Tips for Your UCLA Anderson Application Essays

UCLA Anderson Application Essay Tips, 2024-2025

What makes UCLA Anderson stand out among MBA programs is its location in a large city with many different industries, its collaborative culture, and the flexibility it offers to customize your business school experience. Anderson looks for applicants who embody the school’s three pillars: sharing success, thinking fearlessly, and driving change. As you think about the authentic story that you want to tell about yourself, weave in examples that show how you exemplify these pillars. As with any other school, to get a true picture of Anderson’s culture, it is important to talk with students — this is where what is special about Anderson can really shine through. 

This year, Anderson has changed its prompts and given you more words with which to tell your story. Take the time to think through what is important to tell the admissions committee about your experiences as you dive in.

For the 2024–2025 application year, Anderson has three short-answer questions that are required for first-time applicants, two of which are required for reapplicants.

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Short Essay Prompts

We look forward to learning about your perspectives and plans via your responses to the short essay prompts. Essays complement the answers you provide throughout the application to show us your whole profile. The best applications are introspective, genuine and succinct in directly answering our questions and showing clear plans for the future.

Strong essays describe the impact of your achievement and clarify its connection to your future MBA plans in the short- and long-term. We look forward to learning about the specific ways your achievement helped set you up for future success.

1 – Why are you pursuing an MBA? (150 words)

2 – Describe your short-term and long-term post-MBA career goals. (150 words)

While these are separate short essays, it is important to think about them together. And bear with me here, because we are going to think about this in a bit of reverse order. I would focus on the second question first, because your goals often inform why you need an MBA. So, start with that second question. When thinking about your short-term goal, think about the role, industry, function, and example company. Although no one is going to hold you to this specific goal, this level of detail can show that you’ve done enough research to know where you want to be post MBA. A solid short-term goal might be something like “I want to be a product manager at an education-access-focused company like Coursera.” For the long term, think about what problem you’d like to solve in your career. With this short-term goal in mind, this might be something like “I want to ensure that everyone has access to information that can help them succeed in their careers.” This goal can be more broad — who knows what the landscape will look like long term? So think directionally. Now that you’ve defined your goals (I said we were going to work backward), think about a story you could use to start this essay that shows why this is your goal. Based on your experience, this might need to include more or less information. If you are staying in a similar industry to the one you’re currently in, then you might need less explanation, but if you are doing a career change, you’ll need to explain why these goals make sense for you.

Okay, now that you have your goals defined, you can attack the first question. What do you need from an MBA to help you achieve these goals? Identify three or four gaps in your knowledge or skills that an MBA can provide. Did you study something other than business as an undergrad? If so, you probably need insight to business overall. What functional knowledge do you need? And where do you want to grow as a leader? If there is something unique about your profile — such as applying earlier or later than most candidates — you could also include why now is the right time for you to get an MBA.

3 – At Anderson, our mission is to prepare transformative leaders by developing students to think innovatively, problem-solve, and adapt to others – all with a driven and purposeful mindset. How do you plan to achieve your goals and develop into a transformative leader during your time at UCLA Anderson? (250 words)

This essay then stems from the school’s first question, “Why are you pursuing an MBA?” Take your list of what you need to gain, and do research about how Anderson can help you fill those gaps. Be specific. What classes, clubs, or experiences will you take or get involved in? And don’t stop there; think about how you will be an active contributor and/or what you specifically need to learn. Do not stay too high-level. Every sentence should be one that only you could write, because no one else has your experiences and your specific goals. For example, “In Professor Anderson’s ‘Market Research’ class, I hope to build strategies to identify new markets in education and develop pathways for the growing number of non-college-bound secondary students.” And make sure you address the leadership part of the question — not just how you want to lead but also how you want to lead change, innovation, and transformation. Don’t forget to talk with Anderson students in this process. Although there is a lot of information on Anderson’s website, the best way to show the admissions committee that you’ve done more research is to learn what is going on in, for example, the Education Club and be thoughtful about how you could contribute to it. Would you take a leadership role? Is there a gap in content you think you could fill? All of this is best learned by connecting with students and/or recent alumni.

B) Optional Essay: No preference is given in the evaluation process to those who choose to respond to this optional essay, so please use your best judgment:

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

The optional essay is truly that — optional. This is a place where you can address any questions that the admissions team might have when looking over your application. Usually, these questions center on your academic readiness, your career potential, or your choice of recommender. This essay is an opportunity to explain to admissions what was happening “behind the scenes” that they couldn’t glean from the other parts of your application. Were you working a full-time job to support your family when you were an undergrad, which might have affected your grades? Have you chosen someone other than your direct supervisor as a recommender? Is there a gap on your resume? Use this essay to provide the bigger picture. But if you don’t have any extenuating circumstances, best to leave this one unanswered. 

Reapplicants

Reapplicants are those who submitted a completed MBA application within the previous two years (that is, who applied for the MBA program starting in 2023 or 2024) and received a final decision. The process to reapply is streamlined:

– Create a new application.

– Indicate on the Program page of the application that you are a reapplicant.

– Reapplicants are required to answer the first two Short Essay Prompts. It is suggested, but not required, to also answer the third Short Essay Prompt, as well as the Optional Essay. 

– Submit only one new recommendation (can be same recommender as previous application)

– Watch for decision notifications according to the standard release schedule.

The school’s new essay prompts give you an opportunity to directly answer these questions for the admissions committee. While the first two are required, strongly consider also answering the third, because it is your opportunity to showcase the knowledge you have about Anderson.