The Full-time Berkeley MBA Admissions Blog

2011-08-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

The Full-time Berkeley MBA Admissions Blog has moved from Blogger to Wordpress. New posts will appear exclusively at http://berkeleyhaasmba.wordpress.com/. The new RSS feed is available here. Thanks for reading!

Defining the Wait

2011-03-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

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

2011-02-14T17:19:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-03T09:46:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-22T13:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-20T17:08:00.001-08:00

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!

Holiday Closure

2010-12-17T15:08:00.000-08:00

The admissions office will be closed for the holidays December 23, 2010 to January 3, 2011.

The Visitation Program for this semester ended Friday, December 3. On-campus Information Sessions will resume Monday, January 24, 2011. Class visits and lunch with students will resume Monday, February 7, 2011. The Spring 2011 class visit schedule will be posted by early February 2011. For more details, please visit our website: http://mba.berkeley.edu/admissions/visitation.html

During the campus winter break, students will host informal coffee chat gatherings in cities around the world -- stay tuned for more information!

The Million Dollar Question

2010-12-13T08:55:00.000-08:00

Hi! This is Erin Kellerhals, Associate Director of Admissions, and having just returned from several months on the road, I wanted to share some thoughts. My travel this year took me all over the world to speak with numerous prospective applicants and without a doubt the most frequently asked question, no matter what city, industry or field of interest, was “What will make me stand out as an applicant?”
Yes, it’s the million dollar question. And if I had a dollar for every time I was asked, well, you get the picture.
So what is the million dollar answer? At Haas, we are looking for very smart, very diverse, very passionate leaders—the kind of leaders who take intelligent risks, consider the long-term impact of their actions and have a high value for lifelong learning. The application process is one of serious self-reflection that will ultimately best represent who you are and who you want to be. Set yourself apart by being authentic, sharing with us what motivates you, what you want to achieve and how you will do so. Don’t write what you think we want to read. If the several thousand applications we receive are truly honest and thoughtful, we should be getting several thousand different answers to the million dollar question.

Where in the world?

2010-10-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hi there – I’m Corinne Kang, Associate Director of Admissions. In addition to being tasked with the difficult decision of evaluating our applicants in the admissions process, I also manage our Student and Alumni Interviewer teams. As you know, the interview is a critical component of our application process and we wouldn’t be able to do our job as an Admissions Committee without the help of this amazing group of interviewers. This year, we have a team of almost 400 alumni interviewers in 46 countries around the world, including Brazil, Denmark, Kenya, Pakistan, and Vietnam, just to name a few! Chances are, should you be invited to interview, we have an alumni interviewer eager to meet you in your home country. Of course, if you’d like to visit Haas and interview on campus, we have a fantastic team of student interviewers here as well! Our team of second-year interviewers is ready to go and we’re conducting interviews to select our first-year interviewer team next week (yes, even our interviewers are interviewed!). All interviews hold equal weight in our admissions process, whether they’re conducted on campus or off campus and whether they’re conducted by an alum or a student. The Admissions Committee really values the additional perspective our alums and students add, and we hope you’ll use your interview as an opportunity to bring your paper application to life and learn more about the Berkeley MBA experience. For interview tips, check out this podcast.

On the Road... Forte

2010-09-17T21:07:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone. I’m Cindy Jennings Millette, Associate Director of Admissions, and I thought I’d chime in about my experiences on the road talking to prospective students interested in the Berkeley MBA Program. I just returned to Berkeley from the Los Angeles Forte fair. I spoke to many remarkable women about their experiences, and learned more about what some of our amazing alumnae have been up to. Our upcoming Women’s Workshop is coming up on October 2. It’s a great chance to see what a class is like (through a mock case study conducted by a professor) and connect with current students and alumni; as well as learn more about admissions and career services. We also have other upcoming Diversity Workshops on 10/16 and 11/6. Next week, I’m off to Seattle for the Information Session. Hope to see you on the road!

Fall 2011 Application is now available

2010-09-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

Our Application is now live!

The first deadline is coming up soon – October 13th. Information about admissions criteria and requirements can be found on our website, along with many ways to learn more about the program.

