Berkeley / Haas MBA News

Get the latest MBA news from Berkeley / Haas.

Published: February 24, 2016

Berkeley / Haas MBA Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / On-Campus

The following Berkeley / Haas MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. I got helpful tips from Clear Admit and hope my experience with my Haas interview will help other applicants. Good luck everyone! I was invited to the super Saturday interview hosted on campus on Feb 20. The events were very well organized, and the interview was just a very small part of the experience. The adcom and current students hosted lunches, different panels for team work and student life, and everyone we met was very kind and helpful. The interview was with an alumnus Read more

Published: February 17, 2016

Waiting for Bolton: Applicant Anxiety Lends Itself to LiveWire Creativity

We know, Tom Petty, waiting is the hardest part. And some schools—cough, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), cough—certainly aren’t making things easy on Round 2 applicants. The stress is high, the updates are few and the results are pure poetry. For anyone who’s completely befuddled, we’re talking about the creative ways candidates have taken to LiveWire to let off steam as they wait anxiously for interview invitations from schools that have yet to share them. Though Stanford GSB has provoked the greatest outpouring of silly LiveWire posts, UC Berkeley’s Haas School has also elicited a few, and there have been some general grumbles about MIT Sloan thrown in as well. Read more

Published: February 17, 2016

Berkeley / Haas Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-campus

The following Berkeley / Haas interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. The interview took place in a relaxed environment / the interviewer’s office. He asked for my ID card and spoke in English. The interview was blind, he only had seen my résumé. Questions: 1) Walk me through your résumé 2) Why MBA? 3) Why now? 4) Why Berkeley? 5) Some specific questions about my future plans Overall, it was relaxed and a good conversation. The interviewer made it easy. After his questions, he gave me time to ask whatever I Read more

Published: February 15, 2016

Haas School of Business Grants Seed Money to MBA Student Entrepreneurs

This post has been republished in its entirety from its original source, metromba.com. UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business awarded the first round of grants in a new program that intends to inspire MBA student entrepreneurs to grow early stage startups. The Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Program (BHEP) awarded these first ten grants in December 2015, and the next round will be bestowed in April 2016. Read more

Published: February 14, 2016

New Startup Marketplace Matches Haas MBA Students, Scientists Via Speed Dates

MBA students at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business have been taking part in speed dating of sorts with faculty and scientists at the University of California San Francisco’s School of Pharmacy. Have no fear—this is not a story about anti-fraternization policy violations or scandal. Instead, it’s a tale of creative matchmaking that gives Haas students valuable experience with early-stage science startups that need their business know-how. Read more

Published: February 11, 2016

Tops for Tech: The Best Business Schools for Careers in Technology

Here’s a fact you may not have known: Several of today’s leading technology innovators share one thing in common—a Montessori education. Yep, Google’s Larry Page and Sergei Brin, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and SimCity creator Will Wright were all educated as children using the self-directed, hands-on, collaborative teaching model developed by Italian doctor and educator Maria Montessori. Alas, though, not a single one has an MBA—so perhaps not a very useful factoid when you’re trying to determine the best business schools for a career in technology. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Biz Stone of Twitter—none of them has an MBA either. And Facebook second-in-command Sheryl Sandberg, who does have an MBA from Harvard Business School, is famously on record recently saying the degree isn’t necessary for success in tech. Nevertheless, a growing tide of students are looking to use business school as their launch pad to successful careers in tech—and the top tech firms, including those founded by non-MBAs, are snapping them up. Read more

Published: February 7, 2016

Berkeley / Haas Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-campus

The following Berkeley / Haas interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. I interviewed with a recent Haas alum at a local restaurant. The interview was conversational and the interviewer was very friendly. It lasted about an hour. Pretty standard questions, nothing too surprising. Questions: 1. Tell me about yourself. (asked a few additional questions about college and my job along the way.) 2. Why an MBA? 3. Why Haas? 4. Do you know the defining principles? Explain how you identify with 1 or 2 of them. 5. Tell me 3 things Read more

