I will teach you how to bring your life stories to essays faster with F1GMAT's essay guides. Download below or subscribe to F1GMAT's Service and work with me - Atul Jose, Author/Editor/Founding Consultant, F1GMAT(16 Years of helping applicants gain admissions to M7 and Top 30 schools) F1GMAT: UC Irvine Merage MBA has put emphasis on Strategic Innovation, Information Technology and Analytic Decision making in its curriculum. Tell us how the curriculum will help MBA grads.
Sarah Ramsey(Merage MBA): Our Dean, Andy Policano, along with his advisory board of executives, have identified these three key drivers: Strategic Innovation, Information Technology and Analytic Decision-Making as crucial elements needed to separate our MBA graduates from the competition.
We believe this curriculum separates our graduates to by teaching them to become the types of leaders that businesses now demand. Through our curriculum they learn to make good decisions with imperfect information, anticipate and capitalize on emerging trends, analyze business problems and situations, look at those problems and situations from a variety of perspectives, and develop innovative solutions and strategies. Finally, our curriculum prepares our students to incorporate technology into their ground-breaking business decisions. 
F1GMAT: What is the biggest misconception about UC Irvine MBA programs?
Sarah Ramsey(UC Irvine Merage MBA):The biggest misconception is that Irvine and Orange County lacks access to big business industries. That could not be further from the truth. For business students seeking to advance their careers, UC Irvine could not be better located. We have the advantage of being surrounded by a wide variety of industries including biotech, pharmaceutical, real estate, food and beverage, technology and a large entrepreneurial community as well. In addition to the companies the Merage School interacts locally we are also conveniently located near industries in Los Angeles, San Diego and even San Francisco. Just around the corner from the Merage School are companies such as Taco Bell, Kia, PIMCO, Pacific Life Oakley, Google, Deloitte, Allergan, Mazda, Blizzard, Ingram Micro, Broadcom, Experian, Boeing and Gallup.
F1GMAT: What are some of the networking opportunities provided by UC Irvine?
Sarah Ramsey(UC Irvine Merage MBA): UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business offers many networking opportunities for our students from connecting with our alumni, to attending conferences within their respective industry of interest, hosting club events with business professionals, participating in mentorship programs, Career Center focused events and even MBA events focused on connecting with MBAs in other Southern California programs as well as MBAs from elite programs living and working in Orange County, CA.
Connecting with business leaders
For example, each quarter our Center for Global Leadership hosts a Distinguished Speakers Series, bringing to campus C-level executives from a variety of industries. These executives share their insights into business and leadership, and bring their colleagues with them. In addition, alumni students and the business community attend these events. Before and after each event we offer networking receptions to encourage people to connect. Our students have a lot of accessibility to the business community at all Merage School events.
Conference connections
Networking opportunities are presented at the many conferences, presentations, mixers, competitions and events hosted by the business school and our Centers for Excellence. For instance, this year’s ProfitPlusPlanet conference focused on sustainability in business and brought together business leaders from companies such as: Honda, Wal-Mart, Deloitte Consulting, Intel, Marriott, Mattel, UPS and many green-focused start-up companies to discuss how companies can harness the power of sustainability as a driver of innovation and profit. Students attended this conference, networked and shared their thoughts with business leaders on the topic of sustainability.
Centers of Excellence
Furthermore, the Merage School offers six Centers of Excellence that provide numerous opportunities for students to collaborate, work and learn from business leaders and entrepreneurs. We offer Centers focused around Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Global Leadership, Investment and Wealth Management, Real Estate, Health Care Management and Policy, Research on Information Technology and Organization and the newly created U.S. China Institute for Business and Law.
F1GMAT: How is the student life in UC Irvine?
Sarah Ramsey(UC Irvine Merage MBA):The student life at UC Irvine is amazing. With around 100 students entering the Full-Time MBA program each year, the community at the Merage School is extremely tight knit. We offer a personalized learning environment for our students to learn and grow in. Some of the benefits of this community include: personalized attention from faculty and the MBA career center, close friendships with classmates and extraordinary accessibility to the Southern California business community.
Life on and off campus
Our students develop close bonds of friendship both inside and out the classroom. While they work very hard on their coursework and careers, they also find time to get involved on-campus, in the community, and enjoy all the amenities Irvine, Orange County, and Southern California have to offer.
