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What Makes a Successful Berkeley Haas application? We ask Haas AdCom
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20 Jul 2021, 20:19
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University of California, Berkeley Haas Business School
What traits make a successful application? Hear from Haas Admissions Director
If you are looking to get into one of the top 10 Business Schools to get your MBA (and why wouldn’t you?), you will definitely want to take a close look at the University of California’s Berkeley Haas School of Business. Located in Berkeley, CA, Haas is the second oldest business school in the United States behind Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, PA. An interesting fact to note is that it is the only business school that was founded by a woman. In 1898, Cora Jane Flood graciously gifted 540 acres, which was her Menlo Park residence and was worth 1 million dollars at that time, to the University of California, Berkeley. Her only request was that the property be kept in good order and that any net income be devoted to commercial education. Berkeley Haas has more than honoured that request over the years.
The Berkeley Haas mission is simple; To Help Extraordinary People Achieve Great Things, and that is exactly what they do. Touting two Nobel Prize laureates on their faculty, and countless esteemed alumni, it is clear that Haas is home to many true innovators.
I was able to sit down (via zoom) with Eric Askins, Full-Time MBA Executive Director at Berkeley Haas and asked him what it is that makes Haas one of the top 10 business schools, what they look for in their candidates, and what future candidates can expect if they are accepted into the Berkeley Haas program. “Berkeley Haas is the smallest of the top 10 business schools, accepting approximately 300 students a year and 600 students across the two-year program of a full-time student schedule…and that’s intentional,” Askins said. “When we look at who we are and where we are located, we are in the heart of innovation in California’s Bay Area’s business environment, which is the fifth most active innovation hub on the planet, Berkeley Haas is at the heart of innovation.” Atkins went on to explain the intentionality behind the science. “It is for us to be able to create organic networks. You will get to know everybody else in your class, and your cohorts, which are about 75 students in size, and your study groups, which are about 5 students in size. We are a really small group who support and interact with each other." Askins added, “You will not have 250 students all going into consulting and compete for the same 12 jobs and you will get to connect with the broader communities in a much more organic way.”
Askins also said that one of the unique things about business schools in general and what he loves about Haas is that 30% of the people coming into business schools are just coming out of consulting jobs and about 30% of the people leaving business schools are going into consulting jobs. “You are able to get this amazing cross-pollination. Consulting begins to recruit in late fall and continues throughout the winter and in a small program like ours, you can meet people who are coming from consulting and are helping others prepare for case competitions or prepare for interviews. That is the type of community culture Berkeley Haas hopes to create with the size of their program.”
Berkeley Haas, like many other business schools, has structured a mixed curriculum with their lecture-style courses which is typically the core coursework. The first-year full-time MBA students will take 14 core courses., These courses are made up of 60-75 students and each course builds off the other to give students the analytical tools and the fundamentals of business that will be needed to progress to the next phase of learning.
Next, students transition to seminar-style or case-style-learning. Askins says that this is where the hands-on experiential learning or as they call it at Berkeley Haas “Applied-Innovation” takes place. “We have 25 applied-innovation courses that allow students to get a hands-on approach to learning.“ Askins said that it is not just an opportunity, it is a requirement. “Everyone has to take at least one course in applied innovation. This is so they can get their hands into it and test their hypothesis. Students can take more than one and some have even taken two or three courses in Applied Innovation.”
Applied Innovation courses range from Haas at work to International Business Development and offer some amazing opportunities for the student to learn in a way that they might not be given the chance to. For example, Pre-pandemic International Business Development involved a “Capstone Project“ where the students go in-country for two weeks and implement a consulting project in a major not-for-profit globally. Askins said that Haas would rotate to different regions within Africa, South America, Europe, Asia to implement the projects.
Another program that is close to the heart of Berkeley Haas is their “Clean-Tech to Market” Program where students have the opportunity to work on startups that are interested in the clean technology space. Askins said that this is important to the school because of how they are portrayed in the marketplace. “At Berkeley Haas, we are seen as a school that leads to innovation. Innovation sometimes reads as entrepreneurship or startup space and that ecosystem, but it can also lead to big tech companies who are innovating as a larger organization.”
If you are considering going to Berkeley Haas for your MBA you will want to know what common traits make Berkeley Haas students a success? Askins said it is the way they present themselves in their applications. “Their focus is on impact more so than on future job function or future job industry. Instead, their focus is “this is a problem in the world and this is what I want to do to affect that problem.” They want to solve it, they want to adjust the problem, they want to course correct it, and they want to see if enough people can get together to change the flow of that river, and that looks fantastic on your applications. What then makes them great students is when they get here, they hold on to that impact-oriented mindset.”
Berkeley Haas is one of the only institutions that lead with four cultural principles that they refer to as their Defining Leadership Principles. These decade-old cultural principles were decided upon by consulting with faculty, staff, students, and alumni. All were asked what they believed were the most important characteristics the institution represented that made a Berkeley Haas student a success. The answer was the following 4 Leadership principles:
Question the Status Quo
Confidence Without Attitude
Student Always
Beyond Yourself
These traits are so valuable because they truly represent the characteristics of the students on the Berkeley Haas Campus. These students have the ability to think about others, challenge what is already out there, do so with the knowledge that there may be someone out there that knows a little bit more than you do, and be able to listen to those people and learn from them. These are the qualities that help make up our leadership principles. If you are hoping to apply and get accepted to Berkeley Haas, you can find more information, talk with other MBA applicants, and more at GMATClub.com.
If you do decide to apply to Berkeley Haas for your MBA and you are accepted, you will want to know a few more things to help you be successful not only inside the doors of Haas but also outside. For example, while many Berkeley Haas students live on campus, many live off-campus. If you choose to live off-campus you may want to look in the North Berkeley area because that is where most of the off-campus MBA students live and South Berkeley tends to draw more of the undergraduates. When you are looking to unwind and just relax, you may want to check out Kip’s Bar, which is located just a block away from campus. You can find out more about this and many other things on Veritasprep.com.
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What Makes a Successful Berkeley Haas application? We ask Haas AdCom [#permalink]