Calling all UCLA Anderson Fall 2010 applicants!

Agreed. And with those 3 options (text, audio, video), every type-A B-School applicant will feel pressured to do the video.

I'm in R1 or R2, PT or FT. As you can see, I'm slightly undecided.

The video is new this year, last year it was text or audio. They do say however that they are weighted equally. It's funny, no one here particularly likes the UCLA program, seems Johnson and even maybe georgetown is more popular and Anderson. Boo on them.

I was wondering why no Anderson thread either. I'm in for R1.

I'm pretty new on these boards. Is there a reason you say no one here likes the UCLA program?

I'm in for R2. Not sure why the program isn't more popular here, could just be a case of not many current students sticking around here to promote the program.

Personally, I think its a great program, especially for people interested in finance and/or want to stay on the West Coast. I have found out, though, that it seems to be pretty weak in consulting placements. Big 4 consulting seems to be pretty common.

My main issue is that I went there for undergrad, and would prefer a different experience.

Actually it got alot of snubs last year in my opinion. The people that UCLA accepted chose to go somewhere else. (Disclaimer, Undergrad and current MS student at UCLA, so I may be bias both for and against the program).

There are a couple of problems with UCLA's programs in my opinion, even so I would still love to go there, It's just my personal take and maybe this would be a good place for discussion, or maybe not.

First problem I see is lack of network, UCLA as both a school and anderson in particular does not have a strong network, there is not a sense of connection that other school has. Part of the problem is the state, the west has never really been as strong in branding and doesn't focus on prestige of a school nearly as much as the east coast. The school career services isn't as strong either, I actually think the front office in that department is pretty bad.

Second Problem, does not have the Consulting or IB pipelines, the only one of the Big3 that recruits somewhat heavily from Anderson is Bain, McK and BCG is sporatic at best, and you can see in the recruitment report the past year that they try really hard to add McK into the mix of top hires. That's because the school isn't really branded in any particular field, K is known for Marketing/Consulting, Ross = GM/Consulting, Booth = Finance/consulting. Anderson comes to mind as a GM/Entertainment but really doesn't show that in the recruitment report. For the programs size, the top companies that the students get hired at seems to change every year.

Third Problem, it aims too high, the US students that typically get the admits tend to also get higher ranked schools, so the matriculation rate is pretty low. This causes a backfilling with international students mostly from east Asia which also hurts the program. Definitely not saying that international is negative, but speaking with some graduates before, they tend to leave back to their home country or they have to settle for lower prestige jobs.


But it might also be lemming effect, GMAT Club tends to send a dispropotionate amount of people to Kellogg and Booth and UCLA/Haas doesn't really get much attention. Anyone else have any opinions.



BTW, I'm still applying, I'm too big of a UCLA fan not to try. Triple degrees from one school means alot to me.

I'm considering Anderson for App. number 6, with Duke and Michigan also in the running. Since a couple of you have attended UCLA, I wanted to get your thoughts on the school/LA culture and environment. I've never been to LA but have heard that it has a very distinctive personality. Since I think all the schools in that tier are pretty even overall (though with different strengths and weaknesses) I think I'd want to apply to the place that I'd enjoy the most overall.

Considering a Rd 2 application. Still undecided though.

As someone who has been to school in LA, here are a couple of things I remember:
- Fairly laidback. Things may be different in business school, but the attitude of the people is fairly laid back.
- There does exist a public transportation system (which I used copiously during my time there) but the sprawling nature of the city makes timing your travel most inconvenient.
- In general you will have a fairly diverse group of people you meet. There is always something going on Bruinwalk and at times all you have to do is pick up a coffee at Kerckhoff and people watch.

I was gonna try to give describe the people but then after reading it, it was became just a list of regional stereotypes. I've been here most of my life and compared to other cities I really don't see a lot of difference because it is such a diverse community of people, I know people with all sorts of personalities and interests that there really isn't much of a specific culture (that itself might be the culture, everyone likes to do their own thing, there's always so much to do).

With that said there are a couple things to note different from Ross, the only program of these ones you listed I was interested in and visited.

