EXECUTIVE MBA Profiles Publish Date 11/05/09

University of California-Los Angeles

Anderson School of Management

Getting In

UCLA Anderson School of Management

110 Westwood Plaza
Suite B201
Los Angeles , California 90095 United States

Status:

Public Institution

Length of program (months):

Classes meet:

Alternate weekends

Occasional week-long sessions

Tuition and fees for entire EMBA program:

Resident: $ 101,265
Non Resident: $ 101,265

Graduate business school is accredited by:

AACSB International

SCHOOL BASICS

Graduate business school enrollment:

Total: 1,743
Full-Time MBA: 732
Part-time MBA: 805
Executive MBA: 138
PhD Program: 68

Other graduate degree programs:

N/A

ADMISSIONS

Rolling admissions?

Yes

GMAT Required?

Yes

If applicants are not required to take the GMAT, how are EMBA applicants' quantitative abilities checked before enrollment?

N/A

Average GMAT:

643

Middle 80% range of GMAT scores:

From: 580
To: 720

Is the TOEFL required for non-English speakers?

Yes

Minimum TOEFL required:

600

Application fee:

$ 200

Number of applications to the newest class:

155

Applicants accepted:

60 %

Admitted applicants enrolled:

78 %

Reapplicants from prior years:

2 %

Applicants wait-listed during the last admissions cycle:

Wait-listed applicants admitted for the semester to which they applied:

Applicant interviews are:

Required

Applicants (admitted and denied) who were interviewed:

100 %

Admitted applicants who were interviewed:

100 %

CLASS PROFILE

EMBA students in newest entering class who are:

Female: 22 %
International: 7 %

Entering students are from the following regions:

Africa : 1 %
Asia: 14 %
Eastern Europe and Central Asia: 1 %
Latin America and the Caribbean: 0 %
Middle East: 3 %
North America: 80 %
Oceania : 0 %
Western Europe: 0 %
Dual citizenship: 1 %

Entering North American citizens are from the following regions:

West: 91 %
Midwest: 2 %
Southwest: 5 %
South: 0 %
Mid-Atlantic: 0 %
Northeast: 2 %
Possessions and territories: 0 %
Canada: 0 %

U.S. students in newest entering class who are:

African American: 10 %
Asian American: 28 %
Hispanic or Latino American: 10 %
Multiethnic/Multiracial : 0 %
Native American: 0 %
White (Non-Hispanic): 52 %
Chose not to report: 0 %
Other: 0 %

Average months of work experience:

154

Middle 80% range work experience, months:

From: 108
To: 228

Average age:

Middle 80% age range:

From: 31
To: 44

Work background:

Have advanced degrees: 35 %
Work in the nonprofit sector: 5 %
Work at an organization with 100 or fewer employees: 19 %
Have title of president, CEO, or chairman: 11 %

EMBA students living within 45 miles of campus:

75 %

Average base salary for new EMBA entrant:

$ 132,000

Middle 80% base salary range:

Low: $ 63,000
High: $ 235,000

Students work in these functional categories:

Consulting: 6 %
Finance/Accounting: 22 %
General Management : 18 %
Human Resources: 0 %
Marketing/Sales: 15 %
Management Information Systems : 10 %
Operations/Logistics: 18 %
Other: 11 %

Students work in these industries:

Consulting: 6 %
Consumer Products: 15 %
Financial Services: 11 %
Government: 1 %
Manufacturing: 3 %
Media/Entertainment: 12 %
Non-Profit: 6 %
Petroleum/Energy: 1 %
Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology/Health Care: 12 %
Real Estate: 6 %
Technology: 17 %
Other: 10 %

Top organizations sending students:

Cisco
Walt Disney
Kaiser Permanente
MTV Networks
Northrop Grumman

FINANCIAL AID

EMBAs receiving financial aid through school:

50 %

Full-tuition scholarships awarded in past 12 months:

Does the school offer a guaranteed loan to EMBAs, regardless of nationality?

Only to domestic students

Maximum loan amount:

$ 101,265

Academics & Lifestyle

FACULTY

Faculty employed by the B-school:

140

Full-time faculty:

Tenured: 62
Non-Tenured: 41

Adjunct/Visiting Faculty:

Tenured: 0
Non-Tenured: 18

Women on Faculty:

Tenured: 7
Non-Tenured: 18

Minority Faculty:

Tenured: 10
Non-Tenured: 11

International Faculty:

Tenured: 8
Non-Tenured: 14

Faculty with PhDs:

Tenured: 65
Non-Tenured: 47

STUDENT LIFE

Does the program include a mandatory international trip or project?

Yes

Does the school offer pre-program orientation for all EMBA participants?

