The University of Texas McCombs School of Business - MBA - Weekend Program

I'm a former student in the McCombs DFW MBA and dropped the program due to the reasons documented below. The following review is specifically for The University of Texas McCombs School of Business weekend MBA program. Be advised, the McCombs weekend MBA program is nothing more than a money making scheme. Here are some examples:

• UT includes a refurbished iPad in your tuition. Apple said it had a value of $160, however, you are charged $600.
• Tuition, until recently, included weekend hotel accomodations throughout the entire two year program, however, UT reduced it to only the first semester while increasing the cost of tuition at the same time.
• You pay roughly $100/weekend in tuition for inedible catering without an option to opt out. Students end up leaving campus for decent food without any kind of refund for passing on the catered filth.
• You are taken on an international trip that is nothing more than a free vacation for professors and has very little, if any, value from a business education standpoint. You're told you cannot bring spouses or significant others while UT staff on the trip violate the rule. My specific trip was to SE Asia where we were shown a number of sweatshops and warehouses with brief presentations/Q&As from whomever was running the business unit. One company even fell through costing us hours of wasted time in transit.
• Most importantly - you end up teaching yourself everything. A number of professors are inaudible. You may as well get the textbooks off Amazon and save $110k if you're not just looking to buy a diploma.

A number of the professors are first class and care (e.g. Hirst - accounting, Cavallo - statistics, Sialm - finance, Martins - entrepreneurship, Pedersen - ethics) while some are nearly impossible to understand or follow (due to thick accents) over a four hour class period. Unfortunately, attendance is mandatory so you're forced to sit through lectures with no value when you cannot understand the professor.

Cheating is rampant because many students want a 4.0 for high paying IB, PE, or consulting jobs. Professors literally look the other way when cheaters are caught - this actually happened in my Class of 2018. The Assistant Dean of the program said he had "renewed respect and admiration" for the cheaters who admitted what they did after being caught then swept it under the rug. Cheating continued after the milquetoast Assistant Dean chose not punish anyone.

Most classes attach a grade to student contributions during lecture creating a learning environment where students pointlessly drone on with redundant comments or anecdotes that often do not pertain to what is being taught. In some classes, if professors do not like you they leverage the completely subjective participation grade - you can lose a full letter grade from participation without justification. Furthermore, due to the subjectivity of the participation grade, the student is left powerless to challenge its validity.

Another major problem is the classes are poorly weighted - for instance, you will spend two months in a finance class and four months in a "leadership" class. Lastly, the "leadership" professor shamelessly flirted with a female student on multiple occasions during class - a blatant lack of professionalism that should not take place in a top ranked six figure MBA program.

Accountability should be a two way street, but people are afraid to take a stand when they need the degree or their company is covering tuition. Students have delicately voiced concerns over the aforementioned problems and UT chooses to ignore the complaints. The McCombs weekend MBA program is a MONEY MAKING SCHEME and nothing more. Caveat emptor.