Applicable only to students admitted during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Management

John E. Anderson School of Management

Graduate Degrees

The John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Management, the Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) degree, the Master of Financial Engineering (M.F.E.) degree and the Master of Science in Business Analytics (M.S.B.A.) degree. In addition, there are a number of degree programs, offered in cooperation with other graduate and professional degree programs on campus, that lead to the M.B.A. and another degree. The school also offers the Executive M.B.A. Program (EMBA), the Global EMBA for Asia Pacific, and the M.B.A. for the Fully Employed (FEMBA).

Master of Science and Doctoral Program

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

There is no separate M.S. degree program. Students are only admitted with Ph.D. as their degree objective. Under certain circumstances, students exiting the doctoral program prior to completing Ph.D. requirements may earn a terminal M.S. degree. The M.S. degree is offered on a terminal basis only and students are not eligible to earn an M.S. degree en route to Ph.D.

Advising

The Doctoral Program Office conducts a quarterly review of student progress. Students who are having scholastic difficulty or who are not making sufficient progress are asked to discuss their situation with their faculty area liaison and the Associate Dean. All conversations with the Associate Dean relating to progress are documented; copies are sent to the student’s adviser, and records are kept in the student’s file in the Doctoral Program Office.

Areas of Study

There are eight areas of study: Accounting; Behavioral Decision Making; Decisions, Operations and Technology Management; Finance; Global Economics and Management; Management and Organizations; Marketing; Strategy.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

A total of nine courses (36 units) are required for the M.S. degree under the Capstone and Thesis Plans. All courses must be at the graduate 200 level and taken for letter grades. At least six courses must be in Management. The remaining three courses are elective, which may be 200-level courses in Management, or 200-level in a closely related discipline, e.g. Economics. These nine courses may not be shared with those required from any other degree at UCLA.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

The capstone may be either a student’s first year summer paper or their second-year comprehensive examination, if it meets the faculty requirements. If the student has not produced a satisfactory first year paper or second year comprehensive examination, a capstone paper or literature review may be required to serve as the capstone.

The Ph.D. comprehensive examination is graded pass/fail, but the “fail” is broken into two subsets:

1. M.S. pass. This is a comprehensive examination that is not of a quality to count as a pass for the Ph.D. examination, but is of a quality to count as a pass for the M.S. capstone.
2. Fail. Not of a quality to count for an M.S. capstone.

Thesis Plan

None

Time-to-Degree

From graduate admission to award of the degree: six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	7

Doctoral Degree

Advising

New doctoral students are initially advised by their faculty area liaison. Students are urged to establish a working relationship with one or two faculty members early in their studies. Students are expected to have a close working relationship with at least one faculty member by the end of their first year in the program. Students are free to change their adviser whenever they wish during the course of their progress through the program. The overall adviser is the Associate Dean of the Ph.D. Program.

First-year students are reviewed by their respective academic areas following the spring quarter of their first year in the program. First-year grades and faculty evaluations are used in the review process. A final, written evaluation is forwarded to the Doctoral Program Office and is kept in the student’s file.

By the end of the first year in the program, students are required to submit Proposal of Study forms, which must be approved by the Associate Dean. These forms list course work students plan to take to satisfy the program requirements. The Doctoral Program Office conducts a quarterly review of student progress based on program deadlines, study forms and transcripts. For students who are having scholastic difficulty, who appear not to be making sufficient progress, or who are approaching a program deadline, the major field adviser is contacted. The Associate Dean, in consultation with the adviser, determines what action should be taken. A copy of all correspondence between the Associate Dean, the student, and/or the student’s adviser is maintained in the student’s file.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Accounting; Behavioral Decision Making; Decisions, Operations and Technology Management; Finance; Global Economics and Management; Management and Organizations; Marketing; Strategy.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Research Preparation Requirement. The research preparation requirement consists of two parts: (1) a course requirement and (2) a research paper. Students are required to take five research courses which are not part of the major field area classes taught in the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management. These courses must be at least 4 units, and letter-graded. These courses must be completed before taking the oral qualifying examination and may not be waived by prior graduate work. The “first year summer paper” must be submitted to and accepted by the student’s faculty mentor before the start of Fall Quarter of the second year of study.

Breadth Requirement. The breadth requirement consists of eight courses which are clearly outside the major field area. These courses must be at least 4 units, and letter graded. Students should use these courses to become more knowledgeable about the basic elements of several other management disciplines and functional areas or to define a minor field of research and teaching proficiency. Three of these courses may be waived by prior course work from a previously earned master’s degree. They must be completed before taking the oral qualifying examination.

Each of the eight academic areas have a different list of required major field courses (most of which are letter-graded, with the exception of workshops/seminars, which are S/U-graded) that is designed to prepare the student to pass the major field examination. In consultation with a major field adviser, this course of study may be modified on a case-by-case basis.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program. 

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Proficiency in the major field area is determined by a written examination, supplemented in some areas by an oral examination. The major field examinations (also called the “Comprehensive Exam”) must be passed before the start of Fall Quarter of the third year of study.

When all the preliminary requirements have been fulfilled (course work, research paper, major field examination, seminar), students are eligible to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination (OQE) and, if passed, to be advanced to doctoral candidacy. The oral qualifying examination must be passed and the student advanced to candidacy before the start of fall quarter of the student’s fourth year of study.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

The program is designed to take five years (15 quarters) from graduate admission to awarding of the degree. Completion of the degree cannot exceed seven and one-half years (23 quarters). Normative time-to-degree is 15 quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	15	23

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.0) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include unsatisfactory performance of first year summer paper, failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.0) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Ph.D. Program
A student may be recommended for academic disqualification for any of the following reasons:

1. As a result of conclusions of their area faculty first-year review.
2. Failure to complete a satisfactory first year summer paper before Fall Quarter of the second year of study.
3. Failure to pass the area comprehensive examinations (also called “Major Field Exams”) before Fall Quarter of the third year of study.
4. Failure to pass the oral qualifying examination and advance to candidacy before Fall Quarter of the fourth year of study.
5. Failure to maintain both a term and cumulative GPA minimum of 3.0.

The minimum standard of performance of the school is the University’s minimum grade point average of 3.0. If a student falls below a 3.0 term or cumulative GPA, or if Incomplete grades are not removed within one quarter, the student’s record indicates serious scholastic deficiencies that require review by the appropriate academic unit and may be the basis for a recommendation for academic disqualification.

A student is given written notification of approaching deadlines. Deadlines are based on quarters after matriculation.

The decision to recommend academic disqualification is made by the Associate Dean in consultation with the faculty liaison in the student’s area of specialization. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification through a request to the Associate Dean of the Ph.D. program and the UCLA Division of Graduate Education.