Hi all,

I want to ask your comments regarding both schools,
Rice University ad UT-Austin are highly regarded as the best schools in Texas. Should one got offer from both school and want to work in Energy business (ie. Corporate finance in the Giant energy company or Energy Trader in Banks). Which should one choose ?

From both of their websites I found that UT-Austin is highly regarded as a Finance school (regularly supplying MBA grads to Wall street) and under Prof. Ehud Ronn, they created an Energy center, and created an extension from their existing courses to acomodate the Energy specialisation:
-Financial Strategies - Energy Finance, and
- the specially designated energy finance section of Financial Risk Management.

However, there are only 2 (TWO) specialized courses ?!?!

While compared to Rice University, there are 7 courses:
- Fundamentals of the Energy Industry
- Economic Environment of Business
- Business-Government Relations
- Energy Derivatives
- Project Management in Energy I
- Project Management in Energy II
- Business Strategy in the Energy Industry

I know that Quality should overcome Quantity...
but if the number of courses are significantly different...
2 compared to 7 courses... it made you wonders...

you got to admit that RICE is a better university to study MBA specialized in Energy. And yet, they're located in Houston.

Could anybody comment on this? Did I miss out something?

Thanks for all of your comments.

Hi guys... any comments ?

I would say that UT Austin is a better overall school, at least in terms of its reputation and the rankings.

Specialization is a bit of a controversial issue among recruiters and industry experts. I tend to think that a general MBA is preferable to a specialized one because you'll have more flexibility after graduation, and management skills are usually pretty broad and specific industries do not require specific skills, per se.

That said, I don't know much about the energy sector. Maybe try contacting the schools directly and ask about where the graduates end up? Many schools have this data readily available.

It's true that UT-Austin is better known in the nation and international, thanks to its vast alumni network.

But Rice is a good regional MBA.

I tried to contact the schools directly (both UT- Austin & Rice). However, they just gave the the same reply... "Please do see our website" thing...

I do observe that 20% of Rice MBA graduates were hired by the Energy sectors...

As a last year admit at both schools who ended up choosing Rice, I can tell you that I am very glad I did. The Rice program is very intense but the Houston energy banks have started taking notice and within the last few years they are hiring more from Rice than UT because they find Rice graduates to be better prepared for a career in energy finance. Rice also places Alumni on Wall Street just like UT. We have a one week treck each year visiting all major I-banks in New York.

In addition, UT ranks above Rice only on the USNews and BW Rankings. The Economist and Financial Times rank Rice above UT, with the FT "Finance specialty" ranking placing Rice at #7 in the World.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/de87998a-e173-11dd-afa0-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=3d473b3c-dda6-11dd-930e-000077b07658.html

Thanks for the info.
If I may elaborate further,
Can you comment a bit about the Energy-related courses at Jones school.
Is it very much Industry-related? or more emphasis on the finance?

Rice is now the best school in Texas and with better momentum than UT according to latest 2010 rankings.

http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings