Like our other School Guide titles, the McCombs School Guide provides extensive information on the school’s academics, student demographics, special programs, campus life, employment statistics, admissions procedures and more! We present the facts objectively to help you understand all McCombs has to offer and what makes it unique.  Additionally, we have placed the information in the context of offerings at other schools, so you can see how McCombs compares to its peers.

This brand new guide is a valuable resource that can be used at each stage . . . → Continue Reading]]> We are pleased to announce the release of the brand new Clear Admit School Guide to McCombs School of Business!

Like our other School Guide titles, the McCombs School Guide provides extensive information on the school’s academics, student demographics, special programs, campus life, employment statistics, admissions procedures and more! We present the facts objectively to help you understand all McCombs has to offer and what makes it unique.  Additionally, we have placed the information in the context of offerings at other schools, so you can see how McCombs compares to its peers.

This brand new guide is a valuable resource that can be used at each stage of the admissions process, whether you are considering the school as a potential destination, looking for information to enrich your application essays, or preparing for the admissions interview.

For more information on the Clear Admit School Guides line, click here. The Clear Admit School Guide to McCombs School of Business is now available for immediate purchase and download in our online shop.

1. Describe how your experiences, both personal and professional, have led you to pursue an MBA at this time. What are your short- and long-term goals and how will a Texas MBA help you achieve them? (Limit: 900 words) While most admissions committees are interested in the professional reasons behind applicants’ decisions . . . → Continue Reading]]> We wanted to take some time today to comment on the UT Austin – McCombs essay topics for the 2010-2011 admissions season, which are unchanged from last year.  Reflecting an emphasis on applicants who have contributed to their workplace and the community (and who will continue this level of personal engagement in an MBA program), UT Austin’s questions focus on how candidates would enrich their environments through leadership commitment.

1. Describe how your experiences, both personal and professional, have led you to pursue an MBA at this time. What are your short- and long-term goals and how will a Texas MBA help you achieve them? (Limit: 900 words)
While most admissions committees are interested in the professional reasons behind applicants’ decisions to apply to business school and the motivations regarding timing, the fact that McCombs specifically asks about personal experiences shows that candidates will need to expand their essay to include non-professional experiences that have influenced their future goals.

One approach to this topic would be for candidates to summarize what they’ve done thus far in their career and personal life that have led them to define their career goals.  Then they can explain their future plans and demonstrate why an MBA is necessary to move forward. While that approach does place this question into the career goals essay category, it’s important to keep in mind that the McCombs adcom is most interested in the candidate’s assessment of their personal and professional experiences and the reasons that a turning point has been reached.  Therefore as you write about your professional and personal experiences, you should tie this discussion back to your greater professional goals.

Discussing how the Texas MBA fits into the picture will be key, and you can touch on how the McCombs program will provide you with the skill set necessary to begin reaching your objectives.  Taking the time to learn about the school’s curriculum, special programs and extracurricular activities – whether through a visit to campus or conversations with members of the community will pay dividends here.

2. Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development.  What did you learn from this experience about your strengths and weaknesses as a leader? (Limit: 650 words)
In the 2008-2009 admissions season, McCombs asked applicants to describe a leadership experience that directly related to one of their four program pillars (responsibility/integrity, knowledge/understanding, collaborative/communication, and worldview of business and society).  Although not specifically mentioned this year, students may want to keep those pillars in mind as they sift through experiences from education, professional, or extracurricular realms and settle on a topic for this prompt.

Because McCombs specifically asks candidates about leadership development as well as strengths and weaknesses, you should choose an experience that clearly demonstrates both your assets and limitations as a leader.  Although it’s necessary to discuss your weaknesses in this essay, it will be important that you conclude positively by showing that you have grown from this experience and now have a leadership style that allows you to more effectively lead and motivate others.

3. At the McCombs School of Business, you will be part of an active and diverse community. How will you use your personal strengths and unique experiences to enrich the McCombs community during your two years in the program? (Limit: 500 words)
Maintaining its position as an application essay for three years in a row, this prompt signals the value that McCombs places on student contribution and involvement on campus.  A strong essay would be one that touches on several qualities and involvements, illustrating a range of skills and their applicability to the MBA program.  That said, though this prompt invites a rather broad discussion, anecdotal evidence of your positive traits in action will also be important.  For that reason, it will likely make sense to hone in on 3 or 4 examples, linking each to some similar activity or contribution you could make to the classroom or an on-campus club.  Indicating what clubs, organizations, or programs you hope to participate in and how you will take on a leading role will go far in demonstrating your enthusiasm for and commitment to the program.

