Q&A: Ecclesiastical Endorsement

I had another BYU specific query. The honour code form mentions APPLICATION INTERVIEW:"If you are not a member of the Church, you may be interviewed by a local ecclesiastical leader from the LDS Church (bishop, branch president, stake president, or mission president) or by a local leader of your religious preference." How do i go about this?

The ecclesiastical endorsement can be had from a Hindu temple priest and he/she can even sign in Hindi. You just need to mention the name, address and telephone number of the priest you are taking an endorsement from.

Q&A: Improvements @ BYU

Is there anything at BYU that you would like to change?

First of all , BYU is run and operated by a lot of talented individuals and they have all done a pretty good job in organizing the university. In fact when I read this question, my mind just went boom , blank and honestly this is true. When I look back at the years I spent at BYU, I was unable to think of a single thing that I would want BYU to change. However, there is alwasy a room at the top and areas of improvements no matter if it is a university or an individual.

I would say that students at BYU should be more networking oriented. As majority of BYU students are married or looking to get married, there is very little quality time beyond a class room setting that they are able to spend with their fellow class mates. In light of this, a strong network and belongigness to one great university is lacking at times. After I moved to Southern California I realised that private schools or even public schools have a lot of belongingness and that makes them having a very strong network. Also the non-LDS folks in minority are not able to embed in the culture fully and hence the participation in events is sometimes restricted.

Additionally, BYU has an excellent brand name in the whole of US but due to lack of marketing and outreach, most of the people who study at BYU have been born and raised with in the state of Utah. Hardly, 20-30 % of the students would be from out of state and 10-20% of the students would be international. These figures are all guestimates and could be wrong. However, they still give you an idea about the proportion. Again, there is nothing that BYU as a university can do to change the attitude of students and make them more networking oriented during their tenure. It will eventually change with the recruitment of more diverse set of students who would bring a different perspective.

Q&A: Financial Responsibility

The applications asks for Certificate of Financial Responsibilty. What exactly are they looking for and in what form? Do they expect , lets say a bank statement which has enough funds for say the first yr's expenses? I could bloat my bank balance temporarily just for the sake of the statement , would that hold? Also, can i use someone not related to me , say an uncle 's bank statement who happens to be in US?

With the bank statements they do really mean statement from bank mentioning your current balance and how long the account has been opened duly signed by the bank branch manager. As far as bloating the statements is concerned, you can do that but the same amount will be shown on your I-20. At the time of Visa the visa officer may ask you to show the sources of funds as depicted on the I-20 (may or may not be the case , depends on the visa officer). At that time you should have similar balances in the bank account. Also, you can show a foreign sponsor in your case the uncle you mentioned. However, in all circumstances you have to show the first year tuition payment capability by means of liquid funds available in your bank account.

Q&A: Management Material

What does the admissions committee look for in a prospective candidate? How do they define 'management material ' ?

Admissions committee definitely gives a lot of emphasis on work experience not just the tenure but the quality of the experience you have had. Other important aspects they focus on are community service and how you would be able to contribute to the class and the group as a whole. What is your ultimate goal in life ? One of the most important thing is that do you know that BYU is a religious school and so it will be different than other schools .

Essentially your knowledge about BYU and the culture in the state will be helpful in gaining admission at this prestigious university. As for management material I dont think they have any specific list but they do look at your leadership record, ability to work in teams, academics, prior universities you attended, the role you played in your company and lot of other factors together define the management material you are refering.

Q&A: Financial Aid

Are there any possibilities of getting financial aid in any form? How should one approach the admissions committee in order to secure financial aid? What part of the expenses would I be able to cover through on-campus jobs and internships during the course of MBA program?

Financial aid is a definite possibility. The cost of tuition at BYU is already so low that the amount of financial aid would vary between 0-30%. During the MBA program you are not allowed to work in the 1st year and the admissions committee automatically considers prospective students for a department scholarship. Also there are specific scholarships for International students. I would say that about 60-80% of the cost of your education will still come from your personal funds for the 1st year.

There are chances that in the second year you might get additional funds. As I mentioned earlier the on-campus jobs are restricted for the first year but I am sure you can work in the second year of MBA. Overall MBA is a very rigorous program and an opportunity to learn as much as you can in the two years. So it is also in the best interest of the student to learn the subject well than to worry about working. On the internship front, you can make some really good money during your internship. It can range anywhere between $ 10000- $ 20000 depending on the length and quality of your internship. Do consider that this is the gross amount and you will also spend some money during the internship. So th enet amount will vary based on your lifestyle.

