[Lyrical]

Desx, I have a little bit different experience than alot of other people on this board because I know what it is like first hand. I earned my full time MBA from McCombs in 2005. The school is brutal. In the grad program, they flunked 15% of the students in the core classes. There was a forced curve, and there is a grade compression to B's (not A's like other t1 schools).

The bottom line is that you are going to a t1 business school. Did you think it would be easy? Everyone I know that went to McCombs (whether they were engineers or scientists) all said the same thing - THIS IS HARDER THAN I THOUGHT.

I loved the discipline of the school, but no one cares if you flunk out. A good percentage of my cohort dropped because it was that much harder than they thought it would be. Its a little bit different from other t1 schools that don't like to admit they made a mistake (so you don't get low grades). At UT, they have no problems with you leaving if you can't hack the grades. At some schools, if you aren't making A's then you are flunking, but at UT, very frequently, you would hear students say, "Thank God. I worked day and night all semester and got all B's."

A few things that helped me get through UT with a 3.6 GPA:

1- Realize that you are at a t1 school. When I lived in Austin, the local newspaper did a study that showed that the school doesn't accept even the top .5% of applicants. In their surveys, BusinessWeek and US News don't get all of the appilcations. By the time they see any data, its already been culled over three times. Having personally walked through the Dean's office alot (who was a friend of mine), I'd see them throwing out applications all day (and cussing while doing it).

The school is super-selective. You've earned the honor of getting into it. Congratulations. But now, you are around some of the smartest people in the world, and you are competing against them.

Did you come this far to fail? After the pure hell it takes to get into the school, and the amount of workload, the only fight you have is worth a 2.2 GPA? The fight has just started, and you have to fight every day. Are you screwing off, or going for the gold? My first year, I took off seven minutes to screw off. The rest of the time, I was studying. I think that if you talked to the people getting A's there, they are all doing the same. I average 4.5 hours of sleep a night during the whole program. YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE!

You either have to be willing to pay the price, or switch to another school that isn't t1. You signed on for hell when you started.

2- Always aim to make A's, and that keeps you from making C's. As tough as it was there, you have to aim for excellence. I think the people that do well at UT have this attitude. The ones that aim for just making a 3.0 are the ones that are in danger of making C's. I only came close to a C once (in statistics) because I was competing with engineers and scientists in a math class LOL.

The first year was high on quant stuff, and the Dean would ask us businesspeople if we really thought we could compete with engineers and scientists in math. I guess was too naive, but I had like a 3.8 my first year. You have to believe and work for A's at UT every day.

I believe you have to shoot for perfect scores on your tests at UT to ensure you get a B or higher. It is that competitive and your classmates are that smart/devoted.

3- Make sure you spend a little time on you. I made sure to go to church on Sundays and worked out (weights and cardio) also. You need to keep your mind sharp, and you can't do that if you don't take care of your mind/body/spirit connection. There is only so many hours you can push your mind if you aren't in physical shape, and you need to have the right mind set (stay positive).

4- At this point, you really need to buckle down. Are you partying every night? If I were you, I'd stay away from partying except for Fri or Sat night.

You have a 2.2 GPA. If you don't pull your grades up, when you start interviewing, you are going to see the best companies in the world come to campus, and ignore you. They will interview your friends, but you won't even get an interview with a sub-3.0 GPA. Heck, when I was interviewing, some employers said they wouldn't even talk to anyone with a sub-3.5 GPA.

What's the highest you can get your GPA to, if you made all A's, between now and graduation? You need to start tracking it. You can avoid this problem by getting out ahead of it now.

5- How are you doing, time-management wise? This doesn't just have to do with studying all the time, but also managing your timeframe on deliverables. As a rule of thumb, I would start all my papers at least a week early, and I would start studying for exams a month out.

This was a little bit hardcore, but I was well prepared for the exams, and wasn't in any real danger of making lower than a 3.0.

Are you missing classes? When you are there, are you paying attention/taking notes? I have always believed that professors give subtle hints as to what will be on the exam during class. The more you pay attention, the more you can see this. Sometimes, it might be a change in their tone of voice or an expression of urgency/importance.

Are you keeping up with assigned readings and homework? At UT, they tend to assign waaaay more than you can handle. If you get behind, forget it, you are lucky to make a B at this point (and most likely a C). You can't get behind. There were times would get sick, and still have to study. There's nothing like putting in 18 hour days when you have the flu. Realize that for some classes, you are assigned about as much readings and cases that would one get in med school. Sometimes, power skimming is your best friend because there is no way you can read everything assigned and get cases done. I was the worst at power skimming - I insisted on reading everything.

6- Don't expect to be able to make it in to a t1 MBA program with a 2.2 GPA.

The decisions you are making now are going to have implications on you for the next ten years. It is pretty hard to spin that you went to a t1 school and barely graduated.

7- Make the most of your opportunities.

Many people will NEVER EVER make it to a t1 business school. I have seen brilliant scientists and engineers with multiple graduate degrees, great work accomplishments and great grades get turned away.

Its the opportunity of a lifetime, don't waste it. One quote that I posted over my study area was that "Losers focus on what they are going through, champions focus on what they are going to."

8- Remember that the first latin word on the business school crest in English means "discipline." There is a reason it is there.

---------------------------------------------------------

If I could do it all over again, I would still pick UT (even though there are other t1 schools that are easier). But that is only because I love to be challenged. I graduated in 2005, it is 2008, and I still have nightmares weekly about the workload/challenge of making the grade.

But at the end of the day, it opened up the world of making six figure incomes, and more interesting assignments. Someone else can have the boring assignments with lots of admin.

What will you be looking back on when you get out? A C average and not so great job prospects paying alot less then your friends, or will you be able to say the pain was worth it?

You can still change it now.