<p>Are you interested in attending McCombs/UT? I am a current student there and would like to give back to the community during my break to share and answer any questions about the school. While it's great to explore the websites and take tours, a lot of you might have questions that you don't want to ask in public or want specific answers to (I know I did).</p>
<p>Anyways, I'm an out-of-state student, second year studying finance. If you have any questions, ask away!</p>
<p>Hello! And thank you for making this thread. I have tons of questions!</p>
<p>1.) When did you receive your admission?</p>
<p>2.) I am worried about being admitted, as my composite SAT is below average. I have a 1310. I looked and the average this year is a 1340 admitted and a 1320 for enrolled students. Based on your experience, how much do you think the SAT played into your acceptance? My overall SAT is a 1920.</p>
<p>3.) Assuming Business was your first choice major, did you also get accepted to your second choice major?</p>
<p>4.) Being an auto admit student, I have already received admission to Texas. I am in the top 4% of my class with a 5.35 weighted GPA - 3.98 unweighted. Although you stated that you are an OOS admit, are most of the students in McCombs auto admit students? And, if possible, do you remember the typical GPA to get into the school was?</p>
<p>5.) Upon admission to McCombs, do all students go into “Business - Unspecified”, or can students choose their course of study their freshman year?</p>
<p>6.) Is there anything that you wish you had known prior to entering UT/McCombs?</p>
<p>Again, thank you so much for making this thread. I have had so many questions and hopefully you can clarify some things.</p>
<p>Hook Em’</p>
<p>How big are most of your classes? And what is the community like in Mccombs as opposed to the university as whole? I know BHP is supposed to be pretty close-knit (or at least that’s the impression I’ve gotten), but I’m hoping to be admitted to regular mccombs and I’m a little worried about finding a close group of friends since UT is so huge… And thanks for taking the time to do this!</p>
<p>Not OP but I am also a second year mccombs student (in-state). Hope this helps. </p>
<p>1.) November of senior year and I applied in early October.</p>
<p>2.) If you are in-state I would say that your ranking matters more than your SAT score. I was admitted with a 1940…which was 10 points above the average but you have to remember…it is an average with a lot of scores falling under that number. </p>
<p>3.) For me I put down business first and engineering second…I never heard back from engineering. </p>
<p>4.) Yes most students are auto-admit but you also find a lot of internal transfers…not sure about the second part</p>
<p>5.) Upon admission you must stay unspecified business for your whole freshman year before you declare because you have to take a course (BA 101) before declaring and it is available in the spring of your freshman year. </p>
<p>6.) The opportunities to succeed are there but they are not just going to hit you in the face. </p>
<p>Hopefully OP answers too so you can get two responses</p>
<p>MrDrProfessorSir,</p>
<p>I’ll answer these in order.</p>
<p>1) I received my acceptance around February. If I remember correctly, UT had a rolling admission, but I did not have auto-admit being an out-of-state student. However, I applied to BHP fairly early (around September) and was rejected in December. I honestly thought I wasn’t going to be accepted to UT, but I eventually got that letter!</p>
<p>2) I believe my SAT score helped me tremendously. My school did not have weighted GPAs, class ranks or even class percentiles (such as top 10%), so really all I had was an average GPA (about a 3.55) and a solid SAT score (in the 2200s, with a perfect math score). That’s not to say that that’s what they look for, but in my opinion, it was what differentiated me.</p>
<p>3) My second choice major was Economics, but they accepted me to McCombs right away. They didn’t mention Economics, but I think I could’ve chosen to study it if I wanted to. The only schools that are tough to enter at UT are McCombs and Cockrell (engineering). Everything else I think everyone has the option to freely study.</p>
<p>4) McCombs claims they take the best, something like being in the top 2-4% of each class. I don’t remember exactly, but yes, most of the kids in McCombs (along with most of the kids in UT) are in-state students with auto-admit due to the 10% rule. I don’t know the typical GPA, but a lot of these kids were stars in high school. Of course, that’s subjective since the quality of schools is much different (schools like Plano in Dallas are very competitive), so GPAs probably aren’t the best indicator of academic prowess.</p>