We’re already recruiting around the world, so we hope you’ll come meet us. In July I met with candidates in Beirut, Casablanca and Tel Aviv. Over the past few weeks, two members of our Admissions Committee held information sessions in Mexico City, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Sao Paulo, Rio, Caracas and Bogota. To find out when we’ll be in a city near you, please visit our website.

Welcome

2010-09-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

My name is Stephanie Fujii, Director of Admissions. Many of you might have heard that Peter Johnson, our former Director, has moved on. We will miss him greatly at Berkeley but wish him the best as he begins a new adventure in Budapest! I have been part of our admissions team for the past five years, most of that time as the Senior Associate Director of Admissions. I look forward to meeting many of you on the road this fall.

This year on the Admissions blog you’ll hear from all members of the Admissions Committee as we travel around the world and post updates on our application process. We hope to meet you in person and wish you the best of luck on your application!

Fall 2011 Application

2010-08-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

The fall 2011 application for the Full-time MBA Program will go live on September 1st. In the meantime, those of you planning to apply in Round 1 (Deadline October 13, 2010) may want to begin crafting your essays now. All of the application questions are posted on our website.

A few tips:

Answer the questions honestly; don't try to write what you believe the Admissions Committee wants to read--more than likely, you'll be wrong. Provide answers that reflect who you are, and what you are interested in, personally and professionally. For your first draft, try to address each question as though you were talking with a friend, and edit those responses to refine them.
Remember to answer the questions! A mistake many applicants make is to focus on particular themes about their experience that they want to get across to the Admissions Committee, and in the end, they don't actually answer the questions that have been posed.

Request letter of recommendation early. Although recommenders will also be able to submit online, it's helpful to share the recommendation questions with them as soon as possible.

Leaving yourself enough time to complete the application and accompanying essays carefully will definitely help you to present the strongest application and will greatly improve your chances of gaining admission.

Best wishes for successful applications!

Round 3 Offers

2010-04-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

As the Full-time MBA Admissions Committee continues to review applications, we are also reviewing the files of candidates who have already completed an interview. Due to the timing of the "Days at Haas" admitted student weekend in late April, we plan to release a small number of decisisions early to enable those selected to attend Days at Haas. All applicants will receive a decision by our stated Round 3 response date.

Applicants who do not receive an early decision should not draw any assumptions from the process--many candidates will receive offers closer to the planned application release date of April 28th.

Round 3 Interviews

2010-04-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

Round 3 interviews continue to be sent, and will continue until a few days before our Round 3 deadline of April 28th. If you have not been invited to interview, please be patient as we continue to review applications. The Full-time MBA Program invites selected candidates for interview after the application has been reviewed.

Mrs. Moneypenny's Answer

2010-02-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Moneypenny, a weekend columnist for the Financial Times, wrote a column on October 30th about Haas Professor Oliver Williamson, a really nice guy who won the Nobel Prize in Economics this year. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/856a6cd2-c20b-11de-be3a-00144feab49a.html. In her pithy column, she wrote about the prize money, stating "I wonder what Williamson will do with his. At 77, he presumably has plenty of time for shopping." Well, Ollie had a different vision for his prize money.

A few days after the announcement, even before his trip to Sweden to shake hands with King Carl Gustav, Dr. Williamson scheduled a meeting with Dean Lyons. I'm sure the Dean expected a request for more research assistance, perhaps a larger office, or, the perk of perks that is granted to all Berkeley Nobel Laureates--an assigned parking space. Instead, Ollie noted that he and his wife had been talking about what they would most like to do with the prize money, and the Williamsons are giving the majority of it to the Haas School to establish an additional faculty position in Economics. How classy is that?

And for the record, Dr. Williamson did get his assigned parking spot!

Round 2 Interviews

2010-02-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

Round 2 interview invitations began going out last week, and will continue to be sent up until shortly before the Round 1 response deadline. There is no specific order in which they are sent, although for the Super Saturday interview day, priority is given to US applicants who live outside of California.

