Ross PT Vs McCombs PT Vs Rice PMBA

Question

Hello: I am a civil engineer with almost 10 years of work experience overall and a Master's. I am thinking of switching my career post MBA into consulting with a focus on A/E/C. I have been admitted to all of three PT programs I applied to - Ross (weekend), McCombs (evening), and Rice (weekend). I am currently located in Austin. Although I have done a decent amount of research on all three schools myself, I would really appreciate your perspective on which one should I join and why. Please feel free to provide suggestions, it will be very helpful.

CobraKai · Answer

I think this is pretty easy - McCombs. Unless you want to commute to Houston, or even Michigan on the weekends, I think attending McCombs at night is the right call, especially if you want to stay in the Austin area post-MBA. It just seems like it would be the least disruptive option to your life.

txguy · Answer

Thanks CobraKai. That brings me to my other question - How easy or tough my career switch would be from engineering consulting to strategic consulting?

CobraKai · Answer

That's a tougher nut to crack. If you get a part-time MBA you won't have the exposure to on-campus recruiting and a summer internship in strategic consulting that a top full-time program offers. That said you may be able to work your network to transition to strategic consulting, but prepare for an uphill battle as the top firms like to recruit newly minted MBAs at top full-time programs.

HaasEWMBA2015 · Answer

The Haas EWMBA program provides opportunities to switch into both consulting and IB. Haas' career services center helps you put together a plan to ensure that you are a strong candidate in order to make the transition. Between your second and third year, you are expected to quit your current job, then recruit and intern with the FT MBA students (note, while most recruiting events are open to PT students, not all of them are). For people who are dedicated to complete the work that is necessary to make the transition, the opportunity is there. I'm not sure if many other PT MBA programs offer this, however, this is something you may want to research at the programs you were admitted.

ManhattanReview · Answer

Given your options and current status, I say the McCombs PT program makes the most sense. While the other two programs are fine, the extra time and money you would spend on the commute can be put to much better use networking, attending conferences, participating in student organizations, etc. Additionally, as all three schools are pretty similar in terms of reputation, I see no need to put yourself through the stress of always moving around just to attend school.

If you do plan to transition careers, make sure that you start leveraging all the resources at McCombs from day one -- this includes attending firm information sessions, networking events, join student clubs, etc. Also, start leveraging the UT/McCombs alumni network and start meeting people and building relationships with them.

Kimberly Plaga
Senior Admissions Consultant
Manhattan Review

txguy · Answer

Thanks a lot for your suggestions people. I appreciate it!

Jeffelite · Answer

I graduate from the Ross Weekend program in May. I would say it's considerably better than the other two options

Most of my classmates, that were interested in switching positions, have successfully recruited for their new roles.

txguy · Answer

Thanks Jeffelite. The truth is that all the current students that I talked to from these three schools pretty much said the same things about their respective schools.

Quantitatively, I see little difference between Ross and McCombs, Rice is a little behind both of these school. The employment stats were obtained from BW. Please see attached.

Qualitatively, each school has something to offer besides world class business education:
MAP, Leadership Initiative, Entrepreneurship at Ross, 
MBA+ and Texas Venture Labs/Entrepreneurship at McCombs, 
Capstone, REEP, and electives at Rice

Frankly, I do not yet see reason enough to invest an extra 50K in MBA from Ross. But, I still have time and my research continues...

vatsas · Answer

Hey TXGuy,

I think you should stay put at Austin. Had it been Kellog Vs UT or Hass Vs UT then UT would be out of contention but Ross is totally on par with UT. Ensure that you can access UT's career service. Also find out whether you will be allowed to attend events (networking & job) meant for full time. There are some schools such as Stern that have such limitations.

Now one major flip side would be network. At Ross you will have a bigger network compared to that of UT.

asimov · Answer

Rice would be off the table, given McCombs is in the mix and your location.

McCombs would also take the cake given your post-MBA goals. It will be tough recruiting for MC out of a part time program. Recruiting for MC from a PT program across the country will be EXTREMELY difficult.

1) Even if you are allowed to attend the full time recruiting events, will you consider take a vacation day, pay for flight/transport/hotel for a bit of face time with the recruiters (and companies come on campus A LOT at different times)? Many of the MC considers face time an important part of recruiting.

2) To prepare for consulting interviews, you will need practice casing. Although it is technically possible to case on your own, it is much effective and easier to have a classmate to case with.

txguy · Answer

After giving a lot of thought to it, I have decided to go for McCombs. Hopefully, it'll work out well!

CobraKai · Answer

Congrats, and good luck!

txguy · Answer

Thanks!

steven8669 · Answer

In the part-time McCombs program you will have access to all the same tools the full-time students have, including OCR. In fact, your resume will look almost exactly like the full-time students. You will also have access to all the people that are in your class that already have jobs.The career office also told us that sometimes employers will request student resumes from the part-time program because they have new and relevant work experience.

I'm at the McCombs DFW program, and very happy with it so far. There is also a girl in my class that just transferred to DFW from the evening program so I can ask her anything you like. I know Deloitte recruits heavily from the PT program, and MBB does hire students every year on campus so I don't think it should be that difficult.

Ross PT Vs McCombs PT Vs Rice PMBA

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