Megan (Eberhard) Fisher, who majored in marketing and medical anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, worked after graduation as a product marketer in Dallas for Essilor, a French-owned producer of prescription eyeglass lenses. Ultimately, she concluded that, while she was interested in building a health care career, the optical industry was too narrow. “I wanted flexibility,” she says, “and an MBA didn’t niche me into a specific path.”

Megan chose Vanderbilt for its Health Care MBA program — more specifically, as she describes it, for a “robust core business curriculum coupled with specialized health care classes and opportunities for experiential learning.” In addition, she notes, “Nashville is known for its excellence in health care.”

The close-knit community was a bonus. “I loved the feeling of community the minute I stepped onto campus,” says Megan, whose family here includes Rory, her eight-pound terrier. “With a class of 180 students, you can meet all of your classmates and make a difference.”

In fact, several of her Owen buddies trained with Megan to run the Nashville marathon. She enjoyed her Vanderbilt experience so much, she is even staying for an extra year. She has good reason: Her fiancé, who came with Megan to Nashville for her first year of the MBA program, is among the incoming class of 2015 at Owen. “So both of us will get to enjoy a three-year MBA program!” she says.