UCLA Anderson Sample Essays

UCLA Anderson MBA Application Essays 2019-20

 

Essay 1: Tell us about your MBA goals AND why you are applying to UCLA Anderson now:
• Describe your short term and long term goals (150 words maximum)
• Why is UCLA Anderson a good school for you? (150 words maximum)

Essay 2: At Anderson, we believe our students are engaged, courageous, humble, and open. Describe a time when you demonstrated one of these traits in your personal life. (250 words maximum)

Reapplicant Essay: Please describe your career progress since you last applied and how you have enhanced your candidacy. Include information on short-term and long-term career goals, as well as your continued interest in UCLA Anderson. (500 words maximum)

Optional: Are there any extenuating circumstances in your profile about which the Admissions committee should be aware. (250 words maximum)

UCLA Anderson MBA Winning Sample Essay – 1

 

What are your short-term and long-term career goals, and how will an MBA from UCLA Anderson specifically help you achieve these goals? (700 words maximum)

Living in Orange County has allowed me to experience the amazing variety of habitats California has to offer. Pristine beaches lie a short drive away from awe-inspiring mountains, and right in between stands one of the largest cityscapes in the world. Collectively they make one huge ecosystem, and I want to spend my life helping that ecosystem thrive economically and environmentally. Clean energy technologies such as wind, solar, and biofuels promise to both advance environmental restoration and generate sustainable profits, but the key to unlocking wholesale environmental change will be to make renewable energy cost- competitive. My professional experience in the banking/lending industry as a Secondary Market Analyst at MFD, combined with an Anderson MBA with a Finance track, will help me achieve my vision of providing cheap long-term finance options to promising sustainable energy projects.

My long-term goal is to open a state-level, public-private Clean Energy Finance Bank (CEFB), or “green bank,” in California. The renewable energy industry is currently too reliant on public capital. However, a recent study from the Jameson Institution suggests green banks can “combine scarce public resources with private sector funds and then leverage those funds to invest in attractive clean energy.” Currently, there is one green bank in the US, Clean Energy Production and Investigation Regulatory Group in Massachusetts. While the movement is young, successful precedents for energy and infrastructure banks exist: LENS and S-V Lester Bank in the US and JgT in Germany. I want to be at the forefront of this clean energy financing industry.

In the short-term, in order to build up the skills and experience needed to transition into the clean energy finance industry, I plan to work as a Research Analyst at a well-known think tank like the Jameson Institution.

Exposing myself to the high-level policy research done in programs like the Municipal Policy Program and learning to work with state government on renewable energy projects already in place will be instrumental in developing a sensible and educated plan for starting a CEFB. Working as a Secondary Market Analyst at a mortgage bank has allowed me to experience firsthand how to run a successful lending and banking operation. MFD’s motto is “closing loans the right way” and that commitment to avoiding the lure of fast profits in favor of closing safe, quality loans is something I plan to instill at a future green bank. At MFD my ability to rapidly master information under pressure has enabled me to take a lead role in projects such as the implementation of hedging, a new way for MFD to price and sell mortgage loans. My responsibilities include analyzing secondary market conditions, making value-added selling recommendations, and decoding complex investor guidelines. With my expertise and guidance, MFD currently profits .85% more per loan sold, with $900 million in hedged loans in 2011. These skills and my drive to achieve position me to be successful as the leader of a green bank after obtaining my Anderson MBA.

An MBA from Anderson will enable me to develop the general management and financial analysis skills necessary to lead a bank addressing financial challenges in the energy industry. Completing the Leaders in Sustainability specialization offered at Anderson will allow me to interact with students and faculty from a variety of unique backgrounds, and learning to combine the languages of business and clean energy will be vital for my future career. I’m excited to complete the Applied Management Research project in my second year, which will give me firsthand experience consulting with a client in the sustainability industry and introduce me to the daily challenges they face. I intend to take Business and the Environment with Professor Corbett and would love to get involved with his research on examining links between good business practices and environmental protection, which will help me make smart recommendations in future policy and green bank endeavors. Outside of academics, I plan to become a VP of sports for the C4C club and will join the C4C basketball team to help Anderson compete for the coveted golden briefcase. Overall, an MBA from Anderson will be truly instrumental in helping me start a green bank in California and bring new life into the clean energy finance industry.

