Feb 4, 2014

My Anderson interview was very conversational and laid back. My interviewer asked me the following:

• Walk me through your resume.
• What are your short- and long-term goals?
• Why MBA?
• Why now?
• Why Anderson?

Even though it was conversational, practicing my answers to these questions beforehand was extremely helpful.

Feb 4, 2014

Interviewed about 10 days after the Round 2 application deadline with a 2nd-year student. Overall I feel like it went really well. There were a couple areas I wish I would have explained a little better, but I am happy with how I did. The interview was very conversational, and for the most part, no unexpected questions. Here is a general summary of the questions I was asked:

-Tell me about yourself.

-Why an MBA now?

-Why Anderson?

-Why are you looking to change careers?

-What do you envision yourself doing when begin working in X industry?

-What are your long-term career goals?

-How will you contribute to the Anderson community?

-What are your strengths as a leader?

-What leadership qualities do you want to work on at Anderson?

-Any question for me?

The interview was about 35 minutes.

Jan 30, 2014

I arrived in LA over the weekend to attend an info session and class Monday, and interview on Tuesday morning. The interview was blind and conducted by a 2nd year student. We engaged in a bit of small talk, I mentioned a class I attended (and was asked for the professor’s name – Bruce Carlin, great class!), and then I gave him a copy of my resume.

Some of the questions were (not verbatim):

- Walk me through your resume (While at it I covered short and long-term goals, though it seemed that this was going to be the 2nd question).
- How do you feel an MBA will help you achieve your career goals? What will an MBA offer you that you haven’t been able to get from your professional experiences?
- How will UCLA Anderson help you accomplish your specific goals?
- How do you work in teams? What is your leadership style?
- How did your professional experience contribute to your career choice post MBA? (I’m switching from financial services to consulting)
- Tell me about a time you had a conflict with someone at work.
- Tell me about a time you failed.
- What activities are you involved with outside of work?

Overall my interviewer was very easygoing, and I felt the interview went well. Hoping to hear good news back!
- Any questions for me?

Dec 18, 2013

My interview was conducted by an adcom member on a Saturday. I arrived about an hour early and roamed around the campus a bit. On entering the admissions office, I was asked to sit in the adjoining conference room. There were about 6 other candidates there waiting to be interviewed. Everyone looked pretty nervous and we casually chatted about everyone’s backgrounds. The admissions committee members periodically came in the room and called out their assigned candidate.

My interviewer was very friendly and made the atmosphere very casual. She told me she had only been through my resume and would be taking a lot of notes during our conversation. Some of the questions were:
1) Explain your career / Walk me through your resume- She asked a few questions about certain things she wanted to know more about
2) What is your greatest accomplishment? I talked about my current work
3) Why do you want an MBA since you seem to be doing well? Here I feel I should have added more details about the why UCLA part. I thought she would ask me about it but she didn’t
4) What do you like to do outside your work and what clubs would you be a part of in UCLA- I had a lot of information with me but I couldn’t somehow cover what I wanted to say
5) Why would you choose UCLA over other colleges? I talked about the collaborative atmosphere and gave examples about how helpful the students from UCLA had been

The interview was very conversational and pretty straightforward. Lasted for about 35-40 minutes. Hoping for some positive news

Best of luck!

Nov 21, 2013

The interview was very casual and straightforward. Since it is very short and the interviewer has quite a lot of required questions to ask, you don’t really get time to do small talk.

The student had only access to my résumé, which he looked at to keep track of what I was saying.

I appreciated the fact that he was very punctual and cheerful.

The questions I got were:

Walk me through your résumé (with some additional questions around specific points)
Why do you want an MBA and why now? He insisted a lot on the “now” aspect.
Why Anderson?
What is your leadership style ?
What clubs are you interested in at Anderson?
What is a past conflict how did you solve it?

I had the time to ask him two questions

- Did he reach out to the alumni network ? Under which circumstances ? How was it ?
- What he likes most in his experience at Anderson.

Overall it gave me a nice impression of the school (friendliness and punctuality) and I believe that the admission process will be fair (same questions for all applicants).

Mar 14, 2013

I just came back from an interview with an admission staff at Anderson. I was surprised that they would actually schedule an interview with me since the school does not provide interviews for round 3 applicants. Anyway… the meeting was only 20-25 minutes long as they mentioned on the invitation email. I was asked

1. Tell me about yourself (not exactly the way she said it)

2. Why do you need an MBA?

3. How did you prepare for your GMAT? ( I was surprised with this question)

4. How do you work in a team?

5. What do you think about your most recent employer’s evaluation? What do you need to improve and how?

6 Any questions?

Hope you find my experience helps. Good luck!

Feb 26, 2013

I received my interview invitation on January 30th, exactly 3 weeks after the Round 2 application deadline (January 9th).

Going in, I prepared myself for an interview with a second year student—since that’s what I read on this blog, and in other places. (And the advice was greatly appreciated!) However, when I arrived on campus for my interview, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was being interviewed by the assistant dean. We went into his office, and from the beginning, the environment was extremely friendly and relaxed.

