UCLA Anderson Essay tips

Essays

1. Describe the ways in which your family and/or community have helped shape your development. (750 words)
2. Describe the biggest risk you have ever taken, the outcome, and what you learned in the process. (500 words)
3. Describe your short-term and long-term career goals. What is your motivation for pursuing an MBA now and how will UCLA Anderson help you to achieve your goals? (750 words)
4. Audio or Text
   
   Select and respond to one of the following questions. We would like you to respond to the question by recording an audio response (up to 1 minute). If you are unable to submit your response via audio, then please upload a written response instead (250 words). The supported file types for audio files are: .avi,.wav,.mp3,.wmv,.midi,.wma,.aiff,.au,.mp4
   
   * Entrepreneurship is a mindset that embraces innovation and risk-taking within both established and new organizations. Describe an instance in which you exhibited this mindset
   
   * What is something people will find surprising about you?
5. Are there any extenuating circumstances in your profile about which the Admissions Committee should be aware? (250 words)

TIPS

Essay 1: This essay is strictly about your non professional life. So don’t stuff in your college, work experience and achievements. Talk about your lighter side. UCLA Anderson wants to know about your family and how has that helped you evolve as a person. Many Female applicants from tier 2 cities use this essay to stress on how their families supported them. Though you can talk about things like financial crisis, but make sure that you don’t cry or complaint about them.

Essay 2: You can write an incidence from your personal as well as professional life. But talk about one incidence only and not a series. Also since the essay 1 gives you ample opportunity to talk about your personal side, it will be better if you pick up an experience from your past professional life and talk about that. Make sure that you cover all aspects the risk or situation, the outcome and learnings. Use the STAR model – Situation, Task, Action, Result followed by learnings.

Essay 3: A standard Career goals and why MBA essay. We hope you crack that easily.

Essay 4: UCLA Anderson many other schools have now started asking for things like a audio/video along with essays. Though you can write also but it is always better so record something and send if you are a good speaker. But make sure that you record yourself. Don’t ask your friends who speak crack English to record as this can backfire in interview is there is a stark difference.

Essay 5: you can use this essay to tell the Admission Committee about some family problem like financial crisis etc. But make sure that it should not look fabricated and you should tell how you fought with it and what you have learnt.