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Berkeley Haas released its application for the Class of 2025, and in doing so has debuted a new required essay.<\/h2>\nBerkeley Haas released its application for the Class of 2025, and in doing so has debuted a new required essay.<\/h2>\nBerkeley Haas has been at the forefront of addressing inclusivity in business school and beyond, seeking to create and cultivate a community that reflects genuine diversity in every sense of the word.\u00a0As such, Haas is looking for candidates who demonstrate self- and situational awareness, which is an invitation to be both introspective and authentic across your essays \u2013 and certainty to do your research beyond a cursory website review.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As former Associate Director of Admissions at Berkeley Haas, I think this suite of Berkeley Haas essay questions is excellent. Let\u2019s talk strategy \u2013 what Haas is looking for in each of its new questions and how best to tackle them.<\/p>\n First, don\u2019t overlook the valuable context that Haas offers up in the brief intro to its essay questions, which conveys the school\u2019s defining leadership principles<\/a> and interest in fit (mentioned twice). The school has long put a premium on challenging the status quo (first of the four principles) \u2013 and is signaling core elements that Haas students and alumni embody. You\u2019ll do well to keep these in mind in your storytelling.<\/p>\n I love the wording of this question \u2013 any opportunity to learn about what ignites the spark in a candidate is really exciting to read. (Remember that most Haas admissions readers will be plowing through some 2,000 application essays in a single cycle.) It\u2019s also evocative of the iconic Stanford GSB essay<\/a>, \u2018what matters most to you, and why?\u2019 \u2013 which similarly gets personal and requires a profound level of self-reflection and sincerity. This question also underscores that Haas is looking for people who will actively contribute to the community and beyond, not just in the classroom. Your intellectual acumen and accomplishments being a given, what are you passionate about and why does it ignite that aliveness in you? This essay prompt allows the admissions team to understand \u2018what makes you tick\u2019 up and beyond what they\u2019ll glean from your academic record and work history.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A successful essay will share a specific and personal experience that helps the reader get to know you better, giving insight into your character, values, or how you would uniquely contribute to the Berkeley-Haas community. Given that you only have 300 words, the maxim to \u2018show not tell\u2019 is critical here. You want to bring the reader on the experience with you so they can smell, taste, feel and connect to whatever it is you\u2019re describing \u2013\u00a0what it felt like to summit that mountaintop and peer into the volcano\u2019s smoky belly, or the felt experience in a devotional act of creation that erased any sense of time. And unless it\u2019s deeply sincere and will ring true, a community service moment or tutoring exchange isn\u2019t necessarily the place to shine the spotlight. Dig deep and dare to have a little fun here; your voice can convey your personality.<\/p>\n For the last three years, the essay question Berkeley Haas posed around leadership was a more broadly stated (and ambiguous!) prompt. This year, the question is a distilled version intentionally focused as an exploration of your personal leadership profile and should draw from an example in your life that features you, front and center. Please note: A big piece of advice is the focus on YOU! For example, even if you admire your current boss for their leadership, describing ways you hope to emulate them someday takes up precious word count. Additionally, a huge pitfall in citing others\u2019 leadership could be that the Admissions Committee will learn more about someone other than you, the applicant!<\/p>\n You are encouraged to share a concise reply that will clearly help the Admissions Committee understand what your areas of strength and areas of growth are \u2013 with a seemingly greater emphasis on the growth piece (as per the Executive Director, Eric Askins, \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t need to pursue the MBA if you had all the tools necessary to become the leader you are hoping to become!\u201d) and how you would \u201cshow up\u201d in the Haas community. \u00a0Articulating how will you leverage the following to meet your aspirations will demonstrate your self-awareness, as well as the research you have done to learn more about Berkeley Haas:<\/p>\n Overall, looking at the programmatic and academic opportunities, what would you want to take advantage of at Berkeley Haas?<\/p>\n Most importantly is the WHY<\/strong> \u2013 why do you aspire to this type of leadership?\u00a0 Is there a community you want to serve?\u00a0 A problem you wish to solve? An internal motivation based upon experiences you might have had?