MBA Insider's Blog

UCLA Anderson Application Insider: Reapplying to UCLA Anderson

This blog post is part of our "Application Insider" blog post series that provides insider information, tips, and advice about applying to the UCLA Anderson MBA program.

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APPLICATION INSIDER TOPIC:

Reapplying to UCLA Anderson

With only 330 seats available for our in-coming class, admissions to UCLA Anderson can be competitive. Though we have many qualified candidates, we cannot admit everyone (even though we would love to!). Sometimes applicants are not admitted because we just don’t have room to admit all the aforementioned qualified candidates and other times, applicants miss their shot by a small margin for issues that could easily be addressed through some self-reflection or additional preparation. At UCLA Anderson, we love our re-applicants and we often see them succeeding the following admissions cycle.

The good news is that if you choose to re-apply, you already understand the process and are at an advantage! Though the applicant pool changes each year, you have the benefit of additional time and insights to present a stronger application. As a reapplicant, you start with a clean slate as we do not reference your previous application when re-evaluating your profile. 

We have streamlined the reapplication process to help those who submitted their full-time MBA application within the previous two years (note that if you applied earlier than the previous two years, you would be considered a "new" applicant and should follow the new applicant guidelines). The streamlined process means that you will only need to submit one new recommendation and you are not required to write a new essay. Instead, we give you the opportunity in your reapplication to highlight what has changed since you last applied across different categories – Test Scores, Academics, Professional/Employment, Extracurriculars, and "Other". These sections are a great place to show the Admissions Committee that you have taken additional time to strengthen your candidacy and direct their attention to your achievements and improvements.

• Here are some specific examples of what you could choose to highlight:
• Test Scores: Many of our re-applicants use the additional time to re-take the GMAT/GRE to help improve their candidacy. The higher the score, the better, but look at our class profile GMAT averages and 80% range to help you evaluate whether or not you should take the test again -- also remember that we admit individuals below (and above) these averages every year. Ultimately, if you believe you can do better on the exam, you may want to consider re-taking it if you believe it will improve your candidacy and is worth your time, energy, and money. We've also seen re-applicants take a different a different exam (e.g. the GRE if the GMAT was taken previously) as it was a better exam for them. 
• Academics: If you feel your academic performance was sub-par and/or that you didn't demonstrate your ability to handle quantitative work, you may want to consider taking additional courses though community college, extension, or other third party programs. This won't change your undergraduate GPA, but additional coursework may help demonstrate your ability to handle the academic rigor of our program. 
• Professional & Extracurricular Experiences: In the time since your prior application, you should have had sufficient time to build upon your professional experiences (i.e., new skillsets, accomplishments, projects, promotions, etc.) and extracurricular activities (i.e., new leadership opportunities, volunteering, etc.). Make sure to highlight these in your re-application.
• Self-Reflection & Research: There are times when an applicant has all the exam, GPA, and career metrics, but it's the softer aspects of the application that determined an unfavorable outcome. It's important that if this is the case, you take the time to think about what you communicated in your previous application and ask yourself some of these questions: Have my post-MBA goals changed or become more specific? Did I demonstrate why now is the right time in my career path to get an MBA? Do I have a better understanding of what UCLA Anderson's program has to offer me and how I can contribute? Your re-application will be a fresh start for you, meaning it is definitely OK to share your new goals if you feel they have changed. 

Check back for more "Application Insider" blog posts that will cover information and tips on the many aspects of applying to the UCLA Anderson MBA program!

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Follow the Admissions Team @uclaMBA:  Twitter
Questions? Contact us at: [email protected]

UCLA Anderson Application Insider: Resumé and Work Experience

This blog post is part of our "Application Insider" blog post series that provides insider information, tips, and advice about applying to the UCLA Anderson MBA program.

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APPLICATION INSIDER TOPIC:

RESUME & WORK EXPERIENCE

How you craft your resumé and your pre-MBA work experience will be instrumental to your application. Understanding that 85% of our graduates pivot industry and/or function post-MBA, we want to be sure that you will be successful in meeting your professional goals. Remember that you are not applying for your next job or promotion within your same industry, so your resumé should read like highlights that will signal your post-MBA potential. Be sure to think about career progression, career impact, and transferable skills. Below are some items to consider when sharing with us your work history:

