Meet The Texas McCombs MBA Class Of 2023

A RECORD-SETTING CLASS

Bigger and better. That’s the theme for this year’s McCombs class profile. Not only did applications increase by 7% during the 2020-2021 admissions cycle, but the class size rose from 242 t0 270 students. However, the latter was more of a post-COVID correction, as the 2021 class stood at 260 students.

That said, the Class of 2023 could certainly be described as record-setting.  The average GMAT comes in at 708 — an all-time high (and four points above last year’s mark). The 3.48 average undergraduate GPA also tops all previous years, with the class’ 319 GRE average equaling a school record. Overall, GMAT scores ranged from 650-740, while GREs hit 154-165 (Verbal) and 154-168 (Quant) — all in the mid-80% range.

The class also includes 38% women (2nd-best all-time) and 23% underrepresented minorities (another record). International students comprise 24% of the class. 10% of the class is first generation college graduations, while another 6% possess military experience. Academically, the class hails from 155 undergraduate institutions, with a fifth of the class already possessing a post-graduate degree. As undergraduates, 32% of the class majored in Business or Economics, followed by STEM-related field (28%), and Humanities and Social Sciences (14%). The remainder studied in fields that fell outside these groupings.

A Q&A WITH TINA MABLEY, FULL-TIME MBA DIRECTOR

With a new class comes a new dean. This summer, McCombs removed the interim tag from Lillian Mills, who had been an accounting professor at the school for over 15 years. Thus far, one of her biggest achievements has been producing McCombs’ highest job placement rate in a decade (which also corresponded with an increase in base pay). And Mills has plenty to build on as well. For one, the school boasts across-the-board excellence. In a 2021 U.S. News survey of business school deans and directors, McCombs again ranked as the top Accounting program in the country. At the same time, it ranked among the ten-best for Finance, Business Analytics, and Entrepreneurship (and just outside the Top 10 for Marketing and Management). In a 2021 student survey conducted by The Princeton Review, McCombs also notched Top 10 scores for preparing students for careers in Consulting and Marketing.

Where does McCombs go from here? That theme goes to the heart of the questions P&Q posed to
Responses from Tina Mabley, Assistant Dean and Director of the Full-Time MBA program. From partnerships with the larger university to the most popular courses among MBAs, here is what current and future MBAs can expect at McCombs.

P&Q: What are the two most exciting developments at your program and how will they enrich the MBA experience for current and future MBAs?

Mabley: “[These would be]:

1) Leading for Impact: Our Leading for Impact (LFI) course has been a significant development in the intentional approach we are taking to shape our students’ individual leadership journeys during their two years in business school. We have been incubating this course for several years and have finally completed our full rollout. The LFI course spans the two years in business school, providing structured time for leadership reflection and development and culminating in a 2nd year capstone project where students return to their core study team. The course includes four research-validated components to leadership development: Education (classroom instruction, assessments); Experience (practice leading outside of the classroom); Exposure (access to mentors, alumni, and coaches); and Evaluation (candid feedback, self-reflection).

In the first semester, students discover their own leadership styles by exploring themes that impact and inform leadership dilemmas: cognitive bias, value systems, political stance, global cultures, technology and ethics, procedural justice, and emotional intelligence. As Professor Shefali Patil shares in her syllabus, our future business leaders “are facing unprecedented levels of economic, social, and political uncertainty and unrest. To this end, our overall objective is to provide you with the frameworks to help develop you into complex, flexible leaders who are able to tackle difficult situations and impact your communities, organizations, and institutions in powerful ways.” The final Capstone is an integrative course that builds on the learning from the entire MBA program and encourages students to explore leadership dilemmas without clear outcomes or choices and to identify how their values, beliefs and identities play a role in their decision making.

2) Quantitative depth and our official STEM designation: McCombs received the STEM designation after a rigorous review of the MBA curriculum and how programs are categorized by the National Center for Education Statistics. The existing single Full-Time MBA degree program was split into three degree tracks, two of which (Management Science & Quantitative Methods and Financial Mathematics) are classified with STEM codes. The STEM degrees are earned by completing one of 14 STEM-designated concentrations within the Full-Time MBA program.

The breadth and depth of our full-time MBA curriculum is a unique complement to our close-knit class of 260 students, and we wanted to focus our STEM certification efforts on areas where we’re seeing strong and active job recruitment post-graduation, such as business analytics. The fact that these 14 concentrations were judged to meet STEM standards after an exacting review by our faculty, university office of graduate studies, UT System, and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board points to the strength of our offerings in these subject areas. Additionally, the STEM degree designation benefits our international students, along with our corporate partners and employers.”

P&Q: What are the two biggest differentiating features of your MBA program? How do each of these enrich the learning of your MBA students?

