Texas' McCombs School of Business is ranked 19th among the best U.S. B-schools by Poets&Quants.

19. University of Texas at Austin

McCombs School of Business

1 University Station, B6004
Austin, Texas 78712
Admissions: 512-471-7698
Email: TexasMBA@mccombs.utexas.edu

Website: http://new.mccombs.utexas.edu/mba/
Apply Online: http://new.mccombs.utexas.edu/MBA/Full-Time/Admissions/Apply.aspx

Admission Deadlines for Class of 2014:

Round One: 10/24/11
Round Two: 12/5/11
Round Three: 1/23/12 (Final round for international applicants)
Round Four: 3/26/12

The Texas MBA—a two-year program consisting of four academic semesters—is built around four key pillars: Knowledge and Understanding; Responsibility and Integrity; Communication and Collaboration; and a Worldview of Business and Society. Students begin their academic experience in a cohort – group of about 65 students – taking all core classes together. Within each cohort, students are then divided into project teams of about five students. As project partners and study group members, cohort-mates are together from day one.

The core curriculum consists of eleven required classes taken during the first year of the MBA program. Additionally, students take three electives in the spring semester of the first year to begin to customize their degree. Throughout the rest of the program, students tailor their experience to meet their own goals and interests through 19 available market-driven concentrations.

Latest Up-to-Date MBA Rankings:

Poets&Quants (2011): 19
BusinessWeek (2010): 25
Forbes (2011): 17
U.S. News & World Report (2011): 17
Financial Times (2011): 49 (Global), 24 (U.S.)
The Economist (2011):  31 (Global), & 22 (U.S.)

Rankings Analysis:

The McCombs School of Business retained its rank of 19th in the PoetsandQuants 2011 ranking of the best U.S. MBA programs, holding its 2010 position. This was despite a significant fall in the Forbes’ ranking, which is based on return-on-investment. In the Forbes’ survey, McCombs tumbled six places to 17th in 2011 from 11 in 2009. It also lost a step in the U.S. News ranking, dropping to 17th from 16th. But those declines were clearly offset by rankings from across the pond. The Financial Times lifted the school by three spots to a global rank of 49, up from 52 in 2010, and The Economist agreed, giving McCombs a 12-place bump to 31st from 43rd a year ago.

In BusinessWeek’s biennial 2010 ranking, which largely measures MBA graduate and corporate recruiter satisfaction, McCombs came in at 25th, a four-place slip from 2008. The school was ranked 29th in both of BW’s graduate and recruiter surveys. One Class of 2010 graduate summed up the experience well: “McCombs offers the perfect mix of in-class instruction and real-life, hands-on opportunities outside of the classroom. In addition, a huge advantage that McCombs graduates have is the fact that the state of Texas has so many companies based here as well as large regional offices of those based elsewhere. Given these companies look to hire MBAs regionally, their first choice is naturally McCombs which, in turn, insulates McCombs from the job market that other graduates are facing in markets where there is more concentration of top business schools (for example, New York).”

MBA Program Consideration Set:

Stretch Schools:  Michigan, Yale, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon
Match Schools:  UCLA, North Carolina, Emory, Indiana, USC,
Safe Schools: Georgetown, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Washington

Tuition & Fees: $60,256 (resident)
Tuition & Fees: $90,256 (non-resident)
Median GMAT: 690
GMAT Range (mid-80%): 620-730
Average GPA: 3.45
Acceptance Rate: 24%

Full-Time Enrollment: 537
International: 27%
Female: 33%
Minority –
African American: 6%
Asian American: 16%
Hispanic or Latino American: 8%
Mean Age: 28

Median Base Salary: $95,000
Median Signing Bonus: $20,000
Percentage of MBAs with Job Offers at Graduation: 67%
Percentage of MBAs with Job Offers Three Months Later: 93%

Estimate of Total Pay over a 20-Year Career*: $2,550,997(only 20 other U.S. business schools had higher career pay numbers)

Notes: MBA Program Consideration Set: If you believe you’re a close match to this school–based on your GMAT and GPA scores,  your age and work experience, you should look at these other competitive full-time MBA programs as well. We list them by stretch, match and safety. These options are presented on the basis of brand image and ranking status.

* Payscale 2010 estimate for Bloomberg BusinessWeek.