uc berkeley haas video essay

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Advice, tips and insights from the admissions dream team., table of contents, how to answer the new berkeley haas mba essay and video.

• By Sharon Joyce

When you apply to the University of California -Berkeley Haas School of Business, they want to know what makes you feel alive, how an MBA will help fuel your MBA goals and what kind of leader you are —and they want you to show them.

Haas has added a video essay as one of the required MBA application components for 2023–24 and changed its Essay #2. My colleague Peter Johnson , a former Assistant Dean for the Full-Time MBA and Admissions at Haas, and I have fresh advice on how to answer these essay questions. 

Haas introduces the essay section of its application with a statement of its Defining Leadership Principles (DLPs). The Berkeley MBA program develops leaders who embody these principles: 

• Question the Status Quo
• Confidence Without Attitude
• Students Always
• Beyond Yourself 

The new video essay asks applicants to “briefly introduce yourself to the admissions committee, explain which leadership principle resonates most with you, and tell us how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life.” Videos must clock in under two minutes.

Acing the Video

Video replies are gaining popularity among all b-schools. It’s a useful way to assess poise and presence as well as the thoughts and information you share. It’s also a way to enhance authenticity. While essays can now easily be cranked out with ChatGPT (although we definitely don’t recommend it ), an effective and personal video is harder to automate.

Videos are also a great way to assess judgment. Is a reply TMI? Admissions committees want to get to know the real you, but it’s obviously important to be appropriate. And, finally, videos can be a fun and fresh way to express your excitement about Haas. The DLPs are a distinctive draw that attracts students to Berkeley, so it can be a creative way to share your enthusiasm.

Be succinct. Two minutes may seem like a lot when you’re staring into the eye of the camera with admissions on the line — but it’s really not. With only that short window to work with, don’t try to address all four of the principles. Instead, focus on one of the principles and demonstrate how you reflect it with clear and cogent examples. 

Once you’ve sketched out your thoughts and know what you want to say, practice!  As noted the evaluation of these responses are likely to be graded on communication skills and poise as much as on content. And if you’re a bit intimidated about talking on camera or mastering the technology, Fortuna has you covered. Our fellow coach Cassandra Pittman explains how to ace your video here , and Karen Hamou offers advice on what to wear . 

Advice for Essay #2.

Leadership was the topic of Berkeley’s second essay last year. Now that the video is covering that theme, the new Essay #2 asks, “How will an MBA help you achieve your short-term and long-term career goals? 

Last year, this was a question embedded within the application and was 150 words on immediate short-term goals. With the word count expanded to 300, this question is likely probing more deeply to see if applicants have realistic goals that can be met through the program at Haas.

Although the prompt asks, “How will an MBA help…,” this essay is really looking beyond the credential of the recognized degree. Berkeley wants to know what skills you will build or enhance and what experiences you will leverage in pursuit of career goals. It’s important to be specific. Make sure you call out what specific aspects of Berkeley ’s MBA program will bolster your success after graduation.

We sometimes suggest citing companies that heavily recruit at Haas when applicable as a way of showing your awareness of the school and the link between your goals and what is achievable. For the budding entrepreneurs, perhaps mention Haas alumni entrepreneurs who are working in a similar space.

Our take on the rationale behind this question is this:  The committee wants to know if your personal and professional goals are aligned with the program at Haas and how you will leverage the Berkeley MBA experience to achieve them.

Start with a Splash in Essay #1

Essay #1 remains the same: “What makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why?”

As someone who has read thousands of applications, we love the wording of this question. Any opportunity to learn about what ignites the spark in a candidate is really exciting to read. (Remember that most Haas admissions readers will be plowing through some 2,000 application essays in a single cycle.)

This question is also evocative of the iconic Stanford GSB essay, “What matters most to you, and why?” –  which similarly gets personal and requires a profound level of self-reflection and sincerity. This question also underscores that Haas is looking for people who will actively contribute to the community and beyond, not just in the classroom. This essay prompt allows the admissions team to understand “what makes you tick,” above and beyond what they’ll glean from your academic record and work history.

Your intellectual acumen and accomplishments being a given, what are you passionate about and why does it ignite that spark of life within you? A successful essay will share a specific and personal experience that helps the reader get to know you better, giving insight into your character, values, or how you would uniquely contribute to the Berkeley Haas community. 

Given that you only have 300 words, the maxim to “show, not tell” is critical here. You want to bring the reader on the experience with you so they can smell, taste, feel and connect to whatever it is you’re describing – what it felt like to summit that mountaintop and peer into the volcano’s smoky belly, or the felt experience in a devotional act of creation that erased any sense of time. 

Unless it’s deeply sincere and absolutely rings true, a community service moment or tutoring exchange isn’t necessarily the experience to spotlight. Dig deep and dare to have a little fun here; your voice can convey your personality.

Short Tips for Short Answer Essay #4

The final required essay asks, “Can you please describe any experience or exposure you have in the area of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and belonging whether through community organizations, personal, or in the workplace? (150 words max)

One of the goals at Berkeley Haas is to develop leaders who value diversity and aspire to create an inclusive environment in which people from different backgrounds feel welcomed and supported.

Some or many applicants will not have direct experience in supporting DEI, especially international candidates for whom the concept may be new.  Even so, it’s important to demonstrate awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion and to share one’s own exposure to the concepts and perhaps how they hope their time at Haas will add to their ability to be inclusive leaders. 

Remember that diversity can be much broader than race, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Feel free to explore differences in national origin, class or lived experiences and the lessons you learned from these experiences. 

The optional questions remain the same.

One final change this year is that Berkeley Haas has moved to using the Common Letter of Recommendation from GMAC : This change eliminates one additional question specific to Haas that asked recommenders to explain how applicants reflect the value of “confidence without attitude.” Haas explained to us that they adopted this change to streamline the process, making it easier on many fronts for applicants, letter writers and programs.

Sign up for our free consultation to learn how we can offer more personalized coaching.to optimize your MBA application. 

Fortuna Admissions coach Dr. Sharon Joyce is the former associate director of admissions at Berkeley Haas. Fortuna Director Peter Johnson is Former Assistant Dean for the full-time MBA Program & Admissions at Berkeley Haas.

• Posted on June 18, 2023

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• Berkeley Haas School of Business Essay Tips and Examples

June 6, 2023

Jeremy Shinewald

Berkeley Haas 2023–2024 Essay Tips

Required essay #1: what makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why (300 words maximum).

Perhaps you are familiar with the psychological concept of “flow,” which is a mental state people enter when they are completely immersed in and focused on something they enjoy and are enthusiastic about—it is also described as being “in the zone.” With this question, Berkeley Haas is basically asking you to discuss what puts you in the zone. If you are truly excited about something—and, we would assume, therefore engage in it on a regular basis—writing about it should not prove too challenging. Like all other application questions, this one has no “right” answer, so do not try to guess what you think the school wants to hear. Authenticity is key to your success here. Note that the prompt includes the words “when you are doing it,” so although you may feel strongly about certain causes or values, such as animal rights or environmental matters, for this essay, you will need to discuss an activity rather than an ideology.  

The school does not stipulate that your topic needs to come from a specific area of your life (e.g., professional life, community service, personal life). We appreciate that you are likely passionate about your career, but this is not automatically your best choice for a topic here, especially given that the school’s second required essay offers a better opportunity to discuss your professional side. What Berkeley Haas wants to learn from this essay is what gets your heart pumping and mind revving. Enthusiasm and intensity can be very inspiring and energizing and can lead to big ideas and actions. Sharing what incites such feelings in you gives the admissions committee an idea of where you might someday make an impression on the world, how you might leave your mark—especially once you are equipped with all you will gain and learn during your MBA experience.

That said, do not worry if the thing you feel so fervently about might initially seem commonplace to someone else. For example, perhaps you feel passionate about basketball. Because this is an interest anyone could share and enjoy, you might have concerns that it could sound pedestrian or unremarkable—and for many, this is a completely unremarkable pastime and one they should not write about. If, however, you can show that you have engaged with basketball in a way that takes the activity well beyond being a commonplace hobby and that it is something you connect with on a deep level and in various ways (perhaps having played for many years, you now coach youth teams from underprivileged neighborhoods in your community), then it most definitely becomes an acceptable discussion topic. In such a case, basketball could be used to reveal intensity, dedication, commitment to yourself and others, growth, longevity, and/or resilience. Of course, we are offering basketball here just for illustration purposes. We imagine you likely feel the flow when engaging in a completely different activity or even in disparate activities that are unified by a single behavior, such as when you are creating something or perhaps motivating others. The options are very much endless.

Once you have identified the passion you wish to discuss, avoid simply telling the admissions committee about it and instead illustrate how it manifests in your life. For example, rather than starting your essay by stating, “I have been watching and playing basketball since I was a child,” you need to create a more vivid impression of your dedication and involvement, such as “From playing with my brothers after school to varsity ball in college to now coaching a youth league in my community, I can hardly remember a time when basketball wasn’t an integral part of my life.” Or consider a more narrative approach, such as, “Dripping with sweat, I thrust my right arm up and knocked the basketball away, just as the buzzer sounded.” Once you have set the scene and presented the object of your fervor, you must then explain why you connect with it so strongly or so well. Perhaps it gives you a sense of peace or purpose, or it makes you feel connected with others in a meaningful way, or it allows you to challenge yourself mentally or physically. A successful essay response will not only paint a clear picture of your passion but also highlight the elements of your personality that make it significant to you.

Required Essay #2: How will an MBA help you achieve your short-term and long-term career goals? (300 words max)

With this rather no-nonsense query about your motivation to earn an MBA and expectations as to where you will go with it professionally after graduation, Haas simply wants you to spell out what you have in mind as you approach this phase of your life and career. With just 300 words, focus on presenting your answer as directly and thoroughly as possible. Keep in mind that the rest of your application needs to provide evidence that your stated goals align with your existing skills and interests, especially once they have been augmented by an MBA education. This will show that your professed objectives are achievable and thereby lend credibility to your statement. Also take care to present your goals in such a way that the transition from your short-term objective to your long-term aspiration makes sense. Although the school does not explicitly ask you to discuss your past experiences here or why its program in particular is the best one for you, succinctly touching on both of these points would be advisable and important to both providing context for your stated goals and demonstrating your fit with and need for a Haas MBA specifically.

