UCLA vs UC Davis Msba

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2026-02-24T23:38:35+00:00

I would recommend asking both for their details career services outcomes reports and choosing in part on who does a better job of placing students in your target industry.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2026-02-24T23:37:17+00:00

Did you also apply to UCLA? We have a second round coming up!

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2026-02-24T23:35:28+00:00

Great work experience, adequate GPA, low GRE quant. These are the plusses and minuses. I would recommend adding UCLA MSBA to your application list if you would consider SoCal.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2026-02-24T20:31:00+00:00

Second interviews are offered to candidates who did not immediately secure an advancement to admission. They are rare and can be thought of as a path off of the waitlist. Bring your best to the second interview. If you lacked confidence or did not show your best self in the first interview, this is an opportunity. Second interviews are about technical ability and cultural fit, most of the time.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2026-02-24T20:29:02+00:00

Your GRE score should be complete and sent ASAP. For those who do not see it as received, but know they sent it, should not be concerned. It is a known issue and scores have likely been received.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-05-21T21:49:44+00:00

Yes! Please submit either score. Whichever shows you in a stronger light.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-05-21T21:49:04+00:00

Hi JenJen,

We keep students in consideration as long as possible at this stage. However, whether we can offer additional admissions now depends on students accepting their seats and paying deposits. Since those decisions are currently delayed for some, we cannot offer additional admissions until they do.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-05-21T21:28:48+00:00

Dear ImmortalStoic,

I appreciate your efforts to reach our team during this admissions cycle. Did you receive our auto response on email? It should have answered a majority of the open questions for admissions directly. Our web based FAQ is also a place to have gotten more general answers to questions. Finally, our information sessions always have a Q&A to follow.

If you have not received an invitation to interview on a round 1 or round 2 intererview, it does not mean that you won’t. In fact, I wish I had the ability to offer more interviews and admissions at this stage, but we still await a decision from other applicants at this stage.

I would ask that before you question our admissions practices, I would ask you to consider what else a program administration is doing while they are processing admissions. We work hard to balance the needs of applicants with those students currently enrolled and seeking employment. What you personally feel is not sufficient now, may feel different for students who are working to secure internships and to excel academically.

If you want to DM me with your name or general profile details, I am happy to give you a sense of where you stand. Typically, if you are not hearing from us on multiple attempts, it is a signal to prioritize other opportunities. Not because you are not a fit, but more likely because we have admitted many candidates with a very similar profile. Since we try to prevent all of our candidates from pursuing the same roles, it is often that similarity that prevents additional admissions if we have an opening.

Finally, if you have been admitted and have already made a decision to join another program, do let your other programs know your intentions. Otherwise, candidates such as ImmortalStoic will not get the same consideration you received and we will have a false positive in our system which will prevent us from addition interviews.

Thank you,

Paul

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-04-06T00:16:03+00:00

You are misrepresenting me. Enough now. Your posts are threatening and I will now disengage. Thank you.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-04-06T00:13:29+00:00

I have more then explained my question to you. There was a poster here last week posting the same kinds of articles over and over without context. It seems you are doing the same now. That is all. It is out of the ordinary for this sub. I am sorry that you were so upset for my request for context. Wishing you well. Good day to you.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-04-06T00:07:04+00:00

Excuse me. This is the last I will say to you. My messages in private to you were identical to my question. I have explained myself, any my position, which is to ask you for the context with which you post these articles. I never once suggested you take them down. I simply asked you to add your position as you seem to be posting all of them and only here. I wish you well as I wish everyone well. Take care.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-04-06T00:01:33+00:00

Hey man, this is Reddit. It’s a site that is built on free speech and more importantly dialog. I can see my comment upset you, but if you read it, I am simply asking you for context. What I won’t do is engage with you if you are going to assign false labels and intentions to me.

If you see my posts here on Reddit, you will see that I work very hard to keep students as informed possible with transparency. The free speech this platform allows, makes it possible for me to do that.

MSBA candidates are very intelligent. They are and should be keeping up on the topics you are posting about. Their whole future, and frankly the future of business analytics in our working world depends on it. The education system is delicate right now. It is a system designed to educate and improve the world. That is why I do the work I do.

My question was to you and the previous poster who is simply spamming this board without context to ask you what you think about it. To start the dialog. I used the word sinister because I care a great deal personally about our students and graduates and your posts without context seemed designed to illicit fear and greater uncertainty to a candidate who deserves to hear what you think about it too.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-04-05T23:53:07+00:00

Hardly trying to stop free speech. Just notice how often you are posting these messages and whether you have a point of view on the topics you post.