As we note in our informational materials, most of the interviews are conducted by our trained alumni interviewers, and all have equal weight in the admissions process, whether they take place in Dubai or Detroit. For details about preparing for an interview, please listen to our podcast at http://mba.haas.berkeley.edu/admissions/podcasts/interview-tips.html.

Round 1 Interviews for Fall 2010

2009-12-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

Interviews for the Berkeley Full-time MBA Program are by invitation only, and candidates are selected for interviews after at least two members of the Admissions Committee have reviewed the application. For Round 1, invitations began going out in mid-November, and will continue to be sent until close to the Round 1 response date.

If you applied in Round 1 and have not yet received an invitation to interview, please be patient--there are likely to be many more invitations in the next two weeks. There is no fixed quota of applicants who will be interviewed in each round--it is simply a function of which applicants the Admissions Committee feels are strongest. Additionally, all candidates who are offered a place on the waitlist will be offered an opportunity to interview as well.

Still More About Interviews!

2009-01-15T22:19:00.001-08:00

"What percentage of your applicants will be invited to interview?" "Of the applicants who interview, what percentage will be admitted?" As the Round 1 applications continue, I've heard a lot of speculation about the process.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no fixed percentage of applicants who are interviewed, and chances of admission for those who do interview are based on the strength of the entire application package and the interview. In the past few years, between 25% and 30% of all applicants have been selected to interview--but keep in mind that this percentage has varied each year. It's simply a reflection of the strength of the candidates in a specific round.

Although it's a positive sign to be invited to interview, it doesn't mean you'll get an offer--but it does mean that the Admissions Committee saw enough strengths in your application to be seriously considering your candidacy, so it's always a good sign!

If you are invited to interview, be sure to listen to the Interview tips podcast, which you can find at http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/haas/podcast/audio/haas_mba_interview_tips1.mp3.

Round 1 and Round 2 Interviews

2009-01-08T09:42:00.001-08:00

Happy 2009 to everyone!

We've had many questions the past few days about interview invitations, and I know there are many anxious Round 1 and Round 2 candidates.

We are continuing to send interview invitations for Round 1 candidates throughout the next two weeks, as we have noted in earlier communications. Additionally, candidates who are notified of waitlist status on January 28 will have the opportunity to schedule an interview after that date.

Round 2 interview invitations will begin going out toward the end of the month.

Round 1 Interviews

2008-12-05T13:56:00.001-08:00

Now that we're well into Round 1, it's a good time to explain how the interview process works. We get many questions about the interview process, and it causes a lot of stress for many applicants. Fortunately, it's really a straightforward process, designed to give applicants the opportunity to share more about themselves, their experience, and their career goals.

Interviews for the Berkeley Full-time MBA Program are by invitation only, and invitations are sent after the Admissions Committee has completed its initial review of the application. The Committee takes great pride in reading and evaluating applications for admission, and every single application, regardless of GPA, GMAT, or number of years of work experience, is read by a minimum of two readers. In many instances, an application is read by three readers, and sometimes four. Invitations are sent on a rolling basis, and will continue to go out until shortly before the response date. The timing of the application interview is in no way a reflection of the strength or weakness of a particular application.

Round 1 applicants who are currently living outside the US will be invited to interview with an alumni interviewer; applicants within the US who live outside California will be invited to a Saturday interview day in late January; and applicants residing in California will have the opportunity to interview on campus with a student interviewer.

Each interview has the same weight, whether it takes place in Sao Paulo, London, or Berkeley, and each interviewer goes through the same training program. Once the interview has been completed, the interviewer provides a written assessment to the Admissions Committee which becomes part of the application file. Finally, the entire file is discussed by the Admissions Committee before a decision is released.

Round 1 interview invitations will begin going out the week of December 8th and will continue until the Round 1 notification date or January 28, 2009. For tips on how to prepare for an interview, listen to our interview podcast.

Thanksgiving Week

2008-11-24T15:53:00.001-08:00

The Berkeley MBA Admissions Office will be closed on Thursday and Friday, November 27th and November 28th, for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Classes will be in session on Wednesday, November 26th and we will have our regular information session and class visits on that day.

