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 prompt(s) for 2025–2026 follows.
Texas McCombs Essay Analysis, 2025–2026
Essay 1: Imagine yourself at the completion of your MBA journey. Why was pursuing your MBA at Texas McCombs the right decision for your personal and professional growth? Reflect on how you made the most of your time in the program—academically, through hands-on learning opportunities, and within the McCombs community.
Highlight how you contributed to the McCombs community and used its resources to grow both professionally and personally.
This first prompt is mostly a classic “why an MBA, and why our school” type of essay, but it entails several components that you must address in only 250 words.
First, the school asks you to address how you intend to grow both personally and professionally through the experience of earning your MBA. To do this, you will first need to provide some brief context for your ambitions. Then, you can explain how your ambitions align specifically with the McCombs MBA program. In other words, what makes McCombs the best place to prepare you to achieve your goals? Given that you do not have much space, you must be very specific and concise in communicating your reasons. A good starting point is identifying the gaps in your skill set and knowledge base that you will need to fill to be able to achieve your short- and long-term career objectives. Pinpointing these gaps first will allow you to tailor your essay to your specific aspirations. We would not expect, for example, that every applicant pursuing product management would have the same desired growth areas. A candidate from a nontechnical background would need to learn technical skills to be able to collaborate with engineering and understand the ins and outs of the core product management cycle. On the other hand, an applicant who has a technical background might need to learn consumer behavior theories to identify new products or develop influential leadership skills to gain buy-in for new product launches.
After uncovering your particular growth areas, you will need to identify specific resources at McCombs that align with them. These resources could, for example, include courses, professors, a Fellows Program, a McCombs Plus project, or one of the school’s more than 40 student clubs. What matters is that you highlight specific McCombs offerings in your essay and connect them with what you need to gain and experience. If you are not sure yet which McCombs resources are crucial to your development, you will need to conduct further research on what the school offers. And remember, the resources you pinpoint could address either your professional or personal growth areas.
This essay prompt also asks you to envision how you will contribute to the McCombs MBA community. So, you will need to show some “give and take” in your essay, detailing not only what you anticipate taking from the McCombs experience, but also what you expect to give back. Reflect on the various ways you have contributed to communities in the past—in college, at work, or through extracurricular and/or community involvement—and then imagine how you could translate those contributions to McCombs. Also consider what kind of legacy you want to leave. For example, if you see yourself contributing by sparking discussion on global energy challenges, you could mention a specific event, project, or trek that you hope to organize through the school’s Cleantech Group. Specificity is important, and always make sure that your intended contributions align with McCombs’s offerings.
Essay 2: Reflect on a core value that defines you. Share a specific example of how it has guided your decisions and actions, and explain how it will shape your contributions and growth as a McCombs MBA student.
Highlight how this value has influenced your leadership style and life path, and how it will shape your MBA experience.
This essay is your chance to show the McCombs admissions committee a bit more about who you are as a person, which means you must start with self-reflection and brainstorming. The goal of this essay should be to give the school a well-rounded view of who you are. What does the admissions committee not know about you that is critical for them to know? Start there.
An important consideration with this essay is to make sure that your topic is specific. You must identify one personal core value to highlight, such as courage, generosity, creativity, independence, or loyalty, to name just a few examples. The admissions committee is not looking for a particular “right” answer here; what matters is how you support it with one or more examples of how the value has manifested in your life. And this brings us to another key point: you must demonstrate that the core value you highlight is truly meaningful to you. As with many essays that ask for examples, the best approach is a narrative one. Show the admissions reader the role this value plays, and has played, in your life; do not simply tell them.
Again, what you choose to share in this essay needs to relate to the McCombs MBA experience, so your topic must be relevant. You need to show the admissions committee how you will continue to uphold this core value as a member of the McCombs community. Make sure it relates directly to an offering at the school, whether you plan to actively engage with a student club or affinity group, take on a campus leadership role, or just generally foster community or discourse. Your goal is to reveal a nuanced understanding of where you intend to have an impact on the program and your future classmates.
Optional Statement: Please explain any gaps in work experience, choice of recommender, and/or academic performance issues that may help the admission committee in reviewing your application. (Limit: 250 words)
In recent years, the McCombs admissions committee revised its optional essay prompt to very clearly direct candidates to address only problematic issues and special circumstances. So we caution you against stepping outside the prompt’s framework and discussing a topic that does not fall under one of the areas mentioned. If you need to, this is your chance to proactively answer any questions a McCombs admissions officer might have about your professional history, the individuals you selected to write your recommendations, and/or your academic background. Consider downloading a free copy of our mbaMission Optional Essays Guide, in which we offer detailed advice on deciding whether to submit an optional essay and on how best to approach writing such a submission, with multiple examples.
Video Assessment: All applicants will be required to complete the Video Assessment shortly after submitting an application. Applicants have 7 days to complete the assessment upon receiving access to the video submission platform.
There will be 5 question prompts and applicants will have 1-3 minutes to answer each prompt.
Okay, start by taking a deep breath. We know that video essays tend to be intimidating and nerve-racking, but McCombs is simply interested in getting to know you in a more dynamic way than a written essay will allow. The admissions committee is not looking for the next prime-time anchor or expecting an Oscar-worthy performance—it just wants to get a sense of your spoken communication style, personality, and perhaps demeanor. Because the questions you will encounter are not provided in advance, the admissions committee is likely also using the video component to gauge how you deal with the unexpected, think on your feet, and convey relevant answers in a time-conscious way. This is, after all, similar to what you will be doing in the McCombs classroom as an MBA student.
In addition, the school states on its MBA Insider blog that it will be looking for evidence of the following in applicants’ submissions: communication skills, adaptability and resilience, leadership and ambition, clear goals, empathy and inclusivity, personal interests, and professionalism and poise. Be sure to review the school’s post to ensure that you understand how the admissions committee defines each of these characteristics and capabilities. So, even though you will not know in advance exactly what you will be asked, you can keep these qualities in mind and strive to construct your responses so that they demonstrate your possession of the school’s desired attributes.
Despite not having the specific questions supplied for you, you can still prepare for these videos in advance. For example, you could find practice questions by Googling “MBA interview questions” and/or downloading a free copy of the mbaMission Interview Guide, which includes a list of 100 questions commonly posed in MBA admissions interviews. Then, you could ask a friend or family member to randomly select from these questions, pose them to you, and then provide feedback on the content and presentation of your responses. And by timing yourself, you will develop a feel for what delivering an oral response within a 90-second timeframe is like (ideally without speaking at lightning speed!). As you practice, strive to minimize your use of filler words and phrases (e.g., “um,” “uh,” “like,” “you know”) so that you are less likely to depend on or default to them when the time comes for your actual video submission. Do not feel that you must fill the entire 90 seconds if you do not have good content with which to do so, but also, take care to not be too brief. This is the admissions committee’s chance to get to know you better as an animated, three-dimensional person, so do not shortchange them on getting to see how you speak and behave. And do not panic. If you make a small mistake or bungle your words, just pause, smile, and get back on track.
Let us reassure you that none of the questions will have a “correct” answer, and you are not going to be judged on how energetic or enthralling you are in delivering your response. You should speak as naturally as possible so that the admissions committee can get a feel for your true character and bearing. If possible—meaning you can do so without forcing the issue—sharing a story from your life that illustrates or supports your answer will make it even more compelling. Otherwise, simply breathe, relax, and give the school insight into the unique individual you are. Respond to each query honestly and as smoothly as you can (despite any nervousness you might be feeling), and be yourself.
To learn more about the essays for other top business schools, visit our MBA Essay Tips and Examples resources page.
