You’re well on your way to finishing your graduate school application. You’ve studied for the GRE or GMAT, polished your resume, submitted your transcripts, and wowed your recommenders. While all of these components will speak to your accomplishments and qualifications, now you have a chance to tell the admissions committee in your own words why you want to study at McCombs. How? Through your essays!

Each Master of Science program requires two written essays (with an optional 3rd written essay). If you’re not sure what the essay prompts are for your program, you can learn more on the MSBA, MSF, MSITM, and MSM admissions pages.

The essays are great opportunities to take everything listed in your application and connect it with your personality and goals. The admissions committee can look at your transcript and resume to see what you’ve done so far, but these documents won’t tell them where you’d like to go.

Make sure that your essays are well written and address the prompts. If there’s anything in your application that you’d like to explain further, the optional third essay is a great space to do that. You may have had a lower than expected grade in a tricky class one semester and want to give the admissions committee some extra context, or maybe you’re working on a really interesting project at work that’s gotten you even more excited about the program. Anything that can help the admissions committee in their review is great to include! However, if you can’t think of anything else you want to say, feel free to opt out. Applicants aren’t penalized for not completing the optional essay.

More questions? We’re here to help! Email us at TexasMSPrograms@mccombs.utexas.edu. We can’t wait to review your application!