Berkeley / Haas MBA News

Another podcast episode of Wire Taps is live, and you should press play to hear the latest advice from Clear Admit’s admissions experts, Graham Richmond and Alex Brown. The duo draws on their years of admissions experience to provide strategic advice on the MBA application process.  This week, they review profiles from three prospective MBA applicants who shared their stories on MBA ApplyWire. One person needs to consider timing in relation to their work experience: Another MBA hopeful is looking to transition to Read more

Amazon has started recruiting MBA talent from a broader base of business schools and conducting interviews virtually, shaking up their longstanding practice of sending company reps and executives to select leading b-school campuses.  Instead of only hiring MBAs from elite business schools, the tech giant is now reaching out to more than 80 MBA programs across North America. Albert Kim, the head of Amazon student programs in the Americas, told The Wall Street Journal, the company has “worked hard to scale our recruiting efforts to help us engage and assess talent around the world.” Larger Landscape, Read more

The interview was extremely conversational and she asked the typical MBA questions along with a few behavioral questions. We met at a coffee shop in Orange County. I believe the interview was blind. 1. Walk me through your resume. 2. Why MBA? 3. Why Haas? 4. What are your strengths/weaknesses? 5. What is the biggest risk you have taken in your career? 6. What will you contribute to the Haas community? 7. Any questions? Overall I had a good feeling about the interview. The interviewer did push back on my weakness and asked if Read more

I interviewed on campus, I was told it would be with a second-year student, but it was with a first-year student. The interviewer had only seen my resume prior to the interview, and typed notes as I spoke. The interview lasted 45 minutes. The interviewer had a list of questions to choose from and selected questions based on my background and the answer I had just given him. 1. Tell me about yourself. 2. Why MBA/Post MBA Goals? 3. Why Haas? 4. Tell me about a time you had a heated debate with a colleague and you Read more

Each week we collect MBA news from leading business schools to give you a quick overview of the latest trending topics. In this week’s MBA News You Need digest: HBS highlights financial aid opportunities; Berkeley Haas offers advice for their new video essays; Georgetown McDonough discusses how its MBA program empowers women; Michigan Ross talks about its new Food, Friends, and Culture (FFC) series for cultural awareness; and UT Austin McCombs introduces new Dare to Lead program produced by Brene Brown. Read more

Alvaro Silberstein MBA ’17 chose to attend the Berkeley Haas School of Business not only for its proximity to Silicon Valley and educational strengths, but also because the school had a proud history of helping students with disabilities. Silberstein, who has used a wheelchair since the age of 18 due to a spinal injury, told Financial Times in a recent article, “Coming to Haas from another country, Chile, with a severe disability and living independently without my family for the first time, it helped me a lot to be in an environment Read more

Each week we collect MBA news from leading business schools to give you a quick overview of the latest trending topics. In this week’s MBA News You Need digest: Northwestern Kellogg announces their new deferred MBA enrollment program; Berkeley Haas offers tips on letters of recommendations; Yale SOM talks about its redesigned Power and Politics course; the Cambridge Judge admissions team offers up MBA interview tips; and UT Austin Texas McCombs reviews its second annual diversity and inclusion conference. Read more

Each week we collect MBA news from leading business schools to give you a quick overview of the latest trending topics. In this week’s MBA News You Need digest: Chicago Booth offers five reasons to choose their Deferred MBA program; Berkeley Haas outlines MBA application advice for explaining your career goals; Dartmouth Tuck re-launches its alumni Lifelong Learning program; Georgetown McDonough announces its first MBA Entrepreneurship Fellows; and Michigan Ross recaps its Winter Wellness Week. Read more

The Financial Times released their 2020 Global MBA rankings this week. Harvard Business School reclaimed the #1 position—after a four-year absence from the top spot. Wharton also surpassed last year’s top seed (Stanford GSB) to land in second place. Stanford GSB, which has held the top position for several years, fell to third in the Global MBA rankings. INSEAD maintained its position as the leading international school, landing fourth overall, while CEIBS rounds out the top five. Here are the Top 10 of the Financial Times 2020 Global MBA Read more

Each week we collect MBA news from leading business schools to give you a quick overview of the latest trending topics. In your first MBA News You Need digest for 2020, we delve into the new lifelong learning resources provided to NYU Stern alumni, 2019 in review at Berkeley Haas, the top ten research papers of the decade at Washington Foster, and the top articles and research papers of 2019 at Stanford GSB and HBS. Read more

Type: blind interview (interviewer only sees resume) List of required interview questions: 1. Walk me through your resume 2. Why an MBA? 3. Why Haas? How will Haas help you achieve your short/long-term goals? 4. Tell me about a time when you were on a team where others didn’t agree with you at the start of a project, but by the end you had changed their minds…or something along those lines (can’t remember the exact phrasing) 5. Diversity question…something along the lines of “How have you actively promoted diversity in the workplace?” (question asked Read more

