Welcome from Jones Student Association for Professionals President, Brady Gibson

Welcome aboard class of 2020!

As President of the Jones Students Association for Professionals (JSAP), it is both honor and privilege to welcome all of you to the Jones Graduate School of Business, MBA Professional program.  Over the last year, I have had one of the greatest experiences of both my personal and professional life.  Sitting in your position last year, I was full of anticipation and questions about starting at top-tier business program while working full time.  In fact, I was also transitioning from the military and trying to run a new business, and I remember wondering what I was getting myself into and whether or not I could handle it.

Luckily, I’m still here! Up to this point, the JGSB program has exceeded my expectations in many ways and provided me with several surprises as well.  I have seen myself and those around me grow in tremendous ways, both academically, professionally, and personally as they have navigated one of the toughest periods of their professional lives.  We have also grow very close and have stayed in touch over the summer, organizing several activities and get-togethers simply for fun.  Additionally, this program has already led to new opportunities for many of our classmates and still have one year to go!

Moving forward, JSAP is here for you and your classmates for several reasons.  We are here to connect you with the school, with your classmates, and the Houston Community.  As we progress through the year, we provide a unified voice to resolve potential issues or hiccups in JGSB programming.  Last but not least, we are also here to create fun social events, from happy hours to Holiday parties to provide a chance to let off steam, have fun with students, and take a break from school.

Please reach out to me or anyone of us at any time for any reason.  We look forward to meeting all of your and building our legacy together!

MBA Quantitative Toolkit

Preparation is important for your success in the MBA program. One of the areas we encourage you to delve into in preparation for your classes is quantitative skills. We have created the “MBA Quantitative Toolkit”, which is available to students on Canvas  all year round.

The “MBA Quantitative Toolkit” is a resource focused on preparing students to engage in quantitative reasoning across the disciplines during the MBA program. The resource represents a carefully assembled collection of references to external sources (tutorials, videos, etc.) which will help students refresh their basic math and statistics knowledge, as well as insure their Excel skills are adequate to hit the ground running in all of their courses.

We encourage you to review the toolkit’s “Table of Contents” prior to the start of the semester, and identify any gaps in knowledge you might have. Identify them early, take some time now to go through the tutorials, do additional research and study, if necessary, on the topics listed in the toolkit, and fill any of those gaps. It will save you a great deal of time and frustration when classes actually begin.

Even though the toolkit is available to you throughout the program, and you can always revisit any topic you need to refresh your knowledge of, you’ll be glad that you took the opportunity to fill the gap early, this summer, before your classes begins.

What should I be doing now?

This week you should be working through the MBA Quantitative Toolkit. The Toolkit was put together by Rice Business Professors to make sure that you are fully prepared for your quantitative classes here at the Jones School. You can read more about it in this edition of the Scoop.

You should still be working your way through your Onboarding Checklist assignments. Make sure that you are keeping up with the assignments and are turning them in by the deadline.

We will start sending out emails on Wednesday, June 20th for those who have not completed assignments by their due date. The deadlines of these assignments are very important because the assignments give us the information that we need to be fully prepared for you to start the program in a few weeks. Please make sure that you are keeping up with deadlines and turning things in on time.

If you are on top of all of your assignments and you are still looking for something to do, here is a list of recommended reading:

Naked Economics
mindset
Naked Statistics
Wall Street Journal
Economist
The Accounting Game: Basic Accounting Fresh from the Lemonade Stand

Rice Facts

Baker 13

A long-standing tradition, which began within Baker College in 1975, takes place the 13th of every month (and occasionally on the 31st or 26th for special occasions) at just after 10 PM.  Students are encouraged to apply copious amounts of shaving cream and while donning nothing more than the foam and a pair of shoes, they run a somewhat standard trail, making sure to leave their mark at various points on campus. 

To add some structure to this streaking ritual, there are six rules, which are read preceding every run. 

1. Stop at all stop signs (very important)
2. Pose for all pictures.
3. Attack only if attacked. MORE...

Did you know...

When it comes to rooms to study in or have group meetings in, you have several option in McNair Hall that are easy to reserve. There are rooms on all four floors of the Jones School that you can book to study in with no advanced notice. To reserve rooms, you will go to rooms.rice.edu, click on "MBA Login" on the left side of the page, and then login with your NetID and password. From there you can click on "Room Request (JGSB)" and follow the directions on the next screen. 

Each study room comes equipped with space for atleast five people, a large screen and the appropriate cords to connect your laptop to the screen, as well as a dry erase board and dry erase markers. 

The following rooms are designated study rooms:

• Rooms 213 A-F 
• Rooms 313 A-F 
• Room 134 A&B 
• Rooms 400, 406-412

Summer Social

June 21st
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Rice Univeristy, Moody Center for the Arts

Please join us for the Class of 2020 MBA for Professionals Summer Social. It will be a great time to meet your classmates, staff, and faculty that you are going to be spending your time with over the next two years!

RSVP HERE