How to Get Accepted to UCLA Anderson

In this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, Alex Lawrence, Assistant Dean of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid at UCLA Anderson School of Management, describes the program’s offerings. Students are offered a customizable curriculum with a wide range of elective courses and specializations. The program also includes a capstone project and focuses on developing leadership skills. The summer quarter provides students with foundational elements and an opportunity to get acclimated to the program. The program also offers a business creation program for students with an entrepreneurial mindset and an applied management research project for students to work on real business challenges. Alex discusses the flexible testing policy and shares who should take the test. Alex also highlights the program’s values and how applicants can demonstrate them in resumes, letters of recommendation, and interviews.
In this episode:
02:33 Alex, welcome back to Admissions Straight Talk.
03:00 Can you start by giving us an overview of the Anderson full-time MBA program for those listeners who aren't that familiar with it and focus on its more distinctive elements?
04:45 You mentioned the summer quarter before the first year. What does it cover? Why have it? When does it start?
11:11 You touched on the business creation program and applied management research, which was a field study in my day. What are they?
15:08 Anderson has a flexible testing policy. Could you review which tests are acceptable? And can you discuss the test-optional policy? Who will strengthen their candidacy by taking a test?
17:20 Do you see UCLA Anderson either on an individual basis or sometime in the future requiring the writing assessment that GMAC will come out with to go along with the GMAT Focus?
18:33 Anderson is quite clear about what it values. How can applicants show those qualities, show that they share the values via the application, giving the future focus of the essays and their tight word limits?
20:31 The Anderson website says that the answers to the essay questions should complement the information in the rest of the application, which is kind of what you just said now. Does that imply that the reviewers read the essays last because otherwise they might not have the context?
22:51 How many people will review an application before deciding whom to interview?
25:18 What do you feel about applicants using ChatGPT or artificial intelligence in the application?
29:42 What is the interview like at Anderson?
30:45 What advice do you have for re-applicants to Anderson?
33:09 If you were thinking ahead to apply in 2026-2027, so you're not planning to apply this cycle, what are the one or two things that you should be doing to prepare yourself to apply in a later cycle?
36:30 Is engagement with UCLA a factor in the evaluation process?
40:01 What would you have liked me to ask you?
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