Calling All Berkeley Applicants

i am still waiting to hear from them...applied in R2...no news till now

Haas seems to be really slow, or maybe they are just on a different schedule than other top schools. I guess R3 applicants like me shouldn't expect any movement until they finish up with R2 on around 3/19.

I've been wondering, why doesn't a public university in the most populous state located near a major metropolitan area have a larger MBA program? Of course, I'm just hoping that they make room for me, but doesn't it seem strange that Haas has is tied with Tuck as the smallest of the top MBA programs? Tuck is a great school, but it is in the middle of nowhere, it gets really cold there and there are other top schools servicing the surrounding metro areas.

Maybe business and tree hugging just don't go hand in hand. While I was at Haas visiting, I chatted with an admissions officer about a planned future expansion of the school (nothing to concern ourselves over, at least 5 years down the road). The first thing they will need to do is get rid of some people that are trying to save some old trees that occupy the future site.

You don't think Haas might be staying small on purpose? I know that Stanford really likes to brag about how they're small on purpose.

I'm sure they are small on purpose, but I was thinking along the lines of Berkeley being a public university. One of their mandates must be to service the needs of the state of California. Now, I understand that public universities don't really get much of their funding through public sources, etc., but to me it seems like Haas is not doing its best to meet the needs of the state and local community.

It would be kind of like the undergraduate division making the decision that they would like to compete with Princeton, or something like that. I bet that drawing from the CA applicant pool and offering in state tuition, they might be able challenge Princeton in terms of selectivity, but that wouldn't really be the best way to discharge its duties as a public university.

Stanford boasts about their small size, and that's their prerogative as a private university, they are actually 50% larger than Haas.

Basically I'm just whining that there should be more seats.

Just got an interview invite. Applied in R2.

That's a great accomplishment. I believe they admit 70% of the people that the interview, so you are almost there.

I just received an email from them on my R3 application basically saying that they haven't started reviewing it yet. Not a surprise; I'm not expecting much movement until the R2 deadline on 3/19 passes.

Good luck.

Do you suppose this holds for students who are waitlisted and THEN asked to do an interview? I didn't get asked to the Super Saturday event, but I was waitlisted and then asked to do an interview. Seems backwards, I know.

I really liked my interviewer. I think the program does a great job of bringing together a super talented, super diverse group. Probably because the school is so darn tough to get into.

They talked about such a scenario in the email that I received today. Here's what it says, "Also, please note that you should not be discouraged if you do not receive an interview invitation by our round three notification deadline of April 30. Some round three applicants will be offered a place on the waitlist without having been interviewed; such waitlisted candidates are welcome to schedule an interview in May."

I don't know if this means that the waitlisted candidates are considered the same as those invited to interview earlier. Actually it seems that all waitlisted candidates are welcome to interview at their own discretion. It's probably a good sign.

submitted my app in R2....no interview invite as of now....waitlist is going to s**k big time! ......not looking good

finally got around to reading this WL chat they held a few weeks ago...applications were up 33% this year!

and they said the waitlist wasn't too much bigger, so they still expect to admit around 50% of the WL. sweet baby jesus.

D@mn, this thread is deader than a doorknob.

I got two emails from Berkeley today - neither one was an admit though. I finally got an email confirming that my R3 application was complete and under review. I think some others got this message some weeks ago while I only previously had a message letting me know that they hadn't started looking yet. I guess that is some progress. I also received their newsletter today.

Still a long ways to go until the R3 decisions. Anyone still in the mix for R2? That decision in about 10 days right?

Haas has been a very tough nut to crack. There is dead silence as well on the BW forum. As a R2 applicant, my understanding is that this Saturday is their Super Saturday. Although it may be misinformation, it appears that if we don't receive an e-mail invite by Friday, the decision will be waitlist or reject, neither of which are good.

Is it me or has R2 across the board been brutal?

Who is HAAS sending out these invites to?

Just came back from an interview with an alum. Took us 2 hours First I talked about my career (freeform, with his questions here & there). Then he proceeded to fill in his questionnaire - asked me several prepared questions. Then we went into a lengthy unformal discussion about business, how US differs from Ukraine, climate in SF and many other things I have no idea what was his opinion about myself, but overall it went quite friendly and positively.

Not looking good for me. R2 applicant, the deadline is March 19 and I have not been contacted for an interview yet. I'm expecting waitlist or ding.

Oh well. I like SoCal better anyway.

The best we can hope for is a waitlist. Although, I think the waitlist @ HAAS is not as bad as other top schools. I hear a good percentage of applicants get off the waitlist.

I can just sense this thread turning into a HAAS bashing thread in about 4 days. There was a Yale bashing thread after a number of Gmatclubbers got denied admission.

Our first HAAS bashing post. And it isn't even the 19th yet. This one isn't bad, but it's a nice warm up for what's to come.