Decisions, Decisions

Updated from original post that was published in 2019.

Your work ethic is tops. You’re shrewd about investing your money and talent. And you know your choices can change your world, so you're determined to make good ones.

Once you've decided to transform your career with a Rice MBA, the next step is picking the program that targets this world-class education to your specific goals. Laser-focused on a Full-Time MBA? Want to fine tune your leadership skills with an Executive MBA? Interested in turbocharging your future while staying on track at work with the Professional MBA or Hybrid MBA? Or taking the digital express lane with the MBA@Rice? Rice Business alumni are thriving thanks to each one of these programs. Here's how to choose the one for you.

Plug Into A Power Network With The Full-Time MBA

With 170 students whose makeup echoes the most diverse city in America, the full-time MBA offers a professional network that will last a lifetime. Its uniquely demanding and collaborative academic culture ensures that you will come away with top-flight business expertise – as well as an unmatched professional community, built by working together. In addition to classroom instruction and collaboration with their peers, full-time MBA students have the opportunity for a student internship over the summer which provide the chance to explore new, different job functions or even industries.

“Rice Business has carefully crafted a class with a wide array of backgrounds and future plans. From teachers and soldiers to accountants and engineers, there are a wide variety of experiences from which to draw wisdom, and this greatly enhances the in-class discussion,” says Patrick Ray (Full-Time MBA). 

Gain Skills While Working By Choosing The Professional MBA

There's little that can catapult you further at work than acquiring new skills. The Rice Professional MBA is for students committed to improving their abilities while continuing their current jobs.

The Professional MBA is designed for flexibility, and includes a part-time evening or weekend option that allows you to download new abilities in career accelerators. And students are able to take advantage of some less obvious benefits: a smaller yearly financial commitment and more opportunity for work-life balance.

The tradeoff for the focus required for the Professional MBA? Exhilarating new opportunities, earned without missing a beat in your career. “I always knew Rice had an exceptional reputation, but the high caliber faculty still surprised me,” says Abhayah Indupalli (Professional MBA). “Every professor is extremely passionate about the subjects they teach, and it's infectious. They will always make sure everyone understands a topic before moving on so you never feel like you're just one of many.”

"Business school is demanding and time-consuming," notes Professional MBA student Fernanda Castanon. "However, I consider it is the best investment you can make to have better opportunities for your professional progress."

Prepare For Top Leadership With An Executive MBA

If you’re already at senior level, you know you wouldn’t have reached that point without pushing yourself to learn. The Executive MBA is for seasoned executives and managers who have an average of 15+ years’ experience – and are ready to gain breadth of knowledge outside their current areas of mastery. The Rice Executive MBA will give you and your classmates training in leadership, strategy and decision-making skills. In addition to core instruction, experiential training with your cohort and mandatory international experience, the Rice Executive MBA offers each student personalized executive coaching.

“I chose Rice for my EMBA because it is the best school in Texas,” says Don Hobson, director of engineering at On Center Software. “I needed a program that would not disrupt my career or family while still providing a rigorous curriculum from a highly ranked educational system, a great alumni network and world-renowned professors.”

Access Innovation, Efficiency And World-Class Teaching With MBA@Rice

You already do much of your best work online: communicating and creating, analyzing and building. MBA@Rice uses the technology of the 21st century workplace to propel you ahead professionally. No matter where you are, MBA@Rice gives you a globally competitive business education, with no need to leave your home and work commitments.  

The core curriculum, the same as the campus-based MBA programs, develops understanding of critical business principles such as business analytics, marketing strategy, leadership and finance. It also permits you to apply these skills in a focused specialization. The second-year curriculum empowers you to apply the skills in your own, self-designed focus area.

The flexibility of online study allows you to earn a Rice MBA degree wherever you live. This digital efficiency is enhanced with essential human interactive training: each term, a week can be devoted to an Intensive Learning Experience or Rice's signature Global Field Experience, available in all of the school’s MBA programs. "Today's prospective students are digital natives," Rice Business (Former) Dean Peter Rodriguez says. "By extending our reach, we will be able to attract students who can't come to campus but still want to join a top MBA program."

Online or in person, in a full-time cohort or complementing the workweek, Rice offers an array of options for gaining your MBA. Regardless of the time frame or medium, you can be confident your investment is sound: a Rice MBA provides top preparation for the specific professional future you want to create.

Explore the Rice MBA