LA is no Ann Arbor, people here live all over the place, even within the Business school. You are not gonna have the walk over to your neighbors house cuz the whole business school lives in one building type of thing. People live by the Beach (yes you will appreciate it when Ann Arbor is -20 F), people live in the valley, some in westwood with the undergrads. It's not a community where everyone does that same thing (IE the city does not go dead just because Michigan is playing Ohio St at home). There's just so much to do and sometimes relaxing is it's own thing, drinking coffee and people watching in melrose, walking around venice beach.

LA is a CAR CITY, there is absolutely no way around it! Unless you want to have no social life, you need a car and with that brings a culture that you need to drive to people's houses, no stopping by or running into a classmate on the road type thing. (Funny thing about it was on friday, I got bitched at by my coworkers because I refused to drive them from panda express across the parking lot petsmart. There were in the SAME MINI MALL! I've once driven 3 blocks to the gym) There is no public transportation unless you want to spend 3 hours in a bus.

The people at both schools are really nice though.


One thing to note is that at the tier you're talking about the schools are regional, UCLA pretty much has all it's recruiting within Cali. 79% so if you are looking to move to cali, UCLA is the best bet. Michigan and Duke have almost no prestige within Cali. Business schools in general don't have much prestige here as it does in the northeast.

To echo GoBruins comments, LA is very much a car culture. I don't know much about the business school students, but everyone always seems to have their own thing going on. Despite the large number of alumni, the network doesn't seem too strong. There isn't something common that unifies all students and alums (i.e. football at Michigan or Texas, or isolation at Virgina or Dartmouth)

As far as living, there are tons of apartments more affordable yet within 10-20 minute drive from Westwood.

Thanks everyone for the input on what LA is like, especially it being a car necessary city. I would definitely prefer a more centralized city with good public transportation, but the weather alone might be enough to entice me to apply later on.

I'm in but for part-time.

I applied to Anderson's full time program last year but got denied. However, since then, I was able to change careers into the field of work I wanted, so it only makes sense to go part time now.

Only bummer: I have to re-write my essays since I'm applying to a different program. Bummer town.

Seems like there are alot of LA fokes here, anyone interested in doing an LA meet up.

I'm in for R1, as a reapplicant though. Thank goodness...no video for me. Would love to hear some of your essay ideas in my other thread though! The 2 reapp. essays are very similar:

reapplicant-essays-for-ucla-anderson-2010-and-elsewhere-84214.html#


Great idea. How about a lunch or drinks after work. I am in Santa Monica for work and am downtown on the weekends in case anyone else is interested in this get together idea.

Also, for the folks with Finance interest, I heard Prof Garmaise teaches a VC/PE class that is amazing - I really want to make a class visit sometime soon if anyone wants to join. Hoping he teaches a night class but might just leave work for a bit to go sit in.


I guess that's kind of the culture in Los Angeles that people are friendly and caring up to the point it doesn't inconvenience themselves. I know it's a generalization but just something I've observed since moving here from Texas. There's just so many people we meet in passing that maybe it's too difficult to establish real connections?

Is the lack of student connection at UCLA so low that students really don't get involved in clubs/events and pretty much disappear from campus as soon as their classes are over, or is this more just a comparison to schools that are completely campus-centered?

If I ended up at UCLA, I'd be moving across the country, so I'm hoping that it is not a total commuter school and would be tough to meet other students through normal after-class activities.

The students still have great connection with each other and UCLA is not a commuter school, most people live around school. You just need a car. Don't worry too much, we are all like splitting hairs between the schools, they are all quiet similiar (except weather).

Wow, does this thread indicate a lack of interest in UCLA this year?

Anyway, another forum member asked what I learned from my initial application. I'm reapplying this year after being turned down in 2008. Here are a few points I wrote him, figured I'd share and get your thoughts.

--Strength of the finance curriculum. A lot of people in LA want to work in media; it's natural. But UCLA's finance faculty is top notch for the west coast. There were a handful of names that kept coming up as I spoke to alumni, mostly finance prof's.

--In talking to a handful of UCLA (Anderson) grads, I felt everyone was really laid back, so I can imagine the learning environment being more collegial and non-competitive and the student body being less pretentious than other schools.

--To that same point, I feel that Anderson students like SoCal for all of its culture and diversity. Personal interests and hobbies cross over into professional conversations a lot when I spoke to these people. Point being, having a personality outside of your profession is important too. There are social events every night of every week at Anderson.