Published: January 25, 2016

Choosing a Business School for Entrepreneurship

Typing “startups are hard” into Google returns approximately 32 million results—ranging from “Startups Are Hard in 100 Different Ways” to “15 Reasons Startups Are !@#$ing Hard.” Perhaps that has a little something to do with why more and more savvy entrepreneurs are choosing top business schools as their training ground. With expanding entrepreneurship curricula, cool campus startup accelerators and ever increasing numbers of business plan competitions—to say nothing of the all-important access to powerful networks of potential investors—the MBA is becoming the preferred path for many would-be founders. Read more

Published: December 29, 2015

ENTREPRENEURSHIP@ Haas: MBA Grads Seek Entrepreneurial Ventures in Record Numbers

The Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley shared employment statistics for its full-time MBA Class of 2015 earlier this month, revealing that a record number of graduating MBAs are actively pursuing their own ventures straight out of school. This year, 31 graduates—representing 12.5 percent of the class—are launching startups ranging from platforms for on-demand health services, global money transfer and student loans to a financial instrument designed to help fight drought and wildfires. Last year, just six grads set out to launch their own ventures immediately upon graduation. The five-fold increase in student founders, combined with another 14.5 percent of 2015 grads who took jobs at startups, “reflects the growing strength of the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Haas, UC Berkeley and the Bay Area,” according to a Haas press release. Read more

Published: December 21, 2015

Berkeley / Haas Interview Report: Round 1 / Alumnus / On-Campus

The following Berkeley / Haas interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them! I was paired with a recent alum (’14) with a similar background in international development. She had only reviewed my résumé, and asked me pretty standard get-to-know-you questions at the onset. We talked through my career and community leadership experience thus far, and then jumped right to “Why Haas?” She prodded specifically at which classes I wanted to take right away and which seemed like they’d be the most challenging given my non-traditional background. She Read more

Published: December 2, 2015

Haas Dean Breaks Out Guitar, Channels Paul Simon to Spur Record Fundraising

To encourage members of the UC Berkeley-Haas School of Business community to take part in a campus-wide online fundraiser last month, the school’s dean broke into song. A music video of Haas Dean Rich Lyons playing guitar and singing “I’m going to Haasland” to the tune of Paul Simon’s “Graceland” helped Haas raise a record $700,000 as part of the UC Berkeley-wide 2015 Big Give on November 19th. The Big Give is a 24-hour, campus-wide online fundraiser now in its second year, in which different schools on the UC Berkeley campus engage in friendly rivalry in an effort to best one another in terms of how much money they can drum up for their own schools. With 561 gifts in all, Haas donors this year topped last year’s total of $561,000 and came in second overall among all schools and departments, just behind the College of Engineering. Haas got an additional $22,600 in extra "Big Slice" funds for its second-place finish. In all, the Big Give elicited 8,148 gifts totaling $5.5 million. Read more

Published: November 11, 2015

Haas Joins Global Network for Advanced Management, Connecting Students Across Continents

This post has been republished in its entirety from its original source, metromba.com. UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business has become the 28th member of the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM), an initiative launched at Yale University School of Management that connects students and faculty to peers across the world. Launched by Yale School of Management Dean Edward Snyder in 2012, GNAM offers members the opportunity to learn and to network in a global community. Read more

Published: November 1, 2015

Admissions Tip: Submitting Additional Materials

For those of you who applied in Round 1, your applications are now submitted and you are ideally hearing from some of your target schools regarding interview invites. You should be feeling good about all the work you put in and are perhaps even a bit excited about any upcoming interview opportunities, but something is nagging at you. Ever since you clicked ‘submit’ in the online applications, you feel you now have less control over the process. As one applicant put it: “It’s like a black hole, an emptiness – you race to submit everything and have all this energy Read more

Published: October 13, 2015

UC Berkeley’s Haas School Pours New Resources into Entrepreneurship

The Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, already one of the highest-ranked business schools in the world for entrepreneurship, is doubling down in support of students with the startup itch. Haas Dean Rich Lyons announced yesterday that the school will provide $100,000 in seed funding for Haas student startups this year, part of an umbrella effort designed to enhance offerings for both MBA and undergraduate students interested in entrepreneurship. “Our student entrepreneurs are already thriving within the Berkeley-Haas and Bay Area startup ecosystem,” Lyons said in a statement. “This new effort will continue to build on and expand that success, creating a new generation of leaders who will be mixing with alumni and giving back to the entrepreneurial ecosystem.” Read more

