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:

1. Why MBA? Why now?  Why Tuck?
2. Talk about a time you worked in a team.
3. Talk about a time you disagreed with your boss/supervisor and how it was resolved.
4. Imagine you are selling yourself to the adcom. What are the three things about yourself you would want them to know?

On Kellogg’s campus, an accepted Round 1 applicant recalled the following questions from his adcom interviewer:

1. So your job involves a lot of leadership. Tell me about some of your other leadership experiences.
2. What is the accomplishment you are most proud of in your career?
3. Your community involvement involves working with a lot of different organizations. Tell me about one specific project you’ve worked on.
4. Tell me about your time at your undergraduate university.
5. How would you contribute to Kellogg?

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the Clear Admit Wiki and helped fellow applicants prepare for MBA admissions interviews!  For those interested in adding their experience to the Wiki, we’ll be awarding a $10 iTunes gift certificate to every fifth applicant who contributes an interview report.  Plus, between now and next Tuesday, December 14th, the first 15 candidates that submit interview reports for Carnegie Mellon / Tepper, Cornell / Johnson, UT / McCombs or London Business School will receive a $10 gift certificate to iTunes!  To be eligible for the prize, simply send your contribution to wiki@clearadmit.com; we’ll post it to the Wiki and notify the winners by e-mail (Limit: one gift card per person).

As always, we wish the best of luck to Round 1 applicants undergoing the interview phase of the admissions process!  Applicants who would like to supplement the information available on the Wiki can check out our Clear Admit Interview Guides, which provide school-specific insight and strategic advice to help applicants with their admissions interviews.  Stay tuned to this blog for an array of interview tips in the coming weeks, and be sure to check out the Clear Admit Wiki for firsthand interview accounts.

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, 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 words

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

Part of Hispanic Business’s annual ranking of graduate schools as measured by diversity, the Top 10 Business Schools for Hispanic Students list was compiled by the magazine’s research arm, HispanTelligence. It ranked MBA programs according to the percent of Hispanic student enrollment as compared to overall student enrollment, the number and percent of MBA degrees earned by Hispanic students and Hispanic representation among faculty.

“Instead of looking at diversity as a federal requirement, these schools embrace it as a means of educational enrichment,” read the Hispanic Business report that accompanied the rankings. “Using factors such as enrollment and percentage of degrees earned by Hispanics, the numbers show that Hispanics are steadily making educational strides, while universities are also doing more outreach to them.”

Despite the gains, the Hispanic Business report suggests that much work still remains to be done. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 3.6 percent of Hispanics over the age of 25 who complete college go on to receive a masters, professional or doctoral degree, the lowest statistics of all ethnic groups. Universities must develop their own recruiting methodologies to obtain and maintain diversity enrollment goals, the report continued.

For a complete list of the 2009 Top 10 Business Schools for Hispanic Students, click here.

Early deadline for all applications:
November 2, 2009

Final deadline for all international applications; second deadline for all domestic applications:
January 15, 2010

Final deadline for all domestic applications:
April 1, 2010

The McCombs online application for Fall 2010 enrollment is expected to be launched in mid-September.

Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business, meanwhile, sidled up a spot to join the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in third place this year. And MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business tied for fifth place.

Rounding out the top ten this year were Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Columbia Business School and Yale School of Management. 

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 2008 and early 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.

The U.S. News rankings also feature specialty rankings, which are based on ratings by business school deans and directors asked to nominate the top 10 programs for excellence in each accounting, entrepreneurship, executive MBA, finance, information systems, international, management, marketing, nonprofit, part-time MBA, production/operations and supply chain/logistics.

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: Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management
–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: New York University’s Stern School of Business
–Production/Operations: MIT’s Sloan School of Management
–Supply Chain/Logistics: MIT’s Sloan School of Management

As always, we encourage prospective applicants to view these and other rankings as but one in a range of factors to consider when trying to determine which business school program best fits your individual needs and goals.

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

Essay 1: Please define your short- and long-term goals and objectives, your career progression to date, and how an MBA fits in at this time.  What makes the Texas MBA the perfect fit for you? (900 word limit)
McCombs has revised this question for this season; formerly asking about intermediate and long-term goals, McCombs now asks applicants to share their “short- and long-term” career paths: a more standard MBA career goals essay.  In approaching this essay, think about starting off with a statement about your overall goals then moving on to a discussion of your career progress.  As you write about your career and need for an MBA, you will be able to tie the discussion back to your greater professional objectives, indicating how your professional path will help you realize your 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.

Essay 2:  The Texas MBA is built around four key pillars of leadership.  Describe an experience that you have had that clearly demonstrates your leadership as it relates to one of our four pillars: 1) Responsibility/Integrity; 2) Knowledge/Understanding; 3) Collaborative/Communication; or 4) Worldview of Business and Society. (650 word limit)
A new question this year, this essay topic requires an understanding of the school’s values and a sound argument that you fit with the program in light of prior experiences.  Within this framework, though, applicants have a considerable amount of leeway in what they can discuss; examples can come from the educational, professional or extracurricular realms - so long as they relate to one of the school’s stated pillars.  Demonstrating some sort of contribution to the workplace or community will be helpful in showing how you fit into the larger picture and positively impact those around you.  Regardless of what sort of story you decide to highlight, make sure that the discussion revolves around your style of leadership and how you effectively led and motivated others.  A closing comment on the UT Austin’s program and culture would be a nice touch that ties your values and personality traits to the program’s foundation and offerings.

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? (500 word limit)
Formerly one of several essay options, this prompt now stands on its own as a required question, 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.

First Deadline:
November 1, 2008

Second Deadline for Domestic Applicants/Final Deadline for International Applicants:
February 1, 2009

Final Deadline for Domestic Deadlines:
April 1, 2009

Interested applicants should check back with UT Austin/McComb’s admissions site in early August for the completed application.