First Deadline: November 1, 2010

Second Deadline: January 14, 2011

Third Deadline: April 1, 2011

Applicants should note that January 14, 2011 is the final deadline for all international applicants. McCombs follows a rolling admissions process, which means that each application is reviewed in the order in which it is received.

The essay topics are as follows:

Essay 1 Describe how your experiences, both personal and professional, have led you to pursue an MBA at this time. What are your short- and long-term goals and how will a Texas MBA help you achieve them? (Limit: 650 . . . → Continue Reading]]> The UT Austin / McCombs School of Business deadlines and essay topics for the upcoming admissions season have now been released. The three rolling deadlines are as follows:

First Deadline: November 1, 2010

Second Deadline: January 14, 2011

Third Deadline: April 1, 2011

Applicants should note that January 14, 2011 is the final deadline for all international applicants. McCombs follows a rolling admissions process, which means that each application is reviewed in the order in which it is received.

The essay topics are as follows:

Essay 1
Describe how your experiences, both personal and professional, have led you to pursue an MBA at this time. What are your short- and long-term goals and how will a Texas MBA help you achieve them? (Limit: 650 words)

Essay 2
Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development. What did you learn from this experience about your strengths and weaknesses as a leader? (Limit: 650 words)

Essay 3
At the McCombs School of Business, you will be part of an active and diverse community. How will you use your personal strengths and unique experiences to enrich the McCombs community during your two years in the program? (Limit: 500 words)

For more information, please visit the school’s website.

Stanford, for its part, showed a slight rebound. After a slip to number two last year, the Palo Alto school this year once again forced HBS to share the number one spot, as it had in 2009. MIT’s Sloan School of Management also gained some ground to come in at number three, advancing from the number five spot.

MIT Sloan displaced the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton . . . → Continue Reading]]> Harvard Business School (HBS) and the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) have once again tied for first in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report MBA rankings, released late yesterday. While the major players in the top 15 remain largely unchanged from previous years, there were some notable shifts up and down the ranks.

Stanford, for its part, showed a slight rebound. After a slip to number two last year, the Palo Alto school this year once again forced HBS to share the number one spot, as it had in 2009. MIT’s Sloan School of Management also gained some ground to come in at number three, advancing from the number five spot.

MIT Sloan displaced the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, which dropped to number five this year, tied with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business stayed steady in fourth place.

Rounding out the top 10 were Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and Berkeley’s Haas School, which shared the number seven spot, and Columbia Business School and New York University’s Stern School of Business, which shared the ninth spot. Yale School of Management dropped to 11th, down from 10th last year, and Ross, Darden, Fuqua and UCLA Anderson made up the remaining top 15.

To compile its rankings, U.S. News surveyed all 426 master’s programs in business accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International in fall 2009. Data provided by the schools was used to calculate rankings based on a weighted average of a range of indicators, including program quality as assessed by the deans and directors of peer schools as well as recruiters, graduate placement success and student selectivity.

This year, the U.S. News ranking features several interactive features designed to make it a more useful tool to prospective applicants. A search function lets users narrow the list of ranked schools by location, tuition, school size and test scores.

The U.S. News rankings also feature specialty rankings, a compilation of the top 10 programs in each of 10 specialty fields as determined by nominations by business school deans and directors. Tops in this year’s specialty rankings were as follow:

–Accounting: McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin
–Entrepreneurship: F.W. Olin School of Business at Babson College
–Executive MBA: University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School
–Finance: University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School
–Information Systems: MIT’s Sloan School of Management
–International: Thunderbird School of Global Management
–Management: Harvard Business School
–Marketing: Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management
–Nonprofit: Yale School of Management
–Part-time MBA: Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management
–Production/Operations: MIT’s Sloan School of Management
–Supply Chain/Logistics: MIT’s Sloan School of Management

As always, we encourage prospective applicants to use these and other rankings as just one of many data points as you work to determine which business school program will best fit your individual needs and goals. As U.S. News itself put it, “It’s important that you use the rankings to supplement—not replace—careful thought and your own inquiries.”

To view the entire U.S. News & World Report rankings, click here.

