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| The University of Texas at Austin Graduate School of Business |
OVERALL 1998 RANK: 18 BW corporate rank: 12 BW graduate rank: 26 BW 1996 rank: 20 |
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1999 Profile Update School Profile School Statistics Graduates' Comments: In my two years here the program has come a long way. Namely, in your last survey, the program received low marks in Alumni Network and Career Placement. The school has addressed these two areas in grand fashion. The school now has a fully functioning Alumni Network (Graduate Business Network) with several operating chapters. The Career Services Office has opened a brand-new facility that both recruiters and students love. --Marketing The administration (including the dean) was always quick to respond to any concerns raised by the students. I was the most impressed by the way my class bonded together both socially and academically. --Information Technology In all of my experiences with organizations -- whether corporate, educational, or governmental -- I have never witnessed one so dedicated and responsive to customer needs. UT has made great strides in the two areas it needed most: career placement and alumni networking. I'm certain that recruiters and alumni will agree. Also, I cannot imagine a better school to attend for entrepreneurs given the low cost, combined with outstanding professors who are well-connected in one of America's most entrepreneurial towns. --Unknown I believe the Career Service Office at UT is one of the poorest among the Top 20 Schools in the U.S. As an international student, it was hard for me to find interviews on campus. --Marketing The Career Service Office here has taken some knocks in the past, but the truth is, the resources are there for anyone who cares to use them. Jamie King and her staff hold numerous seminars and sessions dealing with recruiting, salary negotiation, and other subjects. I was quite pleased by the quality of recruiters on campus, and I received two outstanding offers. As an Information Management student, the wide variety of high-tech companies doing business in Austin was a great advantage. They are a great source for student projects and guest speakers. --Consulting UT Austin has done some outstanding work over this past year improving its interviewing facility infrastructure and making significant strides in growing and strengthening its alumni network. --Marketing The new Career Services Office has to be one of the best in the country and our alumni network is off to a strong start. These two improvements along with the change in leadership have definitely increased student satisfaction. The change in leadership that I speak of is the appointment of Dean Ramesh Rao. Dean Rao means business. He has made many necessary changes based on student requests including a new registration process and increased supply for popular electives. Dean Rao is definitely an added strength to our program. This is a place of top-notch professors in every field of study. It is also a place where both faculty and students embrace teamwork. On several occasions I witnessed students sacrificing precious moments before an exam to help their struggling classmates. Don't get me wrong, the Texas Business School has a very competitive spirt, but cutthroat we are not. The Texas Business School produces the type of student any company would be proud to have. --Consulting The cohort system works beautifully, and the core curriculum is dynamic enough to give a solid foundation while responding to changing corporate needs. Recruiting is stressful (how could it not be?), but assistance is always available and opportunities for personal development are boundless. I have always been able to gain access to professors, administrators, and career service staff when I needed them, and my classmates are now a cherished part of my life. --Marketing I was particularly satisfied with the cohort system and the emphasis on teamwork. I found working with people from all over the world with rich professional backgrounds very rewarding. The facilities have been upgraded very nicely and more improvements are on the way. --Finance The Texas program has moved beyond the point of being just a great value, and has emerged as one of the best MBA programs in the country. This success is particularly evident in its Entrepreneurship, Information Technology, and International programs. These strengths, along with the students' work ethic and flexibility of the administration, have made UT an attractive school for recruiters. The most appealing aspect of the UT program has been the opportunity to collaborate with high-quality professors and students. This collaboration is done in an atmosphere of camaraderie and teamwork that makes the Texas program unique. --Operations In a way, the improvement of UT can be traced to the Business Week rankings. When the school fell in your '96 report, the administration jumped to amend the program's shortcomings: Lack of alumni support, poor career services dept., etc. My experience at UT has been terrific. Thank you for "lighting a fire under the school's ass." --Unkown Texas has the most amazing faculty I have ever had the privilege to encounter. Their ability to keep abreast of current happenings in their field while dedicating enormous amounts of time to students is nothing less then startling. --Information Technology As a "pure" student with no interest in job seeking, I thought UT provided an outstanding education and learning environment. --Unkown Most professors went out of their way to help students learn and to bring in industry perspective through guest lecturers, videoconferences, etc. Assigments were practical, and many classes included outside consulting projects with local companies. The curriculum