Calling all Jones (Rice) Applicants! Fall 2013

Sorry, I saw this a while back but didn't get around to answering. I guess this work-hard-play-hard lifestyle doesn't leave much time for posting on internet forums.

Anyway... The Rice MBA Social Life
(this is by no means comprehensive)

Well, starting out your cohort will be your 60 best friends and enemies. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll have stories and inside jokes. Each cohort will gain its own reputation. Every so often, you see the “others,” but you’ll still be meeting people for the first time in January.

Full Timers have Lunch Colloquium, a catered lunch every Monday. It will feel like a treat, until it feels like a chore when you realize you are supposed to sit through dozens of announcements that are always emailed out anyway. MBAE and MBAPs have a version with either catered breakfasts or dinners (weekend or evening programs). Also, on Wednesday nights around 9pm or so after class, there is a semi-official MBAP group that meets for a late happy hour in Rice Village.

Between the student commons, the Rice coffee shop, the gym, various campus cafes, you will not be short on seeing your fellow classmates. Kind of like high school, only smaller. And that gets even tiny-er if you live in the grad apartments, for then it may be hard to entertain evening guests discretely.

Rice Village becomes the default spot for any off-campus socializing, especially considering the proximity to the graduate housing, so it's of utmost importance and duty of native Houstonians to introduce their fellow classmates to the REST of the City beyond Kirby and Main.

The 5k track around the campus is where you'll run into, often literally, your fellow classmates. But more inexplicably, I have yet to go to Torchi's Tacos once this year and NOT run into at least one Rice MBA. To be fair, they are damn good tacos.

Even with all this, fall semester will have a significant amount of WORK, so despite all this time with your classmates, a more relaxed environment is necessary...
Now I'm sure everyone who went through recruiting has heard of partio. What is less-advertised is the post-partio, often ending up in Rice Village, somewhere on Bissonent, and occasionally Washington. Sometimes post-partio is extended to Friday night or throughout the weekend. Also unadvertised is the pre-partio, which starts promptly after the last Thursday class at 3:45pm in a procession to one of the two on-campus bars (Willy's or Valhalla) depending on if people want to walk the extra 5 mins to save $1.50.

Don’t forget to go beyond McNair hall for there are other very interesting gems at Rice University if you look for it. The Baker Institute right next to McNair has Clintons, Bushes , and various Presidents coming in and out all the time. Rice undergrads are an interesting bunch, and maybe you'll find things you never even heard of, things you are kind of stunned even exist. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_Decadence).

TREKS! The treks (most are in the spring) are a good way to get to have fun with your fellow MBAs with a mix of FT and P, first and second years. International Trips are like more expensive treks, but are heavily skewed toward “fun” activities (from what I’ve heard). Also, DIVERSITY CONFERENCES!!! Trust me, the people who got their summer internships first, got them at a diversity conference. Not mention, a great way to network with people in different MBA programs. NBMBAA, NAAMBA, MBAWI, NSHMBA, ROMBA... all held early in the fall semester so NOW is not too early to be researching this. Also note, you do not *need* to be a member of a particular group to go to the conference, but you should be supportive of their cause and probably a member of the particular club. And don't be that person whining about the cost of travel, this is what you came to school for.

Also don’t be ‘that’ person who is too cheap to sign up for clubs (more than just the professional ones!)… Clubs often have members-only emails and events like happy hours and lunch-and-learns. Good way to connect across programs and class years as well.

More stuff to look forward to -
Halloween, End of semester Partios, International Partio, Gala (MBA prom), Follies, etc…