UCLA MBA Essays & Analysis 2024-2025
The following essay topic analysis examines the University of California, Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management (UCLA / Anderson) MBA admissions essays. The UCLA MBA essays are for the 2024-2025 admissions season. You can also review essay topic analyses for additional leading MBA programs as well as general Essay Tips to further aid you in developing your admissions essays.
UCLA MBA Essays & Analysis 2024-2025
For the 2024-2025 application year, UCLA Anderson has three short essay prompts that are required for first-time applicants. Together, they break down to a classic career goals essay.
Essay 1
Why are you pursuing an MBA? (150 words)
This is the opportunity to spell out the skills you need from an MBA. You can also dig into your motivation here. You may be able to cite your career progress briefly, as a means of showing that you are at a natural breaking point and need an MBA to advance your career. You may also highlight how an MBA is the only way for you to attain the skills you need–skills that will be applicable to your goals.
Essay 2
Describe your short-term and long-term post-MBA career goals. (150 words)
With only 150 words, this answer will need to be simple and direct. Identify your desired industry, position and target companies immediately post-MBA. Then define your long-term plans by position and industry. Given Anderson’s focus on being a transformative leader, it would make sense to also account for your impact along the way.
Essay 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)
With 250 words, applicants will do well to make each sentence as direct and detailed as possible. The answer here should reflect the skills you need from an MBA and the skills you expect to exercise in your goals–in line with the other two short answers. Reflect on innovation, problem solving and adaptation, per the prompt. Then, show that you have done your research by accounting for specific offerings of UCLA Anderson’s MBA program that connect to your specific goals. A good test is to see if you can simply sub in another school name without other changes–that means you have not tailored your answer enough.
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 narrow framing of this prompt — along with the additional suggestion that applicants exercise judgment in responding — suggests that this response will be best reserved to address glaring weaknesses or liabilities in one’s application (as opposed to offering “bonus information” about one’s candidacy). Applicants should keep their responses brief and to-the-point, offering explanations without making excuses and humbly bringing mitigating factors to the reader’s attention.
Re-applicants will have a chance to account for updates to their test scores, work experience, academics, activities and anything else they deem fit within the application data form. If you have refined your goals, for example, you can select “other” in the data form field and address those related improvements there. With all of this in mind, this prompt should be reserved for extenuating circumstances that happen to fall outside of these categories.
Clear Admit Resources
Thanks for reading our analysis of this year’s UCLA / Anderson MBA essay topics. As you work on your UCLA / Anderson MBA essays and application, we encourage you to consider all of Clear Admit’s UCLA / Anderson offerings:
- UCLA / Anderson School of Management on the Clear Admit website: up-to-date advice and admissions information
- Clear Admit LiveWire: admissions updates submitted in real time by applicants to Anderson
- Clear Admit DecisionWire: school selections in real-time by admits to Anderson