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The MBA Student Voice offers a first-hand perspective on life inside an MBA program and at UCLA Anderson directly from our current students.
The original title of my blog post was going to be "5 Application Fallacies That I Straight Up Debunk Cuz That's How We Roll at Anderson", but the more conservative "me" took hold and I went with the plain vanilla title. There is a latin phrase "res ipsa loquitur" which means "the thing speaks for itself." This blog post hopefully does just that and helps all of you out there to approach your applications with correct expectations.
1. If I don't get a 700 on the GMAT I have no chance and should lock myself in a dark, damp closet as punishment.
Have you ever seen those "Keep Calm and..." signs? They should make one that says "Keep Calm and Be Happy with Your 690." Let me qualify this. If you have taken the GMAT multiple times and you max out in the 670-690 range, calm down and realize that the GMAT is but one of many measurements the admissions committee takes into consideration when evaluating your candidacy. Here is some basic information about how the adcom looks at the GMAT. The more balanced the score, the better. If you have to be better off in one section, be better in quant. Why? They want to make sure you don't have a nervous breakdown when you dive into the very quantitative courseload. If you only take the GMAT once and your high score is 670, take it again. The adcom will appreciate that you attempted improving your score, even if it goes up a mere 10 points. If your GMAT is a 590, you're in trouble. However, each top business school admits someone with a very poor GMAT score, but that's probably because they had an AMAZING story to tell in their essays, work experience, or recommendation letters (i.e. you were a member of Seal Team Six, you made a career out of saving stray animals and turning them into trained acrobats, etc.). Here's the bottom line--remember that the GMAT is but a piece in the puzzle. Don't let it discourage you.
Anderprom. Orientation Rope Course and "trust" falls. That first Anderson pool party. These are a few reasons to get fit while at school. Fortunately, LA provides a wealth of opportunities to shred that adipose tissue and firm up those abs. Below are some of my favorite things to do in the area!
This is the most logical, full service gym that most of us will use during school. Complete with weights, olympic platforms, every cardio machine you could imagine, and three spick'n'span full length basketball courts, this is the spot! Millions of hot pockets and In'N'Out burger calories have been burned in these hallowed halls. Before school starts you can get a summer pass for just $50 if you show your Bruincard. During school the admission fee is embedded in your tuition.
#RealTalk: Numbers can be scary. Especially for those of us who are a bit out of practice.
Looking back on my past, you'd think I wouldn't have an issue. I was a member of my high school math team, a state champion in Science Olympiad and competed on the academic decathalon. I took calculus while in high school through a local community college while enrolled in college-level courses in statistics and physics. I did a lot of math back then.
So, I entered my undergraduate career with all quantitative requirements fulfilled. And, being that I have a BA in literature (and a pretty non-quantitative professional history), I haven't done math since.
This was my biggest concern when choosing to apply to business school. To be admitted to a top MBA program like Anderson I needed to demonstrate high proficiency in math. I knew it was just a piece of my application. But every admissions officer told me that - for someone with my profile - it was a big piece. But I had no record, and no practice.
So, it was all up to the GMAT.
The first time I took the GMAT, I self-studied, thinking that I could do what I had done for every other standardized test in my life: just become somewhat familiar enough with the test beforehand to ease any pre-test anxiety, and then just figure it out as I went. My score was good. But not great.
I took it again, and really focused on math. I raised my score by 30 points, but didn't reach my goal. So, I took a prep class. It was time-consuming (and expensive!), but worth it. I learned the strategies I needed to pull off the score I wanted. I ignored the rest of the test, and just focused on the quantitative section.
And it worked. I raised my GMAT score by 50 points, taking my score into the very top of UCLA's range. And, even more importantly, I was admitted to Anderson!
Unfortunately, however, this is only just the beginning of my reintroduction to mathematics. The reason, of course, for the demonstrated quantitative proficiency required for admission is that we will need those quantitative skills in school. Business school courses have a lot of numbers. A lot.
To prepare for this anticipated barrage of numbers, I decided to enroll this summer in two 10-week online courses offered through Anderson: Mathematics for Management and Excel for Management. I am more than decent at navigating Excel, and have a somewhat mathematical mind, but I wanted to be as prepared as possible to collaborate with my more quantitatively learned colleagues come fall quarter.
The classes, taught by the legendary UCLA accounting professor David Ravetch, began a few weeks ago. The videos are awesome:
I never took an accounting class at UCLA, but I know he is, literally, a hero among men on this campus. And Professor Ravetch has, so far, delivered. Among his playful demeanor and palpable love of math (and Excel), he distills complex topics into learnable nuggets that are slowly awakening the quantitative side of my brain.
