International students

The Importance of a Global Perspective

About one-third of each incoming MBA class consists of students from outside the United States, as part of a conscious effort to diversify the school's global perspective.

Thanks to our focus on global perspective, you will:

Learn how business is done around the world and how to lead diverse multinational teams in any workplace

Show each other how to approach issues from fresh and specific cultural viewpoints

Become the best ambassadors for UCLA Anderson worldwide

Balanced Representation

We seek an international balance of students within each class.

No admission quotas exist for any country, as we seek to admit the best candidates from each nation.
You are encouraged to submit an application that highlights the distinctiveness of your profile and leadership potential.
Competition for admission varies from place to place and year to year.
We use the primary citizenship listed on your application for evaluation purposes.
All applicants who do not have U.S. citizenship or who do not list USA as their primary citizenship are considered international; U.S. permanent residents do not require a student visa to enroll.
International students pay the same program fees as domestic students. Visit Financing for more information.

International Academic Records

The MBA Admissions Committee uses the document copies uploaded with each application to conduct a preliminary evaluation of your academic qualifications.

You are evaluated in the context of your own country’s school system and grading scale — grades are never converted to the U.S. 4.0 scale.
Original hard-copy academic documents, certified as official with the school’s original seal, should be sent upon request after being invited to an interview:
- Complete transcript in the native language of the country and a certified translation of the transcript into English;
- Degree certificate and/or diploma copy in the native language of the country, showing the exact degree received and date awarded (as instructed in interview invitation); plus, a certified translation of the documents into English.
There's no need to mail in any documents unless instructed to do so in an interview invitation email.
A completed undergraduate degree equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree is required for graduate student admission at UCLA, and we can only judge this equivalency once a full application is submitted.
Additional degrees earned beyond the baccalaureate are part of our evaluation, for example, a master’s degree or PGDM (Post-Graduate Diploma in Management). Professional certifications (e.g., chartered accountant, CPA or CFA) are not considered academic degrees, though they can be noted on the application.
To facilitate our evaluation of your degree(s), you may choose to supply a credential evaluation report from World Education Services.

Proficiency Examinations

English Language Proficiency Examinations (TOEFL and IELTS)

Succeeding in the UCLA Anderson MBA program requires prior mastery of English. TOEFL or IELTS scores are required of all applicants EXCEPT those from a select list of countries. For more information please refer to UCLA Graduate Division Office English requirements.
The English test requirement can only be waived for applicants who earned a degree (undergraduate and/or graduate) in a country where English is both the primary spoken language and the medium of instruction
The minimum TOEFL score required for admission to UCLA is 87, and the minimum IELTS is 7.0.

Student Visas

UCLA works with newly admitted students to obtain a visa from the U.S. government as follows:

If you need a visa, you must first submit your acceptance of our offer of admission. After your acceptance has been processed, you will be sent a link to the forms required to apply for a visa.
Almost all international students get an F-1 visa. After reviewing all documentation, UCLA sends a Form I-20 for you to obtain the actual visa at a U.S. consulate in your home country.
Students sponsored by an organization or firm may get a J-1 visa instead, after receiving a Form DS-2019 from UCLA.
U.S. government regulations allow students to enter the United States as early as 30 days before a prior to the program start date.
Applying for U.S. Permanent Resident status (a "green card") is incompatible with applying for a student visa, and full-time MBA students must have either a valid green card or a valid student visa in order to enroll. So if you have applied for a green card, you should not apply for our program until you actually have the valid green card in hand, because you cannot apply for a student visa as a back-up.
For information regarding student visas, please consult the Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars.