During my junior year, my favorite professor, Bruce Godfrey, asked me to come see him in his office. This was a little unusual. I was a little nervous as I came to his smallish office and closed the dark stained oak door. He asked me, "Have you ever considered getting a PhD in Ag Econ?" Frankly, at that point in time, the idea of a PhD wasn't something I had considered. I was intrigued. Bruce mentioned that professors often encouraged promising students to pursue a PhD or other graduate degree. I asked more about it. He got his PhD at Oregon State University. At that point in time, the idea of moving away from Utah wasn't something I had considered. When I asked what schools would be good, he mentioned four schools: Texas A&M, Oregon State, Iowa State, and UC Davis. Each of those sounded almost like a foreign country to me. It was exciting to consider.
I wondered if getting a PhD would give me the opportunity to work in a relatively rural location, like Logan. I wondered if I could work on agriculture related issues in an area where I could easily afford a few acres and do some of the things I had wanted to do since I was a wee little lad. I also liked the managerial economics aspects of Ag Econ that supported farm based decision making. Those things I thought would help me to make useful economic decisions on any farm I might have in the future.
Since Ag Econ had many finance and financial decision making tools, there was a lot of overlap with the School of Business. I took many Finance courses as part of my required and elective class work. I liked the Finance classes. There were common reasons why I liked the Ag Econ classes and the Finance classes. I liked the idea of running my own business. I thought that Finance related classes offered more generally useful skills than Ag Econ classes. I started wondering whether or not it might make sense to get a Master's degree in Finance, or an MBA with a Finance emphasis. I began weighing and considering the pros, cons, and tradeoffs.
At a family event, I was able to get a few minutes with my Uncle Lowell to try to pick his brain on the topic at hand. My uncle was a successful businessman in the Salt Lake City area. What he actually did was, and is to this day, somewhat of a mystery to me. He did things in the realm of real estate and investing. That is about all I understood of what he did. I laid out my dilemna to him. I asked him what he would think about and what factors he would suggest that I consider with regards to deciding between a PhD in Ag Econ and an MBA. This was all very simple in his mind. He said, "I would ask whether I preferred to spend four to six more years in school, going further into debt to earn very little, or more quickly get an MBA and start earning much more money right off the bat." I was a little stunned. He was pragmatic, but didn't seem to even comprehend or place importance on the nuances associated with being associated with agriculture. I certainly did and do appreciate his candor and frankness. That said, I still wrestled with the decision for several more months.
As I worked through the decision making process, the idea of having my own business pushed me towards an MBA. I would be dishonest if I didn't say that concerns over the higher level math requirements associated with a PhD in Ag Econ didn't concern me. Another thing that concerned me was the relatively open ended nature of a PhD program. Was it three years, or six years, or five years? Where could I work when I was done? Could I come back to Logan, or would I have to find a job in Arkansas or Michigan, or some other place far from family? Overall, the answers to these and other questions pushed me towards getting an MBA with a Finance emphasis.
It seemed to me that getting an MBA would not push me away from the farming I had dreamed about doing. I would never accept a job in New York or Los Angeles, so I should be able to find a job somewhere where I could acquire a few acres and do the farming I had wanted to do for so long.
