Rice University’s Virani Undergraduate School of Business is expanding its undergraduate business major with the launch of a new marketing concentration, offering students greater choice as they look ahead at their academic and career paths.
With the addition of marketing, students may now choose from three concentrations — management, finance or marketing — within the undergraduate business major. The expansion reflects Rice Business’ continued focus on rigorous, career-relevant education that connects analytical thinking with real-world application.
“The marketing concentration gives students a clear academic pathway to understand how organizations create value through customer insight, innovation and communication,” said Bob Dittmar, associate dean of the Virani School and the Houston Endowment Professor of Finance. “It builds on the strengths of our undergraduate program while equipping students for a wide range of careers in today’s data-driven, consumer-focused economy.”
Students have welcomed the new concentration as an opportunity to explore marketing within the curriculum.
“I’ve learned a great deal through the Rice Undergraduate Marketing Association, but not every student interested in marketing will choose to explore it through a club,” said sophomore Simryn Patel, a business major. “This concentration makes marketing more visible and accessible as a career path and reflects an exciting new chapter for learning at Rice.”
For fellow sophomore and Rice Undergraduate Marketing Association member, Elie Park, it’s the academic component of the concentration that interested her. “I’m really excited that the concentration is giving students like me interested in marketing an opportunity to explore it in a classroom setting,” she said. “I feel like I’ve gotten a lot of experience with marketing through my extracurriculars and club work, but through this concentration, I’ll get a formal introduction to marketing I could use for my future career.”
The marketing concentration prepares students to develop consumer insights, design and price products and services and communicate effectively across platforms. Coursework emphasizes both strategy and execution, preparing graduates to navigate markets shaped by data, technology and evolving consumer expectations.
Virani School students are taught by the same expert faculty who teach in Rice Business’ MBA programs and will be well positioned for careers in product and brand management, digital and social media marketing, consulting and entrepreneurship.
“I’m excited to see how the new marketing concentration will open up opportunities for students and how it will expand their ideas on what the path to graduation might look like,” Patel said.
“Marketing, for me, has always been about understanding people and how ideas connect,” said junior business major Asianna Junge, founder and president of the Rice Undergraduate Marketing Association. “The marketing concentration opens new doors for students and brings greater visibility to creative business paths. I’m excited about the possibility of graduating with it!”