The University of Texas at Dallas - Naveen Jindal School of Management

The Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas offers five flexible options (Full-Time Cohort, Professional Evening Cohort, Professional Flex, Professional Online and Executive MBA) for MBAs to achieve their degree, as well as fifteen concentrations and the option of adding a double MS degree (thirteen additional options, five of which are STEM-designated). The school’s reasonable tuition is offset by “excellent value, great financial aid, [and a] strong local network,” as well as outstanding programs in finance and business analytics and a reputation as a top research institution. The program is “at a very high level,” has enviably small class sizes, and “will not break the bank.”

Professors are “very instructive with course materials [and] with real world applications of current events,” and are “very good at explaining the material and providing examples or in class demos on how concepts work.” UT Dallas “always prioritizes research and teaching equally,” which is why many professors only teach during one semester, allowing them to be fully available for the students, and meaning there is “compelling research work” to be done at all turns. Group projects are filled with “consistently reliable and insightful contributors,” and students here are “always eager to hear viewpoints which are different than their own,” which means “the conversations are always conducive for growth.” The administration constantly engages with the students to learn about their experiences at the school, and “it’s not uncommon on any given day to see the dean and associate deans conversing with students and gathering their feedback.”

The school’s ability “to prepare students with hard skills like math and computer systems” is well-known among employers, and everyone here is “very supportive and proactive to help students’ career and academic goals.” Most graduate-level classes have sections during the day and night, which adds great flexibility for Full-Time MBAs, and offer “the chance to network with successful professionals looking to advance their careers.”

The staff is “kind, relatable, intelligent, and organized”; all MBA students receive assistance from Career Management, but Full-Time MBAs also have a dedicated program career coach. “It’s like we have a team of executive assistants whose sole purpose is to help us succeed,” says one student. The school boasts a 90 percent placement rate for Full-Time MBA students, with the “booming economy of Texas” making for a great job market for students to be released into. Recent employers include Amazon, Chick-fil-A, Deloitte, Intel Security, Proctor & Gamble, SpaceX, TI and Toyota.

This “very diverse” group has a large commuter presence, especially among working professionals, but for those who choose to live at the school, “campus housing is new, clean, and accessible.” Transportation options around campus are plentiful, “traffic around campus is minimal, regardless of rush hour,” and “parking availability is great.” The city in which UT Dallas is located (Richardson) is home to a large Vietnamese-American community, and is adjacent to large Chinese-American, Indian-American, and Korean-American communities, so “some of the best ethnic foods in the area are nearby.”

Students say that life at UT Dallas is “what you make of it”: there are many opportunities available, ranging from intramurals to student organizations to “coffee chats, free Scantron handouts, musical and cultural events, and various philanthropic fundraisers,” but “the onus is definitely on students to find out what is happening and follow through.” That being said, groups “are all welcoming and eager to get students involved” and though there is a lot of “hard work and long days due to heavy course loads,” everyone “is supportive of each other and we hang out after to unwind when the work is done.”