Jacob Ross

Home City: Pittsburgh

Home State: PA

Home Country: United States

Undergraduate Institution: Graceland University

Undergraduate Degree and Major (and minor, if applicable): Economics and Business Administration

Pre-MBA Industry: Semiconductor Distribution

Pre-MBA Company: NF Smith & Associates

Pre-MBA Title: Procurement Specialist

Desired industry post-MBA: Affordable Housing

Desired job function post-MBA: Regional Director

Student Organization Membership: Athletics Club, Entrepreneurship Association

What has been the most surprising part of your Rice MBA experience? The most surprising part has been all the events that Rice hosts or is connected closely to. The amount of student-run conferences and opportunities is far beyond what I could have expected when I applied to Rice. Truly, I have loved getting to hear and attend on subjects that I have no expertise in whatsoever. Outside of just the business related events, Rice has so many awesome things going on around campus from the arts to athletics to beer bike. I just did not have a full appreciation for how vibrant and well-rounded the offerings were outside of just classes here at Rice. I have really enjoyed becoming a part of a community of active students and engaged alumni all across Houston.

What has been your favorite thing about your MBA experience so far? How fast I have formed genuine friendships with the people in my cohort. Because I am not from Houston, my community here has always been somewhat small. I have a decent number of friends from undergrad and previous jobs and community groups here locally but through this program, I feel that I have truly gotten to expand my network. I expected that networking would be a significant benefit to this program but it has been much more than just becoming connections on LinkedIn, these are people that I share meals with and spend intentional time with outside of class. I started receiving these dividends almost immediately upon launch week and they have only grown since!

What is one piece of advice you would share with a prospective student – one sentence? This will reduce how much you see your loved ones on weeknights so be very intentional about making time to be present with them during this program!