The event is open to first- and second-year students and Executive MBAs from each of the participating schools who are interesting in working on the West Coast. Participating schools include the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Cornell’s Johnson School, the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, Emory’s Goizueta Business School, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, the University of Michigan’s Ross School and the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

The all-day event will take place today, April 9th, at the Embassy Suites Hotel near . . . → Continue Reading]]> Students from seven top business schools will convene today with representatives from more than 30 companies for the first-ever “A Day in the Bay” MBA Interview Forum near San Francisco.

The event is open to first- and second-year students and Executive MBAs from each of the participating schools who are interesting in working on the West Coast. Participating schools include the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Cornell’s Johnson School, the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, Emory’s Goizueta Business School, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, the University of Michigan’s Ross School and the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

The all-day event will take place today, April 9th, at the Embassy Suites Hotel near the San Francisco Airport. More than 30 companies have registered to participate, ranging from traditional banking and consulting firms to healthcare, information technology, media and marketing companies. For a list of all participating firms, click here.

To learn more about this inaugural collaborative interview forum, visit the “A Day in the Bay” website.

Thomas Gilligan, dean of UT’s McCombs School of Business, shared some promising news in a post to the school’s blog earlier this week. As of that writing, 84 companies had registered for the school’s Career Expo, which took place on Wednesday, up from . . . → Continue Reading]]> After two tough years, it seems like job prospects may be getting a little better for this year’s graduating class of MBAs. In a blog post Monday, the dean of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas shared that he’s seeing an up-tick in recruiter visits for the school’s spring Career Expo. And according to a report yesterday in Bloomberg News, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School also sees job prospects improving this spring.

Thomas Gilligan, dean of UT’s McCombs School of Business, shared some promising news in a post to the school’s blog earlier this week. As of that writing, 84 companies had registered for the school’s Career Expo, which took place on Wednesday, up from 74 last spring, and the career services director was expecting more to register in the final days before the event. Meanwhile the school’s SuperWeek for investment banking and consulting, held in mid-January, attracted 20 companies seeking MBAs. Finally, MBA Director of Career Services Stacey Rudnick reports that postings for MBA internships are also up this year over last.

“I’m not a Pollyanna, our students still face a tough career environment and it concerns me,” Gilligan wrote. “I’m just pleased we’re aggressively pursuing opportunities, and our recruiting numbers are holding steady with the best of our peer schools,” he added.

Halfway across the country, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School is also seeing improved job prospects for its students. According to a Bloomberg News report Thursday, the school has more off-campus job postings this year than last. And more second-year MBA students appear to have accepted full-time job offers than last year, Director of MBA Career Management Michelle Antonio told Bloomberg.

An Early Action applicant to Tuck interviewed with a second-year student and addressed the following queries:

Even as it cuts some positions to address the budgetary challenges, McCombs will reallocate resources in order to retain and reward its very best faculty and continue to hire, according to Gilligan. “New faculty are central to the prominence of our school and the new initiatives we are undertaking in our strategic plan,” he said. “This means we must continue . . . → Continue Reading]]> The McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin has eliminated 16 positions due to the current budgetary crisis, the school announced earlier this week. The cuts were finalized on November 2nd and will be effective January 31st. The staff reduction represents roughly 20 percent of overall cost-cutting measures the school plans to implement, according to Dean Tom Gilligan.

Even as it cuts some positions to address the budgetary challenges, McCombs will reallocate resources in order to retain and reward its very best faculty and continue to hire, according to Gilligan. “New faculty are central to the prominence of our school and the new initiatives we are undertaking in our strategic plan,” he said. “This means we must continue to proactively hire the very best scholars available.”

Efforts are being made to provide support to those employees directly affected by the cuts as well as to the community as a whole. “While we are especially concerned for those directly impacted,” Gilligan said, “we also recognize that everyone feels the effects of the reduction in some way or the other. This is a time for us to listen to concerns, be supportive and help teams readjust.”

The school’s human resources department will provide career services assistance and counseling to employees whose positions have been eliminated, and unit heads within the school have held group meetings with those not affected by the cuts to help address questions and concerns the reductions bring regarding work load and morale.

To learn more, click here.

