UCLA Anderson 2012 - Calling All Applicants

I received a rather length PM so instead of replying personally, I figured more people can benefit if I post it on the forum:

Hi!

I'm considering applying to UCLA. I had some questions regarding my fit and the alignment of my goals with UCLA curriculum.

Following are the things I wanted to know:

1. My goal is to work in a consulting firm in the field of energy and infrastructure (E&I). So, does UCLA have specialized faculty in energy and infrastructure? What is the general inclination of students towards E&I + Consulting?

I'm interested in finance so I cannot say how much interest there is in E&I. I do know that there's a good number of people who are interested clean tech and such. During my orientation, an Anderson alum who used to run a energy trading company came and spoke for us.

2. To what degree can I tailor my MBA, ie, what %ge of the course is mandatory and what %ge is elective?

Anderson is currently going through a transition into an academic track system rather than a general MBA program.

While you need to take roughly 10 core (mandatory) courses, you will be taking overall 24 courses --- you can take quite a few elective courses at Anderson.

3. What is the student community like? How do students contribute to each other's growth? Are there student treks or other student bonding events?

While it's easy to say that UCLA Anderson community is very collaborative, it's hard to compare UCLA Anderson against other business schools since I only have experience at UCLA Anderson.

That being said, I feel like people who choose to attend UCLA Anderson definitely have a different mentality. There are people who are somewhat uptight but by and large, people have more relaxed attitude about them.

Various different student organizations plan a student trip so there are plenty of student bonding events.

4. What do you think are UCLA's strengths?

Being in California, strength in finance and marketing, and I cannot say enough good things about the student body. The quality of student body is VERY high.

5. Weaknesses?

People tend not to want to move out of California so maybe that's a weakness?

In all seriousness, I think all business schools have weaknesses. I applied to quite a few schools last year and every single one of the schools had at least one flaw that I wanted to change.

Ask yourself whether I would attend this school if this were the only school that I get admitted and then plan things out accordingly.

It's hard to make a guarantee since the admission process is such a black box but I don't think it'll impact your chances.

You really want to visit the campus before applying though. You are going to spend next 2 years of your life and you should do some due diligence before making that choice.

Academic reputation, location, you know the usual.

Not sure if you are struggling to find a motivation to apply to UCLA but it becomes a very personal decision for most of us.

Good luck!

I don't think they put much stock into this answer. O th.nk it is mainly for data collection purposes like gauging how successful an MBA event in a certain place is. Sure it shows u are interested in the program but there may be other reasons that prevent potential candidates from attending. So don't worry about it.

Posted from my mobile device

The essay questions at the beginning of this thread are not correct; they are basically asking the same thing but worded differently. They should be:

What events or people have had the greatest influence in shaping your character and why? (750 words maximum)

What are your short-term and long-term career goals, and how will an MBA from UCLA Anderson specifically help you achieve these goals? (750 words maximum)

Just wanted to point this out in case anybody was going off of what I think are the wording of the essays from last year.

Good luck everyone!

You are a customer. Most of us forget about it.
I would think of admissions events as of marketing events. Rephrase it as "before you had bought your car how many marketing events of our company did you visit?" they care about how the admissions events are interesting/effective and can reach candidates like you.
So I think there is no obligaton to visit all marketing events before you buy something. It may be different for business school, but you have a good excuse and a sexy GMAT score.

In for R1. Q: In Essay 1 is it required to address more than one event or people who influence you (since it asks for what events or people..) Any thoughts about the same?

I just gave my $ .02 somewhere else.. pasting the same below..

Of course.

Last years question was: What event or life experience has had the greatest influence in shaping your character and why? (750 words)

So clearly, at that time, they wanted to you to just pick a single most pivotal instance in your life and elaborate on it. My guess is that since people had 750 words to talk about just one instance, they would've probably over elaborated in most cases. that's why Anderson, this year has changed its question so that applicants include multiple instances that have shaped them..

Is it off topic to discuss as one of my stories the events that led to my ah-ha moment of deciding which non-profit area I am passionate about...or are they literally only wanting stories about how I developed personality traits? Thanks!

Perhaps you can talk about how to developed your passion for non-profit and tie that in?

The question is a tough one I think as most of your "character building" is done throughout childhood and teenage years.. There are probably fewer instances in which you can shape your character in your adult life..

So I could use that story to explain how that event took my generalised interest in non-profit (giving school and University examples) and gave me a specific cause i'm passionate about? I'm just a bit worried that that isn't really my character...this is a really confusing question! I don't have any stories of how I got the personality I do, or no good ones at least!

I was hoping to submit my application today but noticed several discrepancies between the online application and the application print proof. My GMAT score, for example, was not included anywhere in the print proof. Did anyone else have a similar experience?

My application was missing a few things also but when I checked the actual application everything was there. I still submitted mine. We will see what happens....

What was missing from yours?

It did not show that I had checked the CPA box. Don't think it is as important as the GMAT score. I sent my official GMAT score report to UCLA (I believe they required it) so I would not be too worried. Plus, the application won't let you submit if the score is missing.

I am leaning towards believing that the application is having rendering issues when the information is put into the .pdf form.

I concur. I remember last year during apps a few PDF proofs had weird renderings there GPAs were missing or address fields. Everything online checked out okay though, I think it's just a system glitch.

To current students/ alumni,

I've exceeded word limit in one of the essays by 37 words (5%). Is that okay?