This straightforward question basically constitutes the core of a typical personal statement essay. And because personal statements are similar from one application to the next, we created our mbaMission Personal Statement Guide , which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. This publication is available free of charge and provides both detailed guidance and illustrative sample essays. Be sure to download your copy today.

Required Essay #3: (Video) The Berkeley MBA program develops leaders who embody our four Defining Leadership Principles . Briefly introduce yourself to the admissions committee, explain which leadership principle resonates most with you, and tell us how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life. (Not to exceed 2 minutes.)

Start by taking a deep breath. We understand that video essays can make you feel like you are being put on the spot, but Haas is really not trying to stress you out. The admissions committee simply wants a more dynamic representation of your personality than a written essay can provide. So just deliver your response honestly, as smoothly as you can (despite any nervousness you might be feeling), and be yourself. 

If you have not done so already, you should of course start by familiarizing yourself with the four Defining Leadership Principles so you can determine which one you connect with most and should therefore speak on in your video: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. This question offers you incredible flexibility and is essentially an opportunity for you to share a strong relevant story from your past—one that relates directly to one of the four key principles. First you must “introduce yourself to the admissions committee,” and given that this part is about a topic you know very well (you!), the only real challenge will be keeping this portion succinct. (Remember that your entire video can be no longer than two minutes!) After that, launch right into your story. Absolutely avoid beginning your anecdote with a statement like “The key principle I have displayed is [fill in the blank].” Instead, let your actions speak for themselves and naturally reveal the connection with one of Haas’s four key tenets. If that connection is not clear on its own, you need to keep refining your story until it is. In a little under two minutes, you can absolutely convey a clear narrative with a distinct beginning, middle, and end that shows the admissions committee your strengths, rather than simply stating that you possess certain characteristics. Do not use any part of your video to pitch your candidacy, detail your career goals, or express your admiration for the program. 

Remember to bring energy and enthusiasm to your submission. You are trying to connect with the admissions committee as well as communicate information, so a little charisma is welcome.

Required Essay #4 (Short Answer): Can you please describe any experience or exposure you have in the area of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging whether through community organizations, personal, or in the workplace? (300 words max)

Without question, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are on many people’s (and companies’) minds these days, and Haas is certainly not the only top MBA program asking its applicants to discuss these topics. Some schools are asking candidates to discuss a time when they cultivated a more diverse community or encountered a challenge related to DEI or had their world view altered by a DEI-related experience, but Haas’s prompt leaves things a bit more open-ended: “ any experience or exposure” (emphasis ours). Given that this is a required essay—albeit a short one—this leeway will likely be helpful to candidates who might have less exposure to such issues or environments.

You can draw from any area of your life (professional, personal, community/volunteer), so truly reflect on the entirety of your background for possible stories for this essay. Consider your role in the different situations. Were you a leader of a diverse team? A participant or member of a diverse group? An observer? The object of someone else’s focus? Next, consider both your actions and the effect the experience had on you. Did you learn a valuable takeaway or change your mind about an issue, person, or group? Did you change someone else’s perspective? Were you inspired to act in some way—or to maybe cease acting in some way? Did you have to (or choose to) speak up or confront someone, and if so, why? 

You do not need to have led a revolution or camped out for days in protest to craft a compelling, effective response to this question (though such stories would understandably make an impression). Authenticity, honesty, and sincerity are all key here. Speak genuinely and directly about your personal experience in the DEI/justice/belonging space and share its import for you and the effect it has had on you, so the Haas admissions committee can understand your level of  familiarity and engagement with these meaningful issues.

Optional Essays: The admissions team takes a holistic approach to application review and seeks to understand all aspects of a candidate’s character, qualifications, and experiences. We will consider achievements in the context of the opportunities available to a candidate. Some applicants may have faced hardships or unusual life circumstances, and we will consider the maturity, perseverance, and thoughtfulness with which they have responded to and/or overcome them.

Optional information #1: we invite you to help us better understand the context of your opportunities and achievements..

1. What is the highest level of education completed by your parent(s) or guardian(s)? 

• Did not complete high school
• High school diploma or equivalency (GED), associate’s degree (junior college), or vocational degree/license
• Bachelor’s degree (BA, BS)
• Master’s degree (MA, MS)
• Doctorate or professional degree (MD, JD, DDS)

2. What is the most recent occupation of your parent(s) or guardian(s)?

• Skilled worker
• Professional

3. If you were raised in one of the following household types, please indicate.

• Raised by a single parent
• Raised by an extended family member (grandparent, aunt/uncle, niece/nephew, cousin)
• Raised in a multi-generational home
• Raised in foster care

4. What was the primary language spoken in your childhood home?

5. If you have ever been responsible for providing significant and continuing financial or supervisory support for someone else, please indicate.

• Extended family member (grandparent, aunt/uncle, niece/nephew, cousin)

6. Please elaborate on any of your above responses. Alternatively, you may use this opportunity to expand on other hardships or unusual life circumstances that may help us understand the context of your opportunities, achievements, and impact. (300 words maximum)

Optional Information #2: This section should only be used to convey relevant information not addressed elsewhere in your application. This may include explanation of employment gaps, academic aberrations, supplemental coursework, etc. You are encouraged to use bullet points where appropriate.

Although Berkeley Haas’s first optional essay prompt is somewhat elaborate, it is not necessarily all that complicated, and we imagine it will offer some applicants an easy way of highlighting particular elements of their background without having to try to fit them into a different essay. The school clearly wants direct information and basic explanation(s) from this option, so simply answer the questions and succinctly provide any necessary clarifications using the allocated word count. The second optional essay prompt asks applicants to focus specifically on information they deem most “relevant,” and the lack of a word limit means candidates can fully explain whatever they feel the admissions committee truly must know to be able to evaluate them fully and fairly, though the note about using bullet points implies that succinctness would be appreciated. This is not , however, a blank-slate invitation to dump every bit of remaining information about yourself that you feel the school is lacking. Also, avoid the temptation to simply reuse a strong essay you wrote for another program here or to offer a few anecdotes you were unable to incorporate into your other Berkeley Haas essays. Be judicious in your use of this opportunity, and submit an optional essay only if you truly believe a key element of your story or profile is needed for the school to have a complete and accurate understanding of you as a candidate. Consider downloading your free copy of our  mbaMission Optional Essays Guide , in which we offer detailed advice on when and how to take advantage of the optional essay (including multiple sample essays) to help you mitigate any problem areas in your profile. 

The Next Step: Mastering Your Berkeley Haas Interview

Many MBA candidates find admissions interviews stressful and intimidating, but mastering this important element of the application process is definitely possible—the key is informed preparation. And to help you develop this high level of preparation, we offer our  free Interview Guides ! Download your free copy of the  Berkeley Haas School of Business Interview Guide  today.

To learn more about the essays for other top business schools, visit our MBA Essay Tips and Examples Resources Page .

2023-2024 Berkeley-Haas Business School Essays MBA Essay Tips

Tags: Berkeley Haas business school essay MBA application essays optional essay

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2023–2024 MBA Essay Tips

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MBA Program Updates

• Berkeley-Haas
• Boston University (Questrom)
• Cambridge Judge Business School
• Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
• Columbia University (Columbia Business School)
• Consortium for Graduate Study in Management
• Cornell University (Johnson)
• Dartmouth College (Tuck)
• Duke University (Fuqua)
• Emory University (Goizueta)
• George Washington University (GWSB)
• Georgetown University (McDonough)
• Harvard University (Harvard Business School)
• IE Business School
• IESE Business School
• Indian School of Business
• Indiana University (Kelley)
• Ivey Business School
• London Business School
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
• New York University (Stern)
• Northwestern University (Kellogg)
• Notre Dame (Mendoza)
• Ohio State University (Fisher College)
• Oxford University (Saïd Business School)
• Penn State Smeal College of Business
• Rotman School of Management
• Saïd Business School
• Southern Methodist University (Cox School of Business)
• Stanford University (Stanford Graduate School of Business)
• University of California Los Angeles (Anderson)
• University of Cambridge (Judge)
• University of Chicago (Booth)
• University of London (London Business School)
• University of Michigan (Ross)
• University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)
• University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
• University of Southern California (Marshall)
• University of Texas at Austin (McCombs)
• University of Virginia (Darden)
• Vanderbilt University (Owen)
• Villanova School of Business
• Yale University (School of Management)

Top Tips to Tackle the Berkeley Haas Video And Goals Essay

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The University of California -Berkeley Haas School of Business has added a video essay as one of the required MBA application components for 2023–24. The video essay asks about leadership, so Haas has also revised its Essay #2, formerly on that topic. They also simplified its recommendation letter by moving to the common format.

We’ve  got fresh advice on how to handle all of this, so read on.

Your Video Introduction

Haas sets itself apart from other schools with its Defining Leadership Principles (DLPs). The Berkeley MBA seeks to develop leaders who embody these principles: 

• Question the Status Quo
• Confidence Without Attitude
• Students Always
• Beyond Yourself 

The new video essay asks applicants to “briefly introduce yourself to the admissions committee, explain which leadership principle resonates most with you, and tell us how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life.” Videos must clock in under two minutes. 

This requires some careful reflection —and some practice. Your response should be smooth, succinct and show what kind of leader you are and aspire to be. 

Videos give admissions committees a direct and authentic way to get to know you. They also are a good way to assess judgment.  Is your reply TMI? Admissions committees want to get to know the real you, but it’s obviously important to be appropriate. And, finally, videos can be a fun and fresh way to express your excitement about Haas. The DLPs are a distinctive draw that attracts students to Berkeley, and this is another way to demonstrate your fit..