UCLA Anderson is distinguished by three defining principles: Share Success, Think Fearlessly, Drive Change. What principles have defined your life and pre-MBA career? How do you believe that UCLA Anderson’s principles, and the environment they create, will help you attain your post-MBA career goals? (750 words maximum)

I was 14 when I lost my father and my family hit rock bottom, emotionally and financially. I had to pick myself back up to take my father’s place and ensure that my younger brother and I were well educated in order to have a better future and help my mother with the finances. Today, after graduating from a premium engineering college in India, IIT Kanpur, I work at Starlys, one of the most innovative companies in the world, to support my family. In order to survive, I’ve lived by the principles of ‘muscling through the problem,’ seeking solutions rather than shying away, and ‘learning persistently,’ arming myself against unforeseen challenges by being curious, observant, and analytical.

As such, when making the decision to pursue an MBA, I had to take my family into account since I will no longer be able to support them financially. The observation skills I developed to ‘learn persistently’ helped me out. During my internship in Holland, it caught my eye that waffles and pancakes were very simple and casual dishes in Europe. Unlike burgers and pizzas, they were not yet available at affordable prices in my hometown of Bangalore, an IT hub with an ever-growing middle-class population aspiring to enjoy Western culture. Realizing the market space, I decided to take the plunge and start a restaurant serving Western breakfast to help my family stand on its own. After a year’s research and hard work and using up all my savings, the restaurant is now about to open in mid-January. ‘Thinking fearlessly’ helped me identify and realize this new opportunity.

These principles have also guided me through one of my greatest professional achievements. Starlys’ flagship product Limitless, which generates $250 million in yearly revenue, has vast functionality and required a steep learning curve for even simple engineering analyses. After several failed attempts to address this issue, the management felt that revamping Limitless with a simpler interface would require huge resources and could alienate existing customers. Having struggled to use Limitless myself as a beginner, I was confident that a user-friendly interface could be a game changer, attracting new users and retaining novice users to help sustain the product in the long-term and rejuvenate its stagnated sales. Though new to Limitless, I muscled through the problem. I spoke with Limitless’ development team to understand its complex algorithms. My experience of working on another product with a simpler interface and my understanding of its design helped me to come up with a prototype and design. The design could be implemented in a phase-by-phase manner, keeping the advanced users interested and leaving other development features untouched to exponentially reduce costs. The design was approved and it will be the biggest feature in the next version of Limitless. I was given an award for my innovative thinking and promoted to Technology Specialist. My motivation to drive change in Limitless’ user experience helped me fight through the problem to find an out-of-the-box solution. This experience taught me the value of ‘driving change’ – a principle that attracts me to UCLA.

Having understood the power of innovation by seeing ideas come to life and stretch the business boundaries at Starlys, my dream is to become a Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) at a tech firm like Facebook or Spotify. In this role, I’ll need to ‘think fearlessly’ to encourage and implement transformational ideas and strategies that expand business horizons, and ‘drive change’ so that my organization evolves at pace to stay ahead of the competition. With customers constantly looking for new and easy-to-use solutions, it excites me to the core to help find innovative solutions to the challenges of increasing competition, tighter budgets, and new technology. Located in the technology hub of the world, UCLA can connect me with a tech network to collaborate with and learn from as I witness firsthand how new ideas evolve. Post-MBA, I would like to become a Product Manager (PM) at a tech firm like Amazon or Microsoft to better understand and predict customer needs and behavior, to design effective short- and long-term strategies, and to oversee product evolution. In a PM role, I’ll also learn to create effective communication channels across teams to identify and solve problems, preparing me to be a CINO.

UCLA will empower me to achieve my goals by complementing not only my technical skills with general management skills, but also my principles with its principles.