Published: September 15, 2015

Haas School Partners with Philanthropy University to Offer Free “Mini MBA” for Social Impact Leaders

The Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, in partnership with UK-based charity Stars Foundation, has launched an innovative new online education platform that will provide free courses in leadership and management to hundreds of thousands of people and organizations working toward social good, the school announced earlier this month. Coined Philanthropy University, the first-of-its-kind learning platform will feature a range of dynamic online classes taught by renowned professors and social impact practitioners from around the world. It is the brainchild of Amr Al-Dabbagh, a Saudi businessman and founding chairman of the Stars Foundation, which since 2001 has been investing in organizations working to address the issues faced by disadvantaged children and their communities. Read more

Published: August 30, 2015

Haas Welcomes New Class with Multiple Week Zero Surprises

Orientation week at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business—better known as Week Zero—was chock full of surprises for the 246 incoming students in the full-time MBA Class of 2017. For starters, while working on their very first case study on Virgin America, the students got a shock when Virgin America CEO David Cush walked into the auditorium. Who better to learn from about the company’s decision to enter the airline market? Discussing the move made by Virgin Group founder Richard Branson in 2007, Cush described the decision—which was based on Branson’s belief that airlines were poorly run and flights were too expensive. Amid intense competition and despite a rocky start, the company is taking on the big airlines and adding new destination cities, he said, and has moved from the bottom quartile to the top half of airlines. Students then got to quiz Cush on the company’s culture, how it hires, its strategy for innovation and the challenges it still faces. Read more

Published: August 20, 2015

Percentage of Female MBA Students at Haas Dips Slightly, but Total Number of Women in Program Reaches New High

The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley last year made headlines when it enrolled a record-setting 43 percent women in its incoming class, besting all other leading business schools and representing a 14-point gain over the year before, when female MBA students at Haas made up just 29 percent of the class. This year, Haas saw a slight decline in women in its incoming class—to 41 percent. But combined with the women in last year’s class, the program as a whole now counts more total women than ever before, the school points out. Overall, the full-time MBA program still hovers at almost 43 percent female, making it a frontrunner for top MBA programs. “School and student leaders say the class composition both reflects and builds on their push for gender equity,” read a recent article on the Haas website. Read more

Published: July 28, 2015

Haas-Accenture Partnership Creates New Big Data Curriculum

From financial services to retail to utilities, companies in an ever-increasing range of industries are exploring and implementing big data and analytics. To equip its MBAs with the tools they need to understand how data science stands to transform business, the Haas School at the University of California at Berkeley has forged a new partnership with global management consulting, technology and outsourcing company Accenture. Together, they have launched a multi-phase initiative designed to position big data squarely within the Haas curriculum. “Today, every company is a technology company, every company is a software company, every company is a data company,” says Gregory La Blanc, a finance and technology lecturer at Haas. “To be successful, our students need to know how to navigate the strategic landscape in a world filled with all this data.” Read more

Published: July 20, 2015

Citi CIO Debby Hopkins Named Haas’ Newest Executive Fellow

This post has been republished in its entirety from its original source metromba.com. The Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley recently named Citi Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) Debby Hopkins as Haas’ newest executive fellow. Hopkins, who is also CEO of Citi Ventures, is returning to Haas in this new role after speaking as part of the Haas Dean’s Speaker Series in 2012. “Debby is a trailblazer, continuing to question the status quo in her industry,” Haas Dean Rich Lyons said in a statement. “Her views on innovative leadership and social enterprise deeply resonate with our school's identity—we're thrilled to welcome her back.” Read more

