The McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin requires two brief yet revelatory written essays from its applicants. Combined, the essay prompts cover the core topics of why you need an MBA, why you want to attend McCombs, what you value, and how you will contribute. For the program’s first essay, you will need to explain McCombs’s role in achieving your desired growth. In other words, what are you hoping to accomplish in your career, how would you like to grow personally, and what about McCombs makes it the right MBA program to prepare you to do so? The second essay tasks you with identifying a core value you possess and explaining how it has influenced you in your life and will shape your MBA experience at McCombs. In addition, you will need to respond to a handful of recorded video questions within one week of submitting your application. If you have any potential problem areas in your profile, you can submit an optional essay to address the issue. Although brief, the Texas McCombs essay components give you the chance to provide meaningful insight into your character and strengths. Our more in-depth analysis of the program’s essay prompts for 2026–2027 follows.
With MBA application deadlines fast approaching for many candidates, we thought we would share a piece of advice that might help alleviate some of the deadline-related stress you might be experiencing. After you have completed your application(s), find someone you trust—perhaps a professional admissions consultant or an individual with insight into the MBA application process—to read your essays one last time before you submit anything and give you feedback. However, we strongly suggest that you limit the number of people you approach for this kind of help and request feedback from no more than two individuals.
Ticktock, ticktock, ticktock. With a little over one month to go until the Round 1 deadlines for business school applications, many of you might be thinking, “Am I ready to apply? Will I be able to hit those deadlines?”
For some, the answer might be obvious, varying from “Of course I’m ready! My applications have been done for a month!” to “Oh yeah, my business school applications—I should probably think about getting started on those.” For most, though, the answer is probably murkier.
In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast, mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Founder Jeremy Shinewald speak with Shari Hubert, associate dean of admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, about evaluating applicants’ readiness, character, and capacity to contribute to the MBA program’s collaborative learning environment.
Being invited to interview with one of your target MBA programs is a real achievement. Most top schools extend invitations to only 8%–33% of their applicant pool, so reaching this stage means that your written application has already cleared the bar.
The goal of your admissions interview is not to be flawless but to be authentic. Admissions committees are evaluating whether you are self-aware, can communicate clearly, are able to offer specifics, and match the candidate they read about in your application.
In this post, we lay out our ten-step interview preparation system, including concrete answer frameworks and a practice plan you can use in the week before your interview.
A first-of-its-kind, on-demand MBA application experience that delivers a personalized curriculum for you and leverages interactive tools to guide you through the entire MBA application process.
