Texas MBAs Talk

Undergrad Institution(s): Washington & Lee University, Baylor University
Pre-MBA Job: Accenture
Summer Internship: Parkway Properties
Concentration: Real Estate Finance
Favorite Professor: Lennie Sullivan
Favorite Class: Real Estate Finance

I’m currently a second year here at McCombs, focusing primarily on real estate finance and development.  Originally from Houston, I studied Management Information Systems in undergrad and went on to work in IT Consulting for Accenture after graduation.  When I made the decision to return to school, my experiences with individual students, faculty, and the McCombs community as a whole are what sold me on the school. I was very fortunate in being able to attend preview weekends for 3 of the 4 schools I got in to. It was a very important part of my selection process as I knew I would make the most of my academic opportunities wherever I was, but I wanted to figure out where I would fit in.  I wanted to find the place where the people I would be working with every day, all day for the next two years were similar, but not identical to me - with the same goals and objectives in school, but drastically different backgrounds and personalities.  I didn’t want a homogenous student body, because I knew half of the learning would be from my classmates and their diversified set of backgrounds. I left McCombs Preview Weekend knowing this was the place for me….and it has far exceeded my expectations.

Since arriving at McCombs I’ve tried to involve myself in as many of the multitude of extracurricular activities the school has to offer.  Last fall, a group of us did a PLUS project for a local development firm here in Austin, and I’ve also been active in both the Graduate Real Estate Society and Graduate Finance Association.  I was lucky enough to compete in both Finance and Real Estate academic challenges, and am looking forward to keeping our string of national real estate competition titles intact.

Outside of classes, I’l admit to being a huge Longhorn football fan (Although after attending Baylor University for undergrad, this is not highly looked upon) and taking advantage of everything Austin has to offer - the weather, the lake, the hill country and the eclectic mix of people.  I really don’t feel I could have found a better place to round out my academic career.