• Your resumé visually conveys a sense of professionalism, clarity and structure. The standard business formatting is best. Don’t try to surprise your reader with very cutting edge or innovative formats, (e.g. no colorful blocks or photographs).
• Check your use of white space, spelling and avoid redundancy and repetition of information.
• Reverse chronological resumés are the most common for a reason. They are simple to read and they tend to be the most clear and concise.
• Your resumé should work like your personal sales rep. It needs to showcase your value and your potential, highlighting expertise, accomplishments and transferable skills.
• Use the S-T-A-R framework to convey your accomplishments, leadership and progression:
  • SITUATION ― mention the challenge/obstacle you had to overcome
  • TASK ― describe the purpose and task at hand
  • ACTION ― list the concrete actions you took and the skills it required to solve the issue.
  • RESULTS ― summarize the outcome in a quantifiable manner to show your direct impact.
• Don’t forget to include newly received responsibilities or promotions so we are current with your most recent accomplishments.
• Make sure to include some quantifiable or measurable descriptions to help us put things into context (sales, volumes, growth rates, percentages of improvement or cost reductions, etc.)
• Your extracurricular involvement and leadership can help round out your professional profile and can signal how likely you are of being involved in the future. Make sure to list your most meaningful undergraduate and post-grad involvement in the relevant section of your resumé (You can include the name of the organization, your position or role and dates of involvement).
• Remember to be strategic about the information that you choose to share with the committee on your resumé. Everything you are listing should be with the express purpose of supporting your application and how you would like to be perceived.
• Try not to use industry-specific jargon. You want your reader -- regardless of their background -- to understand what you have done. 
• And once again, because it is that important: Don’t neglect the basics. Proofread and avoid careless typos or grammar mistakes.

Consider using the "Optional Essay" should you have one of these two instances in your work experience: 

• If there are big gaps of employment, you should probably think about explaining them in the appropriate essay available in the application.
• If your resumé shows multiple job hoping after very short stints, you may also want to address this to avoid confusion or incorrect assumptions.

We hope you find some value on these tried-and-tested tips. Let us know if you think we missed a good one. We would love to add them to our list

Check back for more "Application Insider" blog posts that will cover information and tips on the many aspects of applying to the UCLA Anderson MBA program!

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Stay in Touch: Introduce Yourself
Follow the Admissions Team @uclaMBA:  Twitter and Instagram
Questions? Contact us at: [email protected]

UCLA Anderson Application Insider: Core Qualities

This blog post is part of our "Application Insider" blog post series that provides insider information, tips, and advice about applying to the UCLA Anderson MBA program.

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APPLICATION INSIDER TOPIC:

CORE QUALITIES WE LOOK FOR IN APPLICANTS

You are likely looking at a lot of different MBA options at the moment. You are probably even thinking to yourself, "all these programs seem similar, so what's the difference?" The difference is in the students and the community in which you will join. Here at UCLA Anderson, we are rooted by three pillars: Share success, think fearlessly and drive change. These three values are in the DNA of our school and is what we also look for in having prospective students join the #AnderFam. Fit is important because a big portion of the MBA experience occurs outside of the classroom. At UCLA Anderson, we value people who not only share their success but look to actively leave an impact at the school.

When crafting a story for the admissions committee on why a program like UCLA Anderson is right for you, you must address three critical points: 

1. Why MBA?
2. Why MBA Now?
   
3. Why Anderson?

To make yourself a strong candidate for UCLA Anderson, think Poker and play your “ACE” card:

• Academic Profile: Our program is rigorous, especially the 1st-Year core which happens to be very quant heavy. We want to make sure you can handle the program so we expect our students to master the business fundamentals in order to be successful in their academics and eventually, their career. Within academics, we look at a combination of your test scores and your undergraduate grades. However, those are just two (or three) data points to a story within academics. For your test scores, we will take a look at your score in each section. At UCLA Anderson, we only consider your highest overall score, so you can take the GMAT or GRE (we really have no preference) as many times until you're satisfied. For academics, we will take a deeper dive in your academic profile by determining the rigor of your undergraduate school, major, and coursework, your trends in grades, as well as other academic achievements to get a better sense of the context of your achievements.
• Contribution to Anderson: Contribution potential is vital since being an active member of the UCLA Anderson community is part of our "shared success" culture. We need students who will engage with their peers in a meaningful and impactful way during their time here and after. Our students support one another by creating opportunities and changes that benefit all. This might mean taking on leadership roles in our Anderson Student Association (ASA) and 50+ clubs or leading one of our Anderson Career Teams. The average UCLA Anderson student is a part of 8 different clubs and holds leadership roles in 3. We will assess this by looking at your prior involvement and/or leadership on-campus during your undergraduate studies, in the workplace, and/or through your community. All students need to add something special to the class, so we look for those who will bolster the diversity of voices here from different backgrounds, regions, and interest areas. To gain a good understanding of our students, the average UCLA Anderson student is a part of eight different clubs and holds leadership roles in three. 
• Employability: Accelerating your career is one of the top reasons to pursue an MBA, so how prepared are you to achieve your goals? How focused and attainable are your goals? Your resume and letters of recommendations will guide us in determining which transferable job skills will carry you to future roles, especially if you are looking to pivot function or industry. We know that your goals may change during your time here, but the admissions committee will always be looking for three things when considering employability: (1) career progression, (2) career impact, and (3) transferable skills.

