USC $$$$ vs Rice $$$$$

FT MBA program.

Got in McCombs and Rice Jones, and USC Marshall. McCombs with no $, rice with full scholarship, USC with Fellowship.

Career goal is consulting, (not necessary in energy industry), maybe investment bank. Don't mind staying in Texas for a couple of years, but want to go back to California in the future.

Update: Was pretty sold on Rice, until yesterday USC also offered Fellowship, the $ is little less than what Rice has offered.

Location wise, definitely prefer LA over Houston, and Marshall and Jones are close in ranking, but Marshall does have a larger program and better alum network ( I guess). So kind of back to square one.

Any thoughts any inputs any comments are welcome! Does Marshall and Jones place students well in IBD?

Thanks again!

15 Comments
 

If your career goal is consulting, that's GMAT dependent. However, if you want to go to LA, there's no reason to go to Rice imo, unless the money is THAT much of a difference. Even still, I don't know the difference between IBD placement and thats probably something you can look up on linkedin or poets&quants. I'd say go with USC though

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
 

Unless you want to stay in Houston, I'd advise going to USC. The Rice MBA brand is not well known outside of Texas and not well respected outside of Texas. Jones is a small program whose rankings has fluctuated widely depending on the health of the oil and gas sector. During the last energy boom, Jones has really really benefited from the high relative starting salaries of local companies vs. that of its peer schools. However, many experts predict this current bust will be prolonged and I know a lot of oil and gas companies already have hiring freezes in place. As a result, I believe it will have a material impact to not only Jones' future rankings but its graduate's ability to land good jobs.

 

Please don't go to USC. We don't need more people moving to LA to make our traffic even worse.

Kidding aside, go to USC.

Both are very strong within their local regions, but USC has a longer reach beyond the west coast than Rice does beyond Texas. Also, USC has a very loyal and tight knit alumni network that extends to its grad programs, including the MBA.

Alex Chu www.mbaapply.com
 

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