<p>5) That’s correct. You’ll be “Business - Unspecified” until you complete the requirements. For me, it was Calc I, Calc II, Microecon, Macroecon and BA 101. They also make you have 30 hours of college work completed, I believe. Your major really doesn’t affect what you register for though, as all business majors have business core classes they’ll have to complete before moving forward to major-specific courses.</p>
<p>6) For me, I wish I didn’t place so much weight on getting into BHP. I literally made that my life and I feel very immature for it now. I applied again my to transfer in after my freshman year, and was rejected, but I don’t mind now. Some will say it’s denial but I’ve met brilliant kids in “regular” business and some idiots in BHP. Also, BHP has a very structured approach (despite saying they push open education and freedom of academia in their brochure). I’m someone who likes to take any class that interests me and not follow a degree plan that much - but BHP pretty much has your 4 years mapped out.</p>
<p>Also, culture shock. The north is MUCH different from the south. It took me a year to get accustomed to UT. I tell people now that I’m just starting college. The semester I just finished (sophomore fall) was infinitely better than my entire freshman year. Being from Texas, you probably know how things work, and if you aren’t completely sure, be open to things. Learn and adapt, that’s the best advice I can give you if you’re making a change in your life such as going to college.</p>
<p>Any questions feel free to ask away.</p>
<p>BHP kids like to pseudo flex</p>
<p>CatCat34,</p>
<p>My classes started HUGE my freshman year, but got smaller this semester. I took the lecture classes like Calculus and Macro my first year, and attendance is in the hundreds. I think my Macro class had like 200 people in it, if not more.</p>
<p>McCombs isn’t separated from the campus at all, although you’ll find that you’ll spend a lot of time with McCombs kids since you’re all taking the same classes. With that said, I have friends in engineering and other disciplines, but the majority of my friends are business kids.</p>
<p>BHP is very close knit. All of them know each other. </p>
<p>UT is a huge school, but don’t worry about making friends. I came to Texas without knowing a single person in the state and was fortunate enough to meet the people I did. In fact, some of the kids I met my first semester are my best friends and I consider myself closer to them than I do to some of my best friends from home.</p>
<p>College will force you to make friendships if you embrace it. Studying until 3 AM, grabbing Wendy’s after and occasionally skipping class to have fun will put you a lot closer to people. Just be open to meeting people. My first year, I never hesitated to do something with others, and that helped me a lot in meeting different people.</p>
<p>Yo mccombs, I think I may have had a class with you during the fall. Are you that guy that was in sugar tang tang’s MIS course? The one that killed the mobile application development project with the groundbreaking “LiveDeals”?</p>
<p>EnticingPlague,</p>
<p>I did take MIS 301 in the fall. I had a great time and yes, I was part of the team that pitched LiveDeals. My group was a pleasure to work with!</p>
<p>I’m interested to know, in what ways was UT a culture shock for you, mccombs?</p>
<p>DrewBreesus,</p>
<p>Mainly the people in Texas are a lot friendlier than they are up north. Also I found that the people I’ve met at UT are a lot more accomplished/competitive than the ones I know from high school. A lot of excellent students, athletes, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for doing this guys.</p>
<p>What would be different if you majored in Economics instead? Easier? Harder? More freedom to take different courses?</p>
<p>Also, how does the calculus required in business compare to calculus AB in high school? Easier? Harder? About the same?</p>
<p>Lizardly,</p>
<p>I personally find economics more interesting than anything they offer in McCombs. However, there is a general belief that the economics students applied and were rejected from McCombs. A lot of the kids I know in econ did apply to be in the business school, but there are definitely those who find the topic intriguing.</p>
