I have an admit from Rice and Vanderbilt. Rice is ranked very high in FT at 27. I have a software/IT background and I want to move into consulting.
Houston has a lot of tech companies and I feel I can leverage my tech background for employment. The %tage of people landing jobs within 3 months post MBA at rice is around 90. Looking at the layoffs happening in USA, is USA the right place to be in. If I join this year with a 2 year MBA, I will be graduating in 2025. So do give your views on this.

The US economy just added 500,000 jobs. If you know a better economy that's more open to international talent, let us know: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/business/economy/jobs-report-january-2023.html 

Rice is much better at placing international students. I met a friend of a friend who moved to teach at Rice from the University of California, and she is very happy with the move. Much smaller classes, better learning environment. 

The US economy just added 500,000 jobs. If you know a better economy that's more open to international talent, let us know: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/business/economy/jobs-report-january-2023.html 

Rice is much better at placing international students. I met a friend of a friend who moved to teach at Rice from the University of California, and she is very happy with the move. Much smaller classes, better learning environment. 

You'd pick Rice to work in Texas and an English school to work in England. It's a bit weird to have applied to both. If you were able to get into Rice, then in the UK you'd look at LBS or Oxbridge, not cheaper schools. It would be a false economy to get to a school so much worse like Bath, which isn't even in the FT 100. 

Rice's Jones school is very different: that's a small, close-knit, graduate-only school in Texas's most elite private university: 174 students (although Jones does assist undergraduate majors in the engineering school, the Rice building is graduate only). It's like being the top business school in a region with a population like the Benelux region and a GDP equal to Italy or Brazil: that sort of standing. The average salary is $183k: higher than London Business School. Rice has a $10 billion endowment and a budget of $836m for 8,000 students. Durham's endowment is around 1% of Rice's and a budget of £442m for almost 20,000 students. Rice is spending five times more per student. It's really first class against flying economy.

PS Bath (salary c. $98k) and Durham ($117k)) are outstanding state universities with large, full-service, business schools mainly focused on pre-experience students. However, they don't have the high-quality intake or the higher average quality of faculty of Rice, let alone the resources.  

[Edited by Duncan on Feb 25, 2023]

You'd pick Rice to work in Texas and an English school to work in England. It's a bit weird to have applied to both. If you were able to get into Rice, then in the UK you'd look at LBS or Oxbridge, not cheaper schools. It would be a false economy to get to a school so much worse like Bath, which isn't even in the FT 100. 

Rice's Jones school is very different: that's a small, close-knit, graduate-only school in Texas's most elite private university: 174 students (although Jones does assist undergraduate majors in the engineering school, the Rice building is graduate only). It's like being the top business school in a region with a population like the Benelux region and a GDP equal to Italy or Brazil: that sort of standing. The average salary is $183k: higher than London Business School. Rice has a $10 billion endowment and a budget of $836m for 8,000 students. Durham's endowment is around 1% of Rice's and a budget of £442m for almost 20,000 students. Rice is spending five times more per student. It's really first class against flying economy.

PS Bath (salary c. $98k) and Durham ($117k)) are outstanding state universities with large, full-service, business schools mainly focused on pre-experience students. However, they don't have the high-quality intake or the higher average quality of faculty of Rice, let alone the resources.  

I was impressed when I visited the Vanderbilt campus: it's beautiful.  Its a much less international cohort and places into different sort of employers. 

PS Check LinkedIn for the exact role you would like but, generally, Houston has a lot more tech than Nashville. However, as you say, the Vanderbilt MBA has performed strongly in recent years: maybe Poets & Quants can give you clues about why things have dipped. These are both great universities. 

[Edited by Duncan on Feb 26, 2023]