Describe your short term and long term goals (150 words maximum)
Why is UCLA Anderson a good school for you? (150 words maximum)
The UCLA Anderson campus is perpetually in motion. Anderson graduates kick-start businesses, run global organizations and are deeply involved with the community. The faculty members in UCLA not only teach. They develop new innovations. Their groundbreaking research and expertise attracts news media coverage around the globe.
So, are you ready to take on UCLA? In order to demonstrate that you are a good fit to Anderson, you have to showcase yourself as a young leader who has the fire in the belly to make a difference in the world. You are someone who is far apart from the common man both in thinking and in spirit. You dream big, apply imagination to overcome challenges and have the ability to achieve things that you aspire. You are a game changer.
First, understand Anderson’s culture, and then write this essay. It will be a breeze.
Regarding your goals, UCLA understands that you are at a point of inflection in your career. You definitely have the aspiration to become a who’s who in the corporate world. And you want UCLA to provide you the strength and wisdom. But the major question is who are you and what do you want to accomplish in your career?
Discuss your goals in details: industry, job roles, locations, what you expect to do, possible challenges you expect and so on. Additionally, please mention what inspires you to accomplish these goals. Ask yourself why you wish to accomplish these goals instead of doing something else.
However, keep one thing in mind. You may narrate an invincible career plan. But, in order to differentiate yourself from other applicants, don’t try to pitch your big ideas such as launching your renewable energy firm to combat global warming or starting an Impact investment fund to improve the socio-economic conditions in Africa.
Instead talk about the inevitability of your plan. Show them that you are anyway going to achieve your goals. Your academic background bestowed you the required intellectual ability and your professional career have provided you wide ranging leadership skills. Therefore, you are very much in your ways to conquer your career goals. UCLA MBA program will definitely broaden your leadership horizon. Agreed! But you have the leadership DNA to achieve your goals.
Unlike other applicants, don’t try to sell your career plans to become the CEO of a Fortune-500 company. Rather you are “marketing” your ability to execute this plan. Demonstrate that your academic and professional background, leadership accomplishments along with your passion ……..all are perfectly in line for you to achieve your career goals.
For the long term dream, what can you do to differentiate yourself from other UCLA applicants? Most of them either dream to become a CEO of a global company, or managing partner of a global consulting or launch their own start-up. 95% of the applicants say either of these three and it doesn’t advance their case in the eye of the admissions committee. Who can differentiate between three applicants with such nice sounding long term dreams?
Hence, show UCLA Anderson what benefit the world will get when you will be successful in your dream job. What problems you will be fixing in your dream job? What opportunities you hope to tap in? How are you going to be a game changer? What DISRUPTIONS you are going to cause? However, don’t give them a laundry list of activities that you will do in that job role. Instead narrate your story and show the benefit people will get from your long term dream job.
At Anderson, we believe our students are engaged, courageous, humble, and open. Describe a time when you demonstrated one of these traits in your personal life. (250 words maximum)
This is the essay that can differentiate you from hundreds of other applicants. A well written essay will demonstrate your maturity and wisdom – qualities that the admissions officers are scouting among the applicants. However, a haphazard response or half baked answer might doom your chance.
You can pick any story from your professional or personal life; however, I prefer a personal story here. The essay # 1 has provided you an opportunity to throw light on your professional career. Now is the time to shed some light on your personal side and showcase your values and beliefs to UCLA. Your story need to highlight only one trait out of the given four - engaged, courageous, humble, and open. If it shows more than one trait, then that’s fine. But I have observed that few applicants don’t read the question properly and keep on searching a story which demonstrates all these traits.
What’s the most courageous thing you have ever done in your life? Have you left your job and plunged into entrepreneurship? If yes, then that will be a fascinating story. Or, have you spearheaded a team to solve critical business challenges in your organization? Or, have you led a team of volunteer to clean a sea beach? These types of story will showcase you as a total team player and demonstrate how you engaged with your team. Narrate how you have guided others to resolve issues, collaborated with a larger cross functional team to manage project risks, and gracefully accepted feedback from others. This will undoubtedly portray your humbleness and openness to accept others’ point of view.
The secret of any storytelling is how you unfold the story. Don’t be guided by any specific format such as CAR (challenge-action-result) or STAR (situation-task-action-result). These kinds of format sometime limit our imagination and storytelling abilities. Write from your heart. Narrate the story eloquently, and then edit professionally to fit it in 250 words. Talk to us if you need any assistance.
Please review my tips on optional application essays in the following blog posts:
If you would like professional guidance with your Cornell Johnson MBA application, please consider our MBA Essay Support or our MBA Application Packages, which include advising, editing essays, interview coaching, a resume edit and reco edit for the Cornell Johnson application.
This is the main question in every MBA reapplication: How have you improved your candidacy since your last application? Career progress is an obvious place to begin with, but if your academic results were less than impressive, then what have you done since you last applied in order to refine your quantitative or verbal skills?
Have you improved your GMAT score, enrolled in mathematics or statistics courses, or taken an active interest in extracurricular activities since your last application? If yes, please explain in detail.
What if your resume remained basically the same since you last applied to UCLA? Well, in that case, highlight any new strategic project or any major accomplishment at work. If your career goals have evolved since you last applied, discuss that evolution. Demonstrating significant thought about your future career plan and an in-depth introspection can also be a sign of progress. So, updating your career goals thoughtfully is equally crucial for your reapplication.
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