Rice graduate school placement

Faulkner1897
Sun, 19 Apr 2015 17:03:16 +0000

I sent you a PM, but thought it might be helpful to comment here. I am a Rice alum, and off the top of my head I can think of several friends and peers who went to top notch business schools after working for a few years, including HBS (quite a few in my year and the year below), Stanford Business School, Kellogg, and Wharton. Many of the firms that are often good feeders into premiere business schools recruited actively at Rice - top investment banks and consulting firms. Rice graduates have had a tremendous track record at these firms so I can’t imagine that recruiting has changed in the years since I graduated.

In order to even get an interview with one of the top consulting firms or investment banks, a GPA of at least 3.6 was an informal guideline. I heard from a friend whose son is at Duke that 3.7 and above is now the threshold. When I was there, a core group interviewed for these jobs but there was not a ton of competition, maybe because many Rice students go immediately to grad school or because Rice doesn’t specifically have a pre-professional vibe or an undergrad business school (although there are many business related classes).

The friend who went to Stanford Business School was an engineer undergrad and went into an engineering oriented job before applying to b-school, and the Wharton friend was a tech guy (I can’t remember his major). Most of the HBS friends were in consulting or finance. Most worked in Texas after Rice, before b-school.

My friends who went to these business schools felt that having a Rice degree was actually a differentiator when applying to business school, since b-schools are also looking for a diverse and varied class whose students come from all over the country and the world. I have also felt that my Texas connection (through Rice and living in TX for a few years after graduation) has always been a very positive force in my life. In writing this, I remembered that there is Texas Club at HBS that warmly embraces anyone with a Texas connection.

Hope this helps.