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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
Hi,

I am thinking of applying for Haas as well. I haven't been able to visit the school yet but will visit when this fall semester begins. I hope I won't be blinded by the beauty of the area and the school.

I am wondering how I should explain about the time that I took to do my mandatory military service in Korea, which was 26 months. Would this be considered as community service? I always appreciate the experience from the service, but it was a big setback to my career progress.

Thanks for your thoughts.
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
sng, I think the adcoms know very well about the mandatory military services of countries such as Korea, Taiwan, and Israel (among others). Most people lose about 2 years to the service and it doesn't really need to be explained in detail. I think having it on the resume should be enough. As for impact to career progress, if you had some good experiences in the military, like leadership roles, or teamwork stories, I would definitely use one of the essays to talk about the experience.

Finally, to get a more official answer, I would call up the Haas adcom just to see what they say about this. I'm sure they'll be happy to answer your questions.

In short, don't worry too much about it, but include your experiences in your essays if you can to enrich your candidacy. :)

Let me know when you visit the area, I can definitely meet up if I'm around.
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
kryzak, how familiar are you with the management of technology program at Haas? My goal is to move to consulting for a few years then a leadership position at a high-tech company. Does this program place into consulting firms, or is it more for corporate placement like MIT's LFM program?
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
hi soni, I can't speak with authority on this subject, since my knowledge of it is limited, but based on my own research a year ago, I think the MoT program generally tries to place you into high-tech companies as opposed to consulting firms. With that said, nothing is stopping you from interviewing and getting an internship or job with a top consulting firm, and then using your MoT a few years down the road for your long term goal, right? :wink:

Once it gets closer to school starting, I can help you find some people doing the MoT program and see what I can find out. From what I've seen (sat in one of their classes and spoke with some MoT students), the classes are filled with 1/3 MBA, 1/3 Engineering, and 1/3 Life Sciences people. So there will be lots of tech company or startup focus.

Hope that helps!
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
Thank you for your thoughts and offer, kryzak.

Quote:
1. Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership.


To answer the required essay #1, what do you guys think of writing about? Experience from your professional situation or non-professional? Would a professional situation make a predictable topic?
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
hi sng,

I think you may be overthinking this. Just remember a general rule of hand, try to mix in 50-75% professional related stories in your essays, and use the rest for non-professional/extracurricular stuff.

For example, here is how I broke down my essays last year to maintain a balance (and to show that you have a life outside of work =P)

Short Answers:
1. Non-Work (Tennis)
2. Non-Work (Tennis) - Yes, a lot of my reviewers commented that I should not talk about tennis twice, but I believed that 2 short answers will emphasize the importance of the sport in my life.
3. Work related extracurricular activity to show innovation
4. Talk about Haas

Essays:
1. Work Related, but non-engineering and non-technical - showed leadership and innovation at the same time
2. All work related

Optional:
1. Extracurricular/Volunteering

So about 1000 words of my essays were on non-work related things, 1750 were work related, but not necessarily engineering related (my background) or even business development related (what I'm doing now).

As long as you tell a good story that represents different aspects of you and what you've done, both in and outside of work, you will do well.
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
Quote:
I think you may be overthinking this.

You guessed it right. Yes, I am... :lol: Seriously, the essay questions from these MBA schools will give my brain some wrinkles.

Since leadership is a must-have trait as a manager, I feel that writing about my experience at work wouldn't be good enough. Should I use a situation where there was a goal to achieve as a group but without a team hierarchy?

I have one last over thinking and agonizing question for the day. While Short Answer #4 is about Haas, do I still need to write something specific about Haas again in Required Essays #2? Or do I just explain why I need an MBA now?

Required Essay #2 '...Why do you want an MBA from Berkeley at this point in your career?'

Thank you for your help.
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
sng, don't worry, as applicants, we all overthink quite a bit. Just be assured that it'll all turn out well in the end if you do a good job. :) (I know, it's easy for me to say this :P)

But any good leadership experience is good. For example, I used one at work that has nothing to do with my background or even business. It was all about leading a team of volunteers where there is a team hierarchy, but I had no direct power over them. I talked a lot about how to motivate a team from cross-functional organizations and why they were willing to listen to me. Also talk about concrete results of your "leadership" actions.

As for Short #4 and Long #2, it's a common question for Haas applicants. I had this question when I applied, so you're not really overthinking.

Here's the difference (as far as I convinced myself :wink:):

For Short #4, they want to know the specific ACTIONS you took to get to know Haas. Websites, talking to students, infosessions, class visits, learning about clubs, etc... and WHY (why is VERY important in ALL your essays) those activities made you want to go to Haas even more. Yes, doing that in 250 words is quite a challenge, but you just have to be brief, concise and to the point.

For Long #2, they want to know why Haas' MBA degree can help you achieve your short and long term goals. This is where you talk about Haas' curriculum, strong points, professional clubs, programs that help you succeed in your career, etc...

Very fine line, but if you think about it, the difference is there. I would say Short #4 wants to know exact actions and what you like about Haas' culture, while Long #2 wants to know how Haas affects you CAREER wise and the professional reasons you're picking Haas over other schools to apply to.