Through each of these areas, we can compile a complete picture of you and how your core qualities align with our community here at UCLA Anderson in sharing success, thinking fearlessly, and driving change.

Check back for more "Application Insider" blog posts that will cover information and tips on the many aspects of applying to the UCLA Anderson MBA program!

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Stay in Touch: Introduce Yourself
Follow the Admissions Team @uclaMBA:  Twitter and Instagram
Questions? Contact us at: [email protected]

UCLA Anderson Application Insider: Academics

This blog post is part of our "Application Insider" blog post series that provides insider information, tips, and advice about applying to the UCLA Anderson MBA program.

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APPLICATION INSIDER TOPIC:

ACADEMICS

In addition to your professional success, we want to make sure you'll be academically successful when you're here at at UCLA Anderson. A majority of your courses will involve group work and it's important that all teammates can contribute equally. Through you research, you may have found that UCLA Anderson's core is rather rigorous. So with that in mind, we need to be sure that our MBAs can handle the academic rigors of being a part of our top business school learning environment -- during your two years in our MBA program, you will master business fundamentals through our core curriculum and also dive deep to specialize via our abundance of elective courses. Though you will embark on this challenging academic journey, you will not be alone as we offer abundant and individualized academic support. Additionally, our collaborative culture will allow students to learn from one another with their learning teams. 

So to ensure that all students are academically prepared to handle this learning experience, we carefully screen all applicants' prior complete academic performance to determine if they can thrive here -- this includes:

• Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees, plus Additional Courses: we will analyze the whole undergraduate record, including if you attended multiple schools (including community college). If you have additional degrees, such as other graduate degrees, we will also evaluate those. Any courses after earning your undergraduate degree (such as through a Community College or Extension program) will also be taken into account, however, it will not be counted towards your overall undergraduate GPA.
• GPA: Although your undergraduate GPA from the institution you earned your degree from will be static, rest assured that specific GPA is not the only element we look at...in fact, it is quite the contrary! The GPA is important, but it is just one data point since every transcript tells a story. If you feel like your undergraduate GPA is not the highest, there are still actions you can take to boost your academic profile that are completely optional. Such examples include professional designations such as a CPA or CFA can give the Admissions Committee more data points to consider. You can also take quantitative business classes (such as accounting, finance, and statistics) at a local college or Extension courses and include those transcripts in your application. 
• Program Rigor: we will take a deep dive into your academic profile by determining the rigor of your undergraduate school (we have information for most schools around the world!) and major.
• Transcripts: when we look at your transcripts, it's not just the grades we see. We look the the classes you took, consider things like major changes, the rigor of your coursework, and trends in grades.
• Academic Designations and Accolades: academic accolades are considered to get a better sense of the context of your achievements. These may include special merit-based designations, such as Cum Laude, Honors, and Department awards. 
• International Applicants: we will evaluate your transcripts based on your country’s own system -- please do NOT convert GPAs into an American 4.0 scale. 

Here are some answers to top frequently asked questions about academics from our applicants:

• Q. Should I be worried if my GPA is not that strong?
  A. We understand that not everyone will have unblemished records, and if there are weak spots then we will actively try to find offsetting strong points in your academic records, such as: upward trends in grades, final two-year GPA, and quantitative coursework.
  
  
• Q. I did not take any quantitative undergraduate classes -- how can I show the Admissions Committee I can handle the work?
  A. Prior quantitative coursework is a plus since the MBA program core is quant-based, but we have no admissions requirements for specific quantitative classes. If you have not taken any prior quantitative classes (or you did not do as well as you would have liked), you can show us you can still handle the quantitative rigor of our program through other elements of your application that include: post-undergraduate quantitative courses via community college/extension program, strong quantitative score on the GMAT/GRE, and/or demonstration of quantitative and analytical skills/experiences in your work
  
  
• Q. My background is not business-related -- is this a problem? 
  A. Short answer is...definitely not a problem! We aspire for academic diversity to add value in the classroom -- you'll see in our class profile that only 26% of our class has a business-related undergraduate degree. The core curriculum you will take in your first year will help ramp up and level-set your business knowledge base. Overall, the applicants we tend to like are those who consistently performed above their peers in similar schools and concentrations.
  
  
• Q. Do I need to send in hard-copy transcripts when I apply?
  On a logistical note, please do not send us hard-copy documents unless we request them (generally this will happen if you are invited to interview). The scans you upload with the application are sufficient for our preliminary evaluation. Please see our application requirements website for more information on academic evaluations and other aspects of the application.

Just remember that the application review process is one that is very holistic, so you do not need to only rely on the academic portion to be a successful applicant. The academic environment at UCLA Anderson is fast-paced and challenging, and we welcome those who are well-prepared to come join in for the benefit of all!

Check back for more "Application Insider" blog posts that will cover information and tips on the many aspects of applying to the UCLA Anderson MBA program!

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Stay in Touch: Introduce Yourself
Questions? Ask A Question