{"id":49712,"date":"2020-08-31T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=49712"},"modified":"2020-08-30T12:47:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-30T19:47:29","slug":"expert-advice-for-applicants-and-an-inside-look-at-ucla-anderson-from-an-intl-mba-episode-380","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/expert-advice-for-applicants-and-an-inside-look-at-ucla-anderson-from-an-intl-mba-episode-380\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert Advice for Applicants and an Inside Look at UCLA Anderson from an Intl MBA [Episode 380]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"MBA<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Chen shares his journey from military intelligence service-member to international MBA student to Accepted admissions consultant [Show summary]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chen Chadash, Accepted consultant and UCLA Anderson MBA grad, had a unique path to business school as an international student with a background in military service. He shares his insights<\/a> on life at UCLA Anderson, working as an admissions ambassador, and navigating the MBA application process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can an admissions consultant help international applicants understand the MBA application process and submit essays and supporting materials that highlight what adcoms value the most? [Show notes]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chen Chadash<\/a> has a fascinating background: He earned his bachelor\u2019s in physics and electrical engineering from the Technion in Israel and served in an elite unit in the Israeli military for seven years in intelligence and cybersecurity. He then joined UCLA Anderson in 2016. After interning at Ernst and Young for the summer, he joined full-time in July of 2018. While at UCLA, he was a student admissions ambassador and has leveraged that experience to guide applicants to top MBA programs, including MIT Sloan, Kellogg, Booth, Columbia, INSEAD, London Business School, and UCLA Anderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what you like to do for fun? [1:51]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I grew up in Israel, far from here, in Tel Aviv. I recommend everyone who hasn\u2019t been there to visit. Obviously, during the COVID pandemic<\/a>, it\u2019s a bit difficult, but once that\u2019s over, I highly recommend it. I really like cooking a lot. Even more, eating what I cook. I really enjoy sports. I used to play basketball for many years in high school. And then other than that, I really like extreme sports. I like to try new things here and there like kite surfing, like climbing Mount Everest, scuba diving, stuff like that. I stick with some of them. Some I don\u2019t really enjoy, but I do enjoy trying them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you get to the top of Everest? [2:50]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I got to the base camp. It\u2019s about 18,000 feet high. Base camp is what basically everyone can do without any special equipment. Beyond that point, it really gets dangerous. You have to get training, oxygen, etc. But base camp is what everyone can do if you don\u2019t mind the two weeks of hiking in very difficult conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then just a couple months ago, I had my first baby. I would call that another extreme experience! But this one caused me to stop everything else that I was doing and focus on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did you decide to earn an MBA? [3:37]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I was in the military for a long time. After a long military service, which was great and a very fulfilling experience that I wouldn\u2019t trade for the world, I felt I had a huge gap in understanding business and how the \u201creal world\u201d works. It was a very different environment. I was looking for a way to bridge that gap as fast as possible and in a way that would be both beneficial career-wise and in a way that I would enjoy. Then living and studying abroad was something that was a dream for me for a long time. Both those things came together. An MBA abroad basically checked all those boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the hardest part of the application process for you as an applicant? [4:31]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

2015 was when I started thinking about that process. 2016 was when I really started working on my application. First of all, it actually took me some time to really understand what an MBA abroad in the U.S. meant in terms of the application. It\u2019s really a funny story. I realized I had to take the GMAT first<\/a>, so I signed up for the GMAT course, for the English part and engineering and physics. I figured with the quant part, I was going to be okay. But I felt I had some polishing to do on my English skills. So I signed up for this class. On the first day, it was me and some other folks, and the teacher asks, \u201cHave you started working on your application?\u201d I had no idea what she was talking about. There was nothing in my head. Everyone was like, \u201cOh yeah, we started. We are working with someone.\u201d I literally had no idea what she was talking about. I was like, \u201cYeah, I\u2019m in the process of working on it.\u201d I came back home that day, started researching what MBA application was and realized I had way more work to do. That was the first challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I actually understood what it was, I realized that, going back to my background, and not coming from a business background<\/a>, I realized that I couldn\u2019t talk about how I helped my company grow revenue or improve its margins, stuff like that. But since I was in intelligence in the military, there were a lot of things I really couldn\u2019t talk about, right? Classified. Those were challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you deal with those challenges? [6:23]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I was a bit frustrated at first, like I mentioned, but then I started really diving deep into understanding how the MBA application process works and what admissions teams are really looking for, and I learned that they don\u2019t really care if you move your company\u2019s revenue by 300%, even though it\u2019s great. They don\u2019t really care about that. What they really care about are the underlying qualities, traits, and behaviors that you demonstrated that actually made that possible, right? If your company\u2019s or organization\u2019s goals at the end of the day is not making money \u2013 by the way, it\u2019s the same for any nonprofit \u2013 but there is still a goal, right? So once you frame all your passions and achievements around that goal, and you show how you helped achieve those goals, or the underlying behavior that enabled you to do that, that\u2019s what you\u2019re willing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, I realized that, hey, I actually did have a lot of those fundamental ingredients that admissions committees were looking for, like demonstrated leadership, ability to work in teams, lead teams, being an innovator or instructor in a good way, within your organization leading change. I realized that\u2019s the stuff I did throughout my entire career<\/a> in the military. Once I realized that, and it was much, much easier for me to convey my story. Frame all your achievements around that mission, and clearly show what you did to get closer to achieving that goal, that mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What were the best parts of your experience as a UCLA Anderson MBA student? [9:31]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First and foremost, I would say the people. Sounds like clich\u00e9, and probably everyone has felt that and would say that about the school they went to. It may be true, but that\u2019s my experience at UCLA. The people, and especially the student body. UCLA Anderson<\/a> has this motto of \u201cshare success.\u201d It really resonates when you walk in; you can really feel that. When you talk to people, you really feel that. I felt that as a candidate, and then even more so when I actually got accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just to give you an example, there\u2019s a very robust system of second-year students helping first years prep for interviews, and you\u2019d be amazed to see those second years, completely on a voluntary basis, dedicating hours and hours to coach and guide first years during the recruiting process, which is very stressful as you probably know. It\u2019s really amazing. I had friends from other schools say that\u2019s really not the case everywhere. It\u2019s in the Anderson culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second thing I would say is being such a key institution within the LA Metro area. It\u2019s the biggest school in this area, in the city. This attracts so many things, so many events, and so many things are happening. It\u2019s really exciting to see, to have those key speakers, like a CEO from a great company. Maybe you didn\u2019t even hear about it, but then you find out that next door in a classroom next to where you\u2019re sitting, there is the CEO of Disney just giving a talk about something, right? This happens on a daily basis. That was really great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n