Tuesday, September 13, 2005
First day of GMAT prep
Tonight is the first day of class, I’ve been invited to teach āce’s first ever GMAT course with a friend of mine, Jeff Jensen. In the past, āce (www.acetestprep.com) has garnered a terrific reputation for its LSAT course and they’ve decided to expand into new markets. I’m really excited for this, its going to be a lot of fun. So, here’s a little bit about my GMAT and MBA credentials.
Currently, I’m a 2nd year MBA student at BYU’s Marriott School of Management. I absolutely love this place. Ironically, when I first considered where I wanted to go to MBA School I didn’t even look at BYU. Perhaps it was because I came here as an undergrad (and worked and studied in the Marriott School) that I was looking for a new experience elsewhere.
After graduating from BYU in 2000 (Computer Science), I worked for (at the time) Utah’s technology darling TenFold Corporation (www.Tenfold.com). After things started to go south I went to a startup called Attensity (www.Attensity.com) where I helped develop their Natural Language Processing technology. The core technology was pretty amazing, and I spent 2½ years developing solutions for Whirlpool and In-Q-Tel (a CIA-backed Venture Capital Firm). It was while working at Attensity that I started seriously looking into B-Schools and prepared for the GMAT.
I took the GMAT in November of 2001 and was both pleased and grateful to have scored very well. People who knew how I had done unknowingly assured me that I could go anywhere I wanted to go, and I began to visit schools from Cambridge to Palo Alto. I was very flattered to receive invitations to visit a few other schools and took advantage of some of them. I was having a lot of fun and getting very excited to think about where in the world I might continue my education. Along the way I discovered the Business Week message boards (forums.businessweek.com/bw-bschools/start/) and Wharton’s Student-2-Student message boards which provided a wealth of information about schools.
For the next two years I visited and research several schools, and by the time summer of 2003 rolled around decided to apply to Wharton’s Lauder program. I was so excited about Wharton (and optimistic that I would be accepted) that it was actually the only school I applied to at the time. I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t the first applicant that year. Much to my disappointment, I was put on the waitlist and sort of had to scramble to get in applications at some other schools, including BYU. Because I had invested so much time and energy into my application, I felt a bit of resentment that I had – in effect – put my future into the hands of an admissions committee. I wanted to feel like I had more control over my destiny and began looking for an entrepreneurial opportunity.
A few months later, I quit my job at MyFamily.com to start my own business. Since May of 2004 I have been working on this company, Evolving Web (www.EvolvingWeb.com) developing some really cool Internet technology. My partners and I think our platform has tremendous potential and are really excited about the opportunity. We’re just getting off the ground, but have had a great run so far. Instead of doing an internship this year, we worked on our business full-time. My summer highlight was traveling to South Korea to pitch our product to some potential business partners. This is something I never would have dared doing if I was racking up the student debt. I couldn’t think of a better place to experiment with a real business than here at BYU. It’s the ultimate case study. My only complaint with the MBA program is that I can’t absorb the information fast enough. The faculty support has been amazing and I’m continually impressed by the quality of the faculty and other students. I feel that the friends I’m making here will be close for years to come.
Currently, I’m a 2nd year MBA student at BYU’s Marriott School of Management. I absolutely love this place. Ironically, when I first considered where I wanted to go to MBA School I didn’t even look at BYU. Perhaps it was because I came here as an undergrad (and worked and studied in the Marriott School) that I was looking for a new experience elsewhere.
After graduating from BYU in 2000 (Computer Science), I worked for (at the time) Utah’s technology darling TenFold Corporation (www.Tenfold.com). After things started to go south I went to a startup called Attensity (www.Attensity.com) where I helped develop their Natural Language Processing technology. The core technology was pretty amazing, and I spent 2½ years developing solutions for Whirlpool and In-Q-Tel (a CIA-backed Venture Capital Firm). It was while working at Attensity that I started seriously looking into B-Schools and prepared for the GMAT.
I took the GMAT in November of 2001 and was both pleased and grateful to have scored very well. People who knew how I had done unknowingly assured me that I could go anywhere I wanted to go, and I began to visit schools from Cambridge to Palo Alto. I was very flattered to receive invitations to visit a few other schools and took advantage of some of them. I was having a lot of fun and getting very excited to think about where in the world I might continue my education. Along the way I discovered the Business Week message boards (forums.businessweek.com/bw-bschools/start/) and Wharton’s Student-2-Student message boards which provided a wealth of information about schools.
For the next two years I visited and research several schools, and by the time summer of 2003 rolled around decided to apply to Wharton’s Lauder program. I was so excited about Wharton (and optimistic that I would be accepted) that it was actually the only school I applied to at the time. I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t the first applicant that year. Much to my disappointment, I was put on the waitlist and sort of had to scramble to get in applications at some other schools, including BYU. Because I had invested so much time and energy into my application, I felt a bit of resentment that I had – in effect – put my future into the hands of an admissions committee. I wanted to feel like I had more control over my destiny and began looking for an entrepreneurial opportunity.
A few months later, I quit my job at MyFamily.com to start my own business. Since May of 2004 I have been working on this company, Evolving Web (www.EvolvingWeb.com) developing some really cool Internet technology. My partners and I think our platform has tremendous potential and are really excited about the opportunity. We’re just getting off the ground, but have had a great run so far. Instead of doing an internship this year, we worked on our business full-time. My summer highlight was traveling to South Korea to pitch our product to some potential business partners. This is something I never would have dared doing if I was racking up the student debt. I couldn’t think of a better place to experiment with a real business than here at BYU. It’s the ultimate case study. My only complaint with the MBA program is that I can’t absorb the information fast enough. The faculty support has been amazing and I’m continually impressed by the quality of the faculty and other students. I feel that the friends I’m making here will be close for years to come.