was a well-balanced blend of theory, practice, casework, and simulation. Key management principles were well integrated into every class, and most classes included plenty of opportunity for interpersonal and presentation skill development. The quality and number of available electives is more than adequate, especially in the areas of general and information management. Technology played a key role in most classes. Professors made effective use of the Web. The technology infrastructure is superb and is only improving under the leadership of our Dean of Technology. Resources like the EDS Financial Trading & Technology Center were invaluable. The Career Services Office was an outstanding resource for job placement and interviewing assistance. Through only traditional means, I was able to secure seven full-time offers in the industries that interested me the most. The quality and number of companies that recruit on campus is impressive. And professors proved to be a great resource for opportunity as well, especially for high-tech companies in the Austin area. --Finance Despite the MBA program's lack of racial diversity, the backgrounds of the people are very diverse. I also think the lack of racial diversity has more to do with the applicants rather than any legal rulings. --Unkown UT had a reputation in some circles as being a school of regional appeal. While the school remains extremely strong in recruiting Texas students and employers, I was very pleasantly surprised with the geographical diversity represented in the student body and corporate recruiter base. But regardless of where they came from (except maybe the Bay area), after getting to know Austin for two years, the students don't want to leave. And with the booming local economy, many don't. --Information Technology UT Austin prides itself on diversity and an international orientation, but it is very weak in these areas. I received little or no help in my job search and there were no classes in International Business that were directly relevant. All teachers use American examples and companies as leading material and rarely mention global issues. In addition, when I arrived in Texas I could have used some support and help in setting up my life and getting accustomed to the culture. In fact, the international office offered seminars, but the business school scheduled mandatory events at the same time so I was unable to go. Consequently I have made serious errors or omissions because I did not have knowledge of certain procedures in the U.S. --Unkown UT Austin has a great MBA program. However, the University must do a better job at recruiting and accepting/retaining more minority students, staff, and faculty. The non-minority students, staff, and faculty, in my experience, were almost always very friendly, professional, and helpful. But diversity at all levels of the university experience should be more reflective of the diversity one would face in society in general. I realize that this is not always an easy task, but more effort should be exercised. --Finance I learned a great deal about other cultures through my contact with the international students in my classes. The number of international students that attend UT was both the biggest surprise to me as well as the most important factor that fostered my educational experience. --Consulting I was fortunate to be able to perform as one of 20 student managers of the MBA Investment Fund LLC, a $10 million student-run equity growth fund. The capital was provided primarily by private individuals. My experiences on the fund as a portfolio manager and equity researcher led directly to my current position. --Finance The finance department at UT was the worst department: The electives were poor, the teachers knew less than I did, and the chairman spent his whole time hyping the Financial Trading Center. --Unknown The finance department needs to become more student-focused. Some professors only teach one class a year. It's difficult to get into classes, too few are offered, and there's always waiting lists. Having spoken with past students, this has been the case for a long time. The students have been clamoring for more classes, but the department's repsonse has been to ignore them. --Finance My only concern about UT is related to the Finance Department. In my opinion the department needs to be overhauled. It appears that the administrators are working to increase the quality of the teaching and the availability of electives. The largest problem is related to the Finance Chairman. He is focused on the trading center, which is mainly used by the students in the investment fund. The number of students in the investment fund is approximately 20-30. The chairman does not appear to be concerned about the quality of education being provided to other finance students. If the Finance Chairman continues to ignore the students wants and needs, recruiting quality students will be a problem in the future. --Finance The information technology curriculum was truly outstanding. It is highly regarded. However a techno MBA does not guarantee entry into the information technology field without prior experience in that area. The UT program had an overwhelming amount of activities to do, as well as overwhelming amounts of students to meet. There was never a dull moment. The school's alumni network and interview facilities have vastly improved. --Information Technology Texas is a great school. My fellow classmantes are very dynamic, intelligent and fun. Austin is a great place to go hang out for a couple of years. My only gripe has to do with the number of companies recruiting from the Northeast that are not investment banks or consulting firms. The Hopwood decision has hurt the program in terms of diversity. Texas certainly has the Best Entrepreneurship program in the country. The professors