First and foremost, I understand there's going to be a changing of the guard at the Marriott School.

That's correct. There is currently a search that has been narrowed down to five people to fill the director of the MBA program's position. I'll be returning to teaching and research full-time. That will happen by the end of April.

Gary, let's address the major issue that tends to differentiate Marriott from other elite B-schools, it's Latter Day Saints religious affiliation. What percentage of Marriott's MBA student population is LDS?

Most of the faculty -- probably 95% -- are members of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormons. We don't keep track for students, but I'd guess that 90% are members of the LDS church. It would be lower -- probably 75% -- if you look at just the EMBA program.

Is the school trying to grow its non-LDS student body?

Yes. We invite and encourage nonmembers to apply, and would like to see that diversity. You need to understand that all of the students at BYU must abide by a student code of conduct. Many prospective students don't want to abide by that, so they don't apply. There's quite a lot of self-selection.

I understand that the student code of conduct you just referred to bans students from drinking tea, coffee, or alcohol -- or viewing R-rated movies.

Yes, that's right. That also includes abstinence from tobacco and drugs as well. I would say we frown upon students viewing graphic material, but students can watch R-rated movies without violating the student code of conduct. There are also dress and grooming standards for a neat appearance. This is how the school is different. At BYU there is still a major church influence. Major funding comes from the church. In fact, about 70% of the total cost of the students' education is paid for by the church, which makes tuition quite affordable.

Marriott's students are unique in another way, in that the majority are fluent in at least two languages. Given that fact, what steps have been taken to take full advantage of this in internationalizing the program?

That's correct, about 80% of our students in the MBA program speak a second language, and that's largely because of the mission experience our LDS students have served in other countries.

One thing that we're doing to internationalize the program is offering language classes in the MBA program that are focused on business vocabulary. We offer language courses in Chinese, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Once students complete a language class, they'll certainly understand what a derivative is, for example, in Portuguese!

Has the school increased the number of overseas programs available?

We're attempting to grow the internship internationally. We have a few students in international internships and a few on an exchange program with universities in Germany. But that has not grown yet. But the fact of the matter is that we're a fairly small school, and it takes time to lay out the groundwork on new programming.

We are, however, retooling our curriculum again. The last time we rehauled it was six years ago, so we felt it was time to do it again. We run three sections of students, and starting this year, one of the sections will be dedicated to studying the international aspects of business during the first year of the core. There will be a selection process for entrance into the international section. The other two sections will have international coursework woven into them, but the international section will be much more expansive. For example, we'll use international cases for our analyses, rather than domestic cases. And hopefully the field projects offered in that section will be internationally oriented as well. We have, for example, some students on international internships and will be able to place more emphasis on that through the international section.

Speaking of a small program, what is Marriott's official application total for its Class of '99. Is it up or down from last year?

Our number of applications was 475 in 1997, and we feel that there is a lot of self-screening going on because of the standards of the church -- a lot of students don't want to enroll because the code of ethics and culture does not suit their lifestyle. The number that entered for the Class '99 was 137.

How many were accepted?

We accepted 234 applicants. And about 20 of those that were accepted were strongly encouraged to get additional work experience before entering the program. If they opt to remain in the workforce for a couple of more years, they are guaranteed entrance for the class of 2000. So we asked 20 applicants to defer -- and most of them have.

Is Marriott's application count growing?

Yes. The total amount of applications we received for the Class of 1994 was 251; then, for the Class of 1995 it was 311; it reached 349 for the Class 1996; for the Class of 1997 it was 410; and then just last year (1997), it was at 439. So we've been seeing a steady [rise]. And we expect to eclipse last year's application total this year.

Are you planning to increase the size of your program as your applicant pool grows?

