Texas McCombs MBA Sample Essays
- We will learn a lot about your professional background through your resume and letter of recommendation. We want to get to know you further. Please introduce yourself. (250 words)
- Picture yourself at graduation. Describe how you spent your two years as a Texas MBA student, and how that experience helped to prepare you for the post-MBA world. (500 words)
- Immediately after graduation, what are your short-term career goals? (150 characters including spaces)
- Ten years and beyond after graduation, what are your long-term career goals? (150 characters including spaces)
- Please characterize yourself as best as possible: (Choose one of the following)
McCombs Sample Essay 1
Essay 1: We will learn a lot about your professional background through your resume and letter of recommendation. We want to get to know you further. Please introduce yourself. (250 words)
Defying our conservative family norms, my mom-a practicing Company Secretary and my dad-an engineer from IIT Kharagpur, have always encouraged me to attain higher education and to be independent, both financially and otherwise. Their support motivated me to qualify the Chartered Accountancy exams, one of the toughest professional courses in India, in the first attempt.
My desire to step out of my comfort zone has led me to accept challenging and exciting roles in my life. Despite having prior experience only in Accounting, I joined a startup early in my career and engaged in front-end selling and marketing activities. Personally, I encouraged underprivileged women to talk freely about menstruation, a forbidden subject of conversation in India, and spread awareness about correct menstrual practices.
My natural ability to strike up a conversation with people, even strangers, has helped me make friends in the unlikeliest of places such as while commuting to work in the train. Travelling in crowded trains in Mumbai has made me a stronger person with great time management skills. Also, my interactions with diverse people across the three cities in India I’ve lived in – Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai and my travels to Europe, Singapore and Dubai, has made me appreciate their unique cultural and behavioral aspects.
An avid reader and a writer, I not only enjoy contributing for my residential society newspaper and office newsletter, but also like writing speeches for family functions and helping colleagues draft emails.
I look forward to a rewarding experience at McCombs!
Essay 2: Picture yourself at graduation. Describe how you spent your two years as a Texas MBA student, and how that experience helped to prepare you for the post-MBA world. (500 words)
As I elatedly awaited my turn during the graduation ceremony at Gregory Gymnasium, I recalled the coffee chat with Stacey Kammerdiener three years back in Mumbai. The meeting fueled my interest in the amazing opportunities at the Texas MBA. My experience here has been more than I aspired for.
I will soon be joining Amazon as a Senior Financial Analyst. The Finance Leadership Development Program at Amazon will provide me exposure to cross functional areas and allow me to use the analytical skills I honed at McCombs. This will prepare me to fulfil my long-term goal of taking on a senior leadership role at a prominent multinational.
My prior professional experience was primarily in Accounting and Finance, and I wanted to work in an analytical role where financial data would be used to make important business decisions. At McCombs, the core courses provided me the much- needed knowledge about operations, marketing and economics. I took electives such as Business Analytics, Advanced Topics in Corporate Finance which proved to be extremely interesting and relevant. Also, I gained hands-on experience in corporate finance through the MBA+ project and my summer internship at Amazon. The internship was a great way to understand how things work in a thriving technology company.
Furthermore, interactions with like-minded peers as a member of the Graduate Finance Association and teaming up with them to participate in the Finance Challenge was equally enriching. I am glad that I could contribute to classroom discussions and help with interpretation of financial statements. I’ve worked at a startup in India and am a member of TiE-a global entrepreneurship organization. So, I took professor Rob Adam’s exciting New Venture Creation class and worked on solving a real problem for a local startup as part of the Texas Venture Labs Practicum which encouraged me to think like a business owner.
Continuing my effort at Placement Cell in my undergraduate college, I served as a member of the Graduate Business Council and helped in facilitating placements for our class. I enjoyed organizing various social events on campus. The Graduate Women’s Association gave me access to a wide network of strong women who support each other. As a member of the Net Impact Club, I worked with The Mahi Project, an Austin based initiative to increase awareness about menstrual hygiene in India. The global study trek provided an amazing opportunity to explore and learn about a new country -Turkey.
On the personal front, Texas MBA has broadened my horizons. Prior to MBA, I lived with my parents in India. These two years have made me more independent and confident than ever before. Lastly, the vibrant city of Austin made everything better. Attending the Texas Book Festival, watching plays, and visiting the offices of technology majors like Apple was certainly great fun. In the past two years I’ve cultivated some remarkable friendships.
Overall, my time at Texas MBA has been an exhilarating journey that has put me on the path to achieve my professional and personal goals.