Each week we collect MBA news from around the world to give you a quick overview of the latest trending topics from leading business schools. In your MBA News You Need digest for the week of November 18th, we highlight the continued success of the Georgetown McDonough Class of 2019, the news that all three Berkeley Haas MBA programs received STEM designation, veterans' resources at Chicago Booth, a new search fund speaker series at Dartmouth Tuck, and when to visit the Michigan Ross campus. Read more

Stanford Graduate School of Business is the two-time, back-to-back top ranking program of the Bloomberg Businessweek Best B-School list for U.S. programs. While the meteoric rise of Dartmouth / Tuck from 19th to 2nd may seem jarring, they are no stranger to the top 10 and had landed in 7th in 2017.  Harvard Business School held steady in third (though they were #1 in 2017).   Chicago Booth and UVA / Darden round out the top five, as Booth inched up a slot this year and Darden jumped 4 spots. Conversely, each school in positions six through 10 have fallen in the ranking.  The Wharton School dropped 4 spots to #6 and MIT / Sloan slipped from fourth to seventh. UC Berkeley Haas fell from 6 last year to 8 this one. Columbia Business School and Northwestern Kellogg rounded out the top 10, each pushed back 2 spots from last year. Here is a quick glance at this year’s top 10 (with the addition of 2018 rankings in parentheses): Read more

In this edition of our ongoing series, Admissions Director Q&A, we stop by the Bay Area of California.  Morgan Bernstein is the executive director of full-time MBA admissions at Berkeley's Haas School of Business, and a 2009 alumna of the program. Bernstein is deeply passionate about helping prospective students navigate the business school landscape, and brings an authentic, compassionate, and transparent approach to her admissions processes. Bernstein is inspired daily by Haas students and carefully curates a community that demonstrates curiosity, self-awareness, resilience, and optimism—among other leadership attributes. Before joining the Haas admissions team in 2011, Bernstein primarily worked in marketing and general strategy roles in the technology, education management, and services industries. When not recruiting the next class of future business leaders, Bernstein can be found chasing after her two young children with her fellow MBA 2009 husband, training for her next running event, or exploring California wine country with friends. Clear Admit had an opportunity to talk with Bernstein about the MBA application essays, Haas's new Certificate in Business Analytics, the new concurrent MBA/Master of Engineering degree, Haas’s proximity to the Bay Area’s innovation ecosystem, and more. Morgan Bernstein, Executive Director of Full-Time MBA Admissions at the Haas School of Business Clear Admit: What’s the single most exciting development, change, or event happening at Haas in the coming year? Morgan Bernstein: There are a number of exciting developments and changes, including the launch of our Certificate in Business Analytics and our new MBA/Master of Engineering concurrent degree. One of the key developments is that our international graduates are now eligible to apply for the STEM OPT extension during their post-MBA employment authorization. Although the eventual approval of those extensions depends on the training plans that the employers and the MBA graduates submit, we anticipate that this will lead to expanded opportunities for our international graduates who pursue jobs incorporating business analytics, modeling, forecasting, and other skills developed through our program. CA: What is the one aspect of your program that you wish applicants knew more about? Read more

Since we know some of you may be waiting anxiously in the next few weeks for MBA interview invitations, we wanted to remind you about two key resources that can help you through this busy—and often stressful—time: MBA LiveWire: Live reports from real candidates throughout the admissions process. Find the profiles of other applicants who applied to your target schools. Get live updates of those who have received an interview invitation or an admissions decision. Sort by school, admissions round, and the status of each entry to find the information you’re looking for. MBA Chats: Chat Read more

Each week we collect MBA news to give you a quick overview of the latest trending topics from leading business schools around the world. In your MBA News You Need digest for the week of October 22, 2019, we unpack the CEIBS campus expansion in Switzerland, top business schools for social impact research and teaching, the upcoming Yale SOM real estate conference, successful Berkeley Haas MBAs, and the qualities UCLA Anderson looks for in its MBA candidates. Read more

MBA applicants in need of the H-1B visa have seen increasing challenges since the current U.S. administration took office.  Today, 50 business school deans and CEOs banded together to address U.S. leadership about this growing crisis—and how to ameliorate it—through a full-page ad in the Washington edition of the Wall Street Journal. The full text of the letter follows. To America’s Leaders: President Donald J. Trump Vice President Michael Pence Speaker Nancy Pelosi House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy Senate Majority Leader Addison “Mitch” McConnell Senate Minority Leader Charles “Chuck” Schumer We represent a cross-section of America’s economy, now and into the future. As CEOs, deans of business schools across the country, and industry organizations, we have insights into what the U.S. economy needs now, and what it will need 10, 20, and 30 years into the future. We are helping to lead this generation of businesses and train the next generation of leaders who will succeed us. We are also urgently concerned – we do not believe the U.S. has the high-skill talent it needs, nor does it have the capacity to train enough people with those skills. Without a substantial change in our approach, this deficit of skills in key fields will hinder economic growth. The fact that our economy has created an estimated three million open STEM jobs is a positive. It speaks to the vibrancy and opportunities available in a healthy, growing economy. Yet the fact that those jobs are unfilled – and that the U.S. is not producing enough people with the skills to fill them – is not just a negative, it’s a crisis. We are needlessly capping our growth and can do better. Read more