are excellent and the entrepreneurial spirit rings through the school. Being a state school limits the school in some degree in terms of the steps it can take for improvement, but the desire and creativity of the students and administration is apparent. --Entrepeneurship I am convinced that UT has the No. 1 Entrepreneurship program in the world. And the Moot Corp program (which I participated in) is without parallel. Austin as a city and high-tech hotbed enhances greatly the MBA experience. Additionally, the presence and affiliation of the IC2 Institute and the Austin Technology Incubator are incredible resources available to students. And of course, Austin is an incredibly livable and fun city -- in fact so much so that people come from all over the country and don't want to leave! The integration of technology and the Web was very beneficial to the overall educational experience. UT Austin has a reputation for being more laid-back than other top programs. This is true, yet the quality of the student body is nonetheless outstanding. --Entrepreneurship The Entrepreneurship program (already No. 1 in the nation) will make incredible strides over the next few years due to the efforts of Jeff Sandefer. He is building his faculty, which already has a strong mix of academic and on-the-job experience. The University will also provide the first Energy Finance program in the nation. Thanks to large financial and time contributions from the Energy sector (ie Enron), UT students will graduate from the program with innovative strategies for marketing and trading commodities like natural gas and electricity. UT is also making aggressive moves to stay ahead of the curve in the IT arena. The University has chosen a Windows NT platform for incoming students. Also, they have reached a favorable (for both parties) agreement with Dell to provide Notebook computers at a price far below market levels. --Finance My three objectives in going to school were: Learn management and analytical skills, develop leadership, and enter consulting at a premier firm. UT exceeded my expectations in all these areas. Perhaps what impressed and surprised me most was the quality and quantity of firms that recruit at Texas. Additionally, Texas is a tier-1 school for these firms, which means they expend significant resources and hire a substantial number of grads. A pleasant surprise (not being from Texas) was the laid-back attitude prevalent in Austin. If it hadn't been for the pleasant distractions of this city, I don't think I could have put up with the burden of the workload. Another surprise was the stratification of the student body. Very early (usually after the first set of tests) it became clear who worked hard and who merely put in the minimum effort. For those of us who worked hard, the reward was more effective use of the Career Services office, more interviews, and more internship and job offers. For the rest, they had more fun (and it was still fun for the hard workers) but had more difficulty accessing recruiters. The most common screen was "GPA 3.5 or better required to get the interview." --Consulting The caliber of students both in the classroom and outside is phenomenal. I think one of the best features about UT is that students are really enabled to make change and shape the future direction of the program -- and they do! I would be surprised if students at other schools have as much impact on their programs. The students I have worked with have an abundance of initiative, self-direction, motivation, and confidence. We have very few "whiners" and a whole lot of "doers." --Information Technology My path was different than most -- heading into the independent sector. However, my classmates accepted and encouraged me at all times. My adviser has worked with me to find the right classes that could tailor to my unique situation. Although my job search did not take advantage of the school's career services, I knew it was there if I needed it. Also, the rapidly growing alumni network at UT is going to be a tremendous resource to all of us in the future. --Non profit The MBA Investment Fund program at Texas has leveraged my educational value. I have secured a job that I would never have dreamed I could have attained a few short years ago. I have made one of the most drastic career changes possible due to this opportunity, from Navy nuclear submarine officer to portfolio manager in training with a major money management firm. I came to Texas for what I saw as the best educational value in the top 20 schools, and I do not feel that I had to sacrifice anything in choosing it. --Finance Getting an MBA at UT-Austin has primed me for the challenging, often frustrating world of business. It's a huge university, with a bureaucracy to match. Like in the "real world," at UT-Austin you must be persistent, creative, and focused in order to get things done. --Marketing UT and the city of Austin are the newest and fastest growing centers of technology and entrepreneurship in the world (evidenced by recent polls). Those companies savvy enough to know better come in droves to recruit Texas graduates because they know they are getting qualities that many, if not all, of the top five programs cannot deliver. Secondly, Texas is rarely, if ever, name-dropped as a superior institution with regards to an MBA program. Americans have been numbed into believing that Harvard is the epitome of the business program. --Consulting I cannot understate the benefits of going to school in Austin. It makes a huge difference to be in a city with a great climate, the best live music scene in the world, a beautiful setting, cutting-edge technology, and a booming economy. There is so much going on in the city, and, consequently, throughout UT Austin. It really helps keep the faculty, students, and administration extremely enthusiastic. Like