UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

MBA Application Tips from an Insider: Test Scores

By Adrian Aguirre

We all know that test taking can be a stressful and anxiety producing process, especially in a competitive pre-MBA environment. Perhaps it’s the memory of an unexpected pop-quiz or the pressure of having to produce efficiently and effectively in a limited amount of time; whatever, the case may be, we hope to put your mind at ease with by clarifying some facts and dispelling a few misconceptions about how we weigh your tests results during the admissions process.

To apply to Anderson’s MBA program you can choose to take the GMAT or the GRE. We use the GMAT and GRE as predictors of your academic performance, particularly for the first year of the MBA program. When we review your scores, all components of the GMAT/GRE are taken into consideration, including the verbal, quantitative, Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) and GMAT’s Integrated Reasoning (IR), so it’s important to prepare for and do well on each section. If you have not taken either test and are unsure which one to study for, it is suggested that you consider taking the GMAT since it is designed specifically for business school admissions. Ultimately, we recommend that you take the test with which you feel most comfortable.

It Pays to De-Clutter: FEMBA Alumnus Brian Thomas Raised More than $3M to Simplify Your Storage — and Offer Bruins a Discount

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

When Brian Thomas (FEMBA ’14) was still enrolled in business school at UCLA Anderson, an angel investor handed him a $75,000 check to back his idea for an enterprise whose premise was “self-storage simplified.” In short order, Thomas secured additional angel funding before his degree was even conferred. Next, he found himself holding $2 million from a series seed round led in May by Resolute Ventures, with Amplify, Joanne Wilson, David Sacks, Matt Coffin, Wonder Ventures, Kombo Ventures and others participating. And, most recently, at the beginning of August, Thomas garnered his company another $1.3 million from the same groups of investors.

If Thomas made it seem easy, it’s because he’s in the business of simplifying people’s lives. Clutter, the full-service self-storage company Thomas co-founded with Tony Sziklai, manages the pick-up, documentation, storage and retrieval of clients’ extra belongings through a process “as convenient as pizza delivery.” But behind the scenes, Thomas worked hard to secure the funding, joining the startup accelerator Amplify and proving, by making the first year’s worth of Clutter pick-ups himself, that there was a market for this enterprise.

Your GMAT Score Is the Tip of the Iceberg

Incoming MBA student Nitesh Mehta (’17) says GMAT scores are like the tip of the iceberg of business success. He thinks that what people might overlook in the glare of high test scores are how a person demonstrates initiative on a daily basis, how his work experience and performance distinguish him within the competitive applicant pool — strengths and qualities that might be hidden below the surface.

With UCLA Anderson’s 2016 MBA application now available, Mehta recently blogged in the MBA Student Voice that “Getting into a top MBA program is a marathon, not a sprint.” He says he carefully lay the groundwork for his admission, focusing on networking and visiting b-school campuses. His advice to professionals: “Assess the opportunities at your current workplace and be proactive in seeking out the activities that demonstrate your potential.”

Read Nitesh Mehta’s full post in the MBA Student Voice

REVIEW ANDERSON’S MBA REQUIREMENTS AND APPLY ONLINE

Incoming MBA Student Gets Back in Touch with His Engineering Education

UCLA Anderson’s MBA Student Voice blog gives current students the chance to share stories about themselves and their experiences in the MBA program. It also gives incoming students a forum to introduce themselves and each other.

Yu Chen (’17) recently prompted Australian Ankit Pandey (’17) with some questions about his business experience in supply chain management and operations, his return to his “inner tech side,” and his Indian heritage. When Chen asked him “Why Anderson?” he replied: “Anderson’s reputation as a consistent Top 20 business school, a technology leader amongst business schools, and an institution with strong collaborative culture, made for a very strong case. California was very attractive, with Silicon Valley and a rapidly emerging technology base in L.A.”

Pandey’s goal for his first year at Anderson is to participate in at least one case competition.

Read Ankit Pandey’s Q&A in the MBA Student Voice

REVIEW ANDERSON’S MBA REQUIREMENTS AND APPLY ONLINE

 

UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian: Professor Charles Corbett Is Now IBM Chair in Management

UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian and Chairman of the Faculty John Mamer announced that Professor Charles Corbett is now the school’s IBM Chair in Management. In making the announcement, Olian and Mamer said the following:

"We are delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Charles Corbett to the IBM Chair.

"Internationally recognized for his research, Charles has made fundamental contributions to the analysis of supply chain management and to the study of sustainable operations. He was among the first researchers to model the conflicting interests of supply chain participants using game theory. His work on sustainable operations defined the research agenda for the field. His diverse research contributions have drawn on his unusually broad array of technical expertise, from classical economics and game theory, to operations research modeling, to empirical analysis. In 2013, Charles was elected Fellow of the Production and Operations Management Society in recognition of his significant contributions to the field.

"Charles has been a leading contributor to the school. He served as Chair and Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs from 2009 to 2012. Charles was the founding faculty director of the Easton Technology Leadership Program until 2014, and vital in forging a vision for the Easton Technology Management Center, which was just named by Mr. Easton. He served as the co-director of UCLA’s Leaders in Sustainability Certificate Program until fall 2014. In 2012, UCLA Anderson recognized Charles’ exceptional institutional contributions with the La Force Faculty Leadership Award. He is winner of UCLA’s 2007 Staff Assembly Award for Faculty-Staff Partnerships.

