Calling all Texas (McCombs) Fall '09 applicants!

Also, did they say if scholarship info would be in the packet or will you have to wait until April or so?

Thanks dghazer.

I interviewed just before Thanksgiving, the 17th of November I think. I had a few others right around that time so I'm getting them mixed up, but it was def before Thanksgiving.

Re: scholarships, the lady did bring this up without my asking. Basically, she said they don't find out how much money they have to allocate until late January so they will get back to me at that time. I'm guessing there will be more info on this in the packet as well.

I thought I remembered hearing something like that last year. Thanks for the insight

Congratulations Utdub! When did u submit your application?

I submitted in mid-Ocotber.

Congrats. That's really quick turn around. most of the other threads are still worrying about getting the R1 interview.

Had my interview with a McCombs alum today. Really nice guy. It was very informal - we had lunch at this restaurant convenient to us both - and he basically just wanted to know where I'd been professionally, what I wanted to do with my MBA, and then why Texas. The way he explained it to me, alumni interviewers themselves have no say in the admissions decision - it's just their seven-point report on you that's factored into the adcom's decision. That report asks the interviewer to comment on your communications skills, clarity of your goals and suitability for the Texas program - that sort of thing.

Given my background, he was most curious about how an MBA factors into my career aspirations, which is a question I've gotten a lot in this admissions process. It's an easy one to answer, and he seemed to like my response. We got into a pretty interesting discussion of international development afterwards. Good stuff.

Good to hear Ntang....good luck

Checked my status this morning, and I am denied. I'm shocked, I thought I was a great fit, my numbers are great too... This really worries me...

Thesadmachine, if you don't mind me asking. Did you interview with McCombs, where are you located and what's your work background?

It really surprises me that you were denied with that GMAT score.

I interviewed in mid-November with an alumni in Arlington, VA. Yeah I can't believe it myself... I didn't even get waitlisted... I must have done something very wrong...

FWIW, this may be yield protection. I think the idea behind yield protection is kinda ridiculous- why would a school that's trying to build its reputation turn down an applicant, even if he/she is overly qualified (assuming that the work experience and essays are on par- a large assumption)? Nevertheless, I have heard that some schools are apt to ding an applicant if they believe that they are being used as a safety net.

In any case, I'm sorry to hear that, and I wish you the best with your other apps.

It seems very likely that you appeared a strong enough candidate where mccombs might have thought that it was your safety school. Even if some part of your application was not as strong, you would've been WL'ed. It looks like you were too strong!!

im pretty sure you'll get into a school better than mccombs...hang in there.

First off sorry to hear about your ding theadmachine. I'm sure you will end up somewhere great. But I really think people are not really giving McCombs a fair shake. The argument seems to be that because theadmachine has a 760 the only reason he was dinged was because he was too strong. I've spoken with several adcom's and they understand that they are going to be backups to other schools and don't penalize you for it. What they don't like is being chosen as a last resort. So if you genuinely like McCombs and NYU because they have great real estate programs they are not going to deny you because you also really like NYU. In fact if you're really good then you might get a little scholarship $$$ to help pursuade you. But if you clearly want to live in NY but feel you have to do an MBA this year so you throw down McCombs thinking you can have a nice time in Austin for a couple of years then they will deny you because of fit (I'm not implying that's what theadmachine did).

thesadmachine,

we r all curious about ur profile so if u can throw in a couple of sentences about it like how many yrs of experience u have, what kind etc..

i also heard that mccombs is not very famous for diversity

You can see my numbers to the left...

I graduated in 2005, I've been working in politics since. I've managed a small campaign, worked in fundraising for a high profile senate campaign, and now i'm at a poltical direct marketing firm. I've had leadership roles in all jobs I've had. I'm looking to get into brand management, and I think I made that clear along with my reasons and goals, etc... So thats 3 years WE I guess.

Weakness I can think of are that my extracirriculars aren't great, I haven't done anything spectacular outside of work. Other than that I should be pretty solid.

The only thing I can think of is that my interview didn't go as well as it could have. I thought it went fine at the time, but as I look back on it, I think that maybe I didn't do a good enough job of explaining why McCombs. If the interviewer told them that I wasn't a good fit, that might have been why I was denied. I emailed my interviewer (an alumni) and asked if he could give me some kind of feedback on how he thought our interview went. Hopefully, he'll email me back.

Diversity isn't a factor, I'm a white boy from Connecticut.

I don't disagree with you. After all McCombs is a top-20 program, so it's not like we're talking about the 3rd tier. It is impossible to know why one applicant is dinged over another when you know nothing about the applicant's work experience, goals, extracurriculars, essays, etc. I personally don't believe that yield protection exists as an explicit practice. However, it is probably fairly easy for an adcom to figure out whether an applicant has a genuine interest in their program based on the thought put into the essays. If a candidate is very ho-hum in his/her essays, and comes across as arrogant and sure of admission, he/she may very well get rejected on that basis alone. So what might be called yield protection by some, may be more aptly classified as a lack of interest and enthusiasm for attending the program. I spoke briefly with an adcom member from the Virginia Tech Pamplin school of business at an event a while back, and she told me that she only wanted applicants who genuinely want to be part of the program. She said that the adcoms want to be 100% sure that you will be happy there for 2 years, or they would rather you not apply or attend, no matter what your qualifications. (This was not in response to any particular question, she was just making conversation about the admissions process).