Published: July 9, 2015

Seven Schools Join Forces for Events Focused on Women in Business School

Starting next week, seven leading business schools will host a series of events around the country designed to showcase the value of the MBA for women and the experiences of women in business school. Participating schools include Michigan’s Ross School, the Haas School at UC Berkeley, Cornell Johnson, UVA’s Darden School, Duke’s Fuqua School, NYU Stern and the Yale School of Management. Admissions representatives and alumnae from all the schools will gather for each of five events, scheduled for Chicago, Washington, DC; New York City, Boston and San Francisco. The events will each feature a panel discussion in which female alums from each school will discuss the implications and value of an MBA degree for women in business today. Participants will also have an opportunity to meet fellow prospective applicants, network with alumnae, get tips on the application process and learn more about life on campus and recruiting. Read more

Published: June 30, 2015

NYU Stern Ranked Number One in Support of LGBTQ MBA Students

Last week’s momentous Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality helped more people than ever before feel like the United States is a great place to be part of the LGBTQ community. Maybe it got you wondering about which business schools are the best places to be part of that community? As it turns out, there’s a ranking for that. And this year, New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business soared to the top, winning recognition for getting more of its student body involved to help foster an LGBTQ-inclusive campus culture than any other top business school. The MBA Ally Challenge rankings, released in June, are the culmination of a year-long competition launched by nonprofit organization Friendfactor as part of an effort to encourage straight people to become visible and active allies in their workplace and campus communities. Twenty-three schools participated this year, shattering prior records. Together, the business schools involved 9,000 students as allies—more than double last year’s participation of 4,300—and hosted more than 280 events and activities. Collectively, the schools improved LGBTQ inclusiveness on campuses by 30 percent based on measures taken at the beginning and again at the end of the school year, Friendfactor reports. Read more

Published: June 18, 2015

Berkeley Haas Center Expands Social Sector Leadership Focus

A new name and a new logo help trumpet the expanded mission of a center devoted to advancing social sector leadership at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. Previously known as the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership, the renamed Center for Social Sector Leadership (CSSL) seeks to help develop a new generation of business leaders focused on fostering social impact across the public, private and nonprofit sectors, the school reports. “The future requires collaboration between these sectors, and Berkeley-Haas is arguably the best place to define how this next generation of problem solving works,” Ben Mangan, executive director of the rechristened Center for Social Sector Leadership, said in a statement. The center focuses on training MBA students to become multi-sector leaders, helping them build skills that will serve them as corporate leaders, public advisors and members of nonprofit and social enterprise boards. Read more

Published: April 30, 2015

Business School Students Join Forces to Send Relief to Nepal

Yesterday, a student at Oxford’s Saïd Business School challenged her fellow students to donate to a fundraising campaign for victims of the Nepal earthquake, pledging to personally match every dollar raised in the next seven days, up to $20,000. Today, the school is already 24 percent toward its goal, having raised $4,875. Elsewhere around the country and the world, business school students are likewise putting their money where their mouths are. Still others are pitching in with person power and organizing know-how, helping bring much needed relief to a nation devastated by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake feared to have affected some 8 million people or more. April Chapman, who pledged to match funds raised by the students in Saïd’s Diploma in Strategy and Innovation program, said that social media posts and emails began to fly as soon as the news broke, and her cohort immediately decided that raising an immediate financial gift would be the best way to make a difference. Chapman serves as co-chair of the World Vision Innovation Fund, a faith-based humanitarian development and relief organization serving the poor in more than 100 countries. World Vision’s staff in Nepal, along with staff mobilized from other countries, are delivering temporary shelters, food, hygiene kits, water, emergency health and protection for children, according to a release from the organization. Read more

Published: March 23, 2015

Berkeley Haas MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / First-Year Student / On Campus

The following UC Berkeley Haas MBA admissions interview questions were provided by an applicant: Blind interview with a first year Haas student on campus. It was a relaxed environment and overall felt very conversational. Read more

Published: March 19, 2015

Berkeley Haas MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus

The following UC Berkeley Haas MBA admissions interview questions were provided by an applicant: The interview was more laid-back than most (compared to Sloan and Booth). It was a blind interview, all the alum had was my resume, and as such, the interview was based mostly off of my resume. The interview lasted almost an hour but was mostly conversational. I left with a better idea about Haas's culture and I think the goal was to determine whether or not I would fit in with the culture (know Haas's principles well and try to apply those to your as many of your responses). While the interviewer did ask follow-up questions, I wouldn't call any of them probing. At the end of the interview, I was given a good description of the alumnus's experience at Haas and he definitely did his best to sell the program. Overall it was an enjoyable experience. I was accepted. Read more

