MBA in Houston: UHCL vs. UH vs. Rice???

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I am interested in applying for an evening MBA in 2007. I hesitate between these three schools:</p>

<ul>
<li>University of Houston - Clear Lake (UHCL)</li>
<li>University of Houston (UH) - Bauer</li>
<li>Rice University</li>
</ul>

<p>Can anyone help me decide which school best fits my needs???</p>

<p>Here are a few hints:</p>

<li><p>I’m mainly interested in Operations Management, Leadership, Economics and Int’l Business. (I don’t want to become a Finance pro, that’s why I’m not considering UT’s MBA in Houston.)</p></li>
<li><p>Tuition is not a problem (I’ll take student loans if necessary). I’m not concerned about the prestige of the school (although a degree with an int’l reputation would be better). I am not worried about 6-digit salaries.</p></li>
<li><p>I have a rather vague idea of the type of career I’d like to pursue within the next 10-20 years:</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Current: Engineer
+2-3 yrs: MBA
+3-5 yrs: Project manager
+5-7 yrs: PMP certification
+10(?) yrs: Project mgr + Bus Dev/Project financing/Contract mgmt/Proposal mgmt
+15(?) yrs: Project Director/Capture Mgr/Contract mgr (?)
+20(???) yrs: General management/Director Int’l Operations (???)</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for your help.</p>

<p>No offense, but I don't see why you are interested in a MBA if you do not care about the prestige of the school or a 6-digit salary if you are working for a corporation and not an entrepreneur.</p>

<p>dyip10,</p>

<p>I have plenty of reasons for doing an MBA:
- to become a project manager within a few years,
- to be a more effective project mgr,
- to move into business development and possibly general mgmt in the future,
- b/c I'm interested in learning about leadership, Ops mgmt, int'l business...</p>

<p>I believe there are ~1000 business schools in the US. There has to be a reason why people attend schools that are not among the 30 or 50 most prestigious. </p>

<p>Besides, I already hold a MS from one of my country's top 5 engineering schools, and quite frankly, I am not sure that makes a big difference after a few years of experience. Skills are more important.</p>

<p>Are all MBA applicants just worried about the money they'll be making after graduation?</p>

<p>Does anyone have anything to say about UHCL, UH or Rice and how their MBA's compare? Please?</p>

<p>Probably do Rice. I think the name would certainly better than UH and the courses seem to be more inline with your interests.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.jonesgsm.rice.edu/jonesgsm/MBA_Electives_Operations.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.jonesgsm.rice.edu/jonesgsm/MBA_Electives_Operations.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>dcfca,</p>

<p>Thanks for the comment. I know that Rice's program is very interesting. The school is very well ranked; it's most likely to appeal to recruiters outside of the US.</p>

<p>On the other hand, UH has 10 operations/project mgmt classes in their program. Not bad, compared to Rice which offers only 5:
<a href="http://www.uh.edu/gs/grad_catalog/bcb/disc_courses.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.uh.edu/gs/grad_catalog/bcb/disc_courses.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The problem is, the Rice MBA costs ~$70K while the UH MBA is less than $30K. I'd be curious to know how good UH teachers are, and if the classes are interesting there.</p>

<p>As for UHCL, I know they only teach one Ops mgmt class, but I just wanted to know if anyone could give me anymore information about that school.</p>

<p>I wonder which road you took. But alas, Seabrook, you are probably long gone now. I do find it odd that you had such low expectations. Misguided soul, IMO.</p>

<p>BTW, for best professors you should have gone to UT’s Houston program. Really though, you should have gone to Rice’s FT program. It probably would have been quite an eye opener for you.</p>

<p>I believe Rice’s FT program was executive only back then (hence the cost), and UT-Houston had just opened as an executive program. Other than cost, he might have had a difficult time getting in with his work history. </p>

<p>For a long time, the options for MBAs in Houston were limited, and Bauer had the best program in the city (which is why they have so many prestigious alumni). At the time (late 90’s through early 00’s), I knew many people that drove to Austin on the weekends for MBA programs, but not everyone was willing to travel that much and give up their weekends for years. Now there are plenty of schools that have moved into Houston: TAMU, UT, Tulane, etc.</p>