Two minutes may seem like a lot when you’re staring into the eye of the camera with admissions on the line — but it’s really not. With only that short window to work with, don’t try to address all four of the principles. Instead, focus on one of the principles and demonstrate how you reflect it with clear and cogent examples. 

Once you’ve sketched out your thoughts and know what you want to say practice!  As noted the evaluation of these responses is likely to be graded on communication skills and poise as much as on content. And if you’re a bit intimidated about talking on camera or mastering the technology, Fortuna has you covered. Our fellow coach Cassandra Pittman explains how to ace your video here , and Karen Hamou offers advice on what to wear . 

Advice for Essay #2.

Leadership was the topic of Berkeley’s second essay last year. Now that the video is covering that theme, the new Essay #2 asks, “How will an MBA help you achieve your short-term and long-term career goals? (300 words)

Although the prompt asks, “How will an MBA help…,” this essay is really looking beyond the credential of the recognized degree. Berkeley wants to know what skills you will build or enhance and what experiences you will leverage in pursuit of career goals. It’s important to be specific. Make sure you call out what specific aspects of Berkeley’s MBA program will bolster your success after graduation.

We sometimes suggest citing companies that heavily recruit at Haas when applicable as a way of showing your awareness of the school and the link between your goals and what is achievable. For the budding entrepreneurs, perhaps mention Haas alumni entrepreneurs who are working in a similar space.

Our take on the rationale behind this question is this:  The committee wants to know if your personal and professional goals are aligned with the program at Haas and how you will leverage the Berkeley MBA experience to achieve them.

One final change this year is that Berkeley Haas has moved to use the Common Letter of Recommendation from GMAC : This change eliminates one additional question specific to Haas that asked recommenders to explain how applicants reflect the value of “confidence without attitude.” Haas explained to us that they adopted this change to streamline the process, making it easier on many fronts for applicants, letter writers, and programs.

Essays 1 and 4 and the optional essays remain the same. For a deeper dive into our advice on how to answer all of these essays, please see our Fortuna Admissions blog here . 

Sharon Joyce is a director at MBA admissions coaching firm Fortuna Admissions and former Berkeley Haas Associate Director of Admissions. For a candid assessment of your chances of admission success at a top MBA program, sign up for a free consultation

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.

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October 31, 2023

UC Berkeley Haas MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [2023 – 2024], Class Profile & Podcast Episode 547 with Eric Askins

While the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, has made it very clear that applicants need outstanding academics to get in, the program will not compromise its values to maintain it high stats. Haas’s four Defining Leadership Principles are taken very seriously by the school’s administration and admissions team. You will need to show that you share and live by those principles if you are to receive serious consideration as an candidate. The four principles are as follows:

• Question the Status Quo
• Confidence Without Attitude
• Students Always
• Beyond Yourself

Keep those principles very much at the forefront of your mind as you prepare your Haas application.

Ready to get to work on your Haas application? Read on. 

Haas application essay tips

• Haas application deadlines 

Haas class profile

Don’t miss our  admissions straight talk  podcast interview with eric askins, executive director of full-time mba admissions at uc berkeley haas. he reveals why prospective applicants in their applications are encouraged to focus on their overall story and narrative, and how they can demonstrate their ability to handle the academic rigor of the program. eric askins also encourages applicants to engage with current students and alumni to learn more about the program and its opportunities. listen below or click the image to read the full transcript..

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Haas Essay #1

What makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why? (300 words maximum)

Just reading this question excites me because it conjures up memories of my first SCUBA dive, playing tag with my stepsons when they were children, singing songs with my dad when he was ill, laughing until I cried at my husband’s jokes, and getting legislation passed that helps cancer patients live better lives. These are just some of the things that give my life meaning and purpose. 

So sit back and relax before you start writing this essay. Take some time to really consider the things that put a smile on your face. Is it spending time in nature? Being in nature helps us not only de-stress but also appreciate the beauty of the world around us. Is creating something new what makes you feel alive? Writing a poem, playing the guitar, painting a picture (or a house), building furniture, gardening – these can all be enriching experiences. Creating something from nothing allows us to express ourselves and share our talents. Does helping others make you happy? Making a difference helps us feel good about ourselves, enables us to connect, and builds strong relationships. 

Whatever your “it” is, it can be as common as a morning run or as unique as walking a tightrope – or as tasty as making barbeque sauce (for Ted Lasso fans). Regardless, it’s an activity you repeat because you just can get enough of it. It fills you with energy, love, and a need for “it” in your life. So, don’t try to guess what you THINK the adcom wants to read and write about that. The truth is that they want to read about your authentic self. Be descriptive so they can be in the moment or activity with you. And remember to write about why your “it” makes you feel alive, because the “why” is more important than the “it.” 

Haas Essay #2

How will an MBA help you achieve your short-term and long-term career goals? (300 words max)

To write this essay well, you must first understand and share Haas’s four Defining Leadership Principles (as presented on the Haas website): 

• Question the Status Quo: We thrive at the epicenter of innovation. We make progress by speaking our minds even when it challenges convention. We lead by championing bold ideas and taking intelligent risks.
• Confidence Without Attitude: We make decisions based on evidence and analysis, giving us the confidence to act with humility. We foster collaboration by building a foundation of empathy, inclusion, and trust.
• Students Always: We are a community designed to support curiosity. We actively seek out diverse perspectives as part of our lifelong pursuit of personal and intellectual growth. There is always more to learn.
• Beyond Yourself: We shape our world by leading ethically and responsibly. As stewards of our enterprises, we take the longer view in our decisions and actions. This often means putting the collective good above our own interests.

I recommend one of two approaches:

1.     Start by describing your long-term goal, and then explain how your short-term goal, combined with a Berkeley MBA education, with help you achieve it.

2.     Start by describing your short-term goal and build toward your long-term goal, explaining how a Berkeley education would be the catalyst to achieve both goals.

With respect to your short-term goal, be realistic. As for your long-term goal, consider the big problems you want to solve using business tools. 

Regardless of how you start your essay, be sure to address how Haas’s four principles align with your goals. Since they only give you room for 300 words and you need to discuss how Haas’s resources will enable you to become a better leader, you can focus on one or two principles on which to elaborate. You will have an opportunity later in Haas’s video essay to elaborate on another principle.

Discuss how Berkeley Haas’s curriculum and resources can help you achieve your goals. For example, you could discuss how the program’s strong focus on entrepreneurship can help you launch your own business, or how its commitment to social impact can help your future company solve some of the world’s most challenging problems.

Also, explain how Berkeley Haas’s unique culture can help you develop into a better leader. For example, you could discuss how Haas’s emphasis on collaboration and teamwork can help you build stronger relationships with your colleagues, or how its commitment to diversity and inclusion can help you become a more inclusive leader.

Finally, summarize why Haas excites you most and how you will grow personally and professionally by earning a Berkeley MBA.

Haas Essay #3 (Video)

The Berkeley MBA program develops leaders who embody our four Defining Leadership Principles . Briefly introduce yourself to the admissions committee, explain which leadership principle resonates most with you, and tell us how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life. (Not to exceed 2 minutes.)

Berkeley Haas has joined other MBA programs in asking applicants to submit a personal video. With a video, Haas accomplishes several things:

• The admissions committee is able to see and hear the applicant in action. They get to assess the individual’s communications skills, personality, energy, and overall fit before they request an interview. Videos cut down on the resources the school needs to conduct interviews.
• Each member of the admissions committee can review the video, and the team can then discuss it, whereas they must rely on just one person’s opinion and notes with an interview. The video makes the process more comprehensive and universal.
• The committee can evaluate the applicant’s creativity and originality.
• It can make the process more personal for the committee.
• The committee can analyze how the applicant shares their chosen defining leadership principle.

As for how to approach the video, you’ll need to start by identifying which principle you want to address. Review the school’s list, and keep in mind any that you have already discussed in your written essays for the school. 

When the time comes to record your video, briefly introduce yourself to the committee in 30 seconds or less . Remember, you have only two minutes for the entire video! Explain why you are interested in attending Haas. The adcom wants to get to know you, so include a little color in your background, and don’t mention things they can learn from your resume or other parts of your application.

Then, note the leadership principle that resonates most with you, and explain why it is meaningful to you. The entire defining principle section should take 45-60 seconds.

Next, describe how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life. Use the STAR format to do this:

S = situation (the background)

T = task (the goal)

A = Action (how you solved the problem or enhance an issue)

R = Result (what the quantifiable outcome was)

Do not exceed two minutes!

Here are some other tips to keep in mind:

• Be yourself: The admissions committee wants to get to know the real you, so be yourself in your video. Don’t try to present yourself as someone you’re not.
• Be natural: Don’t try to memorize your lines or read from a script. Just act and speak naturally.
• Be positive: The admissions committee wants to see that you’re excited about attending their school. So be upbeat and enthusiastic.
• Be concise: Keep your video short and to the point – no more than two minutes.
• Practice, practice, practice: Rehearse over and over again for your video before you submit it. Practicing will help you feel more comfortable and confident in front of the camera. Most of my clients do 10-30 takes.
• Invest time: Take the time to make a well-crafted video that showcases your best qualities.
• Use good lighting: Light the room well. Consider using a circle light if you have one. 
• Reduce distractions: Make sure there’s not a lot of outside or background noise.

Haas Essay #4 (Short Answer)

Can you please describe any experience or exposure you have in the area of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging whether through community organizations, personal, or in the workplace? (150 words max)

To craft your response to this prompt, we suggest beginning by discussing the importance of inclusion. Then, provide evidence to support your claim by using the STAR format (explained in our guidance for Haas’s video [Essay #3]). Regardless of your answer, make sure to explain how inclusion can help create a sense of belonging for everyone and how diversity helps make both teams and organizations stronger. 