No, we are not. BYU is a different kind of university. The school is defined by its undergraduate teaching reputation with pockets of excellence at the graduate level. For example, the BYU law school is great and the MBA program is prominent. Another pocket of excellence in my opinion is the master's of accountancy program -- which is not under the MBA umbrella. It is a five-year, integrative program that students can begin during their junior year of college. But the university's overall focus has been on the undergraduate level. Because of that orientation, the MBA program will not be allowed to grow.

Has the school's yield risen in concert with the rise in applications?

The program is gaining popularity, but the yield has remained fairly constant at about 50%

I understand that aspiring students have plenty of time to apply, because the school does not begin to make decisions until Mar. 1. Is that true?

That is actually not true. Students have until Feb. 28 to the apply before we start making decisions. We encourage students to apply early. Once that date has arrived, we really stop accepting applications.

So applicants who have missed that Feb. 28th deadline have no chance of gaining admittance into the program? No exceptions are made?

Yes, there are exceptions, but to be fair to other students, we abide by that date pretty closely, and focus primarily on those applications that have already come in. But, for example, some international students' applications have a tendency of getting hung up in the mail. So if it arrives here a couple of weeks late, we take that into consideration, and accept it. If applicants are just plain applying late, then to be fair we usually don't accept them.

What are the different criteria assessed within the Marriott application packet?

Like most other schools, we look for two major things. The first thing that we want to make sure of is that students are prepared to be successful in the program. To measure that, we look at the GMAT and at the last two years of the undergraduate transcript -- we don't really look at the first two years of applicants' college work. When reviewing a transcript, we specifically look to see if the applicant has prepared him or herself for the quant aspects of our program by having taken a course or two in accounting, statistics, economics, or math. We also check to see if they have good computer skills.

Do you offer any preparatory courses before the start of the MSM program for those students who have weaker quant skills?

We did have some available in the past, but don't any longer because we're changing the curriculum. We have a lockstep curriculum, and we want folks to have those skills to begin with. So, we try to get the word out that interested applicants need to pick up those skills in college. For those who are working, we encourage them to go to a college in the community and pick them up.

It sounds like the school is really trying to ensure that its students all have a good level of computer competency. How do you gauge whether applicants have those necessary computer skills?

They tell us, and we do offer some workshops in computers. Most students have good word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation skills.

Is the school putting more weight on technology issues because of the area's budding software company community?

There is indeed a budding software computer industry settling here, with Novell, WordPerfect, and a lot of other software companies settling in the area, and we do see some grads go there after graduation. We have an increased number of students who have received undergraduate BS degrees, work for a couple of years, get their MBA, and then go to those types of companies.

Every student at BYU has an E-mail box and can surf the Web through the university server, and we have computer labs and computer technologies in the classroom. Other than that, we feel the technology is changing so fast, that it's hard to keep up. Our classrooms are being retrofitted with the computer technologies -- computers, projectors, ports, etc.

Academically speaking, we will have, beginning next year, a concentration in information systems (MIS) available in the MBA program.

Is there a laptop requirement in place?

No.

O.K., we've segued a bit. Let's return to the admission criteria in the Marriott application packet.

Sure. So, the GMAT and GPA encompass the first set of criteria that we look at. The second major question we ask ourselves when reviewing a file is: What does this student bring to the academic work environment. To answer that, we look at applicants' work experience, a criterion that has become much more important at BYU the last couple of years. For example, about 77% of the class of '99 has had at least two years of full-time work experience. About four or five years ago, I'd say maybe only 10% of our class had two years of work experience.

We've made a conscious decision to attach more importance to professional work experience, and we do not calculate mission experience as work experience. We can't do that because so many of our students are missionaries that it would distort the reality of working in Corporate America. That's not to say that we don't take missionary experience into account, however. We definitely look at it for those applicants who are members of the Mormon Church.

The next criteria we look at is leadership experience and community service, which we can account for through the resume, the three required recommendations, and the letter of intent the candidates fill out covering the issues of why they want an MBA and what they can contribute to our program. We do not currently require an interview but highly encourage candidates to have one. My guess is that probably 75% of our entire applicant pool is interviewed. We do not, however, require it as of yet.

