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GMAT Club Legend
Status: Um... what do you want to know?
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 5463
Location: SF, CA, USA
Schools: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
WE 1: Social Gaming
Followers: 49
Kudos [?]:
309
[0], given: 14
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Went to an Organizational Behavior class visit yesterday at Haas. It was a LOT of fun, since they had a special case study and action plan on the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, the only conductor-free orchestra in the US and multiple Grammy winning CDs.
Since I used to play in some orchestras and know of Orpheus, the class was very entertaining for me. The highlight was when the Executive Director of the orchestra did a 30 minute Q&A discussing the organizational change and improvements they're doing right now (working with Haas students). That was a blast getting insights into how business and the "congruence" model works in real life.
Anyway, the students were really friendly, though from the Q&As, you can tell one or two are a bit more "cutthroat" than others. The presentation skills were all over the board, some great, some not so. The teacher was very very fun and energetic. The classrooms were nice, but a bit small with 9 extra guests (case study writers, 2nd year observers, guest lecturer from Israel, Executive Director, and 2 prospective students).
All in all, very good trip. Will have another one 10/15 if anyone is around, 4-5:30pm.
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Director
Joined: 24 Apr 2007
Posts: 589
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
17
[0], given: 0
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I worked on my activities list for Haas today. Gosh I look bad. Plenty of activities from freshman year until 2002, and then basically nothing until early 07. Hopefully they'll count organizing baseball outings (4-6 games per season) for friends and coworkers as something... 
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Director
Joined: 24 Apr 2007
Posts: 589
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
17
[0], given: 0
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I talked to a Haas alumni today who is a relative of one of my coworkers. He thought that my low GPA (3.25) was going to be a problem. To make matters worse, we had a major outage at work, and people kept trying to call and IM me, so I was distracted. I don't think I made a great impression. Overall, fairly discouraging.
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SVP
Joined: 08 Nov 2006
Posts: 1560
Location: Ann Arbor
Schools: Ross '10
Followers: 12
Kudos [?]:
155
[0], given: 1
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bherronp, I am surprised with the statement that your GPA is a problem. I think your 760 GMAT more than makes up for it. Dont get discouraged. If the essays are all they are made up to be, then why wouldnt you have a great shot. Just slog on the essays. You will be fine.
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Current Student
Joined: 17 May 2007
Posts: 385
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
7
[0], given: 0
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First draft done! Let's see what it looks like tomorrow...in the daylight.
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Director
Joined: 24 Apr 2007
Posts: 589
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
17
[0], given: 0
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Two of my Berkeley essays got a "don't change anything" thumbs up from my reviewers. The others... not so good. I don't feel very creative right now though.
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Current Student
Joined: 17 May 2007
Posts: 385
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
7
[0], given: 0
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Anyone care to share who they are planning to have dinner with in their essays?
I have one written but am not totally satisfied with it. The other option is one of my grandparents, but that might be too personal? I've just noticed that this set of essays does not really highlight my ethnicity, which I've done in all my other essays.
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GMAT Club Legend
Status: Um... what do you want to know?
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 5463
Location: SF, CA, USA
Schools: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
WE 1: Social Gaming
Followers: 49
Kudos [?]:
309
[0], given: 14
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talk about some icon/hero/special person of the same ethnicity as you. That will allow you to explore your ethnicity and why you're inviting that person over for dinner.
I picked a sports star, not from a sport as popular as football, soccer, baseball or basketball, but someone I admired for over 10 years and followed his every competition. It demonstrates my passion for something outside of work.
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Director
Joined: 11 Sep 2006
Posts: 517
Followers: 1
Kudos [?]:
32
[0], given: 0
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I'm late to post, but throwing my hat into the ring as well on this one. Plowing through my essays, not-so-gently prodding my recommenders to get a move on... actually, for one of them, he's making me write the rough draft myself. Argh. Hate that.
In terms of being too personal in essays, I think common sense rules the day. I mean, you don't want to come off as an open wound who needs massive therapy just to get through the day, but consider how many dry, boring essays the adcoms have to plow through. If referencing some personal details about yourself allows the adcom to get at the substance of who you are, I think that can only be good.
_________________
...there ain't no such thing as a free lunch...
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Current Student
Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 570
WE 1: Hi-tech Product Development
Followers: 8
Kudos [?]:
71
[0], given: 3
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uphillclimb wrote: actually, for one of them, he's making me write the rough draft myself. Argh. Hate that.
Umm...I'm not sure that's entirely healthy...
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Director
Joined: 11 Sep 2006
Posts: 517
Followers: 1
Kudos [?]:
32
[0], given: 0
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KingKREEP wrote: uphillclimb wrote: actually, for one of them, he's making me write the rough draft myself. Argh. Hate that.