Haas Optional Essays

The admissions team takes a holistic approach to application review and seeks to understand all aspects of a candidate’s character, qualifications, and experiences. We will consider achievements in the context of the opportunities available to a candidate. Some applicants may have faced hardships or unusual life circumstances, and we will consider the maturity, perseverance, and thoughtfulness with which they have responded to and/or overcome them.

Optional Information #1

We invite you to help us better understand the context of your opportunities and achievements.

Berkeley Haas is committed to diversity and inclusion, fairness and equity, leadership and innovation, and of course, social impact. The adcom wants to understand the challenges you have faced, the obstacles you have overcome, and the injustices you have defeated to get to where you are today. 

For example, were you raised in a single-parent household? If so, how did that impact your decisions later in life? Are you an immigrant or an international student whose parents arranged your marriage when you were just 2 years old? Have you had to work to help your family thrive since you were 10 years old? Are you a first-generation college student, and if so, what does it mean for your family to see you go to graduate school? While these situations might have affected your grades or test scores, the key to this essay is demonstrating that despite your circumstances, you have beat the odds.

If you have not faced obstacles in your life, describe your commitment to working toward a more just and equitable society. How did this kind of thinking develop in you? Did you discuss social issues at the dinner table? Did you march against (or for) Dobbs? Have you composted and recycled your garbage since the age of 7 in hopes of leaving a better climate for your future children and your children’s children? Did you foster animals during the pandemic (yes, animals deserve fairness, too)? Do you advocate for legislation that will help the elderly or infirm? Have you started or are active in an NGO that educates children who can’t afford a proper education?

As you answer this essay question, consider the following:

• Your involvement in community organizations that promote diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging
• Your efforts in the workplace to create a more inclusive environment
• Your belief that everyone deserves to feel welcome and respected, regardless of their background or identity

Optional Information #2 

This section should only be used to convey relevant information not addressed elsewhere in your application. This may include explanation of employment gaps, academic aberrations, supplemental coursework, etc. You are encouraged to use bullet points where appropriate.

Haas’s optional essay #2 allows you to ensure that the admissions committee does not have to guess the reasons behind any of the following situations (or a similar one):

• You had terrible grades in your first year at university (Perhaps your parent became ill, and you flew back and forth to care for them, or you worked 30 hours/week to make ends meet.)
• You received a subpar GMAT or GRE score (Maybe you are not a great test-taker and can prove it with your inadequate ACT or SAT score and 4.0 GPA. Or perhaps you were initially premed and realized after volunteering at a hospital that medicine is not your thing.)
• You did not ask an immediate supervisor to recommend you (Maybe you have been with the company for only a short time, and they do not know you well. Or perhaps doing so could lead to you losing your job.)

If you have multiple excuses, take care to not sound whiney. Instead, discuss how you have rebounded from poor grades or can demonstrate how you will perform well in grad school courses because you have taken additional coursework and received As.

For expert guidance with your Berkeley Haas MBA application, check out Accepted’s MBA Application Packages , which include comprehensive guidance from an experienced admissions consultant. We’ve helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to Berkeley Haas’s MBA program and look forward to helping you, too!

Haas application deadlines

Source: The deadline chart can be viewed inside Berkeley Haas’ online MBA application .

Here is a look at the UC Berkeley Haas MBA Class of 2024 (data taken from the Haas website ).

Class size: 247

U.S. minority: 45%

Underrepresented minority: 17%

Female: 46%

LGBTQ+: 16%

Veterans: 4%

Average years of work experience: 5.6

Middle 80% range of years of work experience: 3.2-8.2

International: 41%

Countries represented: 45

Average undergrad GPA: 3.64

Middle 80% range undergrad GPA: 3.4-3.92 

Undergraduate majors:

• Engineering: 23%
• Economics: 15%
• Social Sciences: 15%
• Business/Commerce: 13%
• Finance: 6%
• Natural Sciences: 5%
• Arts/Humanities: 4%
• Math/Physical Sciences: 4%
• Computer Science 3%

Average GMAT score: 729

Median GMAT score: 730

Middle 80% range GMAT score: 700-760

Average GRE Verbal score: 161

Median GRE Verbal score: 162

Middle 80% range GRE Verbal score: 153-167

Average GRE Quant score: 163

Median GRE Quant score: 163

Middle 80% range GRE Quant score: 155-169

Pre-MBA industries:

• Consulting: 23%
• Financial Services: 18%
• High Technology/Electronics: 13%
• Health/Pharma/Biotech: 9%
• Not-for-Profit: 6%
• Consumer Products/Retail: 4%
• Real Estate: 4%
• Military: 3%

Which MBA program is right for you? Want to know which schools to target for your best chance of admission? Check out these resources to help you make your decision:

• Top STEM MBA Programs: A Comprehensive List and Overview of STEM-OPT Eligible B-Schools
• Which MBA Program Is Right for Me? The Ultimate Guide to Choosing an MBA Program

Getting into Haas, or any other top-tier MBA program, is a very competitive process. Our MBA Application Packages include all the resources and support you need to get you there. We’ll match you with an experienced admissions consultant who will work with you one-on-one to create an outstanding application and prepare you to ace your interview. So give yourself an edge, and get ACCEPTED!

By Natalie Grinblatt, a former admissions dean/director at three top business schools. Natalie has reviewed more than 70,000 applications, interviewed more than 2,500 candidates, and trained nearly 700 admissions directors and alumni volunteers to select outstanding candidates for admission. Her clients gain admission to top programs, including those at Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Cornell, Columbia, Berkeley, Chicago, Northwestern, and NYU. Natalie holds an MBA from Michigan Ross.  Want Natalie to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• Leadership in Admissions , a free guide
• Four Tips for Displaying Teamwork in Your Application Essay s
• Admissions Straight Talk Podcast for MBA Applicants

How to Get Accepted to UC Berkeley Haas Full-time MBA Program [Episode 547]

UC Berkeley is number four on Accepted’s MBA Selectivity Index . It’s matriculating students post a stellar GMAT and GPA. They enjoy proximity to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, not to mention the California weather. It sounds like a dream, but how do you get in? Well, let’s ask Berkeley Haas’ Executive Director of Full-time MBA Admissions.

Welcome to the 547th episode of Admissions Straight Talk , Accepted’s podcast. Before we join our wonderful guest, I have to mention something. You’ve seen the stats that most people have a great return on their MBA investment, but what about you? Are you going to see that return? We’ve created a free tool that will help you assess where the MBA is likely to be a good investment for you individually. You’ll not only get an assessment, but the opportunity to calculate different scenarios. Again, it’s all free. 

It gives me great pleasure to have back on Admissions Straight Talk Eric Askins, executive director of full-time MBA admissions at UC Berkeley Haas. Eric has a lot of experience in higher ed and admissions. He became the senior associate director of admissions at Haas in 2018 and assumed the role of executive director in 2020. Prior to coming to the left coast, he served in admissions at Fordham’s law and business schools and at The New School.

Eric, welcome back to Admissions Straight Talk. [2:06]

Linda, thanks so much for having me back. Great to be here.

My pleasure, and great to have you. Now, I’d like to start with some general questions about the Haas program and then move into more admissions-related questions. To start, can you give an overview of the Haas full-time MBA program, focusing on the more distinctive elements for those listeners who are probably not that familiar with it? [2:12]

Sure. I’d be happy to. Here at the Haas School of Business, let’s start at the very top, we’re located in beautiful Berkeley, California, just across the bay from San Francisco, a couple short minutes away from Silicon Valley, and really what we often say is that we’re at the heart of what’s next, and what that means is that we’re at the heart of innovation culture. If you were to take the region that we’re located in and put it in the context of global economies, we are in the fifth largest economy in the world. Hopefully, I don’t offend any of you German listeners, but we are on track to overtake Germany to be the fourth largest economy in the world just in terms of all the activity that’s happening.

That’s one of the things that makes Haas unique. Oftentimes, we’re seen from the lens of this is a school nestled in Berkeley, which is this amazing campus. There’s a community of Nobel Prize winners here, the inventions that come from here, but more than that, the focus is on how do people achieve their success while also making an impact on the world? I think one of those things that we captured, this would be the identity of the schools, it’s a little bit of what you asked, was our defining leadership principles. I mean, this has been the core of how we talk about the school over the last, I think it was codified maybe 11, 12 years ago now.

I was just thinking that. [3:44]

Yeah. Yeah, so over a decade, we’ve been talking about the school from the framework of these defining leadership principles, so what are they? They’re a core philosophy that we have about what makes great leaders great leaders. One of the things that makes you a Berkeley leader, one of these great leaders, is that you are pushing boundaries. You’re questioning the status quo. You are developing a sense of confidence, but you’re doing so without pushing others to the side. You’re focused on always learning, always being a student and, beyond all things, you’re thinking beyond just yourself, and that’s really captured in the community here.

I remember talking to your predecessor when those principals were codified, and I was amazed at how well they really captured the ethos of UC Berkeley Haas. They were so succinct and meaningful. I mean, over the years, I’ve seen various branding changes at different schools, and sometimes I think they’re very meaningful and sometimes I think they’re window dressing. I was very impressed, and I have continued to be impressed with the four defining principles at Haas. [4:20]

Linda, one of the things that’s really spoken to us, that it isn’t simply a marketing window dressing or anything along those lines, so when we made a big announcement about them and then, at the 10-year mark where I was already here, we made a sort of a, “It’s been a decade since we’ve launched these.” We had some wonderful feedback, including from a Haas alum, I want to say a 1960s Haas alum, who said, “These aren’t new. We’ve been talking about these in some sense or another since way back when I was at the school.” We’ve got a lot of feedback from our alumni. I think we spoke maybe more succinctly, but the concepts were always here. It’s one of the reasons that the school has lasted. I don’t know if you know this, we’re in our 125th year-

No, I didn’t know that. That’s really impressive. [5:41]

Yeah. We celebrated our anniversary on September 13th. This is a school founded by Cora Jane Flood, one of the only business schools founded by a woman, especially 125 years ago. We’ve just been very proud of all that we’ve accomplished in those last little bit, and we’re looking towards the next 125.