Could that be on the horizon?

I would say that it is.

Do you evaluate LDS applicants any differently from non-LDS applicants?

No, we don't treat them any differently. We look at many criteria. Part of that criteria includes evaluating the leadership experiences applicants have had at other organizations. Sometimes being a member of the LDS church can be an advantage in that respect because it is linked to a vast network of opportunities. But that doesn't take away from non-LDS candidates.

O.K., let's delve a little further into the first set of criteria that you look at in the application packet, specifically the GMAT. What's the school's GMAT range?

For the Class of 1998, the average GMAT was a 623, and for the class of 1999, it was 620. I don't have a range in front of me, but I can tell you that the highest GMAT score in 1998 was a 770, and in 1999, it was a 780. 71% of our class of 1999 had a GMAT score of 600 or above, and the majority of those who had less than 600 were international students.

As of yesterday [Apr. 26th], I had exactly 406 applicants, with another 125 in the pipeline. The average GMAT score for those 406 applicants was 612, while the GPA was a 3.46. Taking that further, as of yesterday, we've admitted 123 students who had an average GMAT of 651 and a GPA of 3.58.

Once applicants get their letter of acceptance, they have two weeks to make a $500, nonrefundable deposit. We have thus far received that deposit from 42 students, and the average GMAT for those people is at 646, with a GPA of 3.54. So the GMAT and GPA scores our students are netting are increasing.

Is there a fair amount of international student representation in the program?

We try to have about 30 international students enter the class each year -- which represents about 20%-25% of the class.

Do you weight admissions criteria differently for international students?

We do take into consideration that their GMAT scores tend to be a little lower than our domestic applicants -- and that's largely due to their lower verbal section scores. We require foreign students to take the TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language), that they must score a minimum of 580 on [out of a total possible score of 677].

Probably a third of our international applicants are from mainland China, and the rest come from around the world. I'd say that with the exception of our Chinese applicants, most of our international pool tend to be Mormons. We have actually seen a major increase in the number of applications coming from Chinese students -- in fact, we've already received 100 applications from China for our Class of 2000.

To effectively evaluate our international applications, our admissions committee asks why foreign applicants want to come to BYU. What's interesting is that we're finding that the majority don't say why, but just apply to the top 50 MBA programs in the U.S. Those international applicants who can legitimately answer why they want to attend BYU tend to be the ones who get into our program.

How does decision-making work at Marriott?

We have an admissions committee -- composed of myself, faculty members, the director of our career services [Bill Brady], and the director of admissions [Merlene Reeder] -- that takes a vote on each application. Every file is read thoroughly by at least one member of the committee, who writes an evaluation addressing the two admissions questions I previously mentioned -- Is this individual prepared to be successful in our program? What does the individual add to the program? -- and expands upon the type of work experience, background, leadership ability, and diversity they bring to the program. Afterwards the evaluation is brought to the committee and we take a vote.

If we're on the fence about a particular application, we will push it aside and look at it again at a later date -- usually about two weeks.

Gary, it sounds like you're really plugging the interview. Is most of the interviewing done usually when applicants visit the campus?

Yes. We don't actually have any visitation days scheduled for a mass of students to visit our campus, but most of the interviewing is done here when students visit the school on an individual basis. I had a young person in today from Iowa on campus, and while here, he has sat in on a few MBA classes to see what they're like and met with members of the admissions committee. Approximately 60% of our MBA students earned their undergraduate degrees from BYU, so they already know the campus. We would like a greater percent of our students coming from other schools, and we're working on that. We actually discourage undergraduate business majors from BYU from attending Marriott.

How does the interview fit into your overall evaluation of applicants?

If an applicant has interviewed, the admissions committee will review the interview evaluation form (that one or more of the members of the committee has written up beforehand) to get an idea of how the individual conducted him or herself and how they handled the questions. Not interviewing is not considered a negative, but sometimes, it can be a very positive aspect of an individual's file. Sometimes through the interview, a candidate can explain or clarify a particular situation that does not necessarily shine favorably on them at first glance. For example, just yesterday, an applicant explained to me during an interview that he worked at a meat market, and was the manager who scheduled meat delivery and juggled a lot of other managerial responsibilities. That's the type of responsibility that we're looking for. At first glance, however, I really just thought that he worked in a meat market passing time. Through the interview, I found out that just wasn't the case.

What do you recommend applicants do to prepare themselves for the interview?

Well, let me just say that the our interview is not a high-pressured thing. We just want to get to know the candidate. Many times we give advice on how to strengthen their applications, and over the past two years, we've told roughly 30% of our accepted candidates to go back and garner more work experience. For the interview, applicants should be themselves, and, of course, have questions prepared for us to answer. The interview is really a two-way conversation for both parties to get to know each other better.

Is the letter of intent you mentioned as one of the Marriott application criteria equivalent to an essay section?

There are no essays in the application for applicants to submit. The letter of intent may be regarded as an equivalent, however. It just asks them why they want an MBA, why they want to earn it at BYU, and what they can contribute to the program.

How long do they usually go?

They range between two and five pages.

Are there any particular things you keep an eye out for when reading the letter of intent?

One thing we look out for, for international students especially, is why they want to come to BYU. We just want the students to elaborate on why they're prepared to be successful. We don't look for one specific thing.

How much of a factor are the recommendations?

They are a factor, but we don't put percentages on the different criteria in the packet. Every recommendation is read and every form is evaluated. We ask recommenders to rank the candidate on 11 things. Some of them include: intellectual ability, the ability to work with others, leadership potential, the esteem they hold with their peers, creativity, and honesty. Then we ask the recommender to consider whether their ranking is generous, average, or conservative. Then we ask them how they would rank the candidate in terms of their overall competency, vs. other students in the BYU program. The rest of the form allows them to write a letter and talk about other things they want to mention about the individual.

Does the Marriott School utilize a waitlist?

Generally not. We'll typically make either a go or no-go decision on the spot. We'll defer judgment by a few weeks for a couple of applications, and I guess, if they're still under consideration until the last minute, we do have some sort of an informal waitlist.

When do you usually have all of the class spots filled?

By the first of May most of them are solidified.

What's this year's tuition? You alluded to the school's comparatively low tuition earlier.

BYU is a major university, and the tuition is kept fairly low so more people have an opportunity to study here. For LDS students, the tuition runs $2,500 per semester, and for non-LDS students it's 3,715

The tuition is cheaper for LDS students because they pay tithe into the church, and have been making contributions for the better part of their lives. Because 70% of students' tuition is paid for by the church, and members have been paying dues for a while, they are given a reduced price. Nonmembers who have not been contributing to the church are asked to pay a larger proportion of their educational expense.

Which is still quite cheap. What would you estimate the annual cost of living to be in the Provo area?

We actually ask our students not to work during the first year of the program and have them sign a form saying that they will not take a job during that time. We have a very integrative first-year core, and we emphasize teamwork. When students come into our program, they're assigned to one of three sections and then, within that section, they're assigned to a group. Our expectation is that when they're not learning in their group, they're studying on their own. During the second year, our no-work policy is lifted, and many students take on some form of part-time work. We have assistantships or research positions available.

As to what it costs to live in the area... Room and board for a single student runs $4,600, and for married couples it is $8,000. Books and supplies are about $630, and personal expenses are about $1,600 for single students, $2,400 if you're married. Medical insurance is $360 for single students and $1,300 for married couples. So, it costs single students a grand total of $7,190, and married couples roughly $12,330, to live here for a year.

Do most students tend to live on or off campus?