3. Immediately after graduation, what are your short-term career goals? (150 characters including spaces)
My post MBA career goal is to work as a Financial Analyst in the Corporate Finance vertical of a large global organization such as Amazon or Dell.
4. Ten years and beyond after graduation, what are your long-term career goals? (150 characters including spaces)
My long-term career goal is to take on a senior leadership role in Finance at a prominent multinational, and devise and implement strategic initiatives.
5. Please characterize yourself as best as possible: (Choose one of the following)
Career Enhancer: you seek opportunities for advancement within your pre-MBA profession
Career Explorer: you seek to make a career change, but are looking for the program to help you understand what possibilities exist for you
Career Switcher: you seek to evolve from one career path to another, with the hope of changing your professional functional area and/or industry upon graduation
Entrepreneur/Founder: you run or wish to start your own business upon graduation
Proposed Primary Concentration: Corporate Finance
Proposed Secondary Concentration: Strategy & Innovation
Other Graduate Applications: List all other MBA programs and graduate schools to which you are applying.
Darden, UNC, ISB
McCombs MBA Sample Essay 2
Essay 1: We will learn a lot about your professional background through your resume and letter of recommendation, but we want to get to know you further. Please introduce yourself. Select only one communication method for your response. (250 words)
I would proudly introduce myself as a successful young woman automotive engineer, an enthusiastic dancer and one of the two inseparable twin sisters.
As an engineer, I am passionate about saving lives by developing new technologies to protect passengers during crashes. When I was young, I lost a close family member in a car crash and have always wanted to utilize my knowledge to save lives. That’s what ignited the passion to be an automotive engineer.
I have experienced the challenges women face in the auto industry – which is traditionally male dominated. I have also experienced how the right kind of support can help accelerate their careers. I am privileged to have mentors and allies who supported me in my journey. As my contribution, I have taken up leadership positions in the diversity council at ZF. Through this group, I get a chance to run mentorship programs and organize networking sessions and career enhancement training.
Outside of work, I love to dance and am a trained Indian classical dancer. I combine my passion for fitness and dance to run a volunteer Zumba class at a workplace gym. It helps me destress by connecting to my inner self and create meaningful connections with colleagues.
I think I am one of the luckiest people in the world because I have a twin sister. My sister and I have been super close our entire lives. There is not a single day when we haven’t spoken to each other. And guess what we both have applied to McCombs. I am super excited for the both of us, and to know what the future has in store.
Essay 2: Picture yourself at graduation. Describe how you spent your time as a Texas McCombs MBA to achieve your personal and professional goals. (500 words)
As I proudly take my grad walk , I look back on the most memorable and life transforming 2 years at McCombs which have opened up doors to my next role – Product Manager at Google Waymo (an autonomous vehicle tech company) and helped me grow the impact I can have to save lives. I strongly believe Autonomous vehicle (AV) technology can save lives by avoiding crashes, and it was my dream to be a product manager and now excitedly looking forward to it.
Before I started school, I had 5 years of experience within the automotive industry as a product development engineer where I was leading development of safety devices such as airbags and seatbelts. As a product engineer, I had extensive experience in technical problem solving, client engagement and leading diverse international teams. I wanted to understand the business aspects of building the product, build my leadership skills and grow my network and McCombs was a perfect fit. I am glad that I could fill in all these gaps and gain much more through my time at the McCombs full-time MBA program.
The cohort structure and study groups facilitated learning from diverse peers and learning by doing through case study discussions has been the best way for me to engage and gain the most from my experience. Well thought out course work such as the course on Advocacy, Influence and Power proved to be super important to me and taught me how to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority. Professor Ty Henderson’s famous course on analysis of markets helped me develop a perspective on product launch and go-to market strategies.
Other than academic knowledge, McCombs provided me with the best resources to enhance my leadership skills through the VP position at Graduate business technology club and participation in improv club. At the improv club, I was able to overcome my personal challenge of public speaking and learnt to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations, which is often the situation that future leaders have to face.
Lastly, through the strong longhorn network, I was able to connect with my target company, Waymo and secure an internship which then converted to a full time offer.
During my time at McCombs, I also had several opportunities to pay back to the gracious longhorn community. Harnessing my contacts within the auto-industry, I started a subsection in the Tech club called the Auto and mobility vertical. Leveraging my experience at ZF, where I was one of the founding members of the Diversity Council. I became the student VP of DEI and was fortunate to work alongside Raji Srinivasan to support DEI strategy at McCombs.
My husband and I spent 2 very fulfilling years here at Austin and now plan to move out for a bit, only to come back and settle in this city of dreams in the future as Austin grows into a Tech hub.