"Application Cover Letter" essay, 500 words
Please introduce yourself.
October xx, 20xx
McCombs Admission Office
2110 Speedway, Stop B6000
Austin, TX 78712
Dear Admissions Committee,
I am excited to apply for the UT McCombs class of 202x.
My long-term aspiration is to establish myself as a successful startup leader, building new services and platforms benefitting companies using ever-larger collections of data. Within the startup ecosystem, I intend to engage a collaborative network, foster innovative solutions, and drive meaningful, positive change. To achieve this, my short-term goal is to attain a role at a tech-driven strategy consulting firm in a large Texas city, such as Company A or Company B. I’ve experienced business, data analytics, and software engineering, and learned the most interesting problems often touch all these areas. I’m excited to continue a career path that employs this breadth of knowledge.
Raised in Waco, my parents moved our family to Moscow when I was 12 years old. The shock of being thrust into a new environment, especially the country’s local education system, was challenging: academics were more rigorous than I was used to, and greater priority was placed on learning Russian, a language we didn’t speak at home. To adapt, I formed close bonds with peers who offered their support and guidance. Eight years later, when my family moved back to Waco, I utilized the same open, adaptable mindset. I will continue to carry this mindset to McCombs, building new connections and promoting a welcoming, inclusive environment.
Overcoming personal challenges has also led me to persevere through a difficult professional decision: to change careers. Watching tech innovations develop as a widget analyst fueled my passion to work with technology. While working full-time, I enrolled in a widget-coding bootcamp, spending sleepless nights immersing myself in programming languages and tech concepts. As I searched for engineering roles, I teamed up with three of my bootcamp peers. Together, we sharpened our tech expertise by entering hackathons, practiced interpersonal skills through interview prep, and expanded our combined network, which we used to break into new roles.
At my current employer, Company C, I co-led a complex HighProfileClient project where I leveraged skills that were required in my previous roles: communication, listening, detailed tracking, and problem-solving. I collaborated and communicated with every HighProfileClient engineer and manager involved. To align my Company C team and HighProfileClient’s engineers, I consolidated the wealth of information into a central library and presented learnings and pain points to the entire team. Through these conversations and efforts to align, my team gained the trust and respect needed to re-architect HighProfileClient’s public sales systems.
An MBA is the ideal next step in my career journey. As a resilient and versatile problem-solver, McCombs is the perfect program to help me reach my goals. I look forward to being an active contributor in McCombs’ Strategy and Innovation curriculum as well as the MBA Tech and Graduate Consulting clubs. Most of all, I’m excited to join what I regard as the most collaborative MBA student network. Hook ’em Horns!
Thank you for your consideration,
Fred Flintstone