Often times, students find their schedules book up very quickly with all the different activities available to them. There is something for everyone. We offer a variety of professional clubs as well as plenty of social activities. Any day of the week our students can be found participating in intramural sports and tournaments at the Anteater Reaction Center, networking events with companies, mixers for all the MBA programs on-campus and in the southern California area, charity events, poker nights, attending Angels baseball games, surfing at the beach, skiing in the nearby mountains, shopping at some of the best malls in Southern California, or attending a concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. 
Orange County
Additionally, we offer convenient, resort-style on-campus housing to our students. On-campus housing extends the community beyond the classroom and adds a lot of value to the student experience. Also, the UC Irvine campus is just minutes from a many popular destinations such as Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach’s “Surf City U.S.A.”, Disneyland and sports teams such as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the Anaheim Ducks, making the Merage School one of the best places to work, play and get your MBA.
F1GMAT: Every school promotes its MBA program based on its Accreditations, ROI, Job prospects and Unique learning methodologies. What makes UC Irvine stand out from the competition?
Sarah Ramsey(UC Irvine Merage MBA): At the Merage School we pride ourselves on our approach to the MBA career process. Our MBA Career Center offers a customized and personalized career approach to help our students gain the right skills to transform their careers.
Career Visioning
Before students even set foot on campus, the career transformation begins with career-visioning exercises. We put a lot of emphasis on professional development and helping individuals find their career focus. Career visioning exercises help students hone in on their career interest, as well as strengths and weaknesses and are followed by a workshop to identify their career vision.
Then, our powerhouse of MBA Career Counselors work one-on-one with each of our students to develop a customized career marketing plan to help them utilize all the resources the Merage School has to offer to connect them with their career goals.
Career Success
The MBA Class of 2009, the first graduating class to complete the Career Visioning process, ranked number one in the country for employment in 2009 with 92% of our MBA students employed by 90 days after graduation. This is a testament to the Career Visioning process and the Merage School MBA Career Center’s ability to prepare our students for where they want to go in their career.
F1GMAT: Can you give our readers a demographic snapshot of the UC Irvine Full-time MBA program (latest class)? 
F1GMAT: What are some of the unique courses offered in UC Irvine Full-time MBA program? How will these courses help MBA students?
Sarah Ramsey(UC Irvine Merage MBA): We offer a number of unique courses in the Full-Time MBA program, a few of them include: Sustainability and Competitive Advantage, EDGE, Leadership Strategies, and Experiential Learning. 
Sustainability and Competitive Advantage, a new course offered this year, allows students to understand the challenge of addressing social and environmental sustainability from a strategic perspective. This course enables our graduates to capture business opportunities in sustainability while making a difference for this and future generations.
The EDGE course explores the roles of globalization, technology, and innovation in the changing landscape of business. This course prepares our students to proactively identify opportunities and challenges presented by globalization, technology and innovation and develop strategies needed to compete and be successful.
Leadership Strategies provides students with insights and perspectives into leadership and their leadership style. The course allows them to understand the frameworks of leadership but also how others see them as a leader. Students create a plan for enhancing their leadership and career.
We also have an Experiential Learning project that many of our students like to take advantage of. This course serves as an opportunity for our students to address real-life business challenges. Students contribute to the bottom line of organizations and its good networking for future career opportunities. The companies our students work with vary from year to year but recent companies our students have worked with include: Experian, Wet Seal, Bausch & Lomb, Volcom, Taco Bell, and Marriott.
F1GMAT: What are the entry criteria in terms of the number of years of experience/GMAT/GPA for UC Irvine Full-time MBA program?
Sarah Ramsey(UC Irvine Merage MBA): We take a holistic approach to admissions, reviewing each applicant on a case by case basis. This means no portion of the application weights more heavily than any other. We are looking for balance. Keeping in mind that admissions are competitive, I encourage applicants to look at our class profile to get a sense of the average GPAs, GMAT scores, years of work experience, etc. from the previous year. This is a good indicator of a candidate’s eligibility for admissions from a GMAT and GPA standpoint. We do not have a minimum requirement for work experience but are looking at the quality of the experience, what a person has accomplished, career progression, and whether or not they have taken initiative in the workplace. We are looking for demonstrated leadership. It is recommended candidates have at least two years of work experience to benefit from the MBA experience.
