Duke v Rice for Business

hotasice
Thu, 22 May 2008 20:10:55 +0000

If I were you, the $80,000 is definitely not worth it–would it put you terribly in debt? Or is it just pocket change to you and money is not a huge issue?

Rice’s reputation is strongest in the South, the most in Texas. In comparing Rice and Duke, most East Coast recruitment does not occur at Rice, rather at Duke, but that does not go to say Rice grads cannot get top internships either. Many top companies know Rice’s name and associate that with an excellent reputation and education–it’s not that Rice has meager placement at top companies as a reflection of its quality vs. Duke, but it’s because those top companies simply flock to Duke as one of their target schools; Rice is not a target school like Duke or Georgetown are.

However, many Texas and Houston companies (50+ Fortune 500 Companies in Houston alone, mind you) love Rice grads and definitely recruit from Rice. At Rice, you will get lots more attention from companies in Texas than those in the Northeast, simply because of regional location–does that make sense? However, like westsidewolf1989 said, if you do wish to work in NYC and Wall Street, by all means go for it! You will find Rice grads there, just don’t expect to see as many Rice grads as Wharton or Stern grads, for example.

A Rice degree will definitely not deter you from securing opportunities and options Northeast–but you need to be proactive and seek after those companies to hire you. They will definitely be interested if you’re a good candidate, but you need to go present yourself and not assume they’ll fly all the way down South to see prospective employees when they already can pick and choose from top Northeast schools.

I don’t think Duke offers an infinitely better education in terms of business, but its major draw is that its a big recruitment/target school. I mean, if you look at Georgetown’s MSB, its school definitely is not that great yet gets excellent recruitment just because of its location and Georgetown name prestige.

But, at the same time, I’m a little confused–are you asking about job placement AFTER going to business graduate school or BEFORE going to business graduate school? Because Rice does have very good placement at top business grad schools, and going to any of the top business grad schools (Harvard/Stanford/MIT/Northwestern, etc business grad schools) will get you very good job offers on their prestigious names and reputations alone.

It all really depends on how proactive you are as an individual and your own actions taken to be assertive and seize opportunities. You need to really reach out to alumni networks and use connections.