And while it's sometimes difficult to find time for my math homework - among working, volunteering, socializing, traveling and preparing for school this summer - I know I will appreciate it when I begin school in September and my fear of math has fallen away like the autumn leaves.
(Ok. No. We don't really have seasons in Los Angeles.)
Sure we all joke about taking a vow of poverty by returning to graduate school, but let's be honest--most of us will have a bit of coin to spend on some good eats that will satiate even the most finicky foodie. Although up for debate (a debate I will strategically avoid in this post), Los Angeles is without a doubt one of the most recognized cities in the world for diverse, delectable, and delicious cuisine. So, for your viewing pleasure, let's dive in to my top 10 eateries in the LA area!!! Take copious notes.
As I end the glorious year 1 of the best MBA program in the world, it is only fitting that I give the spring quarter a fitting tribute with a quick round up!
The quarter started on a high note. I'd signed my internship offer from Microsoft for the summer (Product Management) and from MarkedUp Inc. (a Santa Monica based startup) for the spring (Product Marketing). Yes, its very common for students here to do an internship during the school year and because the school is so well-entrenched in the Silicon Beach community (LA's startup scene) and opportunities keep coming all the time. Naturally, with the recruiting season behind me, I was relieved of so much stress. Also, while most people are confused about the difference between Product Mgmt and Marketing, I got a chance to dabble with both!!
I got to meet so many vivacious new admits from the incoming class of 2015 at the A days, where I represented the International Business Association(IBA), Anderson Creative and the International students panel.
As the first week of classes began, we started practicing for our C4C cheer, part of which we'd performed already in the Anderson Talent Showcase (February), but wanted to take it to the next level. After 3 weeks of tireless practicing, we put up a great show at the Stanford C4C weekend, which Kyle talked about earlier. You should totally watch the video below and stare at it with your jaw touching the floor (ok that part's optional). WHile the dance itself wasn't that difficult, learning to throw and catch an athletic girl took many dark turns during the practice sessions. Fortunately, everyone lived to dance the day!
Somewhere along the way, on the trip back from Stanford, we also finalized our AMR team. AMR is one of the most important parts of the second year of the MBA, and everyone therefore selects their teams and project preferences very carefully. I will be working on a new technology created by a Ph.D student at Anderson - specifically trying to establish a company and then it to market. The technology, called Mighty Mount, won the Knapp Venture Competition - another key component of the UCLA MBA. Yes, we have an amazingly entrepeneurial program here! What better way to capitalize on that by doing your second year project on building your own business? :)
Talking of entrepreneurship, I helped organize the biggest conference at Anderson - the EA Conference, which saw a huge attendence from successful entrepreneurs, VCs and students. Bill Gross, founder of Idealab, gave the most amazing keynote that I've ever heard in any conference so far and made me realize that I could just be hearing to the next Steve Jobs of the world. It was amazing to see so many illustrious people in the school at the same time. Speakers came from companies such as Google, Disney, Fox, Yahoo!, CornerStone On Demand, Riot Games, Veggie Grill and many more. A complete roundup of the conference can be read at buzzfeed.
So much going on, but was I even studying, you wonder? Well ofcourse, I took 5 classes this time and was loaded with tons of work at all times. However, I really enjoyed the classes, in particular, the Tools for Business Strategy class which had mini projects for Deloitte and PwC, and the Brand Management class which is jointly taught by Professor Sanjay Sood and Jim Stengel (ex-CMO, P&G). In the latter, we got a chance to meet some really amazing people, such as Erik Ryan of Method, Davide Grasso of Nike, and Robert Eckert, former CEO of Mattel Inc. We also visited Ogilvy's LA Office and listened to their intriguing story of UCLA Anderson's rebranding effort (see a video made my Anderson Students for the new brand). Seriously, where else could you get to meet these people? I fell even more in love with my school! :)
While we're talking of meeting famous personalities, this quarter made me completely starry eyed. A huge advantage of being inside one of the best universities in the country is that you get to be part of the larger community, where so much more keeps happening all the time. Some of us were lucky to take advantage of that and meet Josh Radnor (Ted Mosbey of How I Met Your Mother), the Hangover star cast at the premier and Owen Wilson at the premier of The Internship at the Bruin Theater. At UCLA, the stars come to you!
This isn't all that UCLA has to offer though. I started discovering really fun events organized by different departments at UCLA that are also open for MBA students. Professor McCann, who heads the Center for Global Management at Anderson, secured VIP tickets for Anderson students at the Trisha Brown Dance show at the Royce Hall (the most exhilerating dance performance I've seen) ...
and the Graduate Student Association organized a trip to the Knotts Berry Farm (awesome rides!).
We rounded out the quarter by yet another set of fun activities - first the Prom (which was also my first prom ever - you're never too old for your first prom, right?) and then the Hollywood Hike (literally ending at a high note!!)
Oh and did I tell you about the amazing beach bonfires, making s'mores ( a teaser below) and so many other things?! Phew, I dont think I can describe my adventures at UCLA Anderson in just words.
And finally the icing on the cake, or perhaps the cake itself...
You really need to be here to experience it for yourself. I heart UCLA!
Jim Stengel recently returned from the Microsoft-hosted CEO summit with the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Arianna Huffington and today he arrived at Anderson to speak to a room full of Anderson students.
Anderson is lucky to count Stengel amongst its illustrious adjunct professors. Stengel teaches an annual course for which he teaches an ideals-based approach to marketing, brings in his incredible award-winning industry experience and application and presents high-profile speakers to share insider insights.
Today, Stengal us gave an overview and valuable business lessons about how to make a difference for your business, as second year students near graduation and first year students head to their MBA summer internships.
1) Purpose: If you have a brand that means something, take care of it. There is nothing more valuable. Work with a purpose, an ideal and a mission. How it comes to life, how you activate and how it infiltrates your company is key. Corporations are focusing more and more on EQ rather than IQ.
2) Measurement: The importance and power of outputs is immense. For example, Clay Christenson talks about three types of innovations: disruptive, sustainability, and efficiency. We focus on efficiency because it is easy to measure in the outcome, but how can we measure less quantitative tangible outputs that can equally add value that will help us think long term.
3) Critical Thinking: Checks and balances create knowledge and stronger value. For example the CEO of PIMCO not only has an executive counsel, but then also has a secondary internal counsel committee, an external counsel committee and a group of MBAs scrutinize their thinking and ultimately mobilize better outputs.
We students were also lucky enough to hear Warren Buffet's top four insights, Bill Gates' top three challenges facing the world today and Steve Ballmer's three key factors to building a successful business from Stengel. If you want to hear those for yourself and tap into the wealth of speakers that come to Anderson's campus, then I encourage you too to pursue an MBA at UCLA Anderson.
With the winter quarter having wrapped up and spring quarter just beginning, it's hard to believe... I'm 2/3 of the way done with my first-year! All that remains between me and my summer internship are the 10 weeks of Spring Quarter (which will be action packed). On top of that, I'm 1/3 of the way done with my entire Anderson MBA experience! That is even more mind-blowing...
With that in mind, I'm dedicating this blog post to some activities that took place over the end of Winter Quarter and Spring Break.
Academics Wrap-Up
The one required core class for Winter Quarter is Operations and Technology Management. Above you can see the wheel of knowledge that you move around throughout the quarter. While the class is challenging, as its the first time many of us have been exposed to operations in a granular fashion, I certainly learned a lot. Especially after learning about Queuing Theory - now everytime I see a long line I just want to fix it!
It was perhaps not a long time ago when the air nipped, leaves began to fall, Anderson Afternoons became Anderson nights and the rare hoodie-covered soul who'd be found roaming the Anderson compound had but one thing to say with a grim stare, "Winter is coming..". Just the thought of a winter quarter with the heavy recruiting, interviews, sitting in classes with suits and the wretched Operations Management course haunted almost everyone, except ofcourse the above-mentioned bravehearts. My absence from this blog, therefore, is pardonable. Hibernating seemed to be the safest thing to do.
Alas, hibernate I did not. As we slowly began to ease into the rigorous MBA program, a lot more began to be piled up on our frail shoulders. Here are some of the highlights, from my perspective, of the war that ensued.
Recruiting
The quarter sort of began with days on the job for finance, tech, entertainment, sports and retail industries. My sweet but short Florida winter vacation was cut even shorter by the "Tech trek" organized by HTBA. The allocation of companies was done through a bidding system where you bid 1000 points across the 9-10 companies chosen for the trek. I was somehow allotted companies I had bid only 1 point for and thus had no motivation at all to travel to the bay area. Frankly, being from the tech industry I already had contacts in most of my target companies who I could've contacted and arranged a meeting at a bit more convenient time. So the tech trek was a bit of a dampener in that sense for me. However, a lot of my classmates had a good experience because they could've never arranged to visit these companies on their own, so I guess it definitely has more value for people with non-tech backgrounds.