UCLA Anderson MBA Winning Sample Essay – 2

 

UCLA Anderson is distinguished by three defining principles: Share Success, Think Fearlessly, Drive Change. What principles have defined your life and pre-MBA career? How do you believe that UCLA Anderson’s principles, and the environment they create, will help you attain your post-MBA career goals? (750 words maximum)

I was 14 when I lost my father and my family hit rock bottom, emotionally and financially. I had to pick myself back up to take my father’s place and ensure that my younger brother and I were well educated in order to have a better future and help my mother with the finances. Today, after graduating from a premium engineering college in India, IIT Kanpur, I work at Starlys, one of the most innovative companies in the world, to support my family. In order to survive, I’ve lived by the principles of ‘muscling through the problem,’ seeking solutions rather than shying away, and ‘learning persistently,’ arming myself against unforeseen challenges by being curious, observant, and analytical.

As such, when making the decision to pursue an MBA, I had to take my family into account since I will no longer be able to support them financially. The observation skills I developed to ‘learn persistently’ helped me out. During my internship in Holland, it caught my eye that waffles and pancakes were very simple and casual dishes in Europe. Unlike burgers and pizzas, they were not yet available at affordable prices in my hometown of Bangalore, an IT hub with an ever-growing middle-class population aspiring to enjoy Western culture. Realizing the market space, I decided to take the plunge and start a restaurant serving Western breakfast to help my family stand on its own. After a year’s research and hard work and using up all my savings, the restaurant is now about to open in mid-January. ‘Thinking fearlessly’ helped me identify and realize this new opportunity.

These principles have also guided me through one of my greatest professional achievements. Starlys’ flagship product Limitless, which generates $250 million in yearly revenue, has vast functionality and required a steep learning curve for even simple engineering analyses. After several failed attempts to address this issue, the management felt that revamping Limitless with a simpler interface would require huge resources and could alienate existing customers. Having struggled to use Limitless myself as a beginner, I was confident that a user-friendly interface could be a game changer, attracting new users and retaining novice users to help sustain the product in the long-term and rejuvenate its stagnated sales. Though new to Limitless, I muscled through the problem. I spoke with Limitless’ development team to understand its complex algorithms. My experience of working on another product with a simpler interface and my understanding of its design helped me to come up with a prototype and design. The design could be implemented in a phase-by-phase manner, keeping the advanced users interested and leaving other development features untouched to exponentially reduce costs. The design was approved and it will be the biggest feature in the next version of Limitless. I was given an award for my innovative thinking and promoted to Technology Specialist. My motivation to drive change in Limitless’ user experience helped me fight through the problem to find an out-of-the-box solution. This experience taught me the value of ‘driving change’ – a principle that attracts me to UCLA.

Having understood the power of innovation by seeing ideas come to life and stretch the business boundaries at Starlys, my dream is to become a Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) at a tech firm like Facebook or Spotify. In this role, I’ll need to ‘think fearlessly’ to encourage and implement transformational ideas and strategies that expand business horizons, and ‘drive change’ so that my organization evolves at pace to stay ahead of the competition. With customers constantly looking for new and easy-to-use solutions, it excites me to the core to help find innovative solutions to the challenges of increasing competition, tighter budgets, and new technology. Located in the technology hub of the world, UCLA can connect me with a tech network to collaborate with and learn from as I witness firsthand how new ideas evolve. Post-MBA, I would like to become a Product Manager (PM) at a tech firm like Amazon or Microsoft to better understand and predict customer needs and behavior, to design effective short- and long-term strategies, and to oversee product evolution. In a PM role, I’ll also learn to create effective communication channels across teams to identify and solve problems, preparing me to be a CINO.

UCLA will empower me to achieve my goals by complementing not only my technical skills with general management skills, but also my principles with its principles.

UCLA Anderson MBA Application Essay Tips

 

UCLA Anderson School of Management is located in Los Angeles with an unmatched alumni network throughout the region. Entertainment and real estate are still dominant industries in Los Angeles, and technology and entrepreneurship have grown. As a result, Anderson is an even more desirable business school. Anderson’s faculty, alumni and students are thought leaders in business and promoting collaboration and innovation.

