2021 MBA Essay Questions: UCLA Anderson

2020 Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis

Here’s what we said when last year’s questions came out…
 

As is standard for them, Anderson wants to hear about your career goals — but they mostly want to hear about YOU and how you currently envision having an impact on the future, based on everything else that’s changed in our world in the recent past. You’ll need to do your research on this school and how you see yourself there! Attending info sessions and participating in webinars and chats is a great way to figure that out. Our 2020 Anderson Strategy Guide can help you out with this very unusual essay question!!
 

1. How have events of the past year influenced the impact you would like to make in your community, career, or both? (250 words maximum)

   We welcome reflection on any events that influenced you in your personal or professional lives, or in society in general, and look forward to learning about specific ways you want to leave your mark.

Very cool, Anderson! Though, there’s also a common trap that many will fall into: Please resist the urge to speak in general terms about the changes in the world. This question isn’t asking you to say what you think they want to hear. It’s really similar to the common “change the world” themes that people often write to schools like Stanford. Also, don’t feel compelled to write about racism. Don’t feel compelled to write about coronavirus. You could write about one of those, but you could just as easily choose another topic instead.

This is a VERY short essay, and you’ll want to angle it towards Anderson in some way. Being very concrete and tangible on who you are today, that is new and different from the version of you that exited back in 2019 before all of this chaos, would go a long way in helping the adcom understand your answer. There are many nuances to this question and the strategy that will work for you though! We invite you to pick up our Anderson 2020 Application Guide for a more in-depth discussion on the opportunity that this question provides to you.

[end discussion of 2020 questions]

2019 Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis

UCLA has become a tad less competitive just lately — but they still want to see why you believe you belong there! Check out our posts on They value school fit to learn more.

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)

   Only 300 words? Dang, Anderson, that’s tight! This is A LOT to cover in such a short space. 🙁 That being said, if you tackle this as your first application, then you’ll be setting the stage for all the other work you’re doing on other schools. We often recommend doing a less-competitive school first, since you’ll be able to flatten the learning curve on a lower-stakes school. This might be one to consider for your first writing project; it should make all the others go more smoothly from there. Our Standard Essay Decimator MBA essay critique service can also be of huge help to you — once you nail down these stories for Anderson, you’re going to be in a very nice position for other schools as well!

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)
   This one actually will be difficult too! The best part of this question is that it could not be more clear. PERSONAL STORY ONLY! No topics from the job or any work environments. You should use a story within the last three years; don’t go too far back in time. If you have an example that also happened to be set as part of your extracurricular activities (volunteering, sports, other outside interests) then all the better, as it can become a multidimensional essay that way. You have enough space to tell a full story for this question within the allotted 250 words. What needs to be omnipresent here: Showing you TAKING ACTION. The only way to “demonstrate” a trait is to SHOW it. So all the posts on “show, don’t tell” will be relevant!

The problem with these so-short essays (besides how tough it is to answer these questions thoroughly in such limited space) is that you have literally nowhere to capture a hardcore story of professional achievement. This means that a) the app dataset, b) the recommendations, and c) especially the resume are elevated in importance. Do not overlook the critical role that your resume plays! That’s true for all schools but it’s really true here. (Want some help with that? Our Reworking Your Resume App Accelerator will make sure that you’re presenting yourself as clearly, concisely, and powerfully as possible for this process!).

Anderson is one of the most reapplicant-friendly schools out there, and this is reflected by their very generous 750-word essay for those who are trying again:

Reapplicant Essay Question: Please describe your career progress since you last applied and ways in which you have enhanced your candidacy. Include information on short-term and long-term career goals, as well as your continued interest in UCLA Anderson.

Pro Tip: If you’re reapplying and your goals have changed, explain them! Or if they have not, show how you’ve done more research or have somehow confirmed or validated that these goals are right for you, and demonstrate what efforts you’ve made to progress towards them in the time from your last application. Our Reapplicant Guide walks through other strategies.