Well, congratulations. Happy birthday. We’ve talked about Berkeley’s past. What’s new? [6:03]

Oh, well, that’s always a great question to answer. What’s new? Now, if we were talking about what’s new in the world today, I think you’re going to find there’s a connection to what’s new at Berkeley Haas. What’s new in the world today? What’s new in the world today? Generative AI. They’re probably the number one topic here especially when we talk about schools that have a touch to the technology sector. Anybody who’s been doing this long enough understands the technology sector has ebbs and flows. It peaks in one, it valleys in another period of time, but the next growth peak appears to be around Generative AI. It’s one of the things that we’ve been working on for years.

Actually, October 8th, I believe, just coming up, we have an AI summit. It’s not our first AI summit. We’ve been doing this for a good long time, but what I love is that we are so connected that we’ve got the folks from IBM Watson, we’ve got the folks from Google, we’ve got the folks who are coming through to talk about what is happening in the world of AI today. The coursework has been there. The coursework will continue to be there, but that coursework has a Berkeley flavor, ethics and AI. It’s one of the biggest courses that we have in this space right now. We need to be talking about that, and we have been. In fact, I won’t plug too many things here because I don’t want people googling and all that stuff, but if you get a chance, our Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership built a playbook maybe 2019, 2020 around ethics and AI. Right now, it’s one of the most downloaded things on our website.

One of the things about being on the cutting edge is sometimes you’re talking about something before people are ready to hear it. That’s AI, but what else are we talking about? We’re also talking about sustainability in business. Now, we have been, again, for several years. Dean Anna Harrison joined us in 2018. She came with three key initiatives. It was innovation, it was inclusion, and it was sustainability. I think that we’ve continued to hit on all those three topics along with all the other things that we do, but within the sustainability, I don’t think there’s another business school that’s doing five topic areas within sustainability, including energy, including agriculture, including corporate accountability, real estate and finance. Oftentimes, when people think about sustainability, it’s hard for them to “What box do I put this?”

What does finance have to do with it? [8:22]

Sustainability and impact finance is one of the courses that people are most interested within the sustainability sector here at Haas, exploring exactly what it means to invest in sustainable business and how to see that grow. At the end of the day, the most powerful sustainability person in any organization are their leaders. It’s the CEO. It’s the CFO. We want to make sure that anybody who comes through our program is getting that level of exposure so that they can be tackling what is probably one of the greatest challenges in the world in front of us, which is climate change, which is how do we grow and continue to thrive without harming the environment around us and actually to go back and maybe fix some of the damage that we’ve already done.

One of the things I noticed in preparing for our call today was something called the Applied Innovation course requirement at Haas. I don’t remember that from the last time we spoke. Can you touch on that a little bit and tell us what it is? [9:06]

Sure. Absolutely. Applied Innovation is the language that we use to describe experiential learning. We launched Applied Innovation coursework. It might be two decades old now. We weren’t one of the first.

Experiential learning I know it’s been there for a long time. You just changed the name. [9:34]

Well, what we did is we focused a little bit on what it is that we actually want to come away with, right? You want to apply what you’re learning, and you want to apply it towards growth and change. Within Applied Innovation, that’s over 20 courses within that subset. You’re required to take at least one, but I know students who’ve taken more than one, have taken two, some have taken three. This is a great place for you to test the hypothesis.

A lot of the learning happens in the ivory tower separated from business, and that’s not what we’re looking for here. We want to make sure that our students have the opportunity to go in market and test these ideas, and so you’ll see that there’s a variety of different courses within Applied Innovation. They include courses like international business development where you have an opportunity to take a consulting project at a global scale, and that includes going in-country to deliver your results. Whether that means implementation, whether that means presentations to leadership, that’s part of that course. It’s probably one of the most popular of our Applied Innovation courses, but then, depending on where you’re looking for, if you’re in a niche market, you may find an Applied Innovation opportunity exists there for you as well.

We’ve got clean tech to market that’s focused on bringing sustainable ideas into the marketplace with a technology focus, social sector solutions, strategic and sustainable business solutions. You’ll find a number of these across the gamut, and what they are is your opportunity to go do work within the context of the actual business space with the guidance of faculty and your group projects and your group work.

What don’t people know about Berkeley Haas that you would like them to know, perhaps a common misconception that you’d like to dispel? [11:09]

Sure. I know that many people find the school’s using a ranking index, something along those lines, and in the rankings, one of the things that actually makes us stand out as unique is that we’re among the smallest business programs in our tier. Top 10, top 20 schools, I think we might actually be the smallest, and sometimes there’s a little ebb and flow with some of the other schools. I don’t always know, and that’s on purpose because we want to build a really strong community with individuals who are connecting with one another. If all you know about us is this, you think, “Well, this is a small bespoke program,” and ultimately, if you dig up just that one surface level deeper, we are located in the heart of one of the major research institutions in the globe.

Our students have the opportunity to take advantage of that, including courses outside of the business school at the School of Public Health even if you’re not doing a joint degree, at the engineering school, arguably the top engineering school in the world, at the high school, at the law school, at the School of Public Policy. If you want to take courses with Robert Reich, you can do so. This is all in the field of opportunity for our students, and that I think is this incredible information exchange. It’s also incredible that you’re connecting into that network.

The joke here is once you’re Berkeley, you’re Berkeley for life, right? Like the Mafia, you can’t get out. This is part of your history forever, but it isn’t just Berkeley Haas and the 50,000 alumni that are connected in that community. It’s Berkeley writ large and the half a million alum in that community. That’s your network, and that oftentimes gets lost because we talk about our corner of campus, but it’s the whole campus that our students have access to.

You have the intimacy of the small business school, but backed by this major research. It is the largest UC campus, I believe, isn’t it? [12:57]

It is the largest UC campus. It is oftentimes-

It’s 30,000 total. [13:09]

Yeah, and it’s oftentimes ranked the number one public institution in the globe.

In preparing for the call, I was reviewing the required core curriculum at Berkeley Haas, and I was struck by the number of classes devoted to both analytics, quantitative side and communications so you’re developing and working and exercising both sides of the brain, I guess. Indeed, business requires quant jocks and leadership, which involves communication, listening, teamwork skills, all that. Is that intentional? Can you elaborate on that a little bit? [13:14]

Absolutely. One of the things that I think we pride ourselves on is that we are educating for the pace of change. The job that you came in to potentially pursue two years ago may not even be here two years from now. That’s the pace at which the world is changing. What’s important for us is to make sure that every student coming through our program has the core and foundational skills to be a leader and to be a successful leader in any industry vertical, in any job function. For that to happen, we need to make sure that that core foundation exists.

I know that there are other schools who choose different models. Some have a more of a choose-your-own-adventure model where you can really narrow in into one specific area. We do give you that opportunity to take advantage of the elective coursework here, but not before we establish a strong foundation which I think puts our students in the exact best position to be able to pivot and adjust to a world that is constantly changing.

Speaking of constant change, one of the things that is changing dramatically is testing admissions. You have the GMAT, the GMAT Focus, the GRE, which now has a shorter GRE. They’re required at this time by Haas. Is there any thought to expand the number of tests that you’ll accept, allow for test waivers, or go test optional? There is a comment -the writing sample component is required, but the GMAT Focus doesn’t have a writing requirement. How are you dealing with all this change, this kind of change that’s right in your basket? [14:43]

Yeah. It’s a great question to ask. Now, I’ll start, Linda, by saying I actually am in support of the changes to the GMAT, the GMAT focus and the changes to the GRE. I think the testing agencies have heard that they need to be more applicant focused. They need to be leaning into what the applicants need in order to succeed. We don’t want the testing agencies to become gatekeepers of great talent that doesn’t reach us in the business school universe.

At the same time, we have to understand that there’s a significant amount of academic rigor in our core coursework, and we need to make sure that the students who come through are going to be successful, so we do need measuring sticks. We do need benchmarks, so where do we land with this world of ever-changing testing landscape and the need for a level of consistency? The way our team operates is we don’t actually evaluate individual application components and then weight them because how do you weight the GMAT versus the GMAT focus versus the new GRE versus the old GRE? Certain schools are taking the EA or any number of other testing-

GMAT, DAT, LSAT. It’s a whole alphabet soup of possibilities. [16:25]

At some point, you have to ask yourselves if you are taking a test that doesn’t cover the material, what is the value to the school? I don’t want to go too deep into that section. What instead I will talk about is what we’re doing. What we are doing is we have a set of competencies that we’re looking for within our evaluative process. One of those competencies includes demonstrated ability to handle the academic rigor of our core. That demonstrated ability, that can show up in your testing, but it can also show up in your undergraduate performance. It could also show up in your professional journey. Because we’re taking that lens, it allows us to then think about these pieces from their actual value components.

I’m not interested in the fact that a GMAT score on the old GMAT is 720 and the concordance tables tell you that in the GMAT focus it’s a 655, and what does a 655 mean versus a 720? It is meaningless. These numbers are in the air. What I am interested in is what is your percentile score on the specific quantitative piece of that? Does that suggest that you will be able to handle the rigor of our core? If that’s not on the GMAT, I’m also going to look at the GRE. Maybe it exists there. If it doesn’t exist there, maybe it exists within your undergraduate performance, maybe the last three years you’ve been working as a data analyst, and that’s where I’m going to see the strength of your skill and ability is. I’m not going to say that one carries more weight than the other. I’m looking for evidence.

This is the dad joke, corny bit of my story. We’re the admissions office. The goal is to admit. We’re not the deny office. We say that’s the financial aid office. That’s the joke. Our focus is on finding evidence in your application that allows us to admit you, and it can exist in a lot of different places. To summarize, I’m in support of any testing agency that’s going to be applicant focused, that’s going to be delivering content that’s useful to the applicants in order for them to succeed, shorter tests. It sounds like a great way to stop them from being the gatekeepers that potentially they have been in the past. For us to receive the most number of qualified applicants or interested applicants that allow us to engage with them meaningfully in all the aspects of their application, any obstacles we can reduce I’m in favor of, but I do think that we still need points of evidence to understand the student’s journey.