most of the top B-schools, UT offers its students a first-rate education, but Austin is what makes it a truly special place. --Nonprofit UT-Austin had a certain feel to it that appealed to me: it was more entrepreneurial and not so uptight as some of the Northeastern schools. In addition, I contacted Alumni for all the schools I applied to -- Texas, by far, had the most excited and responsive group of people. For me, 80% of business is who you know. I chose UT, because I wanted to leave school and be apart of the Texas network. Furthermore, the economy down here is booming -- what better place to learn about business? Once I realized that people can be friendly and polite and be very successful businesspeople I was sold on UT and Texas. --Entrepeneurship Aside from the excellent education, the program offers a wide variety of opportunities to get involved in non-school-related organizations. I was particularly impressed with the school's emphasis on and support of community service groups. I was the co-director of one such group and was very pleased with the support we received from the administration. --Marketing The school provides many opportunities to be actively involved in the business community and the community in general. I participated in a student-run nonprofit organization, which provides MBA students with work opportunities at local businesses (10 hours/week). The local business benefits from interaction with an MBA student as well as bi-weekly seminars on different business topics led by business-school faculty or other business professionals. Another unique aspect of the Texas Business School is the great location. As a father of two children, I was concerned about school districts, cost of living and family-oriented neighborhoods. I was able to find a place that matched these constraints easily. Overall, I was able to interview with those firms in which I was interested, I learned from some brilliant teachers and students, and I feel I developed the tools and skills that will help me be successful in my business career. --Consulting I will graduate without having needed a single student loan, and will have a six-figure compensation my first year out. That is three times the compensation I was receiving before B-school. --Consulting Austin is loaded with great high-tech companies (e.g. Dell, Motorola, AMD) and other great companies (3M, Intelliquest, Applied Materials) in which the MBA program has developed strong relationships in order to facilitate not only internships and jobs for UT MBA students but also MBA course projects and practicums. I commend the administration for its part in maintaining close ties to these companies and to the students for their continued strong performance working with and for Austin-based companies. It is easy to see why UT has a top-ranked Information Technology program with these surroundings. Additionally, the presence of the Austin Technology Incubator, IC2, Moot Corp, and Entrepreneurship faculty such as Jeff Sandefer, Robert Schwartz, Lee Walker, and Gary Cadenhead has propelled this program to a recent No. 1 ranking by Success magazine. I took Jeff Sandefer's Entrepreneurship and New Ventures course last fall. This class was by far the finest course I have ever taken. Jeff was outstanding. It was great to take a case class by someone who has taken his own entrepreneurial talents and been successful in the marketplace. The Entrepreneurship program is expanding to include several new courses and is welcoming the establishment of a Center for Entrepreneurship, Growth & Renewal. The additional curriculum will be developed in close partnership with corporate sponsors such as Enron, Boston Consulting Group, and Austin Ventures. This past fall, the MBA program opened up a state-of-the-art corporate interviewing facility. The UT program was already very popular by corporate recruiters on the quality of the students alone. This new facility complete with computer/Internet hookups, private bathrooms, fax/copy machines, plush lounge and work areas makes me excited to return and participate in recruiting at UT. I am sure other companies feel the same way. --Finance UT Austin is an outstanding school. I was able to spend a semester in Copenhagen, Denmark, and had the classes transfer seamlessly to UT. There is a very active, fun group of students with a great blend of tremendously aggressive, hard-charging business types and the nontraditional students, i.e. there just to learn about a specific field or for help in running nonprofits... --Marketing UT has recently completed an outstanding interviewing facility which consists of a front greeting area, a lounge area for recruiters, and 40 interview rooms all of which are completely wired for phone and data communications. Texas is also building new team meeting rooms and is renovating and expanding the MBA labs, the MBA career library and professional development center, and the career placement office. Texas has also recently completed dressing rooms for interviews. In addition, Texas has secured corporate funding for new finance and entrepreneurship programs. --Marketing The school has made much progress over the last two years. The MBA Investment Fund and the financial trading center have helped to make the finance curriculum much more innovative and competitive. --Finance UT's recruiting facilities have been renovated, and the number of career services personnel has increased to better serve the graduate students. The recently created Graduate Business Network (UT's alumni network) has been embraced by the students and will serve as a useful tool in the future. As with most of the initiatives at UT, the GBN was a joint student/faculty venture. --Finance Back to Top 1999 Profile Update School Profile School Statistics |
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