Umm...I'm not sure that's entirely healthy... It stinks, but what can I do? I work directly for him, he's our CEO, it would be weird if I didn't have him as one of my recommenders. I'm giving him the rough draft tomorrow - he assured me that he would edit the hell out of it and make it his own, and that he just wanted to make sure the reco hit all of the points and used all of the examples from work that I thought were relevant. I told him I would give him a list of vocabulary terms and phrases I thought he should use..."linchpin in the organization", "fulcrum upon which all business activity turns", "greatest thing since sliced bread", that kind of thing...
_________________
...there ain't no such thing as a free lunch...
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GMAT Club Legend
Status: Um... what do you want to know?
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 5463
Location: SF, CA, USA
Schools: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
WE 1: Social Gaming
Followers: 49
Kudos [?]:
309
[0], given: 14
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From the Ask Berkeley/Haas forums:
Question:
How strict is your essays word limits?
May I exceed this limit if I feel it really necessary? what deviation will consider acceptable? (i.e. 5%? 10%?)
Thanks in advance!
Posted: 20 Sep 2007 04:14 AM
Answer:
Hello,
The word limits are guidelines. We advise that you stay as close to the recommended word limits as possible. No specific deviation has been set for going over the guidelines.
Best wishes,
Pam Maestas
The Berkeley MBA Admissions Team
http://messageboard.chatuniversity.com/ ... stTopic=59
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GMAT Club Legend
Status: Um... what do you want to know?
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 5463
Location: SF, CA, USA
Schools: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
WE 1: Social Gaming
Followers: 49
Kudos [?]:
309
[0], given: 14
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Had a great chat with one of the Haas admissions committee members (1 of 5) today, as well as the director of admissions. Surprisingly, what was supposed to be a 2-3 minute chat turned into about a 30 minute chat, with the adcom member asking me about my background, what I do, what I want to do, why MBA, why Haas, and everything in between (including some good restaurants to go to in Berkeley!) It was almost like an interview, but in a reception/casual setting. I hope I made a good impression, since she didn't seem bored and asked a lot of questions. It definitely helped me practice for potential interviews!
One more thing I learned, for local Bay Area people, the "Super Saturday" interviews for R1 and R2 will invite people who need to fly in (domestically) first. So if you start hearing others applying to Haas getting Super Saturday interviews and you haven't, that's because Bay Area people are last in the priority line (due to how close we live and how easy it is for us to get to Haas). Don't panic if you don't get an interview invite till very late.
Hope that helped!
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Current Student
Joined: 17 May 2007
Posts: 385
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
7
[0], given: 0
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how'd you come across this person?
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GMAT Club Legend
Status: Um... what do you want to know?
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 5463
Location: SF, CA, USA
Schools: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
WE 1: Social Gaming
Followers: 49
Kudos [?]:
309
[0], given: 14
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I saw her at a reception today at Haas and proceeded to strike up a conversation with her.
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Current Student
Joined: 17 May 2007
Posts: 385
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
7
[0], given: 0
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what reception? did i miss something good?
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Senior Manager
Joined: 19 Nov 2006
Posts: 256
Location: Washington, DC
Schools: Ross 2010
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
17
[0], given: 1
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Question for you guys. It kind of seems like the career goal essay is asking why Haas when it says: Why do you want an MBA from Berkeley at this point in your career? However, one of the short answer questions also says what factors have incluenced your decision to apply to Haas?
I don't want to answer why Berkely twice because that would just annoy the adcom's. Do I not need to say why Haas in the career goal essay? Just want to be sure I am clear.
Thanks, Sarah[/i]
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GMAT Club Legend
Status: Um... what do you want to know?
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 5463
Location: SF, CA, USA
Schools: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
WE 1: Social Gaming
Followers: 49
Kudos [?]:
309
[0], given: 14
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yes, I believe that has been discussed before. I broke it into two separate parts, each compliment each other.
Short answer: What visits, infosessions, and people I talked (all actions) with that made me want to apply to Haas
Long essay: What classes, clubs, resources, and culture at Haas will help me reach my long term career goals.
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Senior Manager
Joined: 12 Nov 2006
Posts: 469
Followers: 1
Kudos [?]:
8
[0], given: 0
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bherronp wrote: I talked to a Haas alumni today who is a relative of one of my coworkers. He thought that my low GPA (3.25) was going to be a problem. To make matters worse, we had a major outage at work, and people kept trying to call and IM me, so I was distracted. I don't think I made a great impression. Overall, fairly discouraging.
Jesus if your GPA is a problem, I have no chance with my sub-3 GPA then...sigh..
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GMAT Club Legend
Status: Um... what do you want to know?
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 5463
Location: SF, CA, USA
Schools: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
WE 1: Social Gaming
Followers: 49
Kudos [?]:
309
[0], given: 14
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BTW, checked with a few Berkeley students, they all filled out the "what other schools are you applying to" section in the application, and most did apply to Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, etc... And obviously they all got in.
Hoping this will calm some nerves. I'll probably fill it out. Oh yeah, the Haas Student Ambassador says that it is NOT detrimental to leave it blank either.
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