Undergrads and graduate students alike impressing in national events
While it's not unusual to see students from BYU's Marriott School of Management piling up top finishes at business competitions, it doesn't make those feats any less impressive.
Whether it was in finance, entrepreneurship, business management or accounting, Marriott School students dominated the competition circuit once again this year. But keeping track of all the hard-earned victories can be difficult.
That's where we come in. Below is a list of all the big wins our business students claimed this semester, and why they impressed us. Take a look.
Traversing Muddy Waters
The Economist hosted its first-ever International MBA Case Competition this February and a team from BYU was right in the thick of it. The "Muddy Waters Investment" competition asked teams to evaluate online real estate company Zillow's $3.5 billion acquisition of Trulia, a rival website.
Three BYU MBAs managed to beat out teams from MIT and Johns Hopkins to score a second-place finish and $5,000 in prize money. Check out their winning work here.
Four is Better Than Three
Another year, another win for BYU's Accountancy program at the annual PwC Challenge Tax Competition. The winning team of five BYU accounting students devised the best way national tax policies could deal with virtual currency, like Bitcoin: treat it as property instead of currency.
The $10,000 win was BYU's fourth at the competition, the most titles of any university. BYU has been a finalist nine of the 13 years of the competition, also tops among competing schools.
Back in the Saddle Again
After Marriott School teams won nine first-place finishes over 14 years, the Deloitte Case Study Competition has eluded BYU accounting teams since 2011. Not anymore. This year BYU is back on top, beating out more than 100 schools for the $20,000 cash prize and bragging rights.
The five-student team, made up of four undergraduates and one MAcc student, were each awarded $2,000 with an additional $10,000 going to the School of Accountancy at BYU.
Serious Startup Cash
For the third year in a row, students from Brigham Young University have won the $40,000 first-place prize at the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, hosted by the University of Utah. This year SimpleCitizen, a startup run by MAcc student Sam Stoddard, took the top prize.
SimpleCitizen provides an online service to help people secure green cards?kind of like TurboTax for citizenship. Previous UEC winners from BYU were Cowboy Kolaches and Owlet Baby Care.
100 Hours of Work
Three BYU finance undergraduates separated themselves from the pack of more than 100 teams to secure a second-place finish in the Duff & Phelps annual Deal Challenge. The student team was one of only three selected to travel to New York City to present in the final round of the event.
The students each spent 100 hours over the course of a month preparing for the competition, which asked them to value PayPal and eBay in anticipation of their upcoming split.
Grand Prize win = Trip to Japan
Five BYU accounting students are headed to Japan after winning the fourth annual Ernst & Young Case Competition. The Grand-Prize-winning team will also split a $2,500 cash prize ahead of their trip to Tokyo, Hiroshima, Osaka and Kyoto in May.
To win, the team had to assess whether Japanese banks should use generally accepted SEC accounting principles or international financial reporting standards.
Writer: Camille Penrod
