<p>^Why are you still making that decision?</p>
<p>Maybe icey is on the Rice waiting list?</p>
<p>As an incoming MBA student at Rice, I turned down Texas McCombs (my undergraduate alma mater as an engineering student), USC Marshall, Univ. of Miami (with almost a fullride and being Miami my favorite city in the World) and Santa Clara Univ. </p>
<p>I was dinged by Berkeley Haas (granted I was a last minute applicant), and very surprisingly waitlisted by SMU Cox (everybody thinks it’s hilarious since it’s clearly one step below McCombs and Rice).</p>
<p>Reading this forum I am a bit perplexed about the consideration for the Jones School of Management. Is it not considered as good as the rest of the school? Why?</p>
<p>Because it is new i think</p>
<p>WAS one step below McCombs. I bet SMU catches up to McCombs in the next few years. While I’m slightly surprised you got into Rice, and waitlisted at SMU, I am not at all surprised about McCombs and SMU. They are getting to be closer competition every year because SMU’s stats are on the rise.</p>
<p>SuperPippo,</p>
<p>Haas is a solid top 10 business school and has an applicant per place of 14:1, or one of the most difficult business schools in the world to get into. would you have gone to Haas if you were admitted?</p>
<p>The short answer is: nope unless they offered me a significant scholarship to compete with the one from Rice. </p>
<p>I completed all applications at the same time with my GMAT score being the last piece of the puzzle (Round 4, March 9). Round 4 is notoriously the hardest to get into (some say impossible at the Top 10 schools): very few spots left (less than 5%) and you are also competing against all waitlist from previous rounds.</p>
<p>I applied so late because I was laid off in December in Silicon Valley and being an international, with the current job market, MBA was my way to stay in the country and something that was in the back of my mind for the longest time. I just didn’t really have the guts to quit my job since I already have an MSEE and had been working for less than three years. So I decided for Business School in February and took the GMAT on March 5.</p>
<p>I applied to: Haas, McCombs, USC, Rice, SMU, Miami and Santa Clara in order of rankings. I don’t like cold, neither do I want to live/work in the north so I did not apply to any school there. Basically I applied to schools in the areas where I can see myself working and living.</p>
<p>Guess when Rice invited me for the interview??? March 10 (one day after receiving my GMAT score).</p>
<p>Shortly after that I heard from McCombs whose interview I was able to combine in my trip to Texas to interview at Rice. </p>
<p>By early April, I was admitted to both UT and Rice along with University of Miami and Santa Clara. Rice offered me over 60% in scholarship. UM 75%. McCombs said there were no funds left that late in the game. I was also invited to interview by USC Marshall in late April but I declined as I had already decided on Rice with my deposit.</p>
<p>Guess when I heard back from Haas? LAST WEEK (I was already moved to Houston with my fiance who had found a job)!!! Until mid April Haas was still sending out Round 3 invites. By then I was already too turned off my the school. Over 2 months to review an application (the most expensive if I may add at $175) is not acceptable!!! McCombs receives tons of applications as well but regardless applications are reviewed within 2 weeks you submit. That says a lot about Berkeley’s admission staff and potential help (lack thereof) when I’ll be looking for a job in two years. </p>
<p>Because I was living in San Francisco I even notified them of my situation during the review process but they told me I just had to wait. I found the admission office and the students at the information session to be impersonal. Overall Berkeley campus sucks compared to Rice and UT and the overall student body is way too liberal and that does not match well with a Business School environment. In three years in the Bay Area I personally could not stand most Berkeley’s graduates and their sense of entitlement. They also obviously lack understanding of economics and world politics in my opinion. And I say this and I am not from Texas, but from W Europe actually.</p>
<p>So I simply applied to Berkeley because of location (I was living in San Francisco) and rankings. Notoriously they do not give scholarships cause the state of California is broke so even if I got in I would have gone to Rice given the scholarship and Houston job market.</p>