As soon as school started in January, most of the big tech companie started pouring in and people like me recruting for tech were left gasping for breath. We were under the impression that the early recruiting is usually for consulting and finance but tech started real early this time. I applied for about 20 jobs in January alone and interviewed with atleast 10 over the next 2 months. Almost everyone underestimated the time it takes to drop resume and cover letter into the Parker posting for on-campus opportunities! Interviewing itself was ofcourse time consuming because of the unique way one needs to prepare for different companies. All in all, it was hectic, but not stressful. So many companies come on campus at UCLA Anderson that it tremendously reduces your travel needs and time. Interviewing at Parker (with the friendly staff, Emily Taylor with the usual coffee and your friends offering you comfort) makes it much more relaxed. All through I was in touch with my friends from other schools and it was obvious that Anderson had the lead in the quality of companies to campus (atleast for tech, not sure whats the scene for other industries). Product Management, Product Marketing, Corp. Strategy, Finance and Buss. Development were the usual roles in the offing. I ended up riding high on the first wave of recruting, got three offers and will be spending the summer in Seattle! My classmates recruting for rech have also reported some amazing offers, proving Anderson's reputation in tech.
Academics
While the coursework, as usual, was great and the professors awesome, it was hard to maintain focus while you're waiting to leave the class midway for an interview. You're physically in class, but in all other respects all you care about is the job you're interviewing for. Naturally, academics tend to suffer. It is worth mentioning, then, that the professors here make it really easy for students by bringing in a ton of energy to the classroom. I'm lucky to have been taught by Anderson's own Dougie Houser, Bruce Carlin, who has a way of spicing up Finance classes through Pink Floyd quotes and Philip Leslie, who got in his son's entire second grade class to participate in the Disney case discussion for the Strategy course. Yes, classroom continued to be a lot of fun!
Ander-fun
The recruiting stress couldn't keep the future business leaders here from partying fridays and being hungover Saturdays. While I'm bound by the Ander-honour code for partying, I can't really talk about all the crazy things that happened. What I can talk about are fun things we did on campus. A case in point being the Harlem Shake, where a bunch of MBA students-gone-crazy wore the most preposterous costumes and danced awkwardly to the meme of our times. Oh, and we even did one on the beach! The song and dance continued into the Anderson Talent Showcase organized by Anderson Creative, a show where Anderson students perform to raise money for Challenge4Charity. It was overwhelming to see the kind of talent we have in our class. We're surely gonna kick some butt in the upcoming Stanford C4C weekend!
Ander-families
This was the quarter that saw the first of Ander-babies, as some of my classmates became proud fathers/mothers. Our section put up a baby shower for four to-be dads, all at once! We're one big family and we're only growing. Sig-O's of Anderson students are a pretty active bunch as well! Never to miss the social scene, some of them are even making the most of their stint in LA. If you're a sig-o reading this or someone who has a sig-O, check out Sunny's blogto explore the possibilities.
Thats it for now. They say in the game of MBA, you either win or you die. That makes us a 360-strong class of survivors!
By the way, If you're a new admit still making a decision about Anderson, feel free to hit up any of us who post here and we'll be happy to talk! I've already spoken to a few people in the last few weeks and looks like we have amazing class starting this fall!
Last week approximately 50 people who have received offers to join the Anderson Class of 2015 came to visit for Anderson Preview Day. The Preview Day is a mini-version of Anderson Admit Weekend (aka A-Days) which takes place April 12-14 this year.
I did not have a chance to attend Preview Day or A-Days last year, so was very excited about the opportunity to volunteer and meet potential future classmates. The timing for the week could not have been better!
The event started on Wednesday night, with a meet and greet dinner and drinks at Glendon Bar and Kitchen in Westwood, near UCLA. After everyone had a chance to connect with current first and second-years, faculty, and admissions staff, the group headed to Pauley Pavilion to watch UCLA Men's Basketball. The night couldn't have gone better, as the team won an overtime thriller against Arizona - great way to introduce people to the newly renovated arena and the excitment of going to a business school with great sports teams!
The following day the group had a variety of activities to choose from. It started with a short tour of campus and meet and greet lunch for those people who hadn't been able to make dinner the previous night, and then people split off to do class visits, listen to a panel about academics and career options, financial aid, and other such topics.
The career panel consisted of the following first and second-years, with their pre-MBA job listed first followed by where they interned or are interning this summer. Both Charlotte and Caroline received full-time offers from their internship employers and are returning post-MBA.
The conclusion of the Preview Day was a visit to the TED Campfire, where the group was able to listen to TED talks from Anderson students and faculty as a wrap up to the week-long TED events. See the post by fellow blogger Alejandra on TED week!
All in all, it was an awesome experience for me to share my love and enthusiasm for Anderson with future classmates, and it got me excited about seeing even more people at A-Days coming up in April!
The MBA Student Voice offers a first-hand perspective on life inside the MBA program at UCLA Anderson. Bloggers are current students who volunteer to share their experiences with prospective students.
