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Exploring Scholarships
and Loan Options

We understand that pursuing your MBA at a top school is a big investment in your future.  As you explore ways to further your education and accelerate your career trajectory, we invite you to think about defining your own  return on investment (ROI).  Are you looking for a promotion or salary increase?  Or are you searching for a new challenge or a way to align your personal and professional aspirations? It may be all of the above, so define your ROI as you consider an MBA for your academic and professional future. 

Texas McCombs is ranked No. 20 and is one of the most affordable MBA programs compared to the other top 20 programs in U.S. News and World Reports Top 20 Business Schools of 2023. Tuition is $52,550 for Texas Residents and $58,720 for residents out-of-state.

To make your MBA future more attainable, Texas McCombs provides financial assistance to many students to help cover the  cost of education. The most common financial assistance comes in the form of student loans, but other options may help fund your MBA. We invite you to review the options below to help facilitate your personal ROI for your MBA. 

Recruiting Scholarships

Texas McCombs offers merit-based recruiting scholarships funded through the generous support of individual donors and corporate supporters. All applicants are automatically considered for recruiting scholarships during the admissions review process. Recruiting scholarships are offered to domestic and international candidates who demonstrate a superior record of academic merit and professional accomplishments. 

The MBA Program’s scholarship funding varies from year to year, thus the percentage of students who receive scholarships will also vary from year to year.  This past admissions cycle, 77% of Admitted Full-Time MBA students received scholarship offers.  Scholarships range from $2,000 to full-tuition awards. 

For International candidates, 86% of enrolled students received scholarship offers. 

In tandem with our recruiting scholarships, McCombs partners with Bay Area for McCombs, Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, Teach for America, Forté Foundation, and Reaching Out MBA to allocate selective scholarship and Fellowship designations to top admitted candidates. 

2nd Year Student Scholarships

At the end of the first year, Full-Time MBA students are invited to apply for a continuing student scholarship for their second year. These awards typically range anywhere from $1,000-$5,000. The 2nd Year Full-Time MBA Scholarship awards are given based on a student’s academic performance, leadership, and involvement during their first year in the program, as well as financial need. 

Institutional Scholarships

The UT Austin Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid (OSFA) administers institutional endowed scholarships for continuing students. First-year MBAs may qualify for these scholarships and can begin applying in November of their first year.  Students should review the specific criteria and application procedures carefully and reach out to McCombs Financial Aid with any questions. 

Federal Loans

Many students are eligible for federal student loans and, in some cases, grants. You must complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to determine your eligibility. This year, the FAFSA for the 2024-2025  school year will be available in December 2023 with a priority deadline of March 15, 2024. It is recommended you have your FAFSA completed by June 1, 2024. Students who are eligible to complete the FAFSA are U.S. Citizens, Permanent Residents, and other eligible non-citizens.

Private Education Loans 

Private/alternative loans are not offered by federal or state governments. As a result, the terms of the loan will vary from lender to lender. If pursuing a private loan, check with your lender about the length of time your application will remain valid to ensure your approval won’t expire before you actually start the program. 

For ethical reasons, the McCombs MBA Financial Aid team cannot recommend any private lenders but will work with all banks and lending institutions once you’ve been approved. If you have any questions about the loan, please contact the lender.  

Loans for International Students 

For international students, there may be private loan options, with or without a U.S. citizen or permanent resident co-signer. (Note: We, as The University of Texas at Austin, cannot be your co-signer, nor can we recommend any specific lenders.) The student-run International MBA Student Association (IMBASA) is a good resource for information about pursuing an MBA as an international student. You are encouraged to reach out to IMBASA with any questions. 

Most students finance their MBA education using multiple sources— a combination of personal savings and loans and, in some cases, scholarship funding. Before you apply to business school, do research on how to finance your education, please reach out to the MBA Admissions Team with any questions.

If you have any questions during the application process, we’re here to help. Please visit our website for details on applying to each program and follow us on Instagram for an inside look into the Texas McCombs MBA.

Good luck and Hook ’em!

