Haas (UC Berkeley) 2013 - Calling All Applicants

I have the following message on my status page and I am not invited to interview yet. Still I want to make sure that I will have all the documents ready if I do get an interview invitation (Fingers crossed).

“We will require an official transcript from University of Grad in US and official transcript and degree certificate from University of UG in India if you are invited to interview. * Official or properly certified copies will be accepted when attested by the University which you attended.”

I am clear about the transcripts and I have certified copies in envelopes with my University or college seal on it.
I am little worried about the degree certificate though because I have a copier copy of that and it is certified by a district magistrate in India, and I am not sure if that works or not. I may not have enough time to get a certified copy from my university though. I also have the original certificate which I would be little hesitant to hand it to someone. If it helps, all my transcripts and certificates are in English.

My question:
Should I try to get a certified copy or notarized copy here in US from a Circuit Court clerk? Or should I bring my original certificate and the copy certified by the magistrate?

Did anyone from R3 receive an invitation or does anyone know whether they have already started assessing R3 applications?

Try and get an "apostille" for it. Since both the USA and India are member states of the Apostille convention, theoretically it should be sufficient. I'll be able to confirm this in about a week's time when my documents arrive at Haas and I hear back from them.

In the meanwhile, you should inquire about the apostille certification process in your country. In my country, I first had to certify a photocopy by the university, then the Ministry of Education, and finally the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' consular service. But again, this process is different in every country, although I do believe that the final verification is handled by the MFA/Consulate everywhere.

Thanks GPT, I am in US and Apostille service in India is going to take more than 2 weeks because I might have to ship the documents. In that case I will submit the original copy of the degree certificate. I will also call the university today to get the clarification on it.

If you have it certified by a district magistrate with a seal and signature, it should be sufficient IMHO.
Carrying a copy of the original degree certificate will leave no room for doubt.

I am wondering about my masters degree certificate. I might have to get a notarized copy of it.

Just received an email from Berkeley MBA - a generic one about how to finance one's MBA....

How I wish it was an interview invite instead. They sure know how to play with our feelings

Yeah, and maybe it's just me, but it seems like Haas sends out a lot more advertising e-mails that get the heart pumping than other schools.

Try MIT-Sloan.

Not to hijack the Haas thread, but really, MIT is ridiculous. They ding me and then they still tell me to apply. Going to start putting it all in the spam folder soon...

Posted from my mobile device

haha, I understand but you got that email because you agreed to receive it when you submitted your application. On MIT-Sloan's MBA application there was a box which said something to the effect that Sloan can share your application and information with other possible fit programs withing MIT.

Aaahh, you are completely right! I DID keep that box checked ... not sure if Haas is the same way, but learn from my mistake...uncheck those boxes!! When you're filling out your applications, getting additional info from the school seems like a great idea; when you're on the flip side, not so much.

Well, more interesting story from one of my friends applying for CBS. She sent out an update letter to get off the waitlist before she noticed she was dinged from the waitlist that night. And the next day CBS replied, saying "thank you for your information, we will consider this information in your application...Please have patience while waiting for the final result." What a joke!

I'm an R3 applicant too - Don't think anyone's received an invite yet from the Round 3 pool. My status report reads "Your application is ready for review, but we may need additional materials before a final decision can be made. Please read the note below, which indicates what is missing from your application. Please feel free to call or e-mail us if you have any questions regarding these documents. " -- the documents they want are my official academic transcripts IF i'm invited to interview...

How about yours??

My application status is just "received". I have submitted it on 16.1. right before deadline. When did you submit?

I am little bit worried since from McCombs and Simon I received interview invitation next day after the deadline passed. So I am worried that this waiting from Haas and Stern may be a bad sign.

I received an interview invite yesterday evening! I'm glad to listen to good news right after that ding from HBS.

I'm a round 2 applicant from Uruguay. Don't lose hope all R2! Haas has been pretty quiet with the invites (at least here and at BTG) so I'm assuming there are still more to come...

Congrats on the interview invite, and best of luck! My hope is fading even quicker now however as I'm based in the US

Congrats!
I agree on the hope thing, I think I'm about to strike U.S. schools off the list with Haas soon.