We encourage and welcome all qualified candidates to read our
admissions criteria and requirements below.
The UCLA Anderson MFE admissions committee considers several factors in selecting candidates.
Chelsea Ding ('15)
Home city and country: Nanchang, China
Pre-MFE degree(s): BS, Transportation Engineering, Beijing Jiatong University; MS, Civil Engineering, Ohio State University
Summer Internship: BlackRock
We will begin accepting MFE applications for fall 2020 mid-September 2019. All applicants must apply to the MFE program online.
Important Application Tips:
A nonrefundable application fee of $200 is required. This fee is paid by credit card when submitting the online application. The application fee is not refundable under any circumstances, regardless of the admission outcome.
Scanned copies of transcripts from all educational institutions attended must be uploaded in the online application. Original transcripts or documents are only required AFTER you have been admitted. Candidates must hold at least a bachelor's degree (four-year degree or equivalent) from a recognized accredited institution. Bachelor's degrees must be conferred prior to the September program start date.
Transcripts:
Required Educational Background:
Applicants must take either the GMAT or GRE. The GMAT or GRE score is valid for five years. The Admissions Committee will accept the highest score if a particular test was taken more than once, but it will have access to all your scores.
Relevant test scores should be sent to the following institution codes:
GMAT: 2NZ-2F-21
GRE: 5988
You are required to take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) or Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) for admission to the MFE program.
Two letters of recommendation (submitted online) are required from individuals, preferably direct professional or academic supervisors, who are well acquainted with your performance in a work setting.
Instructions:
*Please note: The Graduate Division requires three letters of recommendation for an application to be complete. You can work around this by entering our email address (please use mfe.admissions@anderson.ucla.edu) in the third space. In the first and last name spaces, you can type "3rd Letter." This will "trick" the system into thinking that the recommendation section of your application is complete, and it will allow you to submit your application if you have met all other requirements.
Applicants are required to submit two essays as part of the online application to the MFE program. One optional essay may also be submitted to supply additional information you think would help us evaluate your potential to succeed in the MFE program. The application essays help the Admissions Committee become acquainted with applicants as individuals, and they demonstrate an applicant's ability to write concisely and economically.
The essay topics can be found within the MFE Supplemental section of the Graduate Division online application. They are as follows:
REQUIRED ESSAYS:
OPTIONAL ESSAY:
REAPPLICANT ESSAY:
Please upload essays in PDF format.
It is important that applicants respond to essay questions candidly and completely. Essays that fall significantly below the required word count will be detrimental to your application.
Essays must be written by the applicant. If it is determined that an essay submitted has been written by anyone other than the applicant, the applicant will be denied admission.
Work or research experience in a quantitative discipline is recommended but not required for admission to the MFE program. Exceptional undergraduates with strong quantitative backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
On average, admitted students have three years of full-time experience before entering the MFE program.
Please complete the Professional Experience portion of the application and upload a resume as a PDF in the section marked "Resume/CV." Include all full-time positions you have held, and account for any employment gaps since college. If you have only held internship positions, you may list them on your resume, however, you must indicate that they were internships and report the start and end date of each one.
TOEFL or IELTS scores are required of all applicants whose native language is not English. The TOEFL/IELTS is also required for students who attended a university where the medium of instruction was English, but the official language of the country was NOT English (this includes both India and Singapore).
International students who hold a bachelor's degree or higher from a university located in Australia, Barbados, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States, or who have completed at least two years of full-time study at such an institution, are exempt from these requirements. Learn more.
TOEFL/IELTS:
Include these in the "Professional Designations" section under the "Master of Financial Engineering" tab, and upload a copy of your results in the "Supporting Documents" tab.
Interviews are conducted on an invitation-only basis. Once an application is completed, the Admissions Committee may request an interview with a prospective student.