For a little entertainment, my boys and I watched a few minutes of Jim Cramer’s Maddmoney show on CNBC tonight. Crazy, I know – but it’s a hilarious and interesting way to learn some things about companies and stocks from one of the most popular and even intelligent (if not loudest) voices on Wall Street. One interesting tidbit I learned is that Cramer used to recruit at BYU – I’m guessing MBAs or accountants when he was working as an analyst for Sachs and Goldman. Nice to hear a quick plug for BYU.
I’m not sure how heavy recruiting is recently at BYU, but let me throw in my two cents. I was on campus in September representing my company, and while not primarily recruiting, I did get to talk to a number of students as well as faculty members. I came away strongly impressed with the quality of students there. They seem suprisingly bright. I respected the school when I was there as a student, but I believe things are better than ever, in spite of the human politics that occur in any university.
Regarding university politics, I’ve had professors at other schools tell me that the politics in corporate America are nothing compared to what goes on in typical academic department, and BYU is not free of such human influences, as BYU Alter Ego has occasionally hinted at on this blog. But neither BYU nor the Church claim to be free of human beings among their leaders, so whether you’re going to church or to a church-owned university, be warned: human stuff happens in both, and it’s not always altruistic human stuff. But I’m sticking with both as excellent choices. And while the Church should be for everybody, BYU is not – there are many other fine choices, but I’m partial to that amazing school where young people can not only have a great education, but also have their values sustained (on the average), not deliberately torn down.
I’ve recruited engineers from several universities and have been disappointed to find only a few students with decent grades and a sound understanding of what they’ve studied. This, however, is generally not true about students from BYU, at least in my opinion. From my experience, the top half of their graduates equal or surpass the top few mentioned from many of these other schools.
What is surprising to me is many high tech employers are unaware the stringent academic, leadership and/or extra-curricular requirements needed for admission into BYU. Most students accepted into BYU from my area (not in Utah) have a GPA of at least 3.7/4.0 and an ACT score > 27. When mentioning this to HR departments, they are quite surprised, and many have told me they will reconsider their rating of BYU as a second tier undergraduate engineering college.
I’m not sure if lower rating is based upon unfounded biases, pre-dated experiences, or has merit (because I’m biased.) Regardless, I’d like to have ideas of how to raise awareness to employers about the quality of BYU graduates.
Where can I find this BYU Alter Ego blog?
I spoke to a BYU chemical engineering alumni council group last night. Before my remarks, the department chairman made a few comments — on, among other things, the recruiting situation for graduates. I’m afraid that I didn’t take any specific notes, but, for what it’s worth, he was very positive about the way things were headed, and about the enthusiasm that recruiters have for BYU chemical engineering graduates. And this new alumni group (only three years old, as I understand it) should help considerably on that score, with networking, fundraising, and the like.
I remember getting kicked out of the library and locked out of buildings when there was a devotional at the M Center. That is sure one way to fill the seats.
Thanks for speaking to my fellow chemical engineers, Daniel! Wish I could have been there to hear your speak (I was there last year for Homecoming).
My daughter is just finishing up her accounting degree at BYU. She was fortunate enough to land an internship at KPMG last summer in Fort Worth. She was told she was a novelty. The BYU accounting program is well respected.
CS
Fort Worth, Texas
I was not surprised to see how many more recruiters there were at UC Berkeley when I was there in 2003 compared to what I saw at BYU. The Chem Eng dept at Cal and Stanford are both ranked pretty highly. Kinda hard to compete with them.