Yes

Does the school offer temporary housing/accommodations for EMBA participants?

Yes

Description:

UCLA Guesthouse/Hotels

Do EMBAs have access to a health club or gym?

Yes

Special student/home/work/life initiatives:

Student EMBAssadors who provide help & advice; significant others events; alumni panels who inform students of things that work for them

How far away from a major airport are most EMBA classes held? (miles)

TEACHING/ACADEMICS

Teaching methods:

Case Study: 15 %
Experiential Learning: 25 %
Lectures: 35 %
Team Projects: 25 %

Faculty also teaching in full-time program:

100 %

Tenured/tenure-track EMBA faculty:

75 %

Faculty with at least five years of full-time corporate experience:

66 %

Average class size, core EMBA class:

Average class size, EMBA electives:

Elective courses:

New electives past year:

Advanced Business Strategy
Real Estate Investments
Persuasive Communication & Organizational Leadership
Entrepreneurship & Venture Initiation I & II
Venture Capital & Private Equity
Travel Study in: Spain Dubai Russia Argentina Chile

Estimated hours per week in class and outside classwork:

Hours per week in class: 8
Hours per week outside of class spent on classwork: 24

Last revision of core EMBA curriculum:

2008

Distance-learning EMBA via the Internet, videoconferencing, or some other medium?

Description:

N/A

Group work done via the Internet:

0 %

Graduation Requirements:

Students must have attended a minimum number of classes

Students must have earned a pre-determined GPA/letter grade average

Class participation accounts for some percentage of students' grades

Write a complete business plan

Present final, company-specific project results to relevant parties

Additional EMBA Programs:
EMBA programs run in another country:

National University of Singapore

Domestic partnerships or in-house EMBA programs:

N/A

In-house EMBA programs provided for companies:

Recent changes to EMBA program:

Added two 1-week Elective Blocks (6-7 course options ea.); expanded career services; expanded elective offerings; increased number of exchange program partners; enhanced Leadership Foundations course

TECHNOLOGY

Technology improvements in the last three academic years:

Active learning environment in Rosenfeld Library (group pods); Anderson Board Room in Rosenfeld Library; Jim Easton Global Connections classroom (tech classroom); wireless upgrades; faculty expertise system; virtual server capability; new email/calendaring system for students.

Amount spent:

$ 1,800,000

Alumni Affairs & Careers

B-SCHOOL ALUMNI

Living MBA alumni:

19,525

Active MBA alumni clubs:

Countries in which MBA clubs exist:

Living MBA alumni who gave in past year:

20 %

Mean gift from MBA alumni:

$ 2,616

Median gift from MBA alumni:

$ 100

Did school receive an individual gift in excess of $10 million in the past academic year?

Business school endowment

$ 83,941,328

Does the main university offer career placement services for alumni?

Yes

Does the main university have an alumni networking Web site?

Yes

University alumni networking site:

http://www.ucla.edu/

Does the B-School have an alumni networking Web site?

Yes

Business school alumni networking site:

http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x24248.xml

Do current MBA students have access to an alumni database?

Yes

CAREER SERVICES

Does the school offer EMBA students access to the career services office?

Yes

Does the school allow its EMBA students to interview on campus with corporate recruiters targeting executives for full-time jobs?

Yes

What is the school's policy concerning recruiters targeting EMBA students for full-time jobs?

Non-sponsored EMBAs can participate

SCHOOL COMMENTS

Additional school comments:

The UCLA Anderson Executive MBA program has put greater emphasis on developing global leaders by enhancing the experiential learning course, Strategic Management Research (SMR), to include more in-depth analysis and a more international focus.

Graduate Comments

UCLA Anderson and the EMBA program were perfect for me. The reputation and rigor of the program, combined with the proximity to my home and work, was ideal. I enjoyed my classes and classmates and the professors were great. The travel programs in which I participated were an enriching addition to my experience.

The classroom experience could be improved if the size of the class was larger. While Anderson goes to great lengths to maintain a small class size with the highest caliber of students, expanding the class would further diversify the background of experiences included in the classroom discussions.

UCLA Anderson has a great faculty, curriculum, and support system in place for EMBA programs. [Administrators] are very cognizant of the fact that everyone in the class is very busy, and they go out of their way to make sure we optimize our time in school. We do the same core courses as the full-time program, and the key difference between the full-time and EMBA program at UCLA is the number of electives since the EMBA is more geared toward general management, unlike a particular area of specialization like in the full-time program. However, the EMBA program at UCLA does provide students the opportunity to take more electives, as part of the FEMBA program, and participate in international exchange. Our class has the choice of ISB-Hyderabad, London School of Business, Bocconi, and HEC-Paris.