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Highlighting Your Professional Work Experience

October 4, 2023 / Texas MBA Admissions / Comments Off

When evaluating your application, our MBA Admissions Committee aims for a complete picture of your qualifications and fit with the program. It’s all about perspective. We look at your application as if we are holding a scale, balancing all the parts.

When considering the specific experience on your resume, on one side there’s a raw number of years (Quantity), and on the other is your job experience (Quality). To help you showcase your experience in the best possible light, below are a few key factors we are considering when reviewing your resume.

Quantity

Say that you are the CEO of a mid-size corporation. Wonderful! Oh, you just started in this position? That’s an amazing accomplishment, but perhaps you’d still admit that your knowledge and expertise in such a new position wouldn’t be as developed as someone who’s been doing it for a few years.

Or maybe you have been in the same job for 10 years. Wow! No doubt you are a go-to person when it comes to that role, but could it mean that perhaps you didn’t take as much initiative or demonstrate the leadership qualities required to launch you to the next level? Or perhaps you have only had a project manager role for a year, but in that time you’ve produced measurable results and demonstrated leadership. In these cases, the quality of your work experience matters more.

We acknowledge that there is much more to your work experience than the simple number of months/years you have been working, however, we want to ensure students in our programs have a minimum of work experience in order to get the full benefit of their MBA experience. This is in the best interest of all of our students, including you. You can only get one MBA, and you will get much more out of the experience with a few years of real-world, hands-on work experience under your belt. Additionally, it makes for a better student environment overall. You will be able to contribute more to class discussions based on your own experiences, and you will benefit from learning from other classmate’s experiences in other industries.

Quality

A general job title like “Project Manager” may seem lackluster, but could actually be pretty exciting. Don’t let us make assumptions. Take every opportunity on your application to illustrate just WHAT about your job made your experience rich and rewarding.

On the flip side, a Chief Operating Officer title sounds impressive, but what kind of company did you work for and how extensive were your duties? An impressive title with naught to back it up won’t move the needle in your favor when it comes to work experience.

Our Admissions Committee knows to look beyond mere job titles to understand the quality of your work contribution. Sometimes a flashy and important-sounding job title is used to attract candidates to mundane jobs. Other times, if you scratch the surface beyond a seemingly lackluster job title, you will find that the role is challenging and critical to the success of an organization. We’re trained to look beyond the headlines of your resume and look at the contributions you’ve made in each of your roles. Utilize the bullet points under each job entry to illustrate what made your experience rich and rewarding.

Progression

Striking a balance between quality and quantity is the progression of your work experience. Consider two hypothetical applicants:

Applicant A has 3 years of work experience. She’s worked for the same company throughout her career. Her first 2 years were spent in a rotational program where she was exposed to all aspects of the business. After the rotational program, she took a position on the operations team, and she was recently promoted to a team lead role where she will be managing a few direct reports.

Applicant B has 10 years of work experience. He’s been in similar software development roles for 3-4 years each at three different companies. There are only minor differences in his responsibilities in each role, and he’s never led a project or team.

Despite having less work experience overall, Applicant A is clearly on the more promising career path. That’s not to say Applicant B will go straight to the deny bin. He may be a subject matter expert in what he does, and he may be able to provide a unique perspective comparing and contrasting the various companies for which he’s worked, but he will need to explain elsewhere in his application why his career progress has stagnated.

Resume Writing Tips

The takeaway on work experience: Years, titles, and accomplishments are not, by themselves deciding factors. To help you provide us with a clear picture, here are our top tips for showcasing your work experience on your resume:

Tailor Content – A resume should be a concise summary of your relevant experience, not an exhaustive list of everything you’ve done since high school. Don’t attempt to inflate your resume by padding it with material that doesn’t add value. Summarize where you can. For example, those three food-service jobs you had during college can be combined in a single line. You can also cut any skills that are common among all applicants like using Microsoft Office, and leave off skills that can’t be verified by the Admissions Committee like describing yourself as a hard worker or quick learner. Avoid jargon that is specific to your industry that our Admissions Committee members may not know. Also, there’s no need for an objective statement. We know your goal is to earn an MBA and we’ll ask about your career goals in other parts of the application.

