UH MBA in Houston

In Texas it is behind UT, Rice, A&M and SMU (although SMU is Dallas-centric), not to mention Top 10/15 programs. What are your goals with an MBA?

Breaking into investment banking...ultimate goal = private equity...yeah...don't laugh.

I have 10+ years of business development/sales experience in oil & gas. 32 years old.

PE is tough out of a M7 with prior PE experience, IB in Texas is going to go to top 15 schools nationally and UT, with some Rice folks and a few SMU and A&M folks squeaking in.

I will be graduating in Spring or Summer 2015...at 32...are you saying there is no chance For me being an associate...am I too old for analyst? Does all of my business development experience mean nil?

When you say biz dev I assume you mean more strategic sales than internal M&A/JV work. That is a good skill set, but may not be too helpful for IB. UH MBAs have a median salary of 56K so I'm assuming most of them aren't getting high powered post-MBAS roles. In short start networking, but things aren't looking too good.

Correct - strategic sales for software and equipment used in the o&g industry.

I am in the part time night program at UH - classmates who have shared salary information with me all make over or very close to six figures. I have already made a few contacts into a couple of PE firms simply because of the nature of my role. I would be willing to take a paycut as an analyst or even a slight cut (or not) as an associate. I just don't know if an IB would offer someone like me an opportunity, much less a private equity firm.

IB is more of an uphill climb for a career changer in ANY part time program.

Look at it from the PE guy's perspective, why not go with the oil and gas IB->PE->M7 MBA guy? There's a glut of pre-MBA PE folks who want to get back so why would they go with you? Not trying to be a jerk, but it's goi to be a tough sell. Why not aim for finance within an O&G leadership program or corp fin role if you can swing it?