Calling UCLA Fall 2008 Applicants

the waiting game is quite stressful!

I know exactly how you feel... even though I'm pretty set on Haas or UCLA, waiting for Kellogg still bothers me a little.

Got an e-mail today that was to me and my interviewer saying that UCLA had received my interview feedback (interview was two weeks ago exactly) and they will be reviewing my application shortly...So I guess we will see what happens

Good luck on your application.

Just wanted to post my thoughts on A-Days for those interested. Overall I thought the weekend was good. I have to admit that I have not been that impressed with UCLA (or at least their Admissions department) thus far, but I thought that the weekend was well put together and gave a good overview of all the schools offerings. The weekend highlighted everything from career services to academics, financial aid to the social scene. The students I met, both current students and prospectives, all seemed to be down to earth and fit the collaborative, Anderson "mold".

I think some of Anderson's strong suits are its many international offerings (50 partner universities) and its entrepreneurship and finance programs. The campus is beautiful for those who haven't visited, and the weather was certainly alluring. The professor who taught the mock class on Monday was very energetic and really impressed me.

Although this is not anything I didn't know prior to attending A-Days, for those interested in shooting for a position with one of the Big 3 consulting firms, the outlook is not that great at Anderson, with only 5 people in the Class of 2008 being offered positions for the US offices.

They said that merit scholarships have not been released yet, but will be trickling out over the next two weeks so that was good news. Unfortunately, they did not release admissions statistics thus far so I can't shed much light there. I still have some reservations after the weekend, but I walked away excited about the opportunity. Well those are my initial thoughts...hopefully kryzak will be able to add some of his...

great stuff red_s4. You pretty much covered most of the things.

I would say I'm very impressed by their international study trips and exchange program. Also, the quarter system is very conducive to doing a study abroad (as opposed to semester system) since you only lose 1/6 of your b-school experience versus 1/4.

Their professors were very impressive, at least the ones they showed us. I had dinner with one of the Applied Management Research: Business Creation Option chief professors (Abe) and he was extremely sharp, helpful, and gave great insights and anecdotes about being an entrepreneur and how to carve out your career heading in that direction.

Fellowships should be out this week or next. The financial aid lady (who is SUPER NICE and funny) said that Anderson *just* found out that other schools decided on fellowships when they admitted a student, so they're going to hurry to get it out ASAP.

Unfortunately, financial aid package info (loans, anything other than fellowships) will not come out until May, according to the office.

I had a fun time there meeting a lot of students, and I'm already talking about traveling with 1 or 2 students that I met there. It definitely didn't get me falling head over heels for the school, but reinforced my opinion that Anderson is a great school with a great program, and if it was the only school I got into this year, I would be very happy and content going there.

Any questions, feel free to ask and we will try to answer.

I just had my interview.. Very weird experience.. I did well but still..

how was it weird?

Ok I just got back from my interview on campus...
Thankfully 405 wasn't a parking lot

Here's the debrief...

Very conversational and straight forward.

1) Resume walkthrough and why MBA
2) Short and long term goals
3) Why strategy consulting
4) Why Anderson
5) Teamwork example
6) An area I wanted to improve on when at Anderson
7) What I hope to gain at Anderson
8) What clubs I plan to be a part of
9) What activities outside of work/study will I be a part of
10) My questions for her:
1) Plans to revamp the core curriculum
2) Placements for Internationals
3) Questions on CA residency => I qualify on all aspects except that when I join I'll be switching my status to a student and that disqualifies me....why oh why
4) Given the sharp increase in app volume...are they seeing a trend regarding an increase in a specific applicant pool.(She said internationals were definitely up)

Half hour...done

The campus, needless to say, is awesome and buzzing with activity. Loved it...
Now the wait...to see if they show me some love

Your adcom is awesome! Got to have lunch with her twice during A-Days, and she was very nice, friendly, and informative. Glad you had a great interview experience kk! Good luck!!!

Hey kk, out of curiosity, what did she say about placement for internationals? From my understanding ucla is rather weak in that area, so I would be interested in finding out. Thanks.

Nothing concrete really. My question to her was on the following two aspects,
1) General placements for internationals..
To this she said historically they've never had any problems getting people jobs.
My opinion: The statistics on their career report support her claim. Also, with the silicon valley not too far away, all the tech firms (who go big on H1Bs) are very accessible. Someone somewhere will find you or vice versa. The more important/pertinent question is, did the students get the jobs they really wanted or did they end up compromising just for the sake of the visa. That I'm sure no one in the AdCom will be able to answer.

2) Given all the talks of the recession, are they seeing an impact on the placements
She told that there hasn't been any significant effect yet. She said even through the last economic downturn the placements were good. Her opinion in a nut shell....it may take a little longer but everyone finds his/her job sooner rather than later.

On both counts she said the CMC does its best to help people out, but there are always issues like the H1B visa cap and the economy that are outside their sphere of influence.

Thanks for the info.

So if you had lunch with her twice during A-dAys and I had lunch with her once during A-days, that means you had lunch with me. =) Who are u? lol

Not sure what you mean by placement? If the class is 1/3 international every year; they must be doing something right or the international students would stop coming.

Just an update for those of you who are thinking about visiting campus:

UCLA is in finals week and then spring break through the 30th. The weather is nice but no one will be on campus after finals week until Spring quarter starts back up.

updated stats... please let me know if your status changed:

UCLA Anderson Applicants Status Updated - 3/17/2008
R1
Kryzak - R1 - Accepted with interview
red_s4 - R1 - Accepted with interview
Aviroop - R1 - Waitlisted
DrivinWest - R1 - Submitted
notokung - R1 - Dinged
gnr646 - R1 - Submitted
rampup82 - R1 - Dinged
trojan812 - R1 - Dinged
yelloww82 - R1 - Submitted
Toploader - R1 - Dinged

R2
bobo79 - R2 - Accepted
ezd222 - R2 - Matriculating
dextrous - R2 - submitted
misterJJ2u - R2 - Submitted (1/1)
ncprasad - R2 - Submitted
nick_sun - R2 - Will Submit
sangoman - R2 - Submitted 1/1
bherronp - R2 - Submitted 12/30
bewakoof - R2 - Submitted 12/31
ryguy904 - R2 - Submitted 1/1
duuuma - R2