Emphasize Results – We want to see how much you individually contributed in your role. Whenever possible, explain how you personally added to a team goal. Highlight your key achievements, not just the tasks that you preform. If the person replacing you when you leave your role could copy and paste your bullet points into their resume, that’s probably a sign you need to better emphasize your personal accomplishments.

Avoid Redundancy – Think of each line on your resume as a valuable piece of real estate. Each line should tell us something new. If you have performed the same task in multiple roles, it’s not necessary to list that same task more than once on your resume. Further, consider what underlying message each bullet point is conveying. You don’t need four different lines detailing exactly by how much you exceeded your sales goal in each of the last 4 quarters, plus another line saying that you won the Top Salesperson of the Year award. We can get the message that you are good at sales in half that space.

Show Balance – Past performance is a strong indicator of future performance. If you can show that you have previously excelled in the classroom or workplace while participating in other community or volunteer activities, then we will have confidence you can do it again in our program. An “Additional” section is a great place to detail your activities and interests outside of work and school. Feel free to share anything else you would like us to know like hobbies or a fun fact for a potential conversation starter.

Utilize White Space – Great resume content can only be great if a reader can easily access it. That’s where resume readability comes into play. Don’t forget to use your white space effectively. A resume is not about cramming as much as you can onto the page. Rather, give your content some space to breathe.

Enlist Proofreaders– We’re all human and have made grammar, punctuation, or formatting errors before, but doing so on a resume makes you look sloppy and like you’re not taking the application process seriously. We want to see a polished final product. Have a trusted and knowledgeable friend proofread your resume to catch the mistakes that your eyes glaze over after re-reading it for the millionth time, and don’t trust spellcheck to do the job for you.

Convey Personal Brand – Your resume can be unique to you. Especially if you work in a creative industry or position, it’s ok to use your resume’s style to differentiate yourself. Just don’t go too wild to the point where it distracts from your content. Have a peer give your resume a 30-second review and see if the impression you want to pop for a reader, actually does.

Remember, your resume is an important tool for us to get to know you, but it’s not the only thing we use to learn about your work experience. Your letter of recommendation also gives us a sense of you as a colleague and teammate from someone else’s point of view. We’ll learn about your career goals and how you plan to achieve them in your cover letter. Focus your resume on showcasing the quantity, quality, and progression of your work experience so far.

Good luck and Hook ’em!

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Cover Letter for Working Professional & Executive MBA

September 5, 2023 / Texas MBA Admissions / Comments Off

MBA Cover Letter

The application cover letter is a critical means of learning who you are as an applicant and assessing your writing skills. Here is your prompt.

Please write an application cover letter summarizing your aspirations, qualifications, personal and professional experiences that make you a strong candidate for the Texas MBA program you are applying to. (max 500 words)

MBA Optional Statement

Please provide any additional information you believe is important or address any areas of concern that you believe will be beneficial to the MBA Admissions Committee in considering your application. (e.g. gaps in work experience, choice of recommender, academic performance, or extenuating personal circumstances) (250 words) 

Honestly, the most important piece of advice we can provide you on the optional statement is to remember that it is just that– optional. Only applicants who feel some of their profile deserves more explanation should submit an optional statement.

This application section is not designed for you to tell us more about your extracurricular activities or expand upon the essay prompt. While we love to see how excited you are to share additional information with us, there are other ways to let the Admissions Committee know about additional projects or passions. Your resume and the video assessment are better forums for these additional details.

Optional statements should focus on filling gaps or answering questions we are likely to have about you. 

Tips for Writing Your Cover Letter

Your cover letter is an opportunity to sell yourself to the Admissions Committee and make your case for why you belong in our programs. The best cover letters will catch our interest immediately (please do not start with “My name is…”), will flow seamlessly from topic to topic, hit all of the points we’ve asked you to cover and wrap up with the closing thoughts you want to leave with us. We understand this is not a creative writing program, but being able to communicate your ideas clearly, succulently, and persuasively is a vital skill in business and in our classes.