Whether you’re flying to campus now for an applicant-initiated interview, or practicing til perfection while anticipating an invitation, don’t wait to download the Clear Admit Interview Guides to ace your MBA admissions interview. Read more

Each week we collect all the MBA news that’s fit to print and provide a quick overview of the latest updates from top business schools around the world. Here’s your MBA News You Need digest for the week of October 7, 2019. Inside an HBS Course on Impact Investing Vikram Gandhi poses in an undated handout photo provided by Harvard Business School in Allston, Massachusetts, U.S. Susan Young/Handout via REUTERS. Impact investing is just one of several innovative courses Harvard Business School has added to its curriculum. Senior lecturer and Asha Impact founder Vikram Gandhi put together the course, “Investing in the 21st Century: Return, Risk, and Impact,” to teach the next generation about incorporating positive values about the environment, society, and government into investment decisions. “There has to be a way to do good at the same time as investing,” said Gandhi. “This is not about creating less wealth or making poor investments. You can make a difference and also bring in returns. Financial return is critical, but social and societal returns are equally important.” The course exposes students to the SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF, going in-depth into the players, and how stock is aggregated. Other topics include financial monitoring and the evolving field of impact investing. To learn more, check out the interview with senior lecturer Gandhi on Reuters.com. Yale SOM Women in Management Club As part of welcoming the new Class of 2021, Yale SOM hosted a “Club Kick-Off Week," during which the Women in Management Club (WIM) gathered more than 100 students. One of the fastest-growing clubs at the school, WIM is a social and professional support network for women with the goal to unite students of all gender identities under a common cause: equal opportunities for all. WIM is a vast club overseen by more than 10 officers, which offers a diverse range of opportunities. There are committees on a wide array of topics, including alumni relations, professional development, admissions, diversity and inclusion, and more. Those committees span the entire university and overlap with the Celebrating Women at Yale initiative. Read more

Each week we collect all the MBA news that’s fit to print and provide a quick overview of the latest updates from top business schools around the world. Here’s your MBA News You Need digest for the week of September 16, 2019. Read more

Each week we collect all the MBA news that’s fit to print and provide a quick overview of the latest updates from top business schools around the world. Here’s your MBA News You Need digest for the week of August 26, 2019. Read more

A common goal among those planning to pursue MBA is changing careers.  In this MBA ApplyWire Spotlight, we highlight a recent entry in Clear Admit’s ApplyWire from an MBA applicant hoping to transition from the navy to investment banking.  As they plan to apply to Berkeley / Haas, Columbia, Harvard Business School, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, and UPenn / Wharton, they had some concerns that our community helped to ameliorate. Read on for the details. A community member kicked off the conversation: Read more

As MBA hopefuls consider their chances at the leading business schools, many are posting to Clear Admit’s ApplyWire, an admissions tool for feedback on candidacy, school choice and more.  This week, we shine the spotlight on two candidates. The first has some room for improvement with their academic stats while applying to Berkeley / Haas, Columbia, Michigan / Ross, NYU Stern, UCLA Anderson, USC / Marshall, and Yale SOM.  Read on for the details. Resident expert, Alex Brown, took the stage, so to speak: Read more

Each week, we collect all the MBA news that’s fit to print and provide a quick overview of the latest updates from top business schools around the world. Here’s your MBA News You Need digest for the week of July 22, 2019. Non-traditional MBA Candidates Should Be Optimistic Non-traditional MBA candidates without undergraduate business backgrounds are often accepted to leading business schools, according to Vanderbilt Owen's MBA admissions committee.  Whether your background is in the military, Peace Corps, Teach for America, or performing arts, non-traditional candidates have become more commonplace in many MBA programs. The truth is that business schools want a balance of candidates and appreciate a diverse array of perspectives.  “I think by having people who have not been steeped in in corporate America—it’s really helpful to have outside perspectives,” said Rob Schickler, Associate Director of Admissions at Vanderbilt Owen. “The more diversity you have, the more groupthink can be avoided.” So, how do you ensure that as a non-traditional candidate you have the best chance of getting accepted into an MBA program? Read more

As MBA hopefuls prepare for the 2019-2020 Round 1 and early admissions deadlines, many are posting to Clear Admit’s ApplyWire, a forum for feedback on your final choice of schools and approach to admissions.  This week, we shine the spotlight on a candidate with a non-profit background (and potential future) applying to Berkeley / Haas, Michigan / Ross, Penn State / Smeal, UCI Merage, UCLA Anderson, UT Austin / McCombs, and Vanderbilt / Owen.  Read on for his profile information and more from our admissions experts. Clear Admit’s resident expert, Alex Brown, kicked off the conversation about coursework, goals, school choice and more: Read more