, a mission is not a requirement to be accepted into BYU... it's just a side product of the students' religious affiliation (it's like a 2 year EC, paid for by the missionary him/herself with complete daily focus on service, sacrifice, and learning). </p>
<p>BTW, this is not a plug with bias towards BYU, but rather an objective observation (I wouldn't go to BYU, even if I could, because the competition in the business department is fierce).... all I'm alluding to is that it seems the real world experience one has counts for little in a lot of the "elite" academic programs. They concern themselves more with tests of memorization and how well students were able to con their teachers into giving them a good grade on stuff that really won't help them in the future.</p>
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They concern themselves more with tests of memorization and how well students were able to con their teachers into giving them a good grade on stuff that really won't help them in the future.
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How could you say that without evidence? I could as well say the same thing about BYU. Some of these "elite" schools have awesome co-op programs and get their students into major bank internships every summer. I think that counts for more real business experience than going on missions. </p>
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the Marriot school of business are bi-lingual from actually living in other countries, learning their culture and language, learning strong leadership skills, to communicate effectively, persuade others, set and achieve goals, and ultimately having a heightened level of maturity
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Are you saying taht kids from top business schools don't have these skills? I don't understand where you are pulling these "facts" from <em>cough cough</em></p>
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Are you saying taht kids from top business schools don't have these skills?
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<p>Did I say that? However, BYU does have over 80% of it's students with LDS mission experience and over 70% are bilingual...how many business schools can claim that?</p>
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"elite" schools have awesome co-op programs and get their students into major bank internships every summer. I think that counts for more real business experience than going on missions.
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<p>Back up your statement, how does a summer internship prepare somebody more for real business experience than 2 years of selling something that is as involved as religion? Business is people, whether you're a banker, a manager, a CEO, or whatever, you better know how to deal with people first and foremost. This is why I believe serving an LDS mission, which is all about dealing and serving people who you don't know, is probably one of the best preparation steps for "real world" business.</p>
<p>I hardly see how Marriot is underranked...look at the schools ahead of it: Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, Chicago GSB, Stanford, Columbia, Haas, MIT-Sloan, NYU-Stern, Tuck...I could go on. These are the most respected business schools in the whole world.</p>
<p>Which of these do you propose we switch for Marriot?</p>
<p>(And just as a side note--Sorenson Capital recruiting from BYU is not such a big deal, seeing as how Sorenson is based in Utah...Citadel even recruits from UIUC)</p>
<p>how about Bain? Sorenson Capital doesn't recruit from BYU, it recruits BYU students who have worked a few years for Bain, or Goldman Sachs, etc.</p>
<p>Okay, Bain. Bain seems to have a special relationship with BYU. But the fact is that it is NOT a target school for most consulting firms and ibanks. End of discussion.</p>
<p>And there is a difference between Goldman hiring a couple grads a year and Wharton getting 25 recruited from Goldman alone. Marriot may be a good school but it is not top tier. And in business (as in law), if you're not top tier, you're not that good.</p>
<p>how about this, from the Wall Stree Journal:</p>
<p>(The Wall Street Journal recently performed a survey of over 2,100 recruiters and ranked the Marriott School 26th in the world. The school received exceptionally high marks in ethics as it was ranked 2nd in the new 'Emphasis on Ethics' category. The school was also ranked 3rd as a hidden gem for schools that "don't receive the attention they deserve.")</p>
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But the fact is that it is NOT a target school for most consulting firms and ibanks. End of discussion.
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<p>back that up...where do you get this type of information?</p>
<p>at the ugrad level, BYU has little representation. at the mba level you also have industry recruiting, which is a different ball game than finance and consulting. Point is why would you go to BYU if your goal is to work on wall st and you can go to a well connected school. I guess its a cultural thing. BYU is def a good school though, i know alot of smart mormon friends that went there as opposed to "better ranked" schools. when it comes down to it, if youre a smart ambitious person, youll find your way to the prestigious jobs or start your own thing. </p>
<p>*Also, it doesnt mean much to have banks come to recruit, its what theyre recruiting for. Banks go to Hofstra to pick up their back office accting, thus they work for Goldman Sachs, but doing go nowhere extremely boring operations work. IBanking, trading, consulting is def targeted at certain schools.</p>