He told me a little bit about himself—his background, education, career, and what brought him back to work at Anderson—and expressed how much he loves interacting with students. This set the tone nicely for the rest of the interview, because I could see his genuine passion for the program and for student life.

With my resume in front of him, he asked me the following questions:

1. Tell me about yourself? (Maybe this wasn’t the exact wording, but it was a general question about my background, in reference to my resume.) During my answer, he also asked me a few clarifying questions.

2. Why do you want an MBA?

3. Why Anderson?

4. What are your weaknesses?

5. Tell me how you function in a team setting – what kind of leader are you?

6. Tell me about about a time that you lead a team (it can be work or non-work related)?

7. What clubs would you like to be involved with at Anderson?

8. Do you have any questions for me? (I asked him a specific questions about tracks vs. specializations, about how many extracurriculars were realistic given the course load, and a specific question about the AMR program, among others)

9. Where do you really want to go to business school?

Much of the interview was a free flowing conversation, and even the more “difficult” questions were asked in a gentle way that didn’t make it seem like he was prodding. I could tell he was trying to see if i would be a good fit for the culture, and we ended up talking a lot about teamwork, collaboration, and the nature of the student body at Anderson.

My advice is to get to know the program as much as you can, particularly the student culture, and decide for yourself if you think you’ll be a good fit. If you can demonstrate that you’ve done your research and made your decision intelligently, this will shine through in your interview.

Overall: I left with an exceptional impression of UCLA Anderson, surprised at how fulfilling the interview was in itself. Maybe I was lucky because I happened to resonate with the dean, but my feeling is that genuine human connection and interest in its students is the general spirit of Anderson.

BEST OF LUCK to everyone!

*Admitted February 15th and I couldn’t be happier.

Feb 19, 2013

My interview was very relaxed. He asked the following questions:

-Walk me through your résumé.

-why do you think now is a good time to get your mba?

-why Anderson?

-are you focusing your bschool search in CA?

-tell me about an experience working in a team?

-what is your leadership style?

-what about bschool are you hoping to learn that you haven’t had a chance to learn in your career so far?

-where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?

-Any questions for me?

Feb 18, 2013

I am a round 1 applicant who was waitlisted then invited to interview on the round 1 decision date.

My interview was on campus with a very sharp 2nd year student who only had my resume that I handed him when we sat down (blind interview). Judging by the previous posts and interview reports, it seems as if some of the questions (listed below) asked by my interviewer were a bit unusual. However, this could be attributed to the fact that my target industry and background are somewhat unconventional. Regardless, the interview atmosphere was very relaxed and conversational.

- Walk me through your resume.

- Why did you decide to pursue an MBA?

- What are your career goals?

- What is one question that I have not asked but you have an excellent response to?

- What would you do if your industry of choice was outlawed tomorrow?

- What sort of a position would you pursue in your industry of choice?

- Why haven’t you pursued such a position in this industry before?

- What are you going to do if you cannot find this kind of position since this is such a relatively small, niche industry?

- What questions do you have for me?

Overall, it was an excellent experience and I’m hoping for some good news soon!

Feb 8, 2013

The UCLA interview was very casual and conducted by 2nd Year students at the Admissions Office on Campus. My interviewer began by asking for my resume and asked me to walk him through. I began from my college undergrad degree and worked my way up the resume, giving highlights for each position. Thereafter, most of the questions were focused on my current position and role which he was interested in learning more about. This was a blind interview. Questions asked:

1. Tell me about your current position and role

2. What was one of the most challenging experiences you’ve encountered

3. Why UCLA and why MBA?

4. Short term and long-term goals

5. How will you contribute to UCLA?

6. How do you plan on getting involved at UCLA?

7. Do you have any aims to be involved in your community or create social change? What are those goals?

The interview ended with about 15-20min of questions for me to ask the interviewer. The school is definitely focused on a candidate’s fit and it doesn’t hurt to show your enthusiasm for the school and the career choices you’ve made.

Dec 11, 2012

I was interviewed by a second-year student and the overall feel of the interview was very relaxed. I traveled from Atlanta to do the interview on campus and the interviewer seemed to appreciate the committment.

This was a blind interview. She asked me for my resume as soon as we sat down, skimmed it and began by asking me to walk her through it and finish with why I beleived I needed an MBA. I found it particularly helpful to have practiced my “story” and rehearsed my progression through my career and used this as a starting point for what was missing in my toolkit that only an MBA could fill. I ended this portion of the discussion with why I felt that UCLA was the right fit for me and she seemed pleased that I had done my homework.

She then asked me to discuss what sorts of activities at Anderson I could see myself a part of if admitted and then we focused on personality-related questions. The interview asked me what I did in my spare time, what my personal goals (outside of work) were for the next 5 years and I was asked to list three adjectives to describe myself. This last question threw me off a little, but I was able to come up with the first one and while I was explaining it, I was able to think of the final two. Last question was on a role model in my life. The entire interview was approximately 25-30 min. with the last 5 minutes reserved for questions that I asked the interviewer. Overall, I came away from the interview fairly confident and have my fingers crossed!