1. Describe how your experiences, both personal and professional, have led you to pursue an MBA at this time. What are your short- and long-term goals and how will a Texas MBA help you achieve them? (Limit: 900 words) McCombs has revised this question for this season; formerly asking about career progression to date, . . . → Continue Reading]]> We wanted to take some time today to comment on the UT Austin – McCombs essay topics for the 2009-2010 admissions season.  Reflecting an emphasis on applicants who have contributed to their workplace and the community (and who will continue this level of personal engagement in an MBA program), UT Austin’s questions focus on how candidates would enrich their environments through leadership commitment.

1. Describe how your experiences, both personal and professional, have led you to pursue an MBA at this time. What are your short- and long-term goals and how will a Texas MBA help you achieve them? (Limit: 900 words)
McCombs has revised this question for this season; formerly asking about career progression to date, McCombs now asks applicants to share how their personal and professional experiences have led them to pursue an MBA at this time.  While all admissions committees are interested in the reasons behind applicants’ decisions to apply to business school and the motivations regarding timing, the fact that McCombs specifically asks about personal experiences shows that candidates will need to expand their essay to include non-professional experiences that have influenced their future goals.

One approach to this topic would be for candidates to summarize what they’ve done thus far in their career and personal life that have led them to define their career goals.  Then they can explain their future plans and demonstrate why an MBA is necessary to move forward. While that approach does place this question into the career goals essay category, it’s important to keep in mind that the McCombs adcom is most interested in the candidate’s assessment of their personal and professional experiences and the reasons that a turning point has been reached.  Therefore as you write about your professional and personal experiences, you should tie this discussion back to your greater professional goals.

Discussing how the Texas MBA fits into the picture will be key, and you can touch on how the McCombs program will provide you with the skill set necessary to begin reaching your objectives.  Taking the time to learn about the school’s curriculum, special programs and extracurricular activities – whether through a visit to campus or conversations with members of the community will pay dividends here.

2. Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development.  What did you learn from this experience about your strengths and weaknesses as a leader? (Limit: 650 words)
Last year McCombs asked applicants to describe a leadership experience that directly related to one of their four program pillars (responsibility/integrity, knowledge/understanding, collaborative/communication, and worldview of business and society).  Although not specifically mentioned this year, students may want to keep those pillars in mind as they sift through experiences from education, professional, or extracurricular realms and settle on a topic for this prompt.

Because McCombs specifically asks candidates about leadership development as well as strengths and weaknesses, you should choose an experience that clearly demonstrates both your assets and limitations as a leader.  Although it’s necessary to discuss your weaknesses in this essay, it will be important that you conclude positively by showing that you have grown from this experience and now have a leadership style that allows you to more effectively lead and motivate others.

3. At the McCombs School of Business, you will be part of an active and diverse community. How will you use your personal strengths and unique experiences to enrich the McCombs community during your two years in the program? (Limit: 500 words)
This prompt is the same one used last year, signaling the value that McCombs places on student contribution and involvement on campus.  A strong essay would be one that touches on several qualities and involvements, illustrating a range of skills and their applicability to the MBA program.  That said, though this prompt invites a rather broad discussion, anecdotal evidence of your positive traits in action will also be important.  For that reason, it will likely make sense to hone in on 3 or 4 examples, linking each to some similar activity or contribution you could make to the classroom or an on-campus club.  Indicating what clubs, organizations, or programs you hope to participate in and how you will take on a leading role will go far in demonstrating your enthusiasm for and commitment to the program.

1. Describe how your experiences, both personal and professional, have led you to pursue an MBA at this time. What are your short- and long-term goals and how will a Texas MBA help you achieve them? Limit: 900 words

2. Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development.  What did you learn from this experience about your strengths and weaknesses as a leader? Limit: 650 words

3. At the McCombs School of Business, you will be part of an active and diverse community. How will you use your personal strengths and unique experiences to enrich the McCombs community during your two years in the program? Limit: 500 . . . → Continue Reading]]> The UT Austin/McCombs essay topics for the 2009-2010 admissions season are now available. The topics are as follows:

1. Describe how your experiences, both personal and professional, have led you to pursue an MBA at this time. What are your short- and long-term goals and how will a Texas MBA help you achieve them?
Limit: 900 words

2. Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development.  What did you learn from this experience about your strengths and weaknesses as a leader?
Limit: 650 words

3. At the McCombs School of Business, you will be part of an active and diverse community. How will you use your personal strengths and unique experiences to enrich the McCombs community during your two years in the program?
Limit: 500 words

The UT Austin/McCombs deadlines were announced earlier this year.