"Charles is also a superb teacher. The EMBA students recognized his teaching with the EMBA Outstanding Teaching Award in 2006. He received the George Robbins Teaching Award in 2002 and the Citibank Teaching award in 2008."

Numbers Expert Elisa Long Rolls the Dice, Testing her Own Tolerance for Uncertainty

Elisa Long won top prize on the breast cancer awareness special of the CBS game show "The Price Is Right" and wrote about the experience for the Washington Post.

---

Read Assistant Professor Elisa Long’s article in the Washington Post, “How Statistics Guided Me through Life, Death and ‘The Price Is Right’”

---

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

When UCLA Anderson Assistant Professor of Decisions, Operations & Technology Management Elisa Long was an undergraduate at Cornell University, she started out in biomedical engineering — “I was too squeamish for medicine,” she confesses — but found her way to operations research when she realized its applications to so many everyday systems, from airline scheduling to retail supply chain management to fraud detection. Once she was in graduate school at Stanford, Long saw everything she had learned about operations and probability coalescing in health care policy and institutional practice, and she knew that was where her applied research would be most useful.

Long teaches the data and decisions course in Anderson’s full-time MBA program. She says her goal is to distill for students the most relevant information for their business objectives, to “connect the dots” so that they can use statistics and probability directly to solve problems or enhance their work. She recently had a chance to practice the basic principles she imparts to her students when she was invited to write an article for the Washington Post connecting the dots between her victory as a contestant on “The Price Is Right” and her diagnosis and treatment of a rare, aggressive form of breast cancer related to the BRCA1 gene mutation she carries.

Anderson Women Lean In to a Discussion about How an MBA Closes the Gender Gap

By Kelly Ogiba, Photography: Qi Wong Photography & Design

UCLA Anderson’s MBA Admissions office, along with the Riordan Programs, was excited to hold a partnership event with the Los Angeles chapter of Lean In, as it brought together two communities that share a similar mission.

The mission is to establish equality for women in the workplace, in all forms. Lean In Los Angeles is an organization inspired by Sheryl Sandberg’s best-selling book that helps connect women throughout the region, and works to provide them with the tools they need to successfully “lean in” to their lives and careers. At Anderson, we stress supporting an environment of acceptance and equality. The term “gender gap” evokes disparity between men’s and women’s salaries. However, gender inequality is also evident in daily speech, promotion and negotiation practices, corporate image and employers’ expectations.

It’s a Dog’s Life — but Better

Anderson alumnus Michael Landa with his Labrador retriever

---

By Elise Anderson

How many pets can take credit for the launch of a new business venture? Just ask Michael Landa (’95), whose Labrador retriever Max II inspired the development of his first company, now one of the nation’s largest pet sitting and dog walking businesses in the country. That enterprise led to the genesis of Nulo Pet Food, a rapidly expanding endeavor that produces nutritious food options for dogs and cats.

It all started with a planned trip to Colorado. Landa would have typically flown there with Max II, but following 13-year-old Max’s cancer diagnosis, Landa was reluctant to board him on a flight. When the search for a pet sitter proved to be unsuccessful, he canceled his flight and drove to Colorado with Max. During the long trip he thought about just how fragmented the pet sitting industry was and concluded that it could use some help. With 14 years of experience writing business plans for large companies, Landa set out to write a plan that would lead to the formation of a company that started with five pet sitters in Southern California and eventually grew into a multimillion-dollar firm offering pet care services throughout the region.

Amid the initial company expansion, Landa noticed an increasing demand for sitters who could administer insulin shots to cats and dogs. A biomedical engineer by education, Landa believed that the source of the pets’ diabetic conditions was the direct result of low-meat, high-carb, high-glycemic diets and he set out on a search-and-discovery mission to find a better nutritional solution.

MEMES 2015 Summer Institutes Attended by Record Number of Students

Check out photos of the 2015 MEMES Summer Institutes classes and field trips

---

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

Anderson’s annual MEMES Summer Institutes, a six-week program of real-world projects and classes taught by seasoned industry executives, introduces undergraduates to careers in entertainment, music and sports. Eighty students enrolled in the 2015 edition; they included many UCLA students, along with participants from as far away as Sweden, France, Italy, Canada, China and Brazil — not to mention a recent Harvard graduate who wants to jump-start her career on the business side of entertainment.

The Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports has conducted the Summer Institutes since 2004. All students attend the Global Business class, taught this year by educator and thought leader Beverly Macy, host of the popular business podcast Social Media Radio and co-author of The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing.

Students choose one of four tracks: Blockbusters: The Business of Movies & TV; Music Industry in the Digital Age; Sports Marketing & Management; or 360° Marketing for Entertainment & Media. MEMES program manager Allison Potter said that the sports focus is the most popular — not least because it’s taught by Mark Francis, a sports marketing specialist with significant expertise in brand management.