Calling Berkeley-Haas Fall 2008 Applicants!

cool, sounds like a plan, thanks! =)

Hi I am just curious if anyone knows, how heavily does Haas admissions weigh amount/depth of extracurricular activities? and also how recent and consistent should these be? Thanks in advance!

well, based on what their adcom and student ambassadors said, they are looking for a well-rounded and team player type of person. They don't want anyone who's just one-dimensional (then again, which top school doesn't?) and anyone who's cut-throat competitive. They want people who will be involved in the dozens of student clubs on campus, because the students run everything at Haas.

Thus, based on what I heard, extracurriculars are important and showing your "commitment" to those extracurriculars is probably more important than having tons of them that you do once in a while...

Just my guess of course, based on what I've heard... someone else chime in if you heard differently or have more details.

thanks kryzak for your reply... i ask because i am afraid that my post college lack of consistent involvement will deter my chances. i was really involved with organizations during college where i held leadership positions but after college i have been focusing mainly on my career obviously. although since then i have done some extracurricular activities (occasionally) nothing's been consistent. the only thing i can think of is at my gym at work there is a group of us go on long/short runs - i lead and motivate everyone but i doubt that counts since it is not a "real" organization. also, at work i do currently manage a subordinate so i am her so-called mentor - again i don't know if that counts for anything.. thanks for any feedback!

I'm not an expert on this, but all I can say is try to talk about the leadership qualities that you display in those activities that you do have. Do the best you can.

Maybe PM rhyme or Hjort and see what they have to say...

thank you

WHat program are you applying to? The full-time program places a lot of emphasis on extra curriculars. But for the PT program, Haas values recommendations over XCs. Atleast, that is what I was told at a recent info session.

I feel that my goals essay is pretty good (although no where near complete) right now. But I can't seem to get it under 1200 words. Sigh.

Well, I got my 7 page outline data-mining done. Now working on "Why Berkeley" and "Goals" general outline before I look at the actual essay outline.

Great responses. I am going to apply BCEMBA program.

Hurrah, my "goals" essay has slimmed down to 1000 words. It still needs work as the transitions are choppy and the intro is awful, but overall its not too bad. It has been alot of work cutting it from about 1380 down to 1000, but I managed to keep all but 1 anecdote, and I removed alot of the extra crap I usually write in a rough draft.

most impressive! Now I know how hard it is to cut down to 1000 or 500 words. My OUTLINE is longer than the word limit right now...

How did you do it? Did you have to really cut out anecdotes or did you just emphasize one and mention the others in brief passing?

I had one anecdote that was like 400+ words by itself. Its still in there, but I think its down to 175 words, and I added and important lesson that I learned and how it helped my career. It was probably a better story when it was 400 words, it certainly was more descriptive. But it still has all of the important points and its much shorter now. I wanted to be able to use 4 anecdotes, but I found that I couldnt fit four in.

I think I am still over on every essay except this one though, between USC an Berkeley thats like 8 essays over the length limit. Sigh.

I'm actually kind of looking forward to writing Chicago's goals essay now that I have done Berkeley's. The 500 extra words should allow me to add the 4th anecdote back in, flesh out the other 3 better, and allow the language to flow better. The flow of my Berkeley essays are a bit rough right now, but I am going to work on Michigan's for a while and then come back to Berkeley's. I've been staring at Berkeley's too much and I think I am getting tunnel vision.

bherronp, great tips, thank you!

Yeah, looking at my Berkeley essays, I realized I wrote *3000* words (well, once I get it within word limit)!!! Using Word, 12 pt Times Roman, double spaced, I found that it's roughly 400 words per page for Stanford's essays (450-500 if you use 1.8 spacing and 0.8" margins ), so with Berkeley's essays, I already have enough material to re-vamp into Stanford's essays, and if I do apply to Chicago, I will definitely appreciate the 500 extra words.

You're right in that you can probably be more concise and get the point across better with fewer words (paradoxical, but true)... hopefully I can manage that. Oh yeah, my transitions are very rough right now, between paragraphs... kinda glad that Haas essays are broken down into 250-500 word chunks so I don't have to worry about transitions as much (except for the goals essay)

Was able to just get the "Dinner" essay in at 278 words... It's insane... one sentence to say "I will invite X to dinner", one to say what that person did, and a few more sentences to mirror my personality and my achievements (just listing them) to my dinner guest's. Then one sentence contrasting myself from my guest, and then one conclusion sentence...

No space to elaborate on anything, but I'm using this essay as my "introduction" to the rest of the essays... I think everything mentioned in this essay will be elaborated in the other ones... hopefully that will work.

Thanks mNeo.

I attended an in-campus info session this June. But in line with my "no stone left unturned" war cry, I have this ingenious idea of going to every single one of these Haas info sessions. The ad-com will soon grow so sick of me that she will guarantee me a seat just to get rid of me.

mNeo : I just realized that I edited your post instead of quoting it. My brain's clearly not working. This reminds me, I need to go get coffee. Can you please repost the info session dates? Pretty please...

For Berkeley PT MBA:

Please join us for an Evening & Weekend MBA Information Session:

Fremont (Marriott): Wednesday, September 5, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

Burlingame (Hyatt Regency SFO): Thursday, September 6, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

Sacramento (Hyatt Regency): Tuesday, September 11, 6:00 - 7:30 pm

Oakland (Marriott City Center): Wednesday, September 12, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

San Francisco (The Palace Hotel): Tuesday, September 18, 6:00 - 7:30 pm

Santa Clara (Hyatt Regency): Tuesday, September 25, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

Santa Clara (Hyatt Regency): Wednesday, September 26, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

Santa Rosa (Hilton): Wednesday, October 3, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

San Ramon (Marriott): Thursday, October 4, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

RSVP now. Space is limited. Please register at https://www.haas.berkeley.edu/EWevents/

You'll learn about:

*
The benefits of the Berkeley MBA
*
Our convenient evening and weekend schedule options
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How to create a strong application

How to apply: ewmba.berkeley.edu

For more information, contact us at ewmbaadm@haas.berkeley.edu or 510.642.0292.