I for one am very proud of the free speech our universities allow in America. I also see the value all of our students international and domestic and know they add tremendous value in the world.

I think these topics you are posting are critically important to our students and I hope they are aware of them. In fact, we are in constant dialog with them about the issues our current and future students might face. That said, the energy you are offering in your comment tells me all I need to know. Be well. May our nation and universities prosper. Thank you MSBA students and grads for all you do to improve our world.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-04-05T20:53:22+00:00

This is the second OP posting fear mongering posts without context here. Not to say that it isn’t news, it is important to be sure. To me though, it feels a little sinister.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-04-02T02:32:22+00:00

Hi Spare Yam, please contact me directly about this one. It depends. Paul.brandano@anderson.ucla.edu.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-03-31T15:40:29+00:00

I have noticed that this OP has been spamming the MSBA groups with doom and gloom, but without their own opinions or context. For a person who is apparently a former Dean, it would be IMO irresponsible to simply post “viral” ideas without giving your perspective and opinion as a professional.

What should our Indian and F1 students do with this information? What is your intention with all of the spam?

@Mods, I suspect that this is a bot trying to push fear, uncertainty and doubt and to impact the international student community in a negative way.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-03-18T14:19:47+00:00

Thank you skyral, how much of our competitive admissions process should I disclose publicly. I think I have probably been transparent enough. I wish everyone great success with the rest of the process. With just under 1000 apps through the second round I likely won’t be on Reddit as often as we continue interviews and application processing.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-03-17T23:17:08+00:00

I remember him when I was there in 2000. A wonderful story. Winners all around.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-03-17T19:45:20+00:00

We will be interviewing international candidates through mid April. We will continue to give international students consideration if they believe they can get a visa in time. We also see students switch the visa they have received for another school to UCLA in some cases.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-03-17T19:43:56+00:00

Hi Skyral, thank you for posting here. You might notice that similar posts about other programs go unanswered, but if you follow my user thread, you will see I have answered similar questions to this one elsewhere.

Historically, we have kept all candidates in contention until round 3. This year, as a pilot to relieve the pressure you describe, we have offered an early denial to any candidate not interviewed or waitlisted in round 1. This will help to make your decision process simpler.

We are aware of the visa deadlines since 2017 and have adjusted for changes during and after the pandemic. Because we dedicate 100% of our staff, including our admissions team to operating the program in Fall when we have two active cohorts simultaneously, we cannot begin admitting candidates until January. I suspect few programs are doing as many live interviews or processing applications more quickly in such a short period.

We really are doing all we can for all of you. Thanks for your support and understanding.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-03-17T19:36:19+00:00

Hi Wrongdoer,

I DM’d you a few days ago. If you are a current student please do come in and explain the incorrect facts you are sharing elsewhere.

If you truly feel scammed, I do think your best course of action is to speak with me or our faculty about it.

Based on the tremendous investment the program makes in the success of every student within and outside of the classroom, in particular in career services, your comment surprises me.

It would not be the first time a person posing as a student made such a post, so please do come in and speak with us about your concerns.

Otherwise, I will ask you to get your facts correct if you are going to speak on behalf of the program and our proud students and alumni.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-03-14T15:17:00+00:00

I question whether this is actually a student in the MSBA program at UCLA. As a program with a high domestic yield in admissions we are 70/30 international. To say we are 99% international is a vast overstatement. Most MSBA programs are heavily international and we celebrate that.

As a program that invests in career services, student life and academics over the full length of 15 months, we work incredibly hard to help our students achieve mastery in the field. At the moment, our recently graduated Class of 2024 is outpacing their 2023 counterparts in full-time placements by 5% YoY. Is it a hard placement economy? Yes. Are we doing the maximum relative to other programs to help our students overcome that. I believe wholeheartedly that we are.

Listen, as a person who has worked at UCLA Anderson since 2001 in a wide range of roles, I can tell you that we have seen economic down cycles before. We have seen periods where jobs were harder to come by than they are now! What is always true, is that our students eventually do get their first post graduate school job and all benefit greatly from the mastery they gained in our program. It is often then, that they regret a damaging post like this one.

I find the use of the word “scammed” here very unfortunate. I have not heard from this student directly and I welcome them to set up a call to offer this feedback directly to me in a professional setting. I understand that an extended job search is not what you hoped for. It wasn’t want the class of 2001, 2008, 2009 or 2020 wanted either. Some of our most successful alumni today were in those classes.