Be patient with yourself. Take time to reflect, brainstorm, rewrite, and EDIT. It will likely take more than one draft to craft your final submission.
Don’t copy and paste. Do not use the same content for multiple business school applications or repeat things verbatim from your resume. We can always spot recycled content, and we want to know you’ve put time and care into your application.
STAY ON PROMPT. Approach this as you would drafting a cover letter for a job – who are you, why do you want to come to McCombs, and how will you contribute to the program?
Show your personality. The cover letter is a way to learn more about you. Our community values authenticity and we appreciate submissions that give us an understanding of who you are and what kind of student you will be.
Have someone you trust read over your cover letter. Those closest to you can provide valuable insights, feedback, and perspectives as you highlight your personal gifts and qualities.

We hope these insights into the written portions of our application give you some ideas to think about and some points to revisit as you write (and rewrite) your cover letter. Good luck, and happy applying!

If you have any questions during the application process, we’re here to help. Please visit our website for details on applying to each program and follow us on Instagram for an inside look into the Texas McCombs MBA. 

Test Options for Working Professional & Executive MBA

August 25, 2023 / Texas MBA Admissions / Comments Off

Preparing for and taking an MBA admissions exam is one of the best ways to get your mind back into academic mode as you prepare for business school.

 Working Professional and Executive MBA candidates have several options when considering how to complete the standardized test requirement in their application.  All applicants are required to submit a GMAT, GMAT Focus, GRE, or Executive Assessment (EA) score. 

We will waive the testing requirement if:

Expired (taken 5+ years ago) GMAT, GRE, or EA score is submitted

or

General Test Waiver (merit-based) is submitted and approved by the Admissions Committee

In addition, studying for and taking the exam – for some, even taking it multiple times – can show the Admissions Committee your commitment to the competitive business school application process and how you may approach academic challenges as a student.  Our preference will always be a recent test score, however, we recognize that many students have other accomplishments and credentials that prove their ability to handle the rigors of our programs.

This post contains a lot of information, broken down into three sections: 

Should I Petition for a Test Waiver?
Which Exam is Right for You? 
Submitting Your Test Requirement
Impact of Your Test Score

Should I Petition for a Test Waiver?

Standardized exams like the GMAT, GMAT Focus, GRE, and EA evaluate a candidate’s academic preparedness for the rigor of business school and is one metric used to compare candidates within a large pool of applicants.  Submitting a strong, valid test score will give the Admissions Committee an additional, relevant data point that may strengthen a candidate’s position for admission.

Scholarship awards are another aspect to think about when deciding which test to submit. All of our Working Professional MBA programs– The Weekend MBA in Dallas and Houston, and the Evening MBA in Austin– award small recruiting scholarships to outstanding incoming students based on the merits of the application. While the committee reviews each candidate holistically when awarding scholarships, a strong, valid test score is one of the clearest ways to distinguish yourself.

Executive MBA candidates must have at least 8 years of work experience to apply, but Executive MBA students have an average of over 14 years of experience. If your work experience is below average and only have a bachelor’s degree, plan to submit the EA.

Submitting a Test Waiver

A merit-based test waiver is available by request prior to submitting your application. Waivers/Exceptions are not available for applicants who have already sent scores to UT. 

To be considered for a test waiver, an applicant must have:

A minimum of three years of substantive and progressing post–undergraduate work experience, preferably of an analytical or quantitative nature.

AND at least one of the following:

Completion of an undergraduate degree, with a strong academic record, preferably with analytical or quantitative courses.

Completion of a graduate degree, with strong academic record, preferably in an analytical or quantitative discipline.

To complete the merit-based test waiver petition, candidates must submit a short statement highlighting the merits of their request, an up-to-date resume, and undergraduate and/or graduate transcripts. If you do not already have a UT EID, create one here.  

Submit the  General Test Waiver  petition form prior to submitting your application.  
A decision on your test waiver request will be shared within 5-10 business days after submission. Test waiver petitions must be submitted no later than 7 days prior to the application deadline for the round to which you are applying.