Most of our graduate students live off campus. Fifty-one percent of our MBA students are married and live off campus. But some people do choose to live in campus housing. Most of our students who are single live in campus housing.

Gary, the church subsidizes many students' education, which is a very attractive feature. But does the school also offer other forms of scholarship or aid to augment that subsidy?

Yes, we do. Probably half of the domestic students get some tuition scholarship. For international students, probably 80% get tuition scholarship of some kind. They fill out a form talking about need, and we try to accommodate them. With the domestic students, scholarship is 80% merit-based and 20% need-based. And I'd say that 50% of the total domestic student population receive some financial help. Once students are in our program, we make sure that finances will not be in their way. If, for example, they have medical costs or other emergencies that need to be attended to, we'll help defray the cost. Scholarship ranges from 25% to full tuition.

This year, the top 5% of the incoming class will receive a Dean's Scholarship, which grants them a full-tuition scholarship, books, and some living-expense money. And the top 5% of the students in their second year will receive the same support through our Hawes Scholars Program.

Is that scholarship maintained for the second year? No. Students earn money through the work or teaching assistantships available.

How many students take out a loan at Marriott?

I would guess at least 50%. But they're not large loans. One advantage is that when students leave, they're not in a lot of debt because the tuition is not that expensive.

How is placement these days? Are job prospects and the number of recruiters offering positions increasing?

Yes, they are increasing. The average starting salary for this year is over $60,000, while the number of jobs offered and accepted at this point in time is significantly higher than last year.(Editors note: Marriott grads earned an average starting salary of $53,548 and were recruited by 160 companies.)

Is placement largely tied to Mormon businesses?

Oh, no. For example the firm that hires the greatest number of our students is Intel, then Ford Motor Co. is next. The types of companies that hire our graduates are multinational and national in stature: Ford, Chrysler, Hewlett-Packard, Andersen Consulting, Target, Procter & Gamble, etc.

People are here recruiting because the students here are working professionally and have some value -- they have a code of ethics and they work hard.

Have you been able to take advantage of your proximity to high-tech firms?

A little bit, but not very much. Most of our students aren't from Utah, and decide not to stay in the region.

Is your geographic location an obstacle in netting your students summer internships or job placement opportunities?

No, I don't think the area is an obstacle, but it is a challenge. Most of our students take positions in the West: Washington State, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Only about 10% end up on the East Coast, and I think that's because we're such a long way from many firms out there. We place students in Wall Street firms each year, but for every four or five of our grads that we place there, Wharton places 300. But our grads are qualified and opt to stay in the West.

Who are your toughest competitors as far as overlap with applicants is concerned?

The University of Washington, University of Arizona, and Arizona State are a couple of our bigger competitors. We also compete with a number of top 20 programs as well.

Gary, what do you feel are Marriott's programmatic strengths?

I think the strengths would be the international flavor of our students and faculty. It's one thing to say that 80% of our students are bilingual, but more importantly, is that 80% have lived for two years in various parts of the world immersing themselves in cultures to gather an understanding of how people of different cultures live. It sounds corny, but it happens. We need to do a better job of playing to that strength. We do it with language, and now it's time to further that with our new international curriculum. Six years ago, we added some international classes and we've done a lot of that, but we need to do more of it.

Another strength would be that our Mormon ancestors have had a pioneering, entrepreneurial spirit that I think has trickled down to our students. Our students are hard workers, and there is a level of integrity, honesty, and commitment that they embrace.

What do you feel are the school's academic strong suits?

I think we have a particularly strong finance faculty here. If you look at the top 50 schools in the country, you'll find that there are only a couple of schools that don't have PhD programs, and BYU is one of them. If academic reputation is included in ranking mechanisms, then that doesn't help BYU. However, the advantage that BYU has is that the best teachers in the Marriott School teach MBAs, not PhDs. That's a real bonus.

Thanks, Gary, for shedding light on the Marriott Program today.