My daughter has been accepted into Rice University (Houston) and UT McCombs (Austin), but she’s still weighing her options between UT McCombs and Rice’s business programs as she’s highly interested in pursuing a major in this field. Can you provide any insight on which program might be the better choice for finance career? School Environment? Pros/Cons
From your other post - copy/paste my answer:
Rice’s program is new but they’ve long had a graduate b school.
Both will be great. UT might have a better track record - but at UT you might get lost. It’s big sports, big greek, big bureacracy.
Rice has no greek, has the residential college system, etc.
If you google linkedin + rice + name your bank - I used Goldman Sachs - you find plenty of alums.
So to me this is a fit question - which do they prefer? After all, you’re there day after day for four years so you want to be happy - and one can’t just presume an IB career (if that’s what you’re even after) as most don’t make it. For corporate finance type, any school mainly works.
Some will prefer Rice. Others want all the zaniness that comes with the big public.
Of course, finances matter too for many and that’s part of fit.
Two great choices.
No wrong answer.
Best of luck.
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Congrats on her two fabulous acceptances.
Assuming both colleges are comfortably affordable (no debt, no hardship) it comes down to where your D feels she will thrive. It seems to me that there are enough differences between the two schools that one should feel like the more comfortable fit – try to revisit both during accepted students day.
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UT Austin seems to do well on this list:
Of course Rice is smaller. But it also means they will have fewer alumni in the industry on an absolute basis to benefit from.
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Based on this one should go to Brigham Young over Brown … or St Anford
But the choices are between UT A and Rice.
The other names you mention are not relevant.
And maybe BYU is not such a bad thing for kids wanting to do Banking. Who knows?
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What does that mean?
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Just saying - often times with the big publics, they are even more bureacratic. I can’t say for UT - but in general, what you hear - whether it’s a UC, Alabama - whatever - they have so many kids and not enough resources to be known, etc.
More a general large public vs. private comment.
Of course, kids who work hard will not get lost because they are proactive about their lives instead of reactive.
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Two great places. Absolutely visit both. Very different. We have close family that went to Rice and loved it. My kid absolutely hated it but loved UT. I’m a firm believer in choosing a college based on fit if finances are not an issue. A happy kid is a successful kid. A miserable kid will not thrive. I think if y’all visit both you will have your answer pretty easily.
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I agree. If this student got in to Rice, I think it is highly unlikely they will get ‘lost’ at Texas.
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I don’t necessarily think that is the case.
But at this point the OP can revisit the two options with his/her D and make the choice that feels right for her.
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It’s really a matter of personal preference and fit:
UT McCombs will have almost only Texas students, Rice will have students from all over the US (and the world).
UT has the Harkey Institute LLC, Rice has Residential Colleges.
UT is huge, Rice is medium-sized.
UT has incredible spectator sports.
Rice has resources per student that no public university can match.
Both are nationally well-known by people who matter (people who hire, grad schools) so there’s no wrong choice.
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