Rice MBA vs. Vanderbilt MBA

Hi all:

I applied to 4 schools this year, and have been accepted to Rice and Vanderbilt, waiting for a response from McCombs, and was rejected by Duke Fuqua.

I am a little confused. I've done a lot of research, and just comparing schools Rice and Vanderbilt are very similar. The folks at Rice offer me a $33K/yr scholarship, and Vanderbilt offers a $25K/yr scholarship.

Considering I don't get into McCombs, where would you'll more experienced folk suggest I go?

Thanks in advance.

 

Monty, I completely agree...I was only referring to admission stats. which you have to admit are very similar.. I've visited both schools, and understand what you mean by a "different kind of student". Post MBA, the current plan is to target Energy & Power IB, but not too many people I know come out of their MBA doing the same thing they planned on doing on their way in.Though it might seem as though Rice would be the intuitive choice looking at the current career goal, from an all round development point of view does anyone view one as better than the other?

 

Also, if I go to Vandy post MBA, I would be competing with MBA's from UNC, Emory, Fuqua for positions in the southeast / south, correct? If I am at Rice, im competing with UT, SMU, TAMU. UNC, Emory, Fuqua, are much stiffer competition for a Vandy grad, than SMU, TAMU are for a Rice grad. From what I hear Rice / UT recruitment in Houston is pretty even. Is this wrong?

 

I met recent associates in Houston from Booth, Wharton, Harvard, MIT, Columbia and Notre Dame (kind of random), not to mention all the McCombs grads. If you are at Rice you will be competing mainly with UT and then to a certain extent people at top schools that want the Texas lifestyle vs NY. As far as Rice vs UT in Houston both are great but I would bet UT gets more banks outside of all of the BB's like GHL, EVR, LAZ, Simmons, etc. From talking to people at Rice it seemed like it was more just the BB's.

Maybe someone with more knowledge on MBA recruitment can comment but I don't believe SMU or TAMU get any recruiting for associate positions. Maybe SMU gets some local boutique/middle market firms in Dallas. Never met a TAMU MBA at a bank.

 
Best Response
Eric Stratton:
I met recent associates in Houston from Booth, Wharton, Harvard, MIT, Columbia and Notre Dame (kind of random), not to mention all the McCombs grads. If you are at Rice you will be competing mainly with UT and then to a certain extent people at top schools that want the Texas lifestyle vs NY. As far as Rice vs UT in Houston both are great but I would bet UT gets more banks outside of all of the BB's like GHL, EVR, LAZ, Simmons, etc. From talking to people at Rice it seemed like it was more just the BB's.

Maybe someone with more knowledge on MBA recruitment can comment but I don't believe SMU or TAMU get any recruiting for associate positions. Maybe SMU gets some local boutique/middle market firms in Dallas. Never met a TAMU MBA at a bank.

I dont know the ND guy/gal but agree to all others.. also agree to SMU/Texas A&M

 
Eric Stratton:
monty09:
eric what side of the biz are you on?

Start FT as an analyst in IB this summer. Met a lot of people over the summer/ during recruiting.

once you move to houston.. before you start working.. dinner on me... i am quite the networker as well.. two buddies one at ml and other at tudor also network a lot.. we can all have a nice dinner before you guys start working

 
NASHVILLE_OR_HOUSTON:
Fair enough..thanks again though!! Catch you on the flip side of the MBA!!

I am very interested in your stats...i.e. gmat, work experience, undergrad. If you don't want to post here, message me. I'm gonna be applying this fall to 2 or the 3 schools you mentioned.

 
NASHVILLE_OR_HOUSTON:
Txjustin,

GMAT - 700 Work Exp: 5 years as a Civil Engineer Undergrad - 3.41 / in-major 3.7

What about you? What are you looking to do?

I am studying for gmat right now. Target score 680-720.

UG: 3.2 Finance BBA(non target)

Upon Matriculation, 2.5 years credit analyst for MM bank and 1.5 years financial analyst for auto finance

I will try and get a summer position during bschool at a BB and see how I feel about banking. I will fall back on treasury or corporate strategy if I don't like banking.

 
txjustin:
NASHVILLE_OR_HOUSTON:
Txjustin,

GMAT - 700 Work Exp: 5 years as a Civil Engineer Undergrad - 3.41 / in-major 3.7

What about you? What are you looking to do?

I am studying for gmat right now. Target score 680-720.

UG: 3.2 Finance BBA(non target)

Upon Matriculation, 2.5 years credit analyst for MM bank and 1.5 years financial analyst for auto finance

I will try and get a summer position during bschool at a BB and see how I feel about banking. I will fall back on treasury or corporate strategy if I don't like banking.

good luck man...my stats suck

 

Got into UT a couple of days ago, and a little more confused. Well at least I can take Vanderbilt off the table. Time to make my decision. I think I'm going to go with UT over Rice, in spite of the Rice scholarship, just because I think the leverage that UT will offer me if ever I decide to move out of TX, is way more than what Rice would.

Any one refute that statement? Or think, in their opinion, that I'm doing the wrong thing.