Now, going back to one question I had in the last question, there is a comment in that the writing sample component is required, but the GMAT Focus doesn’t have a writing requirement. Will applicants be asked to provide some other writing sample or is it just going to be their essays? How is that? Are you going to remove that comment from the site? I mean, what’s going to happen with that? [18:47]

Sure. We’ve explored that a little bit. The writing section, the AWA section of the GMAT I believe is provided in sort of a raw score format for us as well as an opportunity for us to understand a little bit more about their background. We have writing components within our application. We have the ability to look for those strength areas. That piece of the puzzle, once that disappears from the overall submission, we will backfill because, again, it’s not based on application elements, it’s based on competencies. Within those competency structures, we’re going to look for the pieces that we do have.

Makes sense. [19:48]

One thing I’m actually really excited for, Linda, hopefully I’m not preempting your question, is some of the new things that we’ve brought into this ecosystem, including our video essay. Is that okay for me to talk a little bit about that?

Please go ahead. [19:57]

One of the things that we looked at was what are the challenges to people submitting an application? What are we learning from these pieces of the application, and what could we shift and move around? One of the things is, and I think a lot of schools have this, they have two or three bespoke essays. It’s unique enough and clever enough that you can’t cut and paste the other school’s essay into our essay. We really want you to think about us, and is that a benefit to the evaluative process or is that simply another hurdle or obstacle to the applicant?

We took a close look at what we were doing, but we turned one of our essays into a career goal statement. The career goal statement is it does not need to be unique to Berkeley. It can be. It does not need to be. Theoretically, what you’re looking to do isn’t going to change dramatically by the schools, that you’re going to fit the schools to your journey, not the other way around. That’s probably a best fit for candidates, to fit the schools to their journey and not the other way around. That piece will stay static. We have our “alive” essay. We love our “alive” essay. This is an essay that gives us an understanding of who the student is.

That is custom to Haas. [20:56]

That’s our personal statement. That’s our way to get to know who are you as an applicant. We want to know you. We want to understand how you’re going to show up as a student. We’re going to imagine you in our ecosystem. We love that piece of the puzzle, and then we understood that there was this question that we often got asked. Where do I tell you about Berkeley? Where do I tell you that I love Berkeley? What we didn’t want to see was shoehorning in of a list of courses. Somewhere in the application, I’m going to put a list of courses to show you that I read your website, so we thought what was valuable to us? Linda, you brought it up at the start of this podcast. What was valuable to us is our defining leadership principles? What does it mean to be a leader? How do you think about leadership? How do you engage with these principles?

We thought we’d give a place for students to do that, prospective students to do that, but a place where they didn’t have to sit down and write a whole long thing and try and cut and paste the mission statement from our website and adjust it, ChatGPT it and all the rest of the things that people could do. We wanted an honest engagement with the topic. What we did is we stood up a video. We’re calling it a video introduction. It’s 90 seconds to two minutes. We’re not asking for a prepared speech. Tell us in a sentence about you and then pick a defining leadership principle that’s meaningful to you and engage with it a little bit.

Now, I don’t want to have people be nervous about this, so I’ll be very honest, with the rubric on the other end is we’re judging your understanding of our culture, one of our culture forward pieces, our defining leadership principle. We’re also paying attention to your business communications skills. That’s it. That is the one, two-piece of that whole puzzle. It doesn’t matter. We’re not interested in language skills in this regard. We’re not interested in how you present. You don’t need to be in a suit and tie for this. This is simply an understanding of who you are as an individual, one to two sentences. Here’s this thing about us. We want to know that you know who we are as an institution. Tell us in a sentence or two about it.

I know a lot of the video essays, I’m talking about other schools now, they are assessing the applicant’s presence and poise, but you just said that’s not what this is about. [22:58]

One of the things that’s really important to us is that we don’t use simple disqualifiers, but a simple disqualifier would be, “Oh, well that room is messy,” or, “Well, they didn’t think to put on a tie,” or, “We’ve got normative understandings of what presentation should be.” Those are disqualifiers that are not based in your ability to succeed in the program.

They can also be taught. [23:37]

Now, the student’s communication skills are. Can you articulate a point clearly? That will matter to us. I think, presence, it’s a bit of a gray area, and we don’t ever want to be in the disqualifying business.

Again, it’s an admissions office, not a declining office. Right? [23:52]

Yeah. Exactly. It’s corny, but it’s true.

I think it’s a perspective. On some level, you say you don’t want the test to be gatekeepers, on some level you are a gatekeeper. While I know you want to be in the admissions business, in the end, you have many more applicants than you can admit. [23:59]

Which is true.

I get the focus. I understand what you’re saying, but there is a numerical component to this. [24:18]

I can see the point. It’s true.

Now, you’ve talked and emphasized and we’ve discussed Haas’ four principles as exemplifying, epitomizing the culture and values of Berkeley Haas. Obviously, the video essay asks people to discuss one of those principles that really resonates with them. Do you want to see evidence of all four values in the application or are you willing to admit people who are open to perhaps considering the values and having them inculcated? I’m sure you want some identification, but is it important that all four be present? [24:27]

I don’t see the four as truly being independent ideas ultimately. Questioning the status quo is about a mindset of curiosity. Confidence with that attitude has a lot to do with curiosity of others, wanting to hear what they have to say and making space for them. It’s also a curiosity frame and, going beyond yourself, there’s a curiosity of what matters to others. There’s lots of different through lines and themes within these. These are not four independent ideas.

Humility? [25:39]

Humility is very much a part of all of those pieces as well, right?

Yes. [25:44]

The ability to understand that maybe somebody else has something else to bring, the fact that you recognize that you have more to learn, all of these, they’re ultimately through lines that give us an understanding of the core characteristics of the student. I don’t need you to itemize. Don’t give me a list of the seven ways in which you X in which you are different or beyond.

Show X, right? Show principle one. Show principle two. Right. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. No. That’ll come out a little forced anyways. 

What’s the most common mistake you see applicants making in their applications [26:07].

Generally speaking, and this is going to be one of those answers that I don’t think is satisfying to a lot of folks, I think there’s a moment in time when students decide that they want to pursue business education at this level when they have an idea in their head, and that idea tends to be their most authentic version of what they want to explore. Then they go ahead and they attend an information session and they get a piece of advice, and then they talk to somebody else and they get a piece of additional advice, and then someone says use this format or use this structure or use these other pieces, and the finished product, if it looks markedly different from the initial idea, I think there’s a loss there.

How do you solve for that, because you do have to refine your work and you do have to bring your best work forward? This is the one that’s always difficult because all of us admissions folks say, “They should be authentic.” Be authentic to that moment. How can you be authentic while also being polished, while also being these things? I think really the piece of advice I would give is to be mindful of that. It’s to be mindful of that original idea because that’s the reason to reinvest in yourself, to take two years out of the workforce if you’re pursuing a full-time program to not only not earn money for two years, but also spend money during those two years because it puts your finances in a deficit in most cases, potentially taking on loans. It’s a risk, and you chose to pursue this journey because something, some moment, whether it can be pointed to as a pivotal inflection point in life or whether it was a slow accumulation of ideas, there’s came a point in time where it tilted and you said, “Yes, I’m going to pursue this.”

That there, that’s to me the most powerful thing that you can deliver to an admissions office. Those get massaged and they get formatted and they get layered, and someone says, “Well, I know that you want to change the world, but if you just wrote that you wanted to be a consultant, you’ll get in.” They get modified away. For those people who hold onto that little nugget, that’s gold in an admissions office because we can see it. It resonates because then it carries through. There’s echoes throughout the application in the journey if it has a meaning.

Also in the interview. [28:34]

I know I’m up here in the little woo woo space, but it’s-

No. It’s much easier to be enthusiastic about something you genuinely believe in, and that comes through in your writing. It comes through in your interview to be sure. It might come through probably in the video if you’re genuinely enthusiastic about something as opposed to just making something up. It can’t be faked. [28:38]

Totally agree, and I will tell you, Linda, that this is not advice that ends at the application stage.

Of course. [29:01]

This becomes the story of how you network with the students that you share the space with. This becomes the story that when you attend a speaker series and you wait afterwards to chat up the speaker that, if you’ve got something powerful and exciting to talk about, they’re going to remember you. If you’re into the workforce and you’re starting, you’re trying to secure that summer internship, it’s going to be the thing that’s passionate and exciting when you’re at the other end and you’re looking to settle in that first job and when you realize that that first job isn’t going to get you where you want to go because the real value of the MBA is lifetime, right? It really doesn’t show up till four or five years when you end up in the C-suite. This kernel is going to carry you through the whole way or the enthusiasm behind it.

Now, you started out, you didn’t start out, but you certainly mentioned very early on in the interview artificial intelligence and ChatGPT and, obviously, Berkeley is a leader in that. What about applicants using it? [29:46]

Good question. I think I’ve gone on the journey that a lot of my peers have gone on. The first piece of this journey was, well, I hope our fraud software can catch it. I think a lot of the world has gone on this journey with us where you stop and then you say, “Well, this is a tool. This is a tool like the calculator is a tool.” I think that’s probably the common thread I’ve heard. I’ve already had typing in an email and I’m getting suggested next three sentences. This is where we are. The tool exists.

I am still going to suggest that there’s no tool that’s going to tell me your career goals. Now, that tool might help you articulate those career goals a little bit better, but those goals will have to be yours. There’s no tool that’s going to tell me the moment that made you feel alive or why it gave meaning to you. It may be that that tool helps you frame your thoughts, put those pieces together in a way that’s cohesive. If English is not your first language and you’re trying to organize your thoughts in a way that would give you the tools to succeed, it could very well be that this is a really useful tool to organize, but those core thoughts have to be yours.

