So I wanted to post my thoughts from my visit to UCLA last week. It was a great visit overall and UCLA is definitely near the top of my list.
I stayed with my girlfriends parents out in Temecula which is a 1.5 hour drive to Westwood on a normal day. With traffic on a weekday it is over 3 hours and bumper to bumper a large part of the way. Needless to say even leaving at 6:45 am, I was about a minute late to my Business Strategy class. Overall, the class was wonderful. We started off discussing a case about Walt Disney and basically the question was what would you divest if the year was 2000? Of course the groups were not allowed to use events that had transpired since then and it was great to hear groups justify their decisions. One of the students had worked as an Imagineer at Disney and could provide some great insights on the management style of one of the executives we discussed in class. I was really impressed at that point.
After class I had a meeting that I had pre-arranged with a student from the Finance Club. I gained some valuable insights on the Finance program at Anderson as well as some information about investment banking recruiting. Basically there are some great professors at Anderson, maybe not as many as at Wharton or Chicago, but some are really top of their field. Only about 45-60 students really want to do I-Banking each year out of 350 or so in the program, so the competition is a little less than other M7 schools. All of the major banks come to campus, roughly about 18-20 each year. They mostly recruit for the LA, SF, and NYC offices. Two things that I learned: first, GMAT matters only if it is below 700, otherwise it doesn't and two, UG GPA really only matters to top banks like Goldman and Lehman. If you have a strong MBA GPA in your first year, then UG GPA probably won't matter as much.
The Finance Club does a tremendous amount for students, including: arranging trips to NY and SF, interview prep by 2nd years, case study presentations by banks, and modeling workshops. Pretty standard at most top finance schools, but I was cool to see they offer their memebers a lot of services.
Another cool thing about UCLA is they allow you to take classes outside Anderson, including Law classes. One class that was offered last year as an elective was a 'Deal' class offered in partnership with the law school. All the class did was analyze past deals with the actual deal bankers and lawyers presenting the material. I thought this was really, really cool.
After lunch, I visited a 1st year core class, Managing & Leading Organizations. The professor really kept the class interesting during the lecture portion of the class. During my visit they discussed negotiation techniques, which I really enjoyed learning. I was impressed how Anderson teaches soft skills such as leadership and negotiation during the core classes. These are really valuable skills for luse ater in life. The professor left me with one piece of wisdom that I will share with you: "Never learn the cynical lesson when the outcome is not in your favor". I thought this was a great lesson for b-school applicants. Even if you don't get in this year, learn where you went wrong and come back stronger next year.
Overall, I thought Anderson was amazing. The facilities were top notch and overall UCLA is a beautiful campus!! I like how the business school is right on campus and doesn't feel isolated like at some other schools I have visited. The students seemed really bright and engaging. Several were tremendously helpful, although the admissions office lived up to its prior reputation. I went in to ask to speak with someone about the new curriculum changes the administration is currently discussing. I was politely told I could not have a 1-on-1 counseling session and was handed the UCLA guidebook instead. The student who helped me obviously had no idea about the new changes.
One final negative I heard from students was the start and end date of classes. Most b-schools start at the beginning of September and recruiting starts almost immediately, while Anderson starts in the beginning of October. This is a slight disadvantage in recruiting, although not that big of a deal. Most students at other schools have already had a full semester of classes by the time 1st year interviews start and students at Anderson have only had fall quarter. Also, Anderson ends classes in the middle of June, when most formal internship programs are already under way.
Hope this helps anyone thinking of applying. Let me know if I can answer any questions about Anderson (as if I'm some kind of expert
) or my provide any additional information about my experience.