 
NASHVILLE_OR_HOUSTON:
Got into UT a couple of days ago, and a little more confused. Well at least I can take Vanderbilt off the table. Time to make my decision. I think I'm going to go with UT over Rice, in spite of the Rice scholarship, just because I think the leverage that UT will offer me if ever I decide to move out of TX, is way more than what Rice would

Any one refute that statement? Or think, in their opinion, that I'm doing the wrong thing.

I agree 100%

 

Outside of Texas Rice as an institution has more wow factor than UT (17 vs 47 on USNews National Universities Rankings). In the north east people are used to think that the best schools are private, not public, and so they think of UT as an Athletic powerhouse. The only advantage at UT is a bigger alumni network.

Unless UT offers serious scholarship, you would make a mistake if you go with McCombs in my opinion.

 
Robinho:
Outside of Texas Rice as an institution has more wow factor than UT (17 vs 47 on USNews National Universities Rankings). In the north east people are used to think that the best schools are private, not public, and so they think of UT as an Athletic powerhouse. The only advantage at UT is a bigger alumni network.

Unless UT offers serious scholarship, you would make a mistake if you go with McCombs in my opinion.

at both the UG and MBA level more UT grads are in the northeast then rice. the only city rice really competes with UT in tems of banking jobs is houston

 
Cartwright:
God I love you energy fin guy...err...robinho. You'd think that the inferiority complex would fade with only a few months to graduation, but here we are.

Coming from somebody whose only mission in life seems to be putting Rice down...WOW

 
monty09:
shorttheworld:
just had my interview with UT the other day.. now thw aiting begins duhnuhnuh

what was interview like? typical why texas? why a mba now? anything that caught you off guard?

Bump as I'd like to know as well. Also, congrats on Rice.

 
new user:
@rXXX

I'm saying how many UT engineers do you think there are that are 2nd year MBA students at Rice going into investment banking? I can only think of one. Not a very hard thing to figure out.

.

 

...To someone whose only mission in life is elevating Rice to a level they will never reach.

Notice I don't pimp UT (until now), I just try to water down the misinformation Robinho, Energy_fin_guy, EnergyFinGuy, and your other variants have been spreading on various forums for well over a year.

Rice competes the same way SMU does...throwing huge scholarships around, as it couldn't compete otherwise. While I think it is a more-than-fine school if you are 100% dedicated to Houston, it does not offer the breadth of opportunity UT does and that is a statement of fact.

Even within Houston IB recruiting we absolutely destroyed Jones this year. With the exception of 1 (out 3) summer associates at JPM, did any first years get summer associate gigs? Maybe DB, since 4 UT students turned them down within 2 days of the super day.

Certainly other years have had different results, but if Rice is trying to build its rep via energy finance, it didn't fare too well this year.

 
Cartwright:
...To someone whose only mission in life is elevating Rice to a level they will never reach.

Notice I don't pimp UT (until now), I just try to water down the misinformation Robinho, Energy_fin_guy, EnergyFinGuy, and your other variants have been spreading on various forums for well over a year.

Rice competes the same way SMU does...throwing huge scholarships around, as it couldn't compete otherwise. While I think it is a more-than-fine school if you are 100% dedicated to Houston, it does not offer the breadth of opportunity UT does and that is a statement of fact.

Even within Houston IB recruiting we absolutely destroyed Jones this year. With the exception of 1 (out 3) summer associates at JPM, did any first years get summer associate gigs? Maybe DB, since 4 UT students turned them down within 2 days of the super day.

Certainly other years have had different results, but if Rice is trying to build its rep via energy finance, it didn't fare too well this year.

Dude, get a life. Seriously. UT and Rice are on the same level, no matter what you say (FT rankings anyone?). BTW, where are YOU heading?!?

 

Now we're on the same level? Thats certainly an improvement, and very generous. I might have actually agreed with that statement, solely with respect to Houston, until I saw the lackluster showing by Jones this year at the only thing theyre supposed to do well.

As for me, we might be neighbors! Or roommates! Lets BBQ and hit the links. xoxo

 

A target to me is someone who participates in OCI every year (as opposed to just accepting resume drops). By that definition McCombs is an MBB target and we have placed multiple summers at both Bain and BCG...McKinsey was here but I don't know if they took anyone. I actually assumed they all interviewed regularly at Rice too but maybe not.

IB...same opportunities in Houston from an interview perspective...but the results are in our favor. Also we have 4 people going to NY for the summer (2 IB and 2 S&T) I would assume Rice does not tend place up there.

 

Yes, of course, UT has more than double the class size. This year for instance only a handful of people were interested in IB at Rice. Rice does have graduates in NY as well. Also, for the last two years in a row McK took a Rice MBA for full-time.

 
monty09:
Robinho:
Yes, of course, UT has more than double the class size. This year for instance only a handful of people were interested in IB at Rice. Rice does have graduates in NY as well. Also, for the last two years in a row McK took a Rice MBA for full-time.

where was the main interest this year on campus?

Some initially interested in IB switched to corporate finance, rotation programs, and PWM. For instance I know of one going to intern at GS PWM in San Francisco. That goes to show that Rice does not limit opportunities to only Houston.

 

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