Since most class sessions are recorded, having sessions to provide feedback on presentation skills will be very valuable. The school is already taking steps to implement this for the 2010 class based on our feedback.

I did get a salary increase during the program and a promotion recently. However, this was based on my accomplishments at work and not directly attributed to my MBA. However, with the MBA, I now feel that I have opportunities to move more into a business-oriented role (which was one of my key reasons for the MBA), and it will help subsequent growth promotions (assuming that I perform at a high level).

Some field visits to certain companies/factories could probably make the topic more real, but I can see it could prove to be a real logistics challenge, specailly in the EMBA format.

UCLA Anderson's Strategic Management Research is an excellent hands-on program that has students developing a full-blown business plan, which is not easy, but is a great learning experience. The International Exchange program (in addition to our week-long International Seminar in China) is relatively new, but it's such a wonderful opportunity to learn about other countries' business environments. Various classmates went to Chile, London, Paris, Milan, India, etc. for a week. Much of the prep work was completed in the U.S. to save precious time overseas for company visits, etc. UCLA Anderson has done a great job at coordinating the exchange program. A significant percentage of the class took advantage of these classes to learn more about business in other countries.

Those who were full-time professors were well published and generally top experts in their field and credible beyond reproach. Those who were active in industry and teach in addition were also very impressive - having tremendous careers and lecturing on their functional area of expertise. The instructors were mostly great professional speakers, dynamic and engaging. The weakness, which is probably typical for any EMBA instructors who also teach full-time students, was the times when the assigned work was too rigorous for the work and family commitments of the class and actually got in the way of maximizing the learning.

More time for social interaction with classmates would have improved the experience. I would guess five years from now I will be in touch with my classmates and building on relationships started in the EMBA program, but the details of many of the class lectures will not be employed in my day-to-day work functions.

I think this and all EMBA programs could do more to market the value of the executive program structure to the general business community. I spent a lot of time in interviews explaining to people what the EMBA program was and how it was structured, and explaining how this was not much like an online program such as University of Phoenix.

The international programs added this year were incredible experiences, and I attended three (Dubai, Chile and China). I think [administrators] should continue adding locations. Also, I loved the Mediasite and the convenience of being able to watch a class online if I had to miss one on a rare occasion.

The classroom experience was actually very good. The amphitheater-style seating and A/V equipment were great. But it would have been good if there was no Internet connection during lectures.

The program was great and has helped me become a better manager and leader. It has given me the right analytical, functional, and strategic knowledge to take on higher roles. I really can't find faults with the program, but if I had to nitpick, a majority of the students were from the West Coast, and it would be great if we could get more East Coast-based students.

More guest speakers from relevant industries and job functions would have definitely improved the classroom experience.

Our instructors had a deep understanding of their field with many years of experience not only in academia but also in the field. This enabled them to distill the core knowledge to us in a concise way and also tie it into the real world.

More focus on career services would be incredibly beneficial. Having made a career change mid-way through the program, I would have appreciated guidance on how to make that change.

Many professors drew on recent research and consulting work for class discussions, including anecdotes about important business leaders such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc. Most professors were very interested in students' experiences and bringing those into class discussion as well. Professors generated excitement with class competitions and group assignments that were extremely engaging. The only weakness in the instruction was in the case of professors teaching quantitative skills too quickly, but it is clearly hard to find the right balance of speed and depth for EMBA students who don't have the time to practice analysis and modeling as much as full-time students.

The SMR (Strategic Management Research) project was the highlight of the program. This was our master's thesis where we worked as consultants for a real company working on a real business problem. It gave everyone the ability to apply what he learned in business school to real corporate problems.

Coming from a science and engineering background, I found all the material to be foreign. I felt that I learned important information in each class I attended. However, the greatest take away from the program is the incredible Anderson network of high quality people.

We had very strong instructors. They definitely all had impressive credentials. My only comment is that overall the professors were a touch too academic and lacking in current real world experience. This isn't true for all, but for a few.

The school is very good at taking care of our day-to-day needs. Logistically there is not much left for us to do, since the program knows we are very busy with work, school, and family. There's always decent coffee or a bagel or fresh fruit easily accessible. Meals are provided. It's pretty much a turnkey program (in that you just need to show up and learn). UCLA's on campus housing is not exactly the Ritz, so improvements to that (which I believe are out of the control of the business school) would be great. The accommodations are not bad, just most executives at this level are used to better.

I'm the type of person who actively participates in class, asking and answering questions. But not all are like me. Although the program does use the Socratic method, I think more "cold calling" on students could have enhanced the program.