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Defining the Wait

As we have now completed our first two rounds, we are getting a lot of inquiries about our waitlist so I thought it might be helpful to offer some waitlist words of wisdom.

What being on the waitlist DOES mean:

You are in a great place—it's true! If you are on the waitlist, you have impressed the admissions committee and are considered a strong candidate for admission. There may be some outstanding questions the committee has about your application or there may be some areas of your application that are weaker in comparison to the pool—we believe these questions and weaknesses can be addressed while on the waitlist.
You have a great opportunity to strengthen your candidacy so go for it—it's true! There are several ways to do so--retake the GMAT or TOEFL; submit additional letters of recommendation; get involved, get promoted, get more responsibility!
You still have a good chance of being admitted—it's true! We admit applicants from the waitlist every year.

What being on the waitlist DOES NOT mean:

You don't have a chance of being admitted—it’s not true! We admit applicants from the waitlist every year.
You are eligible for feedback on your application now—it’s not true! You will be eligible for feedback on your application over the summer, however as a strict policy we do not offer specific feedback on any applications during the admissions process as we are still reviewing applications and simply don’t have the resources to do so.
You should contact the admissions office every day to communicate your interest in Haas—it’s not true! We do love to hear from you and it is entirely appropriate to let us know of any updates to your application and of your interest in Haas. However use solid judgment for how to best convey your updates and interest.

We really appreciate your patience! Good luck!

Round 2 Update

We’re well into our Round 2 applicant review, and I wanted to take a moment to update you on our process.

Round 2 interview invitations started going out last month and will continue to go out through the end of this month. We know this is an anxious waiting period and we are pushing to make sure the majority of our interview invites go out by next week. It takes us time to thoroughly review each application, and in some cases, applicants may receive an invitation to interview close to our notification deadline (the earlier or later you are invited to interview is no indication of how strong an applicant you are). We carefully review each file, and each application is read by at least two members of our team. Given the volume of applications, it simply takes time to get through each one in a comprehensive manner. We greatly appreciate your patience throughout this process!

We’ve also moved up our first admit weekend, Days at Haas, by over a month. It will be held the first weekend in March…..which, as all Round 2 applicants are aware, overlaps with our Round 2 notification deadline. Because of this, we will start notifying Round 2 admits on a rolling basis in hopes that some of our Round 2 admits can join us for Days at Haas. Ideally we would notify everyone at the same time, but we are still reviewing Round 2 applications and making decisions. I want to stress that the timing of your notification is in no particular order and we will do our best to reach you as soon as we can. Since we will not be able to reach everyone in time, we will also host a second Days at Haas in April for Round 2 and Round 3 admits. We still plan to release all remaining Round 2 applicant decisions on March 3rd.

So far we’re off to a great start this year and are excited for another impressive class. Thank you for your interest in the Berkeley MBA Program, and we wish you the best of luck in the application process!

Dispelling Myths About Interview Invitations

Our office is busy preparing for our "Super Saturday" admissions interview day this weekend so I thought I'd take this opportunity to share with you some myths about our general interviewing process.

MYTH #1: Super Saturday interviews hold more weight than other interviews
FALSE - Candidates invited to Super Saturday are round 2 applicants who typically reside in the US, but outside the Bay Area. This gives them an opportunity to travel to campus for an interview during a weekend. Though we wish we could extend this opportunity to all of our candidates invited to interview, rest assured that a Super Saturday interview holds equal weight to an interview conducted with an alumnus in your local area or with a student on campus.

MYTH #2: All interview invitations for round 2 applicants have already been extended
FALSE - Our interview invitations are extended on a rolling basis all the way up to the notification deadline. So, for round 2 applicants who haven't heard from us yet, don't fret! We put a great deal of time and effort into reading your applications so interview invitations will continue to go out through the month of February. We appreciate your patience with us through this process!

MYTH #3: Receiving an interview invitations means I'm guaranteed an offer of admission
FALSE - To shed light on the number of interviews we conduct (and to perhaps quash the wild speculation running rampant on some other blogs), we have historically invited 20-30% of our applicant pool to interview. From there, we typically offer admission to 40-60% of candidates who have been interviewed. Receiving an offer of admission is a competitive process, but being invited to interview should certainly be veiwed as an indication of the strength of your candidacy!

For more information, our Director of Admissions, Stephanie Fujii, offers some tips for successful interviewing. Best of luck!

Consortium Alumni Celebration

Although our fall recruiting events are behind us, and the admissions committee is deep into reading season, I was fortunate to have the opportunity last Wednesday night to attend an event to celebrate our renewed membership with The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, an alliance of leading American business schools and corporations aimed at fostering diversity among graduate business students and corporate leaders. This was an opportunity for Consortium alumni from across the Bay Area to come together, reconnect and celebrate this partnership.

Berkeley MBA alumni from Del Monte Foods were generous enough to host us at their headquarters in San Francisco. Peter J. Aranda, Executive Director and CEO of The Consortium, and Anthony Davis,V ice President of Development for The Consortium, made a special trip to the Bay Area to attend. Dean Rich Lyons welcomed our Consortium alumni guests who attended UC Berkeley as well as several other Consortium member business schools. Stephanie Fujii, Director of Admissions at Berkeley-Haas, led a brainstorming session focused on how business schools, The Consortium and employers can better support professional development and diversity. The discussion generated a lot of great ideas – and alumni spent the next hour (plus!) catching up with each other, as well as Berkeley-Haas representatives from alumni relations, career services and admissions.

The theme of the event was celebrating our renewed relationship with the Consortium in great anticipation for the Class of 2013 Consortium Fellows joining us in August!

Meet our students over winter break

Hi! I'm Kara, Assistant Director, and I've been working with Berkeley-Haas Full-time MBA students to set up our winter break coffee chats. They travel all over the world during winter break and their enthusiasm for Haas travels with them! We are continually impressed with the students’ energy to help others in the MBA search no matter where they are in the world. The winter break coffee chats have been a great way to meet our students in person and we are excited to offer so many again this year.

There are 36 coffee chats happening almost every day between now and early January! Students are hosting these gatherings in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, North America and the Middle East. We are also launching additional impromptu #haastweetmeets over winter break and people can follow us on Twitter @UCBerkeley_Haas to learn more.

Coffee chats are designed to be informal and casual so prospective students can ask real questions of those living the Berkeley-Haas experience. Visit our coffee chat site for details and registration. Space is limited so we always encourage people to sign up as soon as possible.

And, if a chat is already full, prospective students haven’t missed the opportunity to connect with current students. Our Haas Student Ambassador team is available to answer questions at hsa@haas.berkeley.edu. They will be on winter break until late January but will return emails as soon as possible.

We hope you take advantage of this great opportunity to meet our students! Happy holidays!