I think that’s key here, and I don’t think that we’re going to move on that concept, but those core thoughts and ideas have to be yours, and then if you’re going to use the tool, I hope that you use it well. Maybe the thing you’re demonstrating to me is your expertise in the use of the tool because I will, and we have seen already, poorly framed and poorly worded things that don’t really seem to capture the individual. This is probably the first year that we’re starting to see that.

That makes sense that this is the first year you’re seeing it. I’ve played with it a little bit. I’ve said this before on the podcast. If you use it blindly, you’re going to produce drivel, very generic and not very meaningful. If you use it either to edit your work, perhaps to generate some ideas or to help you structure an essay, but the ideas are your own, perhaps it has value, but you’re still going to spend a significant amount of time on it. [31:39]

Well, you should. Yeah.

Yeah, or you say, “I might as well just write the thing.” [32:09]

I’m one of those folks that believes the magic happens in the editing. I know other people think it happens in the writing, so the idea generation. I think it’s the moment where you come back and say, “Oh, well, now I see how those pieces should fit together.” With that in mind, I understand that the tool may be used.

We have a statement at the bottom of our application. We haven’t changed it. We’ve had it for a while. It says, “The work product seen here is mine and mine alone.” I think folks should be able to answer that honestly. The work product here is mine and mine alone. Now, if that means that they used the tool to take their ideas and put it on paper and then they reorganized it to reflect the story that they wanted to tell and they feel that that is theirs, they were the producer of the ideas, they were the producer of the finished product, they use an intermediary tool the same way you might use a spellchecker or a grammar checker, I’m going to have to just accept that that’s the world that we’re in today. I don’t think there’s any magical tool that solves that one yet. Generative AI is probably the best tool to catch generative AI, but I’m going to focus on the content. As long as the content is strong, I think that that’s going to be in the candidate’s best interest.

Switching gears again, can you touch for a minute on the Accelerated Access admissions program at Berkeley Haas? Who is it for? How can one get in? It was brand new when we last spoke. Have has any of the earlier deferred admits matriculated yet at Berkeley Haas? [33:20]

Yes, they have. Okay, so let’s go-

A lot of questions, I know. [33:39]

… through all those pieces. What is the Accelerated Access program? The Accelerated Access program is a deferred enrollment program here at Berkeley Haas. It is geared for people in their graduating year of undergraduate or graduate school if they did not have more than one full year of work experience in between. This is a pre-experience application focused on folks who are completing their academic journeys and who are committed to going to professional life for two to five years– that’s typically the window of time – for them to gain experience in the world, but to want to get that application admission early, right? This is the time when they’re the best test takers usually because they’re still in their academic space. Oftentimes, this is where they can lock in a future opportunity. Maybe that safety net allows them to take the other job.

I was going to take the two-year consulting stint, but I’ve locked in an admission to a top business school. I’m going to join the robotics startup. That’s not a random example. That’s an example of somebody who did in fact do that. That’s who this is for. It’s for somebody who is certain that business school is in their future, who is going to be strong academically.

I’ll put that out there in front. We have fewer application components, so we’re going to have to look for our competencies across the limited amount of things that you have to offer, so probably a heavier weight on undergraduate performance, standardized testing, internships, extracurricular activity within your experiences there. Those are going to be the pieces of the puzzle that are useful for us.

We are traveling the globe with a member of my team, Verse Gabrielle, who’s out there talking about accelerated access. We’ve gotten into a little consortium with a couple of other business schools so that we can make the most value in the delivery of this content so that we are in front of folks with a sampling, and they can pick which schools.

Of all the deferred programs? [35:35]

Yeah. It just started this year. I’m really excited to actually see what campus recruitment looks like for the MBA in this context. In terms of the other part of your question, what does it look like for those students who matriculated? We matriculated seven in this incoming class.

So that’s the first one. [35:52]

The first set coming through.

That makes sense just judging by, again, time that’s elapsed. [35:56]

Yeah. Two of them ended up in some profiles that we put out into the world so you can actually see some of the journeys for these students. We thought it would be really valuable, as we shared profiles with other media outlets, that we included people who had this type of journey, to see how it looked a little bit different and how they navigated the experience. I think that they complete and total fit with the program. They’re not outliers. They don’t sit outside the experience. In some cases, because they’ve been engaged with the admissions office and the school for three-plus years before they got to campus, they were fully onboarded by the time they got here. They were the best student ambassadors on day one.

It’s been a wonderful experience to be able to actually reach people at this different point in time in their lives. To be fair to those people who’ve been in the professional life, you’ve had a chance to test a couple of hypotheses, figure out what works, what doesn’t. These students, they kind of read as all potential. They blue sky a lot. I can do anything. I can do all these things. We watched them crystallize the idea over the two, three-year time before they get to campus. What a great journey for us in the admissions office to be able to watch them grow into the MBA candidate and then go from there.

How many students are you admitting every year through the accelerated MBA program? [37:14]

It’s going to vary based on application volume. Primarily, we want to be sure that we are giving an equal probability each year to candidates who apply and also being mindful of how we want to balance the class coming on the other end. It’s been somewhere around 20 in that window of space. Again, we’re a small program and we don’t want to overwhelm when students come through. They have different entry points.

You don’t really know what year they’re going to enter. [37:47]

Yeah, between two and five years, so there’s different entry points for those students depending on when they’re ready. We have a student who’s most certainly going to go to full five because they’re in the midst of building something really unique and then they’ll come join us. We get somebody who was ready after two and they really were ready after two. They had done what they needed to do to put themselves in the best position to succeed. In this particular case, it was in the food and agriculture sustainability side. It’s going to be unique to the individual.

Now, you’ve given tons of advice in the course of this interview, but what advice would you give to someone thinking about applying now? They want to matriculate in 2024. They’re probably in the middle of the process. They probably didn’t submit round one. They’re aiming for round two. What should they be doing? What should they be thinking about now as they listen to this podcast? [38:16]

Sure. I’ll put two things out there. The first is that they don’t over-invest in application elements and they focus on the whole story. This has been my message to the whole podcast, but I really do believe that if you hyper-focus on the tests or you hyper-focus on some other aspect of the application, you miss the opportunity to share a bit more about your whole journey. What’s the narrative? What are you hoping to accomplish? What community do you want to serve? What problem do you want to solve? These are the bigger questions that I really want to understand about the candidate.

The other thing is there’s members, myself, my admissions team, we’re all here to answer these questions. We’re here to support people in this journey, and we have a really robust community of student support, so not just for our program, but for any program. Reach out and see if you can connect with the students. I think that’s one of the most valuable things. It has two pieces. The first is they successfully navigated our application process, so they may have interesting things to say about what should be in a strong application.

The second is they’re actually experiencing the experience that you’re looking for. What does the student experience look like? What does on-campus life look like? Are faculty approachable? Are the things that you’re learning valuable for you? What type of speakers come to campus? How often are you getting to connect with industry outside of your campus community? All of those questions are questions that could be answered and, in particular, are set up with our student ambassadors is that they are the go-betweens. They are available if you want to ask them a question. If you want to ask something very specific like, “I’m really interested in understanding about how climate and finance interact, and I’m looking to talk to somebody specifically who understands that context in a certain part of the world,” we may have that pathway for you.

You can speak to somebody like Arno, one of our second year students who actually just spoke to a Belgian newspaper about his climate finance journey. These really unique pieces, they seem niche, but there may actually be somebody doing that, and so ask it. We may be able to put you in touch with exactly that right person.

Now let’s look a little bit further ahead. What advice would you give someone thinking ahead to a fall 2024 or fall 2025 application? They’re not part of the accelerated access program, but they do know that they want to go for an MBA and they’re thinking seriously about pursuing that MBA at Berkeley Haas. [40:47]

I think the first thing to do is to really crystallize why you want an MBA. Before you’re thinking about, “What do I need to do to get into an MBA program,” you’re going to want to have a really strong narrative for, “What I want to do when I come out of an MBA program.” What do I want to accomplish?

I know I’m repeating myself, but what do you want to see beyond that? It’s not just at grad, right? I will tell you that every stinking ranking and survey out there is going to focus on what does it look like at grad or three months past graduation. That’s not where the value of an MBA kicks in, right? I’m not going to throw rankings out there because I’ve been digging on them all day, but if you think about what are the frameworks for some of the strongest rankings, they’re around what does it look like four or five years out, not just compensation.

What is your position within the organization? What are you able to actually change about the world based on your level? That happens four or five years out. That’s the part of the story that we want to work back from, and then understand, okay, now I know what I want to achieve or I know what I want to engage with. I think I have a sense of what that journey’s going to look like post MBA. What do I need during the MBA to get there and then what do I need to get into an MBA program? What are the pieces there? If that’s a clear narrative all the way through, it just carries so much more weight. It has a lot more value. It has the value of being true and authentic to what the student wants to accomplish. Yes, there’s going to be a lot of work in putting together an application, but if you know your story, then it’s just about putting the pieces together.

Two comments, I frequently advise applicants that that post-MBA goal, and I’m usually talking about the immediate post-MBA goal, but I do agree completely that there should be a longer vision because the cost is high and the payoff has to justify it. I refer to that as the North Star. It should just guide you. It should guide you in the school you choose, the program you choose. Maybe it’s not an MBA. Maybe it’s a different program. The schools you choose to apply to, the schools you ultimately choose to attend, the courses you take, the things you get involved in.  Yes, it can evolve. Of course, it can evolve. My goodness, at 25, you don’t have to feel locked into a profession. That’d be true at  28, whatever, 30 even. You don’t have to be locked in.

That’s one point just in support of yours. the other point is i got my mba and, for a variety of reasons, i don’t really think i started using it and really getting value out of it until 14, 15 years later. it’s just how my life worked. now, i did not pursue the typical, the traditional mba path, well, certainly not at that time, but i’m glad i got it. it just took a while for it to pay off for me. anyway, just a couple of points there. , what about reapplicants do you have any pearls of wisdom for reapplicants [45:52].