Q&A: Tuition Costs

After studying the web-site for the total estimated expenses for 2 yrs at Marriott School, I could put total tution fees to around $54,000. Could you please elaborate if this is the correct figure ?

The total tuition what you are seeing on the web-site includes the living expenses as estimated considering the American standard of living. I believe this also includes the costs of books and insurance. The 54K figure is probably the sum total of all the expenses that you would be incurring considering you do not get any money from the school or through on-campus job or through internship and all the three worst case scenarios are highly unlikely. On another note, the tuition for non-LDS students for the MBA program is $ 8200 per semester. With those figures the total tuition comes to be around $ 32800 which is very cheap considering all the other B-schools.

Q&A: BYU Strengths

What did you most like about being at BYU?

I liked every bit of my stay at BYU. It was a great experience for me. The approachable professors and helpful class mates along with a very high quality education that is respected well in the market place are some of the things that I liked about BYU. BYU is a sober school with strict honor code and it made me more disciplined and strngthened my belief in being honest and standing for the right things. BYU graduates are well respected in Corporate America and are known for their hard work, work life balance, honesty, intelligence, knowledge and focus. If you would like to adapt and/or strengthen such traits you will have to come to BYU :-).

Q&A: Post MBA Employment

I read in some forum that getting employment after graduation is mostly through self networking and that not many employers visit the school. How good are the campus selections at BYU for international students?

Thats correct. Getting employement is more through networking than through the typical campus placement approach. While completing an MBA program from IMT,Ghaziabad in India we relied on the placement committee to find jobs for us and this option is still available at BYU in the form of a Career Center. However, it will depend on how you network and how you approach the recruiters and sell your skills to get the job you want.

Regarding the campus selections, again the statistics are available on the MBA website of Marriott School. Do a bit of research on the website and if you are unable to find the exact link I will help you out. Just one thought, in the US people decide where they want to go (companies, job profiles) and then approach appropriately. Apart from my experience as an international student, I know a couple of people who are working with Dell, IBM, KPMG and Ernst & Young. We can get into specific placement details later.

Q&A: Diversity

Since BYU is Church sponsored school, what is the diversity in the university? Is it that it is 99% LDS community?

Yes, BYU is a church sponsored school and is specifically run for and/or by the LDS community. However, there is sufficient diversity to have a correct mix of learnings from different cultures and thoughts along with a very high quality education. It is difficult to put it as a percentage as that would differ across the program. To give you an example, the MBA batch of 2008 has 21 international students from countries like South Korea, Japan, Bulgaria, India, Brazil, China, Kenya, Taiwan, Norway, Italy and Mongolia. So thats quite a lot of countries :-) .

To put it in percentage terms for the MBA program it would be close to 20%. Also, you should realise that most of the LDS members have served missions for 2 years (will specify the details about it later) in foreign countries and that makes them well versed with the culture and language. I call this intrinsic diversity, the same way we have in India. Although we belong to the same community, the so called Indian community we bring an intrinsic diversity in the form of our own cultures and traditions based on what part of India are we from.

Q&A: Religious inclinations and expectations

I am getting the impression that the school has religious inclinations. I was wondering if you could help me out . Are there any expectations from the students applying to the Marriott School with respect to religion?

Yes, BYU does have religious inclinations. In fact it's owned and run by the LDS church. But you don't have to be part of LDS church to study at BYU. It does have an honor code. That's the reason the diversity of the school is less compared to other schools. But it's a great institute of higher learning (and it's accounting program is one of the top five programs in the US) And the fee is much less compared to other top tier schools - so it's a big plus for international candidates. There are no religious expectations as such but you are required to follow the dress code while at school (which is not very conservative as per Indian standards).

As part of MBA, you are not required to take any religion class or something - so don't worry about that. There would be religious talks around but whether you would like to part of them would be up to you.

BYU MBA: Way to go !!

Over the past 2 years, I have been overwhelmed with the number of questions I have received with regards to the BYU MBA program. The B-School at BYU (called the Marriott School of Management) is one of the schools that has been ranked as a hidden gem in WSJ rankings for the last couple of years. Recently, businessweek ranked the undergraduate business program at Marriott School as one of the Top 10 in the US. It has been ranked consistently by various independent agencies as amongst the top 30 B-Schools in the US.

With all the credentials, Marriott School of Management as well as BYU attract a lot of international students from all parts of the world. By means of this blog, I would attempt to combine the questions and/or concerns posed by prospective students from different countries. I am sure this will help potential candidates to make an informed decision.