F1GMAT: What are the post-MBA opportunities available for UC Irvine MBA Grads?
Sarah Ramsey(UC Irvine Merage MBA): Because of our MBA Career Center’s customized approach our students go into a variety of industries that suit their skills and interests. We have seen a recent growth in interest and jobs in the areas of sustainability, operations/logistics, human resources and non-profit. However, we have seen consistent interest and opportunities in the areas of consulting, marketing and finance. Some of the companies our graduates from the Class of 2011 are working for include: Mattel, General Electric, Deloitte Consulting, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, U.S. Airways, Taco Bell, Niagara Bottling, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bank of America, Walt Disney Studios, Gallup and Yahoo!.
F1GMAT: What are some of the defining characteristics that you look for in a UC Irvine MBA candidate?
Sarah Ramsey(UC Irvine Merage MBA): Due to the intimate size of the Full-Time MBA program at the Merage School it is crucial that each incoming student fit within our culture. This is usually something candidates experience in some capacity during the MBA recruitment and admissions process. Each person brings something different to the program, and we value that diversity, but some of the defining characteristics we look for in all our candidates are that they are bright, ambitious, strong communicators, work well in teams, and optimistic. All our students are very bright and challenge each other within the classroom. A common drive and focus is key in an MBA setting. Communication skills are crucial in order to be successful in the MBA program and in the business world. We offer a collaborative learning environment and understand the importance of this in business, so we also look for a candidate’s ability to thrive within a team. Finally, an optimistic attitude allows students recognize all the resources and opportunities available to them and how to benefit from it.
About Sarah RamseySarah is the Director of Recruitment and Admissions at UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business where she focuses on the Full-Time MBA program. Sarah joined the Merage School in 2006 after working in hospitality and then advertising for several years. She completed her undergraduate degree in Communications at the University of Southern California and is a recent graduate of the part-time M.B.A program at the Merage School.
Winning MBA Essay Guide - A Complete Guide for M7 and Top 15 MBA Application Essays
F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay into a life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.
+ Over 245 Sample Essays (Read Previews of F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide Sample Essays here)
+ Top 15 MBA Programs (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Yale, Haas, Darden, INSEAD, LBS, NYU Stern, Tuck, Duke Fuqua, Ross)
+ The Art of Storytelling
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
Want to try the individual school Essay Guides before upgrading to the Winning MBA Essay Guide? Try below.
F1GMAT's Essay Guides
Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)
Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)Example #1: Persistence Narrative
Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.
Curiosity: Philosophy
Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.
Theme: Persistence
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #2: International Community Building
Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #3: Culture
Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
Theme: Culture
MBA Essay Strategy: Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #4: Addiction
Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
Theme: Addiction
MBA Essay Strategy: My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #5: Scarcity
Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
Theme: Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)Example #6: FinTech
Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening.
Theme: Education, Child Welfare
MBA Essay Strategy: Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #7: Learning from the best
Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
Theme: Learning
MBA Essay Strategy: The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
Theme: Career Choice
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)Example #9: Small Business Values
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
Theme: Customer-Centric
MBA Essay Strategy: The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
Theme: Authenticity
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #11: Creativity and Communication
Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance.
Theme: Creativity, Communication
MBA Essay Strategy: The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #12: Mental Health
Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
Theme: Communication, Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
Theme: Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.
Theme: Failure
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her.
Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
Example #16: Creative or Finance
Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views.
Theme: Passion, Talent
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.
Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)- Stanford MBA Essay Guide (24 Sample Essays)
- Columbia MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Wharton MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- INSEAD MBA Essay Guide (19 Sample Essays)
- Darden MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Yale SOM MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Tuck MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Haas MBA Essay Guide (18 Sample Essays)
- NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays + 6 Examples - Visual Essay)
- LBS MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Essays)
- MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Cover Letters + 3 Sample Video Statement Scripts + 3 Sample Optional Essays)
- Kellogg MBA Essay Guide (11 Sample Essays)
- Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
- Ross MBA Essay Guide (31 Sample Essays)
- Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Guide (10 Sample Essays + Two 25 Random Things Samples)
- Cambridge MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
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