[end discussion of 2019 questions]

2018 Essay and Info

Average GMAT for the Anderson Class of 2021 stayed at 719, from the 716 it had been several years back. It appears that interest in UCLA has softened since 2017. They’re still Top 20 but not a Top 10, but a softening market means that this tier of school starts to see changes in their GMAT scores first. We’ll have to see what happens for the Class of 2022 admissions season!

Main Essay:

Describe your short-term and long-term career goals. How can the UCLA Anderson experience add value to your professional development? (500 words)

Short-Answer Question (new for 2018)
What are you passionate about and why? (300 words)

So, for goals, this is one of the few schools left that also is asking about long-term goals. Tuck and Columbia are too but some others have dropped it to restrict you only to short-term goals. Pro Tip: Don’t get too fancy or too ambitious or too far-out! Everything needs to line up. The Career Goals App Accelerator would be invaluable in hammering these pieces out.

For the “most passionate” question, Columbia asked this last year and you can probably find plenty of advice here on the blahg — just search for “passion” like we’ve done for you here. It’s a tricky question to answer well! There’s tremendous potential to overplay your hand and claim you’re “passionate” about something that’s just kinda meh. You need to back up the answer. As they told you in math class, show your work!! (Warning: Talking about mentoring or volunteering in this essay is really not recommended! That’s a formula to a flat, boring, and uninsightful answer. Most people don’t dig deep enough. Think about what you care about!! Oh hey – it’s kinda similar to what matters most! Spend time on the blahg searching for keywords like that and you may discover a goldmine.)

The nice part is they’re giving you 50 extra words.

The UCLA Anderson admissions team has some straightforward advice on their blog for these essays and other application tips.

[end discussion of 2018 questions]

2017 Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis

CAREER GOALS matter a lot at this school!

Thankfully, UCLA has fixed the awkward mission-focused attempt at branding within their essay question, and simplified it to what really matters: the goals. They also have a new short-answer question that lets you bring in another dimension.

Main Essay:

Describe your short-term and long-term career goals. How can the UCLA Anderson experience add value to your professional development? (500 words)

Short-Answer Question
Describe how you would contribute to the UCLA Anderson community. (250 words)

For the short-answer question especially, it wouldn’t hurt to check out this video that they released in a prior session, so that you get a sense for what they mean by their culture and how they value those who “share success, think fearlessly and drive change”:

Anderson is one of the most reapplicant-friendly schools out there, and this is reflected by their very generous 750-word essay for those who are trying again:

Reapplicant Essay Question: Please describe your career progress since you last applied and ways in which you have enhanced your candidacy. Include updates on short-term and long-term career goals, as well as your continued interest in UCLA Anderson.

There’s also a standard optional essay (250 words) so plenty of opportunity to talk to the adcom about things that matter in your app!

Average GMAT for the Class of 2018 decreased from 718 to 716, and the upper end of the 80% range of scores ticked down from 680 to 760, to 680 to 750. We don’t know about app volumes at this school but it appears that either they’ve been getting fewer candidates applying — which is opposite to every other program — and/or they had trouble getting them to convert that year.
 

[end discussion of 2017 questions]

2016 Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis

They kept the same question as was used in 2015, which was:

We believe that the best results are achieved when you share success, think fearlessly and drive change. With this in mind, what are your goals at UCLA Anderson and in your short-term and long-term career?

This references their “Think in the Next” values of Share Success, Think Fearlessly, and Drive Change.

Here’s the video that they produced when they first came out with this particular essay:

And here’s a post on their blog from September 2016 which gives you some insights into what’s important and how to approach it .


[end discussion of 2016 questions]

2015 Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis

UCLA thankfully improved their application this year: The difficulties in phrasing of the essay question that they introduced last year have been fixed, and they’ve also reverted to two recommendations, from just one that they had required. These are good news for all you BSers. Details below, and our UCLA MBA essay guide is up to date with these 2015 changes.

 
 
Our predictions were accurate! Still one essay, and they’ve kept the ‘goals’ portion of the question while maintaining the ‘culture’ angle – but with a much betterly-worded prompt.

