McCombs (UT Austin) Class of 2016 Calling all applicants!

I said um many times as well...n i too felt like it was never under control.
Well, what's done is done! Now we just have to patiently wait for the 9th of April.

Hi fellas,

My interview concluded with a 2nd Yrs student a few mins back. I totally concur with Ganesh and GMATNY86 about the roller coaster exp. My interview was something as mentioned below,

Started with small talk
Next came a shocker, so tell me, what do you wanna ask.
Walk me through my resume.
Why MBA
Short term and Long term goal
Why McCombs
Another surprising ques, if I give u 2 tickets to travel to 2 different places, which will it be and with whom?
Any ques.

My interviewer was very organized and methodical; shared his experiences with me and kept it conversational.

Hope this helps!

Yeah, but I wonder if you have a bit more leeway as an international candidate.

IMHO you shouldn't have been too surprised that it was more conversational. The book on Indian/Chinese applicants is that they don't adapt or improvise well.

They were testing your ability to adapt to changing circumstances and think on your feet, and if you could handle a regular, unregimented, unpredictable conversation.

Anyone can walk someone through their resume.





Posted from my mobile device

Hi Guys,

first and foremost, good luck to all of you. This is my first ever post, so please forgive any mistakes.

I applied to UT in 2nd Round and had an on-campus interview last week. I was interviewed by a 2nd year student and it was very laid back, in fact after "resume" question it was more of a conversation.

I made one observation about a certain question, that I wanted to share:

Q: If I gave you two tickets to anywhere in the world, where would you go and who would you take?

---- (Note: after asking this question, my interviewer closed her notebook and stopped taking the notes and then listened to my answer. So I don't know what to interpret of that, but I told her about my recent travel trip and where I would like to go next.)

Overall: I was asked questions, that are already mentioned by so many users on this forum. The process was really laid back and I really felt like it went well. (But then again, I might be completely wrong, lol)

I have 3 tips for anyone who is still interviewing:

Please Please Please Read your application essays! (Most of the questions they ask is what you wrote in your application, so please show some consistent reasoning.)

--- If things have changed, for example if in your essay you said I want to come to McCombs because Faculty, Sports and Small Size but if you feel different now then go ahead and mention it like "Sure, after conducting some research and talking to students, I want to come to McCombs for Faculty, Small Size and Sports and I reflected these in my essay. However, I would like to add the city of Austin as another reason because after spending some time in Austin, I feel like this is the culture where I would thrive.

What and When are not as important!!! Why and How are very important!!!

--- Don't take forever to set up background story (you are not pitching a movie idea) so do a concise job and then move along to Why and How!!??!!

--- You can't make up your WHYs so really dig deep inside and find out why you decided to do anything. Better to be naive and true then to be someone whose BS gets called out. For example: for the anywhere in the world question. There has to be one place on this Earth that you really want to see and yes it might be as cliche as saying "Barcelona" but why Barcelona should make you stand out. Maybe you like to visit Olympic Cities or you are a huge fan of Messi/Maradona, any thing that really appeals to you.

Read your resume inside out.

-- I know you have heard it like 1000 times before, however I can't emphasize how much it helped when she pointed to specific points on my resume and I knew what she was referring to.


Two fellow forum members, @anonisab and @kana162, were really encouraging and helpful when I was preparing for my interview. I would like to thank both of them for their time and help.

I would now like to pay it forward. Hence, if any of you have any questions about my background, stats or interview, please feel free to PM me and I will get back to you.

You are spot on how to handle the interview. I wish you best!!

Invited to interview! I'm so excited... it's my 2nd time applying to UT and I thought all/most invitations were given by now. Dont give up guys!!


Does anyone know if they open up more on campus interview spots on a rolling basis? The site says they are full up until March 3, and I'm really hoping to interview in person there. Thanks for any info.

braminc // When did you apply? My status is still "in review" and didn't get any mail... Good luck to your interview!

Thanks!
I applied Jan 5 through Consortium. My status also still says "in review." Don't worry about that. I also know that they viewed my youtube video weeks ago yet only now decided to interview me. So basically, their process seems less predictable than we may like to think.

I'm just curious, were you able to tell how many viewers from Mccombs watched your video? The reason I ask is because I had one viewer watch about a quarter of my minute-long video a few weeks back. Not sure if they already dinged me or if I should expect more views later. Thank you.

Don't lose hope yet. Wait till mid march or so..hope for the best.

It's hard to tell with absolute certainty, but if you go to youtube analytics, you can filter by country, then state (texas), then "traffic sources" and look for Uknown--direct. This will weed out views from random youtubers.
I just checked now and see that I had two views from UT yesterday just before getting the invite. So I had 3 views clearly from McCombs. 2 yesterday and 1 on Feb 4.

Thank you! Great info!

For those who have already interviewed, what are you doing now people!?

Waiting till the 9th of April is just so

Has anyone else received an offer from another school that requires a deposit before the McCombs decision deadline? What to do...what to do...The non-refundable deposit I would have to pay is 2000 USD which, for me, is a hefty amount to turn my back on if I receive an offer from McCombs. Do you think McCombs would expedite their decision on my application if I call and ask? Or would they ding me on the spot for my audacity?

Neither (is my guess).

Looks like you're in a for a tough call...

Actually, if McCombs is your first choice school...your worst case scenario is that you'll end up donating $2k to another school before going where you want to go. In the long run, that's not such a big price to pay.

And in the really long run...we're all dead anyways.

Is McCombs your first choice? If you got the admit from McCombs, will you surely let the other admit go? If it is, I would say, it wouldnt hurt to be honest with them. Either call them or write a mail explaining your situation and how you would really love to attend there, etc. What's the worse that could happen? They would probably say, " Sorry, we cant release the decision early". Atleast you would have tried. Thats what I would have done