BYU MBA

Some of the top business schools (Wharton, Stanford, and HBS) have this really great policy called grade-nondisclosure. Students are not allowed to share their grades with others and recruiters are not allowed to ask. Before coming to BYU I visited the Stanford GSB and met with a 2nd year MBA (BYU alum) who said that he really had no idea how he was doing compared with others in his same class. He knew what his grades were, but had no idea how they compared.

Last January I met a 1st year Wharton student with Utah roots at a Venture Capital conference in Salt Lake City. He had come home for Christmas break and had stayed in Utah a couple of weeks after school resumed so that he could visit family and attend the conference. Incredulous, I asked him how he could just miss a few weeks of class without worry. He simply shrugged his shoulders and responded: “grade non-disclosure”. He also remarked that he didn’t really consider applying to BYU’s MBA program because his friends that had gone to school here were “always” studying – they had tons of homework every night. Having done his undergrad in finance at Penn, he said that wasn’t something he wanted to repeat in MBA school.

So, do grades matter in BYU’s MBA program? In my opinion, the answer is a qualified no. During new student orientation professors and 2nd year students alike told us that grades do not matter and that very few recruiters even ask for them. However, some of my peers (now 2nd years themselves) have suggested that its not quite true. It turns out that some recruiters (especially for finance job) actually do ask for grades. For those considering seeking a Ph.D. grades matter very much. However, its still a far cry from law school where grades are often the only real determinate. Much more important than grades, I’d argue, is previous work experience and your ability to network.

I’ve seen students who have done very well in school fail to land a great internship. On the flipside, I’ve seen others who have paid less attention to their studies land some great opportunities; often they spent class time networking an interview. BYU has a very generous grading curve – typically the lowest grade is a B-. And, since you are working in groups your grade is often dependant on the efforts of others on your team. And since many of the classes cover topics that are really hard to grade, scores are incredibly subjective. That said, many people recognize that grades are not the best indication of talent and are simply looking for an indication that you’re smart and hard-working.

My bias is to view the MBA program like a giant buffet table, with students free to pick and choose where they want to spend their time. Rather than feel like you need to perfectly execute some pre-contrived plan, just decide what you want to get out of school and measure your portions accordingly. Last year I decided to miss my finance class a couple of times to make important presentations for my evolving business (www.EvolvingWeb.com). Because I missed a quiz or two, I was curious if I would have in fact received an A instead of my A- had I not ditched class. Because I knew the professor well, I decided to risk looking like a grade-grubber and find out jut how close I was to getting an A. It turns out I was right on the border: my decision to spend class time on my business definitively hurt my grade. However, the professor followed up with a strong rebuke telling me that I needed to decide what my focus was and stick to it. He said that if I wanted to succeed as an entrepreneur I needed to commit to it without looking back.