Leaning towards pursueing IB in Houston and applying to McCombs and Jones. Hearing some rough stories from the recruiting season. How true are the reports? Would love to hear any insight from a current, or former student who pursued IB at McCombs/Rice. Thanks
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Haven’t heard of these stories but either way you’re going to a target school for Houston. Should be fine
Is this mba or undergrad?
undergrad Rice barely qualifies as target and has zero prep
MBA
What an idiotic take. Houston Analyst here and Rice & UT are the clearest Houston target schools.
Literally look up Houston bankers onLinkedIn and I bet 2/3rd’s of them went to Rice or UT.
Nope. Rice is a liberal arts school with no finance program to speak of
You get a lot of prep at Rice if you pursue it. The investment funds, specifically our energy-focused sectors (Energy, Natural Resources, New Energy), all place lights out in Houston. The Rice Business Society has an IB prep BootCamp for sophomores in their first sem to prepare for recruiting and has an upperclassman and alumni mentorship program that comes along with it. The accounting and fin management classes also really help to get basic technical understanding, and most student do take those before recruiting.
both are great for houston, mccombs slightly better ops
My take: Rice for Houston
I'm recruiting Houston right now, and a lot of people I've talked to generally said it is easier for Rice just because of the ability to coffee chat in person, build stronger connections, etc. if ur a grinder and willing to make the trip from UT then all the power to you
Holistically, UT might edge ahead of Rice for IB recruiting in general and definitely places better in NY. I would say Rice and UT placements are 1:1 (proportionate to recruiting class sizes from each school respectively, given UT just has more people).
Generally, though, if you go to school at UT or Rice and want to do Houston banking, 99 out of 100 times, you will get an offer by putting in the bare minimum.
How does it go for internationals doing MBA at either (UT/Rice) wanting to do Houston IB?
probably not 99% as you mentioned but how much lower?
I want to know that too. last year Rice Mba employment stats for international is barely over 50%
Getting your MBA at either Rice or UT will put you in a great position for Houston IB recruiting. In my opinion, these 2 programs will put you in a much better position for Houston IB that top tier MBA programs outside of Texas
NY IB recruiting is a different story – from either of these 2, NY recruiting will be a bit of an uphill battle at most banks due to less alums than schools schools up north and a perception that you’d be less committed to NY since you chose to get MBA down south
For context, I’m undergrad alum from one of these 2 schools > M7 MBA > NY BB IB involved in MBA recruiting
Would also suggest looking at the Canfield Business Honors Program (CBHP) if looking at the undergrad program at McCombs. Also, Investment Banking Association (IBA) and Wall Street for McCombs (WSFM) are solid pipelines to pursue IB
UT for MBA. Rice definitely has benefits in terms of physical convenience for recruiting/coffee chats, but the UT alumni network is incredibly strong. Bankers head to Austin in troves for on campus recruiting trips and post-graduation the network will offer significantly more (to the extent Texas is your final destination). Rice may potentially be academically stronger, but it's just much, much smaller and has less of a brand name. Look up the senior bankers across Houston and i'm willing to bet that 75% have ties to UT. Makes intro conversations easy and creates an instant connection. Nearly everyone in my office goes back for at least the Texas/OU game if not every home game
Currently at Rice with an offer for Summer Associate 2025 at an EB, feel free do dm me.
UT has a bigger network and more resources in finance. Heard directly from a Rice grad that they have to network mostly with UT alum anyways
You need to separate every MBA program into “citizen” and “international”. There is a massive difference in placement rates. Schools like Rice and (to a lesser degree) UT will plug their classes with a large # of internationals as needed to keep their average test scores high, but they have bad job placement rates. You need to look at hit rates for US citizens.
For Houston, if you are a citizen who worked in O&G in any capacity and go to Rice/UT you will almost certainly get a job. People with Petroleum Engineering backgrounds who want to do O&G banking are gems these days, back in the day (my title is wrong) that was super common. But honestly anyone with an Oil/Gas resume jumps off the page now.
Most resumes you get now are internationals who flames out of the NY process and are trying to Hail Mary pivot to Houston
How about military veterans from a solid undergrad trying to get into banking? Citizen, of course
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