Interviews

2007-11-30T11:29:00.001-08:00

We're frequently asked about how the interview process works for the Berkeley Full-time MBA Program. Since there is significant diversity in how MBA programs interview, let me explain the Berkeley Full-time MBA Process.

Interviews are by invitation only, and invitations are issued by e-mail after an application has been reviewed by the Admissions Committee. We do not offer admission without an in-person interview except in the very rare case of individuals who are located in very remote locations. Although there is no fixed percentage of the pool that we interview, we typically invite 25-30% of our applicants to interview. An interview invitation could be sent as early as four weeks after the application deadline or as late as a few days before the response date. Timing of the invitation is not significant. An invitation is always a good sign, and means that we are seriously considering the application. Because at least two members of the admissions staff read each application submitted before we invite a candidate to interview, it takes a bit longer for the invitations to go out.

In Rounds 1 and 2, we have "Super Saturday" interviews on campus for invited applicants who are living in the US, with a preference for those outside California, for whom traveling to campus for an interview may be more difficult. During the Super Saturday event, we have the interview and other activities designed to help candidates to learn more about the program, including a student life panel, and alumni panel, and other informational events. U.S. candidates who are unable to attend Super Saturday have the option of an alumni interview.

We're often asked about who conducts the interviews. We have a network of trained alumni interviewers covering 90 cities around the world, and we select and train a small group of current students each year to conduct our on-campus interviews. It is unusual that a member of the Admissions Committee would be the interviewer, which only occurs when a student or alumni interviewer is not available.

We will begin sending interview invitations on December 3rd, and will continue to issue invitations until shortly before the response date. Additionally, any applicant who is offered a place on the wait list is automatically invited to interview. For more details about how to prepare for an interview, please visit http://mba.haas.berkeley.edu/ and click on "Admissions Podcasts", and you can listen to Stephanie Fujii, senior associate director of MBA Admissions, who discusses our process.

TOEFL or IELTS?

2007-09-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

I've had a number of questions this year from applicants who need to meet our English language proficiency requirement and are curious about the relevant tests. We accept results of either the TOEFL or the IELTS for admission purposes.

Although many applicants are familiar with the TOEFL, which is offered in many countries, we have been contacted by students who have had difficulty obtaining a test appointment for the TOEFL. For applicants who are unable to get a suitable test appointment, the IELTS may be a good alternative.

The IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is offered in 350 test centers in 120 countries around the world. For purposes of admission, we accept IELTS scores with a minimum band score of 7.0.

For additional information about the IELTS, please visit www.ielts.org.

A Video Introduction to Haas

2007-02-20T13:07:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't seen it, there's a fun video on YouTube which was filmed as an introduction for the PBS CEO Exchange earlier this year, a discussion between two prominent CEOs that is filmed for television. This particular episode featured Intel's CEO Paul Otellini (Berkeley MBA '74) , Symantec's CEO John Thomson, and CNN's Jeff Greenfield. As as result, the video has a bit of a technology slant, but it's a fun intro to the Berkeley MBA hosted by current student Seth Familian. Check it out at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndo6txrP52c!

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-21T07:48:00.000-08:00

The Full-time MBA Admissions Office will close for the winter break tomorrow at 4:00 pm and will re-open at 9:00 am on January 2nd. We will not be able to respond to voicemail or e-mail messages during the break; however, we look forward to serving you when we return to campus in January. Our daily on-campus information sessions resume the week of January 22nd, and our class visitation program and lunches with current MBA students will be available beginning February 5th. If you wish to schedule a visit, detailed information is available at http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/MBA/visitation.html.

Best wishes for a very happy holiday and new year!

English Language Proficiency

2006-12-04T14:59:00.000-08:00

We've recently received many questions about the English proficiency requirement for applicants who are not native speakers of English, especially since the new internet-based version of the TOEFL has now been introduced in most countries. We accept both the TOEFL and the IELTS examination as evidence of English language proficiency, and applicants who have completed at least one year of full-time academic study (not including ESL courses) in an accredited university in the US , UK, Australia, or English-speaking Canada are not required to provide TOEFL or IELTS courses. The TOEFL is not waived for countries in which the official language is not English (including India, Pakistan, and Israel) even though the language of instruction sin some universitieis in these countries may be English.