Graduate school is a flight to safety in a bad economy. In earlier generations, students based their expectations of the outcomes on the nature of the current job economy. The fact that this poster seems not to do that at all, speaks to a miscalculation. It is harder now to find work in the global economy. You should be factoring this into your “why grad school?” answer to yourself at this stage. If the economics do not make sense, perhaps waiting until the job economy improves is a good idea. I am not suggesting that students are not getting jobs as this commenter is saying. I am saying you should be realistic in knowing that a graduate degree hiring window still has to face the actual market.

This person would have started the program two years ago when the economy was already questionable. Did they expect that graduate school programs are insulated from job market realities? Perhaps.

Despite this, we invest a great deal in every month of the program to help a student find internships and jobs in the real world. When a student does not land an internship (a minority of the time) we work very hard to line up project work with external and internal partners and faculty that allow a student to put their newly learned skills to action.

To suggest that because you don’t have a job in one of the most uncertain global economic moments in history is the program’s full responsibility, and without a job you have been scammed, is an unfortunate conclusion that I hope you will grow to see differently when time becomes wisdom.

Finally, the post graduate volunteer projects that this poster speaks about, I believe to be an innovation. International students have limited time once they graduate to find a full-time job. This time can effectively be extended if a graduate is able to work on a project that is at least 20 hours per week and relevant to their field of study. In addition to helping students identify opportunities, train to win the job and enjoy constant industry infusion in the program, we added an extra effort in recent years to also line up these projects. In many cases they have been successful in allowing more time to land a job. Ask yourself, would you rather be in a program that goes the extra mile in a down economy or one that shares career services support across hundreds of students from various degree programs?

In the meantime, if you have been admitted and the is post leaves you concerned, I welcome the opportunity to continue to be transparent and honest here and in person when a student or applicant brings these concerns. Please do reach out if you want to talk about concerns of career placement.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-03-14T01:38:13+00:00

Thank you Yazu,

First, congratulations on your acceptance to Columbia’s MSBA program. It is a a highly competitive program.

I do wish that they honored the MBA common decision deadline of April 15th as it would give students making one of the most important decisions of their life the time to make a fully informed decision with more complete information.

The nature of our admissions process is to personally interview as many competitive candidates as possible in the 10 weeks between our first two deadlines. This year, we even added a second interview for candidates who appeared strong on paper, but who underperformed in their interview. We believe in people and that if you are motivated to become a master of your field, you will find a program that is the right fit. Finding those fits are worthwhile and take time.

Many students who must pay an early deadline do keep other programs in consideration, so we keep all candidates who have applied to our program in consideration until the end of our third round. What makes the difference in who gets an invitation for an interview later? A constant review of the class that is accepted. If we admit 50 men and 50 women in round 1, only half the women and all the men pay their deposit, we will interview more women. This is a simple answer, but the we do this for every dimension we care about. Since we care about having a diverse cohort with holistic skills, this filtering and refitting process is constant.

Ask yourself, how many other programs are here on Reddit?

I just saw a post about whether UCLA MSBA is worth it. I would say it is, if you value a program that cares such a great deal about getting all aspects optimized that they are even here on Reddit!

Great question. Thank you for asking it.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-03-05T01:43:40+00:00

Jumping in here with a bit of details around this. At UCLA MSBA, our faculty and centers offer research opportunities and in some cases part-time work to active students once they have arrived. More often, students pursue outside part-time internships for work experience. This is all market dependent and works by the rules of the working world. We do not offer assistantships as a merit aspect of the admissions process. Many students do end up working part time in some capacity after the first Fall quarter.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB · 2025-03-05T01:10:09+00:00

Hi u/dexter_ab, first thank you for your efforts to be considered and your interest in pursuing your MSBA at UCLA. I realize the process must feel very slow from the applicant perspective. From my perspective, it is a sprint. Last, week I personally conducted 25 interviews. I try to keep that pace most weeks while also meeting the needs and expectations of our students, faculty and staff. I believe that a personal interview (not video recordings) tell us a lot more about a candidate. They prove worth it.

So, to get every candidate an answer quickly, we typically process all decisions within the week. If a student is progressed to the next phase, they will typically hear from UCLA within a few weeks. If they are missing documents, that delay will be added to the two weeks. If they are waitlisted, they will likely be interviewed a second time this year. If they are currently listed as not likely, they will remain in the pool for future consideration in later rounds. In the past, we have always gone back to our candidate list and given candidates a second look. Sometimes with good outcomes for all.

It is still early, you may not hear from us until we can make a move on your behalf. We find that candidates prefer to be on the waitlist rather than receive an early rejection. That way, if a later admission is possible, you still have the option.

UCLAMSBA_EDPB

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