Alex Brown

Home Country: United States

Home State: SC

Undergraduate Institution: United States Naval Academy

Undergraduate Degree and Major (and minor, if applicable): BS in General Science

Pre-MBA Industry: U.S. Military

Pre-MBA Company: U.S. Marine Corps

Pre-MBA Title: Officer-In-Charge

Desired industry post-MBA: Finance

Desired job function post-MBA: Private Banking

Summer Internship Company: J.P. Morgan Private Bank

Summer Internship Position: Summer Associate

Degree Concentrations: Finance, Leadership

Student Organization Membership: Beer Club, Finance Association, Jones Student Association (JSA or JSAP), Veterans in Business Association

Officer: RBVA - President
RBSA- CDO Chair

What has been the most surprising part of your Rice MBA? The recruiting timeline. I expected the first semester to be about settling into coursework and building relationships. Instead, within two weeks of classes starting, the internship recruiting process was already in full swing. Company presentations, networking events, and application deadlines started stacking immediately. The intensity forced me to sharpen my personal narrative, prioritize target companies, and lean on classmates far earlier than I anticipated. In hindsight, that pressure was a gift. It compressed months of career exploration into weeks and built a sense of shared urgency across the cohort that made us stronger collectively.

What has been your favorite thing about your MBA experience? The cohort. I came from the Marine Corps, where small unit trust is everything. The FTMBA class size means you actually know everyone, not just recognize faces. When recruiting pressure hit early, we leaned on each other. When group deliverables stacked up, the default was collaboration over competition. The relationships I have built in the first year feel more like the bonds I formed in the military than what I expected from an MBA program.

What do you love most about Houston? The food. Houston's dining scene is unmatched for variety and quality, and it is not even close. Chinatown alone could keep you busy for a full year with world class food all within a few blocks of each other. Beyond that, the city delivers some of the best barbecue, Cajun, seafood, and Tex-Mex in the country. You can eat somewhere new every week for two years and barely scratch the surface.

What is one piece of advice you would share with a prospective? You MUST remember that your Job in this MBA program is to get a job; sometimes, grades come second to recruiting.