<p>I would say studying econ is on par in terms of difficulty with certain majors in McCombs. The more technical majors (finance, accounting/MPA, MIS) are more difficult, and econ has courses like the notorious Microeconomic Theory which are challenging. However, it’s not unbearable, just an annoyance. I’ve never looked at the econ degree plan, but I do know within McCombs they don’t offer you a ton of freedom in terms of courses. After completing the business core courses, you have 4-6 major specific courses (so if you’re a finance major, you must take those FIN classes). You really only have about 10-14 hours of free electives on your degree plan, and since each class is typically 3 hours, that’s not a lot of room to explore. It’s one of the things I don’t like as much about UT.</p>
<p>MrDrProfessorSir,</p>
<p>I didn’t take calculus in high school (I took AP statistics instead), but my friends who took it in high school said it was easy. So basically I went into UT with no calculus knowledge.</p>
<p>I was nervous because a lot of people talk about how tedious calc is at UT, including the kids here on College Confidential. I had to take Calculus I (M 408K - Differential Calculus) and Calculus II (M 408L - Integral Calculus).</p>
<p>I flew past Calculus I. I’m a quantitative person and math is one of my strong points, so I finished with an A- in that class. I was literally 0.1 points away from an A, but I was really lazy my first semester and didn’t put a lot of effort into calculus.</p>
<p>Calculus II is considered a real pain. I guess I’m lazier in the spring so I put in even less effort, even though the class was more complicated. I failed my first of three exams, and was going to drop the class but stuck with it (I needed it to apply for BHP) and ended up doing well on the second and third tests, so I entered the final exam with about an A-. Then I failed the final (for some reason I failed both my finals in the Spring), so I finished with a C.</p>
<p>Overall, calculus is calculus. If you can get the right number, you’re good. However, UT’s calculus likes to trick you. No calculators are allowed, and for me sometimes I’d get caught up doing basic number theory when I knew how to differentiate and integrate functions. It was very annoying for sure, but by no means impossible. If I wasn’t an idiot with my habits I would’ve been fine.</p>
<p>Is calculus required for all business majors?</p>
<p>Yes. Required business classes are Calculus I, Calculus II, Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. Then there are required business core classes such as managerial and financial accounting among others.</p>
<p>Ok thanks! How would you describe the difficulty of these business classes? I am currently in a good amount of AP and honors courses and I just am wondering how much more difficult it will get at UT?</p>
<p>Stressedinstl,</p>
<p>You’re going to have to take this post with a different perspective.</p>
<p>I took a lot of AP/Honors classes in my high school (it was one of the top public schools in my state), so I consider myself fairly smart. School really is something that comes to me. As a result, my freshman year, I rarely went to my classes. Fall semester (my first semester), I cut all the time and when I was there, I would be sending emails/texting my friends. I finished with a 3.8. Yes, my classes were pretty easy, but still I put in more effort into what I ate every night at Jester than I did to my classes.</p>
<p>McCombs is not very difficult. I do not have a 4.0 and I do bomb my tests every now and then, but overall the curriculum is straightforward and in my opinion, quite easy. You’ll have classes like Financial Accounting (ACC 311) where the tests are difficult due to the questions you’re asked, but the actual curriculum is simple.</p>
<p>Business is a pretty easy major. Especially compared to the engineering/science/CS kids, we have it really easy. You won’t have any trouble with it, especially if you find high school to be simple.</p>
<p>I hate class and skip to learn by myself so sometimes my grades suffer because of this. If you’re dedicated to being a good student, you’ll excel.</p>
<p>Thanks. Too bad that Econ isn’t held in higher regard. Is there an honors program that would cover Econ majors? Kids in honors programs do seem to enjoy some perks. </p>
<p>I worried that business was an easy major with not much flexibility, but that it attracted a lot of bright kids.</p>
<p>I am writing on behalf of my son, who sounds like you: smart but not wanting to work too hard if he doesn’t have to. He will be an auto admit, likely in the top 1% of class, good at math.</p>