Approval for the test waiver petition is merit-based and considers your work experience and academic history. The Admissions Committee will be assessing your academic and professional background, looking for evidence of demonstrated readiness –specifically in quantitative subjects –for the rigorous MBA curriculum. To improve the chances of petition approval, we highly advise applicants to have an overall GPA of 3.0 or more.  

The truth is that by removing one component from your application, your other components will carry more weight in the committee’s final decision. 

As you evaluate your testing options or consider a test waiver petition, we challenge you to assess the quantitative data points on your application and think about what will strengthen your overall MBA candidacy.  While some applicants may not need a test score to build their case, other applicants may significantly enhance their chances of being admitted (and getting a scholarship) by having a strong test score.  

Which Exam is Right for You?  

The Admissions Committee does not prefer one test over the other in terms of demonstrating your preparedness for business school, but it is important to think about which exam is best for you as an individual. There are different reasons to consider taking the GMAT vs GMAT Focus vs the GRE vs the EA. 

While the GMAT, GMAT Focus, and GRE tests both have quantitative and verbal sections, they have noticeable differences. We encourage you to do your research and take practice tests to learn each test’s points of emphasis, and how they are scored.  

When you’re considering an MBA program for a specific career path, it’s good to know what the recruiting landscape looks like. Be sure to educate yourself on choosing a test for your career search before starting your test prep. 

Both The GMAT, GMAT Focus, and GRE are adaptive, which means that your success in answering questions correctly has an impact on the future questions you are given. But the tests deliver adaptive questions in different ways. 

The GMAT and GMAT Focus are adaptive by question. When you get an answer correct, the next question is more difficult, and when you get an answer wrong, the next question is less difficult. This also means that once you answer a question, you can’t go back to that question. 
The GRE is adaptive by section. If you do well on the first verbal section, you get a more difficult version of the next verbal section and vice versa.

We have included some more details about the GMAT, GMAT Focus, GRE, and EA below, but if you are unsure which exam is best for you, here are our tips: 

We recommend taking some practice tests! There’s a chance you may be more comfortable with one test format over the other.  At the end of the day, the choice of which exam to take is yours. 

Build in study time and leave yourself enough room on the calendar to retake an exam if necessary. If you’re not happy with your score, you can retake either test. While many candidates take the test only once thinking it will fulfill the requirement, others recognize that a second effort is likely to yield improvement. It comes at the cost of additional time and another test fee, but the payoff can be significant if it makes you a stronger candidate.

Make sure you submit your application as confidently as possible and with a score you feel good about. 

Submitting Current or Expired GMAT, GMAT Focus, GRE, or EA Scores 

For current scores, you must self-report your test scores in your application as well as have official score reports sent directly to UT– Austin by the testing agency. The date your official scores are sent to UT– Austin by the testing agency should be no later than the application round deadline, as it can take up to 3-4 weeks for new scores to be processed. If you are taking the GMAT, GMAT Focus, GRE, or EA online, allow up to two weeks to receive your score from the testing agency. You must have your test score in hand by the application deadline in order to submit your application. 

For expired scores (5 years or older), you must self-report your score and upload proof of the test score in the application. Examples of proof for expired test scores include a score report you received previously from the testing agency OR documentation from another educational institution that previously received the score (e.g. for another graduate/terminal degree application). 

Impact of a Test Score 

Future Employment 

Before you make a final decision on your testing options or a waiver petition, it’s best to research some of your target companies or industries and determine two things: 

The extent to which they evaluate a test score in reviewing job candidates. 
Whether they have a preference for one of the tests. At McCombs, we have found that most top-tier consulting and investment banking firms do ask for a candidate’s test scores, and both industries historically have favored the GMAT.

You should consider taking the GMAT, GMAT Focus, GRE, or EA as another opportunity to not only impress the Admissions Committee but also potential employers. 

Academic History 

Does your undergraduate or graduate transcript accurately reflect your academic ability? If your GPA is low, and you do not submit a strong test score, the Admissions Committee may have concerns about your ability to succeed in the rigorous MBA curriculum. 