Mabley: “[These would be]:

1) Location: As one of the fastest growing cities in the United States and a center for tech and innovation, Austin serves a living laboratory for Texas McCombs students. With a thriving business ecosystem and startup community, the MBA program serves as a talent hub for employers and organizations of all types and sizes across the greater Austin metro area. There has always been a symbiotic relationship between the University of Texas and the city of Austin, and Rowling Hall (our MBA home on the UT Austin campus), sits 10 blocks from downtown Austin. This presents many opportunities for our students to engage directly with the Austin business community. We also believe that balance and enrichment outside of the classroom is an important part of the MBA experience, and the city of Austin provides a quality of life that sets it apart from many other locations. The city is famous for its welcoming culture and laid-back lifestyle, with amazing food, music, art, outdoor activities, and events like South by Southwest and Austin City Limits. As an MBA student, few locations provide the combination of academic, business, and lifestyle benefits like Austin does.

2) The Depth and Breadth of Experiential & Global Learning Opportunities: For a Full-Time MBA program of its size (~500 students across both classes), McCombs offers a vast menu of experiential and global learning programs to provide meaningful hands-on and immersive experiences to our students. Benefits include leadership development, global business education & expansion of worldview, and/or industry or functional exposure, training, and experience.

* McCombs+ Projects – Co-Curricular, short-term, micro-consulting group projects with client companies and organizations.

* McCombs Global Connections Study Tours – Short-term, academic study tours designed to increase culture awareness and international business knowledge.

* McCombs Adventure Program (MAP) – Pre-Orientation adventure and service-learning trip to support the needs of microbusinesses in rural communities in Latin America.

* Additional Custom Programs – McCombs Leadership Development Course in Patagonia, in partnership with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and our unique Multiplying Certification Impact Course in Bali, Indonesia.

* McCombs Fellows Programs & Investment Funds – These programs offer students the opportunity to gain in-depth exposure and hands-on experience in a specific function or industry through curriculum, projects, internships, guest speakers, specialized training, and/or networking. Programs include Venture Fellows, MBA Investment Fund, L.L.C., Real Estate Investment Fund, Marketing Fellows, Operations Fellows, CleanTech Fellows, Health Innovation Fellows, Board Fellows and Center for Leadership and Ethics (CLE) Fellows.

A) Short-Term Exchange Programs (STEP) – 7 to 10-day programs offered to McCombs students by partner-institution schools, focused on a specific industry or business topic, including ‘ESG, Sustainable & Impact Investments’ and ‘Regenerative Sustainability’ at Copenhagen Business School; ‘Digital Business’ at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland; ‘Energy Economics’ and ‘Mobility & Automotive Industry’ at University of Cologne in Germany; ‘Innovation Management’ at WU University of Economics and Business in Vienna, Austria, ‘Entrepreneurship & Innovation’ at Tel Aviv University.

B) Semester Abroad Exchange Programs – Semester-exchange study abroad spots for McCombs students at SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Copenhagen Business School, Cape Town Graduate School of Business, ESADE in Barcelona, HEC Paris, London Business School, London School of Economics, McGill University in Montreal, National University of Singapore, Stockholm School of Economics, Universidad de San Andres in Buenos Aires, University of Edinburgh; University of St. Gallen, Warwick Business School, and WHU in Dusseldorf.

C) Double Degree Programs – Opportunity for McCombs students to earn a second MBA (or equivalent degree) at select partner institutions in Asia, Europe, Mexico, or South America.”

P&Q:  In recent years, there have been several areas that have gained increased prominence in business school programming, including STEM, analytics, artificial intelligence and digital disruption. How does your full-time MBA program integrate these concepts across its curriculum?

Mabley: “[This happens in three ways]:

Via MBA Courses
Analytics and technology are areas of strength and depth at Texas McCombs, throughout multiple academic departments. Business analytics and digital disruption is represented across disciplines and embedded within multiple MBA courses, as demonstrated by the 14 concentrations (out of 22) that are STEM certified for the Full-Time MBA program. Examples of courses offered across different academic departments include Predictive Analytics and Data Mining, Analysis of Markets, People Analytics, Performance and Sports Analytics, Technology Policy, Leading Innovation and Change, Website Marketing Analytics, and Data Storytelling and Visualization, among others.

Diving deeper into the Predictive Analytics and Data Mining course specifically, this class provides an accessible introduction to predictive analytics problems and to data mining, machine learning and other artificial intelligence tools, as well as how to effectively develop and evaluate solutions involving machine learning to inform decision making. The course discusses a broad set of applications, including predicting consumers’ behaviors and preferences, risk management, fraud and non-compliance detection, sports, and health care.

The three main goals of the course are to enable students to:

1. Learn to approach business problems data-analytically by identifying opportunities to apply predictive analytics to benefit business and societal challenges.
2. Interact competently on the use of predictive modeling and data science in business.
3. Acquire hands-on experience in applying state-of-the-art machine learning and data mining techniques to benefit business and societal problems.

Next Page: Interview with Tina Mabley, Full-Time MBA Director (Continued)

Page 4: Profiles of 12 members of the Class of 2023

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