McCombs Business School Chances/Questions

Hello! I’m curious if anyone has experience in applying to McCombs business school.

I guess my first question is if I apply to McCombs and don’t get in, could I still go to the college of natural sciences. I also was wondering how selective it truly is, I’ve seen stats online that says the acceptance rate is around 28.5% but I’m not sure how accurate that is, my stats are as follows

Rank - 1/640 (as of 5th semester) so top 0.1%

GPA - 103.6154 weighted, 99.33 unweighted

PSAT - 1420/1520

SAT - none right now because of COVID, I’m anticipating possibly a 1500+ if I study hard enough

Activities - Marching Band all four years involving leadership positions, current Internship with a local charity organization, and a job with H-E-B where I’m cross trained in multiple departments and I’m looking at exploring store leadership positions (like a CCO Store Leader), I’ve had a lot of time during Corona to start working my way up in the company. I want to emphasize that I have more activities + leadership positions but these are my strongest.

I’ve always wanted to go to med school and the whole doctor thing but as I work more and more at HEB, I’m slowly realizing that I actually may want to explore business. I’m really looking for some good and honest advice and you can be as blunt as possible. This is a really hard time cause I’m not exactly sure what I want to do!

@XanderZvc You have an excellent chance of getting in McCombs with your stats, and so it comes down to a question of which college to apply to first choice - McCombs or CNS. It sounds like you have another year-plus to contemplate the future, to try to come up with the right decision on first choice major for your application.

You can always try to double major once you are at UT, but getting accepted to a second major is hard and then the workload of 2 majors also will be hard. You similarly can try to change your major once you are at UT, but that also isn’t easy (especially if you’re trying to change to business).

Hello! I recently got accepted into McCombs myself. Here are some things you might want to know:

  1. You are allowed to pick a 2nd choice major. If your backup is in CNS, you can pick that major as your 2nd choice.
  2. UT is very rank-based (if you are in-state). Assuming you are still val by the time you apply, you should be accepted. Although, don't take my word to heart.
  3. I did not make 1500+. If you know that you'll make that high of an SAT score, it will look very good on your app.
  4. McCombs may seem very intimidating, but with what your qualifications, it is doable for you. Business Honors is a completely different story if that was what you planned on majoring in.

My oldest son just graduated from UT Austin (engineering major) and my class of 2020 high school graduate (also an HEB employee) will start business honors at UT in the fall. If your stats are as you stated, I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t get into Mc Combs but there are no guarantees. You seem to be a very strong candidate for honors. My high school son has a classmate who did not get into UT Austin engineering and appealed and did get into Mc Combs after appealing. My older son has a classmate who majored in business but will start Medical School in the fall. I spoke to the classmate’s mom and he said had a full schedule completing the requirements for his business major and completing the classes he needed to prepare him for the MCAT and medical school. I have heard of some who choose an undergrad major that will lead to better employment if the student ends up not getting into medical school or changes his/her mind.

@meandmybread Business Honors was actually something I’m extremely interested in because as I explore the more technical side of my job more I’m discovering that I’m slowly honestly having a passion for management. I’m looking into it and asking around, but what’s your viewpoint/general overview of business honors. I’ve always heard of honors colleges and know that they’re generally a lot harder to get into and extremely selective but what exactly do they entail?

@parentof3kids Yeah! That’s actually kinda what I wanted to plan on doing, because I always told myself like if I’m going to go to med school therefore I’m majoring in science. But I just thought what happens if I decide I don’t want to go to med school, what would I do with my science degree (which I know there are a lot of things you could do, but nothing I could think of that I would be passionate about) whereas I feel like graduating with a business major could help.