\u00a0 The WHY is pivotal to the response and can incorporate\/compliment other replies in the Berkeley Haas application, such as the 150 words reply to: \u201cBriefly describe your immediate post-MBA career goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Keep in mind that it\u2019s a reflective piece and you have only 300 words to convey your point. You\u2019ll want to speak with precision and authenticity about ways you\u2019re hoping to enhance your leadership profile. Approach this with some humility in thinking about leadership. Has there ever been something you\u2019d have pushed more successfully over the finish line if you had X or Y under your belt? Or an instance where you sense your impact could have been much greater with the benefit of Z? Not necessarily something transactional, but something more experiential or that you would gain in a relational context? If you think of the MBA experience as a huge learning laboratory, what might you want to perfect over the last few years that will set you up for success? In doing so, how can you convey what kind of leader do you aspire to be and why?<\/p>\n Optional Information #1: We invite you to help us better understand the context of your opportunities and achievements: [6 multiple choice questions]\u2026 Alternatively, you may use this opportunity to expand on other hardships or unusual life circumstances that may help us understand the context of your opportunities, achievements, and impact. (300 words max)<\/i><\/p>\n In Optional essay 1, Haas seeks to uncover the less visible forces that shape candidates\u2019 lives, opportunities, decisions, and character. This includes the challenges certain applicants face to get to where they are \u2013 even when students themselves don\u2019t see them as distinctive or noteworthy. Socioeconomic barriers, for example, can contribute to things that might be missing from an application but, in context, convey bigger picture understanding. It\u2019s a recognition from Haas of the huge range of students applying to business school, and a desire to support the admissions committee\u2019s decision-making by supplying a full and rich understanding of who each applicant truly is and the circumstances that shaped their lives. You\u2019ll do well not to consider the first question optional, while avoiding the second unless you have something truly relevant to add that isn\u2019t elsewhere addressed.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re feeling equal parts inspired and intimidated, take to heart these unscripted remarks from Berkeley Haas\u2019s Pete Johnson, Assistant Dean for the Full-time MBA Program and Admissions. Speaking to Fortuna\u2019s Matt Symonds at the CentreCourt MBA Festival in New York, Johnson offered the following advice:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBe courageous. I think a lot of applicants say \u2018well, you know, I\u2019m an engineer but what I really want to do is work in digital music,\u2019 and they write it out and they show it to their partner or whoever who says, \u2018no don\u2019t write that, they\u2019ll think you\u2019re crazy!\u2019\u201d says Johnson. \u201cWhen somebody really tells us what they\u2019re enthusiastic about it literally leaps off the screen when we read those things.\u201d<\/p>\n View our MBA Admissions Essay Masterclass on Berkeley Haas, Duke Fuqua, Yale SOM & UCLA Anderson.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n All sessions from our MBA Admissions Essay Masterclass series are available on <\/i><\/span>Fortuna\u2019s YouTube channel<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For more tips and prompts for getting started, check out our two-part series on MBA essay writing:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Writing a Powerful MBA Essay: Part 1 \u2013 The Essentials<\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/span>and\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Writing Powerful Essays \u2013 Part 2: The \u2018Introduce Yourself\u2019 Question<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n Updated July, 2022<\/em><\/p>\n Fortuna Admissions expert coach Sharon Joyce<\/a> is former Berkeley Haas Associate Director of Admissions.\u00a0For a candid assessment of your chances of admission success at a top MBA program, sign up for\u00a0a\u00a0<\/em>free consultation<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Berkeley Haas Essays for 2022-2023: Strategy & Tips<\/a> first appeared on Fortuna<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Berkeley Haas released its application for the Class of 2025, and in doing so has debuted a new required essay. Berkeley Haas has been at the forefront of addressing inclusivity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1831,775,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-fortuna-admissions","category-admission-consultants","category-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Context matters: Decoding the Berkeley Haas Essay Questions<\/b><\/h2>\n
Essay #1:\u00a0<\/span><\/b>What makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why? (300 words max)<\/i><\/h3>\n
Essay #2 (NEW in 2022):<\/strong>\u00a0What kind of leader do you aspire to be and why? (hard cut-off at 300 words)<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n
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Optional Essays: <\/b><\/h3>\n
Want more free advice?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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