The first of Texas Tech University's 11 colleges to be named, the Rawls College of Business is named after Tech alumnus and CEO of the Finisar Company, Jerry S. Rawls. The school awards a few different business degrees: an MBA, MS in business administration or accounting and PhD in business. Students prepared for the rigors of a foreign language study can benefit from the school's 16-month international MBA program, which can be taken on either a full, or part-time basis, and requires international experience.

Rawls' traditional MBA curriculum kicks off with a set of preparatory courses, leading into core requirements that occupy 18 out of the total 45 credit hours in the program. Students concentrate their upper-level studies in one of 11 areas, which range from agribusiness to finance, to real estate. In the final semester, students are required to participate in a capstone course that combines all of what they've learned to date. Rawls collaborates with other TTU graduate programs to offer six dual degrees, including a MBA/MS in environmental toxicology and MBA/master of architecture.

Employers from across the country travel to Lubbock to recruit, as well as local oil industry companies, at which most students find placement. While still in school, students find housing off campus around Lubbock, a mid-sized city with a fairly cheap cost of living. Moreover, Rawls students aren't chained to the library; student social life thrives around campus, with a very active Greek system and various student organizations available for MBA students to join.