UCLA / Anderson Essay Topic Analysis 2007-2008 » Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

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Application Deadlines
Below are the upcoming deadlines for Fall 2008 entry to top-tier schools.
Apr. 1: UT Austin McCombs R3
Apr. 2: Dartmouth / Tuck R4
Apr. 3: INSEAD R4
Apr. 4: Oxford / Said R3
Apr. 23: UCLA / Anderson R4
Apr. 28: CMU / Tepper R4
May 2: LBS R4
Jun. 6: Oxford / Said R4

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics for the 2007-2008 admissions season.
The Career Goals Essay
Berkeley / Haas
Chicago GSB
CMU / Tepper *
Columbia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
IESE *
INSEAD
London Business School
MIT / Sloan
Michigan / Ross
Northwestern / Kellogg
NYU / Stern
Oxford / Said *
Penn / Wharton
Stanford GSB
UCLA / Anderson
UNC / Kenan-Flagler
UT Austin / McCombs *
UVA / Darden
Yale SOM
* denotes last year's commentary

Categories
Use categories to access all that has been written on each of the topics. We have categorized by school and by subject matter.

Interview Reports
A selection of interview field reports from fellow applicants posted to the MBA Admissions Wiki. Add your reports when you are finished with your interviews.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan / Ross
MIT / Sloan
Stanford
UNC / Chapel Hill
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
London Business School

GMAT Resources
GMAC
Manhattan GMAT
GMAT Club
Princeton Review
Test Prep New York
Kaplan
Beat The GMAT

Writing Resources
Guide to Grammar and Writing
The Internet Grammar of English
English Usage, Style and Composition
The Economist Style Guide
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant

School Rankings
Rankings are a good way to start your research on various MBA Programs. Keep in mind each uses a different methodology.
Business Week
Economist
Financial Times
Forbes
USNews
Wall Street Journal

Career Guides
The following resources should be useful to those who want to research the careers open to them after (or before) earning an MBA.
Vault.com
Wetfeet

Business School Resources
The following are business resources offered by a variety of leading Business Schools. It's useful to subscribe to these resources, especially for the schools to which you are applying.

MBA Programs: North America
If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
Berkeley / Haas
Carnegie Mellon / Tepper
Chicago
Columbia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Emory / Goizueta
Harvard
HEC Montreal
Indiana / Kelley
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
Northwestern / Kellogg
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Kenan Flagler
Pennsylvania / Wharton
Queens
Stanford
Texas / McCombs
Thunderbird
Toronto
UCLA / Anderson
Virginia / Darden
Western Ontario / Ivey
Yale

MBA Programs: Rest of the World
As there is some variety in the length of international MBA programs, we have denoted the length of the program next to its name (1 = one year; 2 = 2 years). If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
AGSM (Australia) 2
Cambridge / Judge (UK) 1
CIEBS (China) 2
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (China) 1
ESADE (Spain) 1 or 2
HEC (France) 2
IESE (Spain) 2
IMD (Switzerland) 1
INSEAD (France) 1
IPADE (Mexico)
ISB (India) 1
London Business School (UK) 2
Oxford / Said (UK) 1
Rotterdam (Netherlands) 2
University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) 1

Additional Resources
Here we link a host of additional resources available across the web. E-mail info@clearadmit.com to have resources added to this list.
AACSB International
Association of MBAs
Beyond Grey Pinstripes
EFMD
gradschools.com (worldwide)
Infozee
mba.com (GMAT Scores)
MBAInfo
mbaleague.blogspot.com
MBAzone
MBA Jungle
TOEFL
Top MBA

MBA Tipline
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Thursday, October 04, 2007

UCLA / Anderson Essay Topic Analysis 2007-2008

Today we’ll take a close look at UCLA/Anderson’s three required essay questions. At a relatively slim five pages total, UCLA’s questions cover quite a bit of ground chronologically, reaching into the distant past, the more recent past and extending into the future. We recommend that applicants do some reflecting before tackling these essays, as it seems particularly important to arrive at a broad view when approaching this school’s application. Let’s take a look at each of the questions and how they fit into the complete picture.

Essay 1: Please provide us with a summary of your personal and family background. Include information about your parents and siblings, where you grew up, and perhaps a highlight or special memory of your youth (2 page limit).

While we generally caution applicants against writing at length about their families and upbringing when they could cover other topics in their essays (lest they sound immature or create the impression that they haven’t done anything of note more recently), Anderson makes the unusual move of explicitly requesting information on this subject. The school is likely asking this to get at information that might not otherwise come up in an applicant’s file - such as a childhood spent abroad or difficult socio-economic circumstances overcome - to get a more complete sense of the person as a whole and what an applicant might bring to the community in terms of background and perspective. Another possible motivation might be to identify reflective and self-aware applicants who are able to identify the ways their early experiences have influenced who they are today. No matter what approach you choose to take in framing your comments, remember that in spite of the somewhat unconventional subject, it’s important to speak directly to the question and cover all of the requested points.

Essay 2: Discuss a situation, preferably work related, where you have taken a significant leadership role. How does this event demonstrate your managerial potential? (Limit to 1 page)

This is a great opportunity to share a professional success story (taking the adcom’s hint that they would prefer a work-related example), ideally one in which you made a positive impact on your company or a group. The rather broad request to discuss a “leadership role” leaves the applicant with a wide array of options in terms of potential subject matter, so candidates are open to explore varying modes and avenues of influence and directing the work of others. They key will be to explicitly tie the comments about this previous experience to potential for the future in response to the final component of Anderson’s question. A final thing to keep in mind is that the relatively short length of this essay will require that the anecdote be fairly focused and concise.

Essay 3: Discuss your career goals. Why are you seeking an MBA degree at this particular point in your career? Specifically, why are you applying to UCLA Anderson? (Limit to 2 pages)

This is a fairly standard career goals/why MBA essay, though it is a bit unusual that this inquiry closes rather than opens the full set of essays in the application. While it’s important to provide a candid account of your professional objectives and interest in Anderson’s program, remember that a truly artful set of essays will introduce common themes that run throughout all three responses. Ideally, then, the topic of this essay will not come as a complete surprise to an adcom member who has read the previous essays.

# posted by Clear Admit @ 2:30 am in Essay Topic Analysis, School: UCLA / Anderson

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The following are links to bloggers at each of the schools listed.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Chapel Hill
Stanford
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
Yale
ESADE
IESE
INSEAD
London Business School

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Bshoolers.com
Community blog with MBA student and alum contributors.

Forté Foundation MBA Diaries
Video blog entries posted by women MBA students.

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Independent blog with content by Vanderbilt MBA students.

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