The other strategy is to have a list of reasons why you want to go to Haas, and just talk about some of them in the short answer and the rest in the long essay. I thought of it as a great way to give myself more room to talk about "Why Haas". :)

Hope that helps!
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
kryzak, thanks for the clarification! It makes sense.

Have a great week! 8-)
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
kryzak,
I'm planning on visiting Haas in the fall and applying R2. Hopefully we can meet up. It worked out well at the GSB with rhyme.
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
sure thing, just let me know when and we can try to meet up and I'll show you around. Hopefully it'll be as good as your visit with rhyme :)
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
Hi Kry,

How should the Short essay 1 be approached?
1. If you could change one thing you've done in your life, what would it be, and how would you do it differently? (250 word maximum)

Thanks and have a good weekend.
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
The question is different from the one I had, but IMHO, I think you should pick something significant yet not to negative (unless you have a really strong "comeback" story). I would recommend against picking something mundane such as "getting better grades" or "finding a better date during college" etc... :P

The key is to state the problem/issue you wanted to change, talk about what actions you took to change it, and end with some kind of "learning" that made you a better leader/person/manager/etc...

For example, I may pick "taking a semester to go abroad during undergrad" as something I wish I had done. (rephrase it to something you would change). Since the essay is 250 words, you can at most spend 2-3 sentences on the intro and conclusion. Save the rest for the "how you would change things".

So State the problem: If I could have changed anything, I would have gone to Country X for a semester abroad, because Reasons A, B, and C

How would you do it? I would take advantage of Program J at my school, go to Country X, studied their culture through classes such as W, U, and V. And so forth...

Conclusion: If I studied abroad, I would have gained skills D, E and F early on, but even though I didn't, I learned those skills through my job/extracurricular/volunteer work in the past N years and that's why I realized I should have done the study abroad back in college. (end on a positive note that shows you still gained the benefits of whatever you would change, but just wish you did it earlier or something like that).

This is very rough, but hopefully it helped in kick starting this tricky essay.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: Talk about your reasons for doing things, explain your thought process, and show what you learned/gained from the process and how it makes you a better leader/person.
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
Thank You Kry, that really helps a lot! I was really confused and your approach cleared a lot of things. With so many essays to write I am running out of topics to write about.... :)
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
Count me in for Haas R1

Kryzak

What do you think my chances are for Haas ?
Engineering UG GPA 3.7 for a big state school with a good engineering program, GMAT 700 (80/80 split okay), 2 years WE upon matriculation in investment banking/ corporate finance .. very solid experience with good achievements/promotions. Good Extra Curric. during undergrad.
It is very likely that I will be the only one applying from my country (Kuwait) this year. (i'm not even sure if any has gone to Haas from here for the last 10 years ! never heard of any).
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
mishari, you have a decent chance at Haas. Again, with their super low acceptance rate (due to the small class size), these things are always a bit random. I think your chances are good because of:

- Applying for Kuwait, very rare
- Good GPA from good Engineering school (top 5 would be very helpful, i.e. MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, Georgia Tech, Cal Tech/Univ. Illinois)
- Sounds like you have good leadership and career progress (without more details, I can't really say more)

The down sides are:
- Very short WE. Haas generally likes a little more than 2 years, but there ARE people who get in with only 2 years WE, just not as many as other top schools
- 700 GMAT is good, though just slightly below Haas' average. I think your WE and GPA plus the good 80/80 split will make up for it

Again, it ALL depends on how you tell your story with your essays. If you do a great job at that, you have a great chance at getting in. Without good essays (and good recs), even a person with great stats will not get in. Keep that in mind. :)
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
I felt very strange when I read this post. On one hand I felt comfortable cause it’s exactly what I thought when I saw the topic. On the other hand, I’m afraid this topic will be very common, and therefore, it may reduce my chances…

Anyway, many thanks for your support kryzak

Cheers



kryzak wrote:
The question is different from the one I had, but IMHO, I think you should pick something significant yet not to negative (unless you have a really strong "comeback" story). I would recommend against picking something mundane such as "getting better grades" or "finding a better date during college" etc... :P

The key is to state the problem/issue you wanted to change, talk about what actions you took to change it, and end with some kind of "learning" that made you a better leader/person/manager/etc...

For example, I may pick "taking a semester to go abroad during undergrad" as something I wish I had done. (rephrase it to something you would change). Since the essay is 250 words, you can at most spend 2-3 sentences on the intro and conclusion. Save the rest for the "how you would change things".

So State the problem: If I could have changed anything, I would have gone to Country X for a semester abroad, because Reasons A, B, and C

How would you do it? I would take advantage of Program J at my school, go to Country X, studied their culture through classes such as W, U, and V. And so forth...

Conclusion: If I studied abroad, I would have gained skills D, E and F early on, but even though I didn't, I learned those skills through my job/extracurricular/volunteer work in the past N years and that's why I realized I should have done the study abroad back in college. (end on a positive note that shows you still gained the benefits of whatever you would change, but just wish you did it earlier or something like that).

This is very rough, but hopefully it helped in kick starting this tricky essay.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: Talk about your reasons for doing things, explain your thought process, and show what you learned/gained from the process and how it makes you a better leader/person.
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Re: Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2009 Applicants [#permalink]
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