Calling Berkeley-Haas Fall 2008 Applicants!

I believe Haas has updated its FT MBA cost for 2008-2009...

https://www.haas.berkeley.edu/mba/finaid/FTCosts.htm

Happy budgeting.

I am pretty sad about the financing options for internationals. Without a co-signer loans will be around 12% interest for internationals, which is outrageous. Tuck and Ross have significantly better loan offers. This REALLY sucks.

I dont want to choose my school according to the best loan programs...

Thanks branson for the info. Strange... why is the resident fees $3K MORE than the non-resident fees (before adding in non-resident tuition)?

$30K was what I estimated...

As for the loans, branson, have you called up their financial aid office and ask about why Ross and Tuck can offer better loan rates?

Also, in the end, that loan rate over 2 years won't matter much. It's just like people picking between a public school and a non public school (if you were a US Citizen and CA resident). The cost shouldn't be a huge factor because it all evens out after 5-10 years. Your fit with the school and what the school can do for you is more important, in my opinion.

Kry, if I take out $80k in loans over 10 years I will pay back $140k at 12.5% interest...

I say that does make a difference, especially compared to the $60k at Tuck at ~8.5%

I'm a bit confused at how you're comparing the two numbers, branson. Do you mean that if you took out 80K for Haas, you'll pay $260K after 10 years with 12.5% interest, and if you took out $60K at Tuck, you'll pay $135K after 10 years with 8.5% interest?

I guess that is a big difference. not sure what to say. So you've talked with the financial aid offices and they told you there's nothing they can do about the interest rates nor the scholarship?

Hi All,

I am from India, and got my interview invite for interview scheduled in Bangalore in March. Am very excited!! Anyone else in the same boat?

Thanks

hey kry:

no, if I take out 80k at Cal at ~13% my total loan pay back will be 140k (over 10 years), so interest paid is something like 60k. I personally think thats A LOT.

Taking out 60k at Tuck I'd pay back something like 90k over ten years, so interest paid is around 30k. at 8.5% a lot more manageable and I would sleep better while in school.

to be honest, I havent called yet, but intend to do so, you're absolutely right. I am just wondering how they think someone finds a co-signer being an international? Although I have American friends, I wouldnt dare asking them to co sign a 80k loan...

Hrm... shows that I'm not a financial person... I get 80K x (1.13)^10 (13% interest, compounded yearly for 10 years, right?) is roughly $271K

did I do something wrong?

But yeah, you have nothing to lose at this point asking them if there's any way they can help you match Tuck, since the difference is quite dramatic.

haha, well maybe, but I would start paying BACK the loan over 120 installments, so the debt decreases per year...

looking forward to going to finance class with you, kry.

13% - that's outright usury! Are these loans taken out in your home country, branson? In Euros?

Nope, those are US rates listed here at the Haas site:

https://www.haas.berkeley.edu/mba/finaid ... alprvt.htm

Other US schools have waaay better rates for international students. Dont ask why. Apparently Haas knows this, too, as they mention that on the site.

ahh... forgot that you're paying off during the time... that's too complicated for my primitive brain.. hee hee

So Haas publicly tells others that their rates are higher than other schools? Not too smart in my opinion...

Just came back from the local Haas Alumni Event. It's the 9th year they've been doing it and there were over 500 people there, including alums, FT students, and PT students. There were 5 of us admits there checking it out. Met a bunch of students who were super gung ho about the school and a couple entrepreneurs and VCs who were talking about career paths. All in all a great event. The food was delicious too... never had smoked salmon pizza before.

They dont actually say: "Listen, dipshit, our rates suck, deal with it." It's more of a "we know other schools may have better rates, but we cannot comment on that, so please, do us all a favor and keep the whining to yourself".

Even though I'm not a Haas applicant and it may be kind of Off Topic, well, yesterday (as for kryzak's recomendation) I went to visit UC Berkeley.

Great environment - a bucolic one - people were friendly and it was a sunny day. The facilities of Haas are not "top notch" but are not as old as Sloan's, and the building is right in front of the Football stadium, hehehehehe. I saw a Brazilian guy there discussing his opportunities with a friend, but I didn't have time to talk with them. I went to the Sather Tower - The Campanile - to take some photos and also drived around the campus.

It took longer than I was expecting to go from San Francisco to the campus - around 45 minutes from downtown at 11.30AM. I saw that the traffic on the way back was HORRIBLE, so I decided to drive the north area of the bay to see once again the famous bridge .

All in all, I think it's a good place, people were friendly and helpful.

hey kwam, YAY! I'm glad you got the time to visit Berkeley! The campus is quite different from Stanford, but I do enjoy it immensely nonetheless. Haas' facilities are decent, and definitely better than MIT, Stanford, and even some parts of Kellogg. Anderson still has the best facility of the ones I applied to, and Chicago is just stunning.

Anyway, hope you liked the view on the Campanile. Yesterday was a great day to take pictures. It was SOOOO nice and warm here.

Alright, today's your last day in the area right? hope you have a good time and have a safe trip out to NYC and Chicago! I'm headed down to Monterey for another track event with my Audi today.

I like the Haas campus but the only thing I don't like is that Haas has an undergraduate program so there are a lot of students there when you mix in the undergrads, FT MBA, PT MBAs, and EMBAs. I know it's not a full house every day but on the Thursday that I was there for my interview, there were students all over the place...the stairs, hallways, bathrooms, classrooms, snack bar, etc. It was also even more busy because it was drizzling outside so the students were all inside. It was pretty crazy hectic and the environment turned me off.

This obviously doesn't change the fact that Haas is a world class business school.

Of course, I kind of knew what to expect since I did my undergrad at Cal but back then, they didn't have the new Haas buildings (or maybe they did but I just never went there since I was a CS major).

RVD.

very good point RVD. Yeah, it is a bit more busy than I'd like, but it's not too bad. I do like UCLA's buildings more and how much bigger they are.

Unfortunately they put the new Haas-Boalt building on hold... that would have been sweet!