Well, I’ll start with the fact that the data that we have suggests that reapplicants have a higher rate of admission than candidates who are applying in the first round out. Why is that? I think part of the reason is you’ve had a chance to really think about what are the strengths and where are my areas of growth and how I might focus on my areas of growth.

Now, because of the volume of applications we receive, we’re not able to give direct feedback to candidates who don’t get in in the first pass. What we are always able to do is engage with people who are applying this year, whether they can sign up to Q&A session. Most of this is available both in-person and virtually so that there’s an opportunity to connect with us no matter where you are within the globe. You can ask questions about the forward piece. You have the benefit of actually having a foundation that you can build on. Right?

Again, back to the idea that the magic happens in the editing. Like, okay, I’ve done it once. I know where I can tweak, where I can adjust, where I can change. The biggest miss is when reapplicants don’t tell us what they’ve been doing since the last application. You’ve got another year around the sun. What have you accomplished? Have you leveled up within your professional journey? I mean, sometimes the updated resume will tell us a little bit about that. Have you refined your goals? Have you explored more and different opportunities to test some hypotheses and rethink some of your journey?

These are all really valuable to us, and then of course, we should speak plainly. We’re also looking for evidence of your ability to do well in the program. If you think that that was the area of growth, the first submission, then other evidence. Now, you can’t go and change an undergraduate journey that’s typically fully baked by the time you apply, but you can take graded short courses. You can demonstrate other places where you’ve shown that you can succeed when it comes to the academic component of the application process.

Great advice. I think the saddest thing is when the reapplicant comes to me and says, “I know it was my GMAT score, so I retook the GMAT. I got a much higher score. My essays were great. I’m not going to change them at all.” That makes me sad. [46:13]

Yeah. There’s so much opportunity there.

Exactly, and like you said, I’m not joking, that does happen. I’m sure you sometimes see those applications. You’re showing little initiative. Yes, you studied before and you got your higher GMAT. Okay. Great. You’re not showing what you did in the past year. You’re not showing any growth whatsoever, and you are demonstrating a certain laziness and lack of commitment to the process, so don’t do it is the bottom line. [46:31]

I’m going to both agree with you and slightly disagree, Linda.

Okay. Go ahead. [47:01]

I will agree with you. I would love to see folks who are making those levels of commitment. I don’t always call it laziness. I think sometimes folks don’t have a full understanding of the process. I think folks who engage with you, they’re getting the benefit of their knowledge. Those who engage with us get the benefit of ours. Those who are operating out there independently, they may not know that they’re missing a great opportunity. Hopefully, those listening on this line, if you know somebody else who’s applying and doesn’t know this, share this message along.

Sounds good. I’ll be kinder next time. 

Okay. what would you have liked me to ask you [47:30].

Sure. I think one of the challenges that we face here at Berkeley is that we’ve done really well in some spaces and, in some corners of the market we’re known for these one or two things. “Well, Berkeley is really great in the tech sector because, look at their access, a third of their students go into tech,” or, “Berkeley is really great in the entrepreneurial sector. According to PitchBook, there’s only three programs at the top, and it’s Stanford, Harvard and Berkeley,” or, “Berkeley’s really great in the sustainability space. No other school is doing five different sustainability topics,” but we’re also the second most placed students into consulting, the third most place students into finance. When it comes to our finance students, the number of students who end up in internships on the West Coast, we top all other schools in that space. We are a great school for a lot of different things.

When I was looking back and thinking about what are we going to talk about with 125 years worth of history here, the technology sector doesn’t go back 125 years. What’s been sustaining the school this entire time, what’s the common thread really is that we’ve been educating for the pace of change. The world keeps changing, and we want to make sure that people are prepared for that. That hits in all sectors, and so we would love for people to know that about the program, not to put us in a little corner, but if you’re interested in a topic and you didn’t think Berkeley was that, come find out. Maybe it is.

Eric, I want to thank you so much for joining me today. This has been delightful and highly informative. Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about Haas’ full-time MBA program? [48:59]

Absolutely. The easiest thing to do is visit the Haas MBA website .. Come check us out. Once you land on that page, there’s a lot of resources that’ll put you in a lot of different places. I would encourage you to go to the events section because you’ll get an opportunity to see all the different places that we are in the globe as well as all the different things that we do virtually. No matter where you are in the world, you can get a connection to our community.

More great advice. Thank you. [49:37]

Relevant Links:

• UC Berkeley Haas MBA
• Accepted’s MBA ROI Calculator
• UC Berkeley Haas Expands Deferred MBA Program
• When Should I Plan to Apply to Grad School? NOW!!!

Relevant shows:

• From the Military to Haas MBA – podcast Episode 223
• University of Michigan’s Ross MBA Program: Everything You Need to Know – podcast Episode 479
• UCLA Anderson MBA Admissions According to Dean Alex Lawrence – podcast Episode 215

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Supplemental Essay Prompts

Freshman admissions.

The Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology (M.E.T.) program seeks inquisitive, self-motivated students with a passion for finding and solving big problems.

The following essay question is designed to provoke honest, thoughtful responses to help us get to know you. It gives you the opportunity to provide unique information about yourself, your interests, and your reasons for applying to the program. In addition to content, essays are evaluated for writing and critical thinking ability, skill in organizing and presenting thoughts, and the relevance of your answer to the question posed. Your response is limited to 350 words.

Required Essay: (350 words maximum)

Your supplemental essays must be submitted by 11:59 pm PST on December 15, 2023 .

Describe how the Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology Program in Engineering and Business at UC Berkeley will help you to achieve your goals. Share with us the world you come from (for example, your family, school, community, city, or town). What unique experiences from your world motivated you to apply to our program?

Video Essay Invitation

Some applicants may receive a request to record a video essay. Video essay requests are by invitation only and will be requested starting in November. Videos must be submitted by 11:59 pm PST on January 12, 2024 . Check your email for an invitation and if requested, be sure to submit your video essay by the deadline.

The questions are:

• How have you contributed to and bolstered the communities you are a part of? (Communities can = school, extracurriculars, family, etc.)
• How will your admittance into the program catapult your educational journey or complement your career plans?
• What has been your biggest failure and how did you respond?

Continuing Student Admissions

The following essay questions were created to provoke honest, thoughtful responses to help us get to know you. They’re framed within the context of The Haas School of Business’s four Defining Leadership Principles and the College of Engineering’s mission and vision, and give you the opportunity to provide unique information about yourself and your interests. These essays are the principal means we have of gaining insight about you and your reasons for applying to the Berkeley M.E.T. Program. In addition to content, essays are evaluated for critical thinking and writing ability, skill in organizing and presenting thoughts, and the relevance of your answers to the questions posed.

All applicants are required to answer question A and to choose either topic B or C. The Admission Committee does not have a preference for either question B or C. They’re given equal weight in the review process. Essay D is optional.

Required Essay A: (500 words maximum) Describe your post-undergraduate goals. Why is the Berkeley M.E.T. Program essential in helping you achieve these goals?

Tip: We understand that both Haas and the College of Engineering (COE) have world-renowned reputations and faculty, strong alumni networks, and that majors have priority access to business and COE courses. Aside from these factors, why do you feel that studying both COE and Business is a necessary step in pursuit of your immediate post-undergraduate goals? You’re not required to include a detailed post-undergraduate plan, but you should address how the program will help you achieve your goals broadly.

Choose either Essay B or C: (500 words maximum)

Essay B: Describe a time when something important to you did not work out as planned. How did you respond, and what did you learn from the situation?

Tip : If you applied to M.E.T. as a freshman, this is an opportunity for you to share with us what has been enhanced since then.

Essay C: If admitted to Berkeley M.E.T., how would you help develop a sense of belonging for classmates from diverse communities? What challenges do you anticipate, and how will you respond to them?

Optional Essay D: (250 words maximum) Is there any other information you would like to share that is not presented elsewhere in the application?

Tip: Use this essay to explain academic issues, grade disputes or personal/family/medical circumstances you want the admission committee to be aware of. Currently, there are unique circumstances impacting applicants to Berkeley M.E.T. You may also use this essay to discuss how you’ve been impacted by matters such as the pandemic, social unrest, and/or natural disasters.

Berkeley Haas MBA Essays Guide: Overview, Tips & Examples

Looking to ace your Berkeley Haas MBA application essays? Our comprehensive guide provides an overview of the essay prompts, valuable tips, and real examples to help you craft compelling and impactful responses.

Posted March 1, 2024

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The UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA program is highly regarded for its rigorous curriculum and emphasis on leadership development. As part of the application process, prospective students are required to submit several essays that provide insights into their experiences, goals, and values. In this comprehensive guide, we will take a closer look at the UC Berkeley Haas MBA essays, providing an overview of the application process, offering expert tips for each essay prompt, and providing examples from successful applicants.

UC Berkeley Haas Application and the Role of Essays

Before diving into the essay prompts, it is important to understand the significance of the essays in the UC Berkeley Haas MBA application. While your academic and professional backgrounds are essential components of your application, the essays allow you to showcase your unique personality, aspirations, and fit with the Haas program. The admissions committee wants to gain a deeper understanding of who you are beyond your resume and test scores. Therefore, investing time and effort into crafting compelling essays is crucial to stand out from the competition.

When it comes to the UC Berkeley Haas MBA application, the essays are more than just a requirement. They serve as a platform for you to express your thoughts, ideas, and experiences in a way that cannot be captured by your academic records or work history alone. Through the essays, you have the opportunity to paint a vivid picture of your journey , highlighting the defining moments that have shaped your personal and professional growth.

One of the key aspects that the admissions committee looks for in the essays is authenticity. They want to see the real you, not a polished version that you think they want to see. This means being honest, vulnerable, and genuine in your writing. Don't be afraid to share your failures, setbacks, and challenges, as they can often be the most powerful sources of personal growth and resilience.

Another important element to consider when writing your essays is the alignment between your goals and