The TOEFL or IELTS examination must have been taken within the past two years to be valid, and Berkeley uses June 1st to determine the validity. In other words, examinations taken before June 1, 2005 cannot be considered for fall 2007 admission. If you need to take the TOEFL or IELTS, it is important to plan in advance. Since the introduction of the new internet-based TOEFL, fewer test dates are offered, and applicants have reported having to wait two months or more to get a testing date for the TOEFL. The test date of the exam you are using for application purposes must be on or before the application deadline of the round for which you are applying. Students who took an official computer-based TOEFL or paper and pencil TOEFL within the two year window do not need to take the examination again.

Finally, please note that although Berkeley sets minimum score requirements for graduate students, most students admitted to the MBA program has scores well above the minimum requirement. On the computer-based exam, the minimum score requirement was 230/300; the average TOEFL for applicants admitted to the Berkeley MBA program was 278 for the fall 2007 admission. Because so few students have submitted internet-based TOEFL scores, it is not possible for us to predict averages at this point, even though the minimum score requirement for consideration for the MBA program is 68 /120.

Do I Need to Write the Optional Essay?

2006-10-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

Pete and I just finished our Berkeley MBA Information Sessions in Chicago, New York, Washington, and Boston, and we had a number of questions about the optional essay. For those of you wondering whether or not you should write the optional essay, the decision is a highly personal one. The optional essay should be used if—and only if—you feel that you have something more to tell us after you have completed your other essays and short-answer questions. For example, if you feel that you have not adequately conveyed your professional accomplishments and personal qualities elsewhere in the application, the optional essay can be used to share more about yourself with the Admissions Committee. The optional essay can also be used if you wish to offer an explanation for any perceived shortcoming in your application. However, if you believe that the rest of your application has allowed you the opportunity to tell us your story, you needn’t feel compelled to write the optional essay. Many applicants choose not to write the optional essay, which is completely fine. In fact, it's better not to write the essay than to use it to reiterate information you have already provided.

In Which Round Should I Apply?

2006-10-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

Common questions that I often get from prospective students include "Do I have to apply in Round 1 to get an offer of admission?" "When should I submit my application to have the best chances?"

I recommend that you apply as early as possible, provided that you are submitting the best application possible. In other words, if you need more time to revise your essays or retake the GMAT, you should definitely take that time and apply in a later round.

We do not reserve a set number of places in the class for each application round. Although the number of offers we make in each round varies from year to year, chances of admission are about the same in Round 1 and Round 2. You can even feel comfortable applying in Round 3, as many applicants will receive offers in this round. By the time we reach Round 4, however, there are usually only a few places remaining in the class, and chances of admission may be significantly diminished.

Also note that your chances of receiving a scholarship are much better if you apply in an earlier round. Most of our Haas Merit Scholarships and Haas Achievement Awards are given to applicants who apply in Rounds 1 and 2, although we may have some scholarship money left to award to Round 3 applicants. It is rare that a Round 4 applicant will receive scholarship money, as we have usually awarded our entire scholarship budget before we begin reading Round 4 applications.

Whether you apply in Round 1 or Round 4, providing a complete and honest picture of your academic preparation, professional and personal goals, experience, and achievements will give you the best chances of success in the application process.

Want to prepare the best application possible?

2006-09-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

When we’re speaking with students at outreach events, we often get questions like “What is Berkeley looking for in MBA applications?” or “What kinds of applicants do you admit?” If you are able to attend one of our information sessions, we will address these questions, but you don’t have to wait—you can get application advice in the comfort of your home, office…or even at the gym or while running! Download our MBA Admissions podcast, and hear application tips directly from me. Even if you don’t have an iPod or other mp3 player, you can simply listen to the podcast directly on your computer. The application podcast, as well as our fantastic MBA program video, can be found on our website at http://mba.haas.berkeley.edu/. Look for the links in the blue box on the right side of your screen. Other podcasts include information about financing your MBA and MBA career services, and new podcasts will be added later this fall. Enjoy!