One other factor to consider is whether or not your quantitative ability shines elsewhere in your application. While many of our MBA students come to McCombs from non-quantitative majors, these applicants are typically able to prove their quantitative prowess through their test scores. If you come from a non-quantitative background and do not submit a strong test score, you will need to find other areas within your background or experience that can demonstrate your quantitative skills.  

At the end of the day, we want to make sure that you are set up to succeed academically in the program. If the Admissions Committee has concerns about your quantitative ability, it may impact your chance of admission, or you may be required to complete pre-MBA coursework prior to admission and/or prior to enrollment. 

Scholarships 

 Scholarship awards are limited to Weekend MBA in Dallas and Houston, and Evening MBA candidates, and are competitive and limited in number. Scholarship decisions are based on a longstanding holistic review process that considers your entire application and serves to assess the overall strength of your candidacy, including readiness for academic rigor, career goals, leadership potential, and fit with our program culture.  Submitting a strong, valid test score will give the Admissions Committee an additional, relevant data point that may strengthen a candidate’s position for scholarship awards.  

Please note the Executive MBA program does not provide scholarships.

Summary 

As you evaluate your testing options or a test waiver petition, we challenge you to assess the quantitative data points on your application and think about what will strengthen your overall MBA candidacy.  While some applicants may not need a test score to build their case, other applicants may significantly enhance their chances of being admitted (and getting a scholarship) by having a strong test score. At the end of the day, being objective about the quantitative data points you present on your application will help ensure you put your best foot forward in the admissions process. 

If you have any questions during the application process, we’re here to help. Please visit our website for details on applying to each program and follow us on Instagram for an inside look into the Texas McCombs MBA. 

Reapplying to Texas McCombs

August 23, 2023 / Texas MBA Admissions / Comments Off

With each new admissions cycle, questions come in from those who have applied in the past about applying again to join the next class of Texas McCombs MBAs.

First, having applied in a previous year is not considered a negative factor in your application.

We are pleased to see your continued interest in the program and will evaluate your new application on its merits and in the context of the new applicant pool, just as if you are applying for the first time. Below is an overview of important info and tips for reapplying to the MBA program that we hope you find helpful.

Application

All candidates reapplying are required to complete a new application. We have also updated our application components to include a cover letter, video assessment, and optional peer interview. You will be required to submit these new items and pay the application fee. Our cover letter prompt has changed from last year, so copying and pasting old essay responses from a previous application cycle is not recommended. In addition, rewriting your cover letter shows effort!

Review the application process and components

Learn more about the new application updates

Official Transcripts

We keep your official transcript on file for one year. You will need to submit your transcripts again if you have taken any additional coursework or if you applied more than one year ago. After you apply, you can always review your application status on the “MyStatus” page to make sure you have up-to-date transcripts.

Test Scores

GMAT, GMAT Focus, GRE and Executive Assessment scores are also kept on file for one year, and overall, scores are valid five years after the date the test is taken. Candidates also have the option to apply for a merit-based test waiver; however note that if you have already sent us official scores, we must consider them in the evaluation process. The McCombs Admissions Committee considers only the highest total submitted score in the evaluation of applications.

Recommendation Letter 

Although not required, we suggest you submit a new letter of recommendation. Determine if another recommender may provide a more current, insightful, and thorough perspective on your experience. If you choose to submit a prior recommendation, you will need to email MBA Admissions with a request to resubmit.

Video Assessment

Reapplicants will be asked to complete the new 2023-2024 video assessment as part of their new application; due to differences in timing and questions, we will be unable to use any video assessments from the prior year.

How Have You Improved?

While completing your application, you will be asked, “Since your previous application, what steps have you taken to enhance your candidacy?” The Admissions Committee reviews this answer closely so please ensure that you spend time reflecting on and explaining these improvements.

Choosing to reapply to the MBA program shows perseverance and dedication. We encourage you to consider giving yourself a fresh start when you approach your new application. Think through and reassess your application, address any weak areas, and add new information that may be helpful in the admission process.

Good luck and Hook ’em!

Texas McCombs MBA Insider

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