Meet The UT-Austin’s McCombs Class of 2017

Bryant Ramirez 

University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business

Hometown: San Francisco, CA

Undergraduate School and Major: UCLA, Business Economics

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: Deloitte Consulting, Consultant; Primitive Logic (SF boutique consultancy), Senior Consultant

Recalling your own experience, what advice do you have for applicants who are preparing for either the GMAT or the GRE? Start early – as in up to 5 years early.

I took the GMAT right after finishing my last semester at UCLA, when my studying mentality was still fresh. If you think there’s a chance you would be applying for business school within five years of undergrad (as the majority of prospective business school students do), it’s worth getting the GMAT (or GRE) done ASAP. It will always be that first but biggest hurdle for anyone thinking of applying for business school.

Based on your own selection process, what advice do you have for applicants who are trying to draw up a list of target schools to which to apply? Fit, fit, fit!

You need to really think introspectively and ask yourself, “Why am I going to get an MBA?” There are significant opportunity costs to consider, so those reasons need to justify your investment. If so, the next question should be, “Where do I belong?”

Most applicants (myself included) become obsessed with rankings and industry alignment, when really we should be paying more attention to cultural and personality fit. I can guarantee you will get a solid business education at all of the top 20 business schools, along with a vast alumni network you can be connected to. And you’ll have plenty of career opportunities at most of the traditional MBA destinations too. However, you will probably not be a “fit” for most schools. Why? Because each school has a unique personality and culture, and the range of “fit” is not as wide as we all may like it to be.

This takes a lot of diligent work to figure it all out. It’s easy to just follow others’ opinions by reading forums and asking friends what they think. However, all successful applicants need to attain their own first-hand knowledge. Attend open houses. Interview current students, alumni, and admissions officers. Read school websites in detail. Look through social media postings to get a sense of the school’s culture. Even if you cannot visit a school in person, you should be able to attend MBA fairs (like the Consortium MAPS event) and information sessions, where one connection could change your outlook on a school you may not have seriously considered before.

One more thing: Don’t get too caught up on the generalizations we hear about each school. Even though many may characterize McCombs as the “Energy School”, only 8% of the Class of 2015 will be working in the Energy industry. In fact, almost half of the Class of 2015 will work within the consulting and technology fields.

What advice do you have for applicants in actually applying to a school, writing essays, doing admission interviews, and getting recommenders to write letters on your behalf? Know your story, and connect the dots.

Every piece of the “qualitative” portion of your application should create a strong argument expressing the unique value you provide and how this business school will get you from here-to-there. The “there” may change (and probably will change), but altogether the admissions committee is looking for self-awareness, as their ultimate goal is to curate the best class that fits the culture of the school. Therefore, you must curate your story effectively, from choosing the recommenders who will describe their perspectives of your ability to demonstrate value at the workplace to providing the interview responses that clearly describe your path and how you intend to get there.

Essentially, it’s your canvas to articulate succinctly and eloquently who you are, what you have done, and how each prospective business school could get you to where you want to go. Demonstrate you are aware of that path, but know that the path will probably change in course.

Also, you can get a “feel” for each school by reading between the lines in what each school is asking. They’re asking these specific questions, however directly or ambiguously, for very deliberate reasons. This is where McCombs excels in the application process—they simply ask you to introduce yourself to your future classmates and “discuss why the Texas MBA is the ideal program for you, what you hope to achieve, and how you will contribute to your classmates’ experience.” How much more straightforward and down-to-earth can you get than that?

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? When I was choosing programs to attend (which I narrowed down to two), the selling points of Texas were hard to beat:

• Collegial environment where I could truly be myself and make a meaningful impact
• Small class size (267) where I would never be just a “number”
• Rich and vast alumni network I could always turn to
• Well-respected national brand
• Fun and engaging university – Hook ‘em Horns!
• City where I know I would never be bored (nor cold!)

McCombs is one of the most well-integrated business schools with both its affiliated university and the city in which it’s located. Given its location (one of the fastest growing cities in the US), the investments being made in building new graduate facilities (scheduled to open in 2017), and its current ranking alone, I feel McCombs has more upside over the next decade than any of the other top-20 business schools, which is exciting for all of us in Austin, Texas.

What would you ultimately like to achieve before you graduate? I have three major goals.

First, I want to learn as much as I can from the perspectives and experiences of as many of my fellow classmates and apply these learnings to how I approach my professional career and personal growth moving forward. This will be the last time I will be in this kind of an academic “safe space” to explore various perspectives openly and frankly.

Second, as a member of the first class of the ROMBA Fellow—a fellowship program associated with the LGBT business school nonprofit, Reaching Out MBA—I want to change the culture and dynamic of LGBT inclusion in the business world, where people who identify as LGBT have an equal voice and footing in all levels of business leadership.

Third, I want to be at the forefront of innovative thinking, and I plan to expand a nonprofit I founded called Sparkr (sparkr.org) to make business schools the hubs of innovation leadership, particularly among communities that are underrepresented in our society’s leadership today.