Berkeley / Haas

Class Size: 295

Women: 42%

MEdiAN GMAT: 730

MEAN GPA: 3.65

Livewire Decisionwire Interview Reports Essay Topic Analysis MBA Admissions Deadlines View Full Profile

MBA Applywire

December 21, 2024 12:13pm ET

Applying: Dartmouth / Tuck, Northwestern / Kellogg, UPenn / Wharton, UT Austin / McCombs, UVA / Darden

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Military/Corporate Logistics

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Bain , BCG , McKinsey

GRE: 302

GPA: 3.63

Years of Work Experience: 9

Notes:

Submitting for R2, but retaking GRE after application deadline. Military Vet with Corporate experience.

December 20, 2024 5:17pm ET

Applying: Columbia, Duke / Fuqua, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Healthcare

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Bain , BCG

GRE: 332

GPA: 3.5

Years of Work Experience: 3

Location: Florida

Post MBA Location: Consulting

Notes:

25F, lgbtq, 3 years as a registered nurse. also have started working for an early stage VC in the past several months.

December 19, 2024 4:44pm ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Stanford GSB

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Insurance

Post-MBA Target Industry: Entrepreneurship

GRE: 318

GPA: 3.59

Years of Work Experience: 3.5

Location: Georgia

Post MBA Location: Southeast

Notes:

Looking to launch a tech startup post MBA, without any background in tech. Come from a quant heavy background and undergraduate coursework. I regularly attended admissions events, in person and online at my schools. I hope that focusing energy on my few top schools and spending a lot of time on essays will help me overcome the less than average test score (164 quant 154 verbal) and GPA.

Serial entrepreneur with a history of profitable small businesses. Was promoted twice in 3.5 years. Involved in many extracurricular activities in and outside of work. My background is very centered around financial services/insurance, is this a red flag for a pivot to Tech Entrepreneurship?

Transferred between two state schools in the southeast. School I graduated from is a top 25 undergrad business program. Obtained a few professionals designations post grad.

December 18, 2024 11:38am ET

Applying: Michigan / Ross, UNC Kenan-Flagler, Vanderbilt / Owen

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Held various positions in Finance and Accounting in a healthcare institution

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Other Companies: BCG , Deloitte , Other

GPA: 3.0

Years of Work Experience: 11

Location: International

Notes:

I am passionate about healthcare enhancing patient quality care. So exploring in that field is what I would love. Got a 72k scholarship from Vandy and named Forte Fellow. UNC 50k. I'm having a hard time deciding though my heart is leaning towards Owen

December 18, 2024 10:23am ET

Applying: Arizona State / W.P. Carey, Indiana / Kelley, Ohio State / Fisher

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Facility management

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting

GRE: 309

GPA: 2.8

Years of Work Experience: 3

Notes:

Graduate GPA -3.869

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MBA LiveWire

December 21, 2024 8:37am ET

Accepted to Duke / Fuqua

Round: Round 1

Received via phone on December 11, 2024

GMAT: 675

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

December 21, 2024 2:38am ET

Waitlisted at Duke / Fuqua

Round: Round 1

Received via phone on December 10, 2024

GPA: 3.27

GMAT: 760

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Finance

Application Location: CA

December 20, 2024 11:16pm ET

Accepted to Babson / Olin

Round: Round 1

Received via email on December 17, 2024

GPA: 3.9

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: South Asia

December 20, 2024 7:50pm ET

Accepted to Columbia

Round: Round 1

Received via portal on December 10, 2024

GMAT: 750

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Application Location: India

Note:

$100k scholarship

December 20, 2024 3:21pm ET

Accepted to Yale SOM

Round: Round 1

Received via email December 20, 2024

GPA: 4.0

GMAT: 750

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Note:

100% scholarship

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