To everyone that was admitted congratulations, but please be careful in considering your decision on which school to attend. I wanted to share this letter that current students received from Dean Olian regarding UCLA Anderson's US News rankings. As a current student, it definitely feels like Anderson is focused on gaming the ranking system, instead of providing a high quality education. I'm sure some of you felt this during your interview/visits. Some professors have been very vocal with their disapproval of this policy.
Letter from Judy Olian
To the UCLA Anderson MBA Community:
U.S. News & World Report (USN&WR) today issued its annual rankings of business schools. UCLA Anderson’s Full-Time MBA program is ranked 16, down two spots from last year. For more on the USN&WR rankings, go here.
Various rankings measure different variables and use diverse methodologies. For the full-time MBA program, USN&WR measures peer and recruiter perceptions (40% of the overall weighting), entering applicant quality and selectivity metrics (25%), and graduating class employment and compensation rates (35%). For the detailed methodology, go here.
While there were small improvements in Anderson’s 2014 MBA USN&WR peer assessments and average entering GMAT scores, we dropped a little on average entering GPA. The biggest decline relative to our peers occurred in our placement metrics: Percent of students employed at graduation, three-months post-graduation, and average starting salary.
Our analysis indicates that our relative MBA rankings would likely improve with very modest increases in job placements at graduation and three-months post-graduation. We believe that the changes we have made in admissions, course offerings, career and job search preparation through workshops, counseling and peer coaching will lead to increasingly positive employment outcomes among the MBA student body. As many of you know from our ongoing discussions and town meetings about program rankings, three years ago we revamped our admissions and employment strategies with the view that the results of these changes would take several years to work through the system.
The Fully-Employed MBA (FEMBA) program ranking in USN&WR is tied for 4th, up one spot since 2013; and the Executive MBA (EMBA) program is ranked 8th, down one spot from last year.
Other surveys use different metrics, resulting in diverse rankings. Following is a list of various survey rankings reported over the past several months:
• Economist first Executive MBA (EMBA) rankings released July 24, 2013: ranked the UCLA – NUS Program 3 globally, and the EMBA program 13 globally (3rd in the US).
• Forbes Full-Time MBA ranking released October 9, 2013: ranked 13, up from 20 in 2011.
• Economist Full-Time MBA ranking released October 10, 2013: ranked 18 globally, up from 23 in 2012. Ranked 12 in the US, up from 15 in 2012.
• Financial Times EMBA released October 21, 2013: ranked 42 overall, down from 39 in 2012. Ranked 10 in the US, down from 9 in 2012.
• Financial Times also ranked UCLA – NUS Executive MBA (EMBA) released October 21, 2013: ranked 5 worldwide, same as the prior year.
• Bloomberg/Businessweek EMBA and FEMBA released November 7, 2013: FEMBA ranked 4, down from 2 in 2011. EMBA ranked 5, same as in 2011.
• Financial Times Global MBA released January 27, 2014: ranked 26 overall, down from 23 in 2013. Ranked 14 in the US, down from 13 in 2013.
• Expansion Magazine Global MBA released March 4, 2014: ranked 24, up from 26 last year, 15 in the US.
The outcomes of these surveys, as well as the cumulative trends across surveys conducted throughout the year, contribute to our understanding of how our programs are perceived by students, recruiters and peers.
We are especially focused on enhancing our students’ learning and development experiences, and continue to augment financial aid and introduce programmatic improvements based on feedback from our students, alumni, employers, program deans and staff, and our faculty. The many innovations we’ve instituted in course electives, specializations and career services are designed to address our students’ career interests and the requirements of the 21st century marketplace. We expect these to be reflected also in improved MBA rankings in the future.
I welcome your feedback, suggestions and comments. Please send them to me at:
dean@anderson.ucla.eduDean Judy Olian
Judy D. Olian
Dean and John E. Anderson Chair in Management
mbauclaanderson wrote:
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Hello Applicants,
I am currently a student in one of UCLA Anderson's MBA programs. Deciding to attend UCLA Anderson was a terrible decision for me and I feel like if I had more accurate information, I would not have made this decision. In the next few weeks when all of you are making your decision, I want to be a resource for you so that you do not make the same mistake that I did. I will post about the rankings, administration, professors, culture, etc. Please stay tuned, and thank you for your patience.
1. UCLA Anderson is a school that is heading in the wrong directionAs you can see that after Dean Judy Olian was appointed in 2006, UCLA Anderson has continually done worse in the US News Rankings and according to the Financial Times fewer and fewer UCLA Anderson alumni are recommending their own school.
12 Mar 2014, 19:33
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