Cool! With this question, and the change in their Round 1 schedule, EssaySnark is pleased to see UCLA Anderson, like other schools this season, redeeming themselves from past mistakes and applicant-unfriendly policies. UCLA joins the trend of improving apps! Like MIT, Anderson simplified their one essay question – it’s still a little unwieldy but it’s much much better than they had before.

Here it is for the Class of 2018:

We believe that the best results are achieved when you share success, think fearlessly and drive change. With this in mind, what are your goals at UCLA Anderson and in your short-term and long-term career? (750 words)

They’ve posted this video as a way to convey the ‘culture’ themes – those phrases “share success, think fearlessly and drive change” are all part of their school principles:

Here’s their blog post introducing the question on July 27th .

They also pulled in their Round 1 deadline, to October 6th. That’s still one of the later first-round deadlines for the top schools but it’s now three weeks earlier than last year (it was way out on October 22nd then). This standardization actually may not help you all that much, since you’ll likely be feeling pretty burned out by essay writing in the first week of October, having already managed submissions for about a month. The advantage is that you’ll be in the swing of things with your essay writing projects and you will have plenty of experience writing essays for other schools by that time – but the temptation may be very great to re-use one of those other essays for Anderson. And that would be a mistake. When they had a three-weeks-later deadline then at least people could take a break and regroup after the flurry of craziness in September. So not sure this new standardized date is that helpful.

What will help is – hopefully! – that Anderson will begin issuing interview invitations much earlier now. That’s to everyone’s benefit.

The 2015 UCLA Anderson application guide will walk you through what’s important in your pitch – including some critical policies that are rather unusual at UCLA compared to other schools. Be equipped for success with this detailed guide for UCLA!

UCLA MBA recommendation 2015

• 7/29/15 update: YES! ANDERSON SWITCHED BACK TO TWO RECOMMENDATIONS AGAIN! We had hoped that they would do this, and they have. (Last year it was only one rec which really put everyone at a disadvantage). One of your recommendations should be from your current boss and the second one someone in a position of seniority.
• Three questions for that person to answer (review them here )

[end discussion of 2015 questions]

2014 Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis

8/1/14 The UCLA essay prompt has been updated; it’s still just one question about goals, but it’s been expanded to conform with the trend of so many other schools talking about “mission” and “principles”. You shouldn’t be using the optional essay for UCLA any more than you should for most other schools (in other words, don’t submit it unless you need it for something specific to explain about a weakness in your profile).

2014 UCLA full-time MBA question – Class of 2017

• 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)

There’s also a reapplicant essay, and an optional essay of up to 250 words (remember that should be used only to explain stuff, not just to talk about new things that you want to talk about). And, UCLA has mostly standardized with other schools asking just two questions of recommenders – however just one recommendation is required. That’s gonna be tough.

This year’s essay question sounds remarkably similar to Haas and their “defining principles”; hate to call Anderson a copycat but this is far from original. Instead of Kellogg’s “Think Bravely” we now have “Think Fearlessly.” We had actually applauded Kellogg’s decision to drop language around their brand tagline from their essays this year, and now here is Anderson falling into that same trap – or more precisely, forcing all of you BSers into it. At least “Share Success” is easy to understand, though on first blush it’s pretty one-dimensional, too.

These types of essays are NOT easy to write. You need to spend time ferreting out what in heck the school means by these “principles” and then you need to come up with stories from your past that illustrate how you’re someone who shares them – and THEN you need to communicate your plan for your future. All of that in 750 words. Sheesh. Not doing anyone any favors, UCLA.


[end discussion of 2014 questions]

Anderson now has just one question, focused on the essentials:

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)

The beauty with UCLA is they give you enough room to actually write something. This July 2013 post from Anderson Admissions explains their changes.


[end discussion of 2013 questions]

• What is your proudest achievement outside the workplace, and how has it impacted you?
• What are your short-term and long-term career goals, and how will an MBA from UCLA Anderson specifically help you achieve these goals?

[end discussion of 2012 questions.]