Anderson’s MBA class is small and tight knit, making the personal aspects of this UCLA MBA application crucial for admission. To make your case in your UCLA MBA application, be very clear about who you are, fit with the community, and what you will accomplish.

We have helped countless applicants achieve their MBA dreams. Contact us to learn how Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with your UCLA MBA application. To learn more about the UCLA MBA program, visit the school website.

a) Tell us about your MBA goals AND why you are applying to UCLA Anderson now:
• Describe your short term and long term goals (150 words maximum)
• Why is UCLA Anderson a good school for you? (150 words maximum)

As you evaluate your career goals, consider your career thus far and how you would like to develop it. When you think about any long-term goals you have for your career, why is an MBA the right next step? And why would Anderson be the right place to gain the education and network you need? Your career goals should be examined through the filter of Anderson’s values and how you plan to use those values in your post-Anderson life.

The UCLA Anderson admissions committee suggests that “Essays are more compelling if they include specific courses, programs, groups, opportunities and activities from which you would benefit if admitted to UCLA Anderson. These references are best found through online research, personal discussions and a campus visit (if possible).”

When structuring this essay consider telling one or two pivotal stories about your career that will illuminate why you have chosen the career path you are on. UCLA is looking to understand how you are different from other applicants and how you have determined your goals. Consider the turning points or moments that triggered reflection for you.

Have you experienced a significant personal setback? What is your family background? Have you lived outside your home country? When did you face a turning point or make a big decision about your career? What were some of your proudest accomplishments? What moments have called upon your need to collaborate, lead or innovate?

Another important aspect of this essay is showing that you can plan both realistically and aspirationally. When describing your career goals, briefly explain what you plan to do immediately after graduation, and then what you want to accomplish over the long-term with your career. Your career path should be a logical extension of your past experiences and what you hope to experience at UCLA Anderson.

b) At Anderson, we believe our students are engaged, courageous, humble, and open. Describe a time when you demonstrated one of these traits in your personal life. (250 words maximum)

This UCLA MBA application essay focuses on the personal side of your candidacy. Anderson is looking for students that fit the mold of the school: engaged, courageous, humble and open. To answer this question, you will provide an example that shows you have these traits.

To answer this essay question effectively, take a brief story with plenty of detail, then explain why you think it is relevant to your UCLA MBA application. Though the essay focus on personal traits, using an example of teamwork or leadership at work would be relevant.

Alternatively, using an extracurricular story from an activity you are passionate about would show another angle of your candidacy. Either way, make sure that you are specific and clear in your writing.

(For applicants who applied for the MBA program in the previous two application years. If you applied three years or more prior, please answer the “New Applicant” questions.)

a) Please describe your career progress since you last applied and how you have enhanced your candidacy. Include information on short-term and long-term career goals, as well as your continued interest in UCLA Anderson. (500 words maximum)

If you are a re-applicant to Anderson this essay gives you the opportunity to highlight improvements since your last application. This essay focuses on updates to your career progress and any updates to your career goals since your last application.

In addition, you have room to add other “ways in which you have enhanced your candidacy.” If you have an improved GMAT score, academic updates or extracurricular activities since your last application it would be useful to update the admissions committee.

What if you didn’t start a new job, earn a promotion, or advance in a linear way along your career path since your last application? If your resume remains basically the same, consider any new projects or accomplishments at work you can highlight.

Demonstrating significant thought about your career path and increased introspection can also be progress, so updating your career goals thoughtfully is equally important to this application.

c) Optional: Are there any extenuating circumstances in your profile about which the Admissions committee should be aware. (250 words maximum)

Optional essays are truly optional, and there is no need to write one without extenuating circumstances. Reasons you may write this essay include gaps in work experience, a low grade, or lack of a current recommender.

If you would like to write this essay for your UCLA MBA application, clearly and concisely explain the situation. Then, explain why you have changed. When writing the essay, focus on explanations rather than excuses.

The best essays will provide evidence that you have improved and moved on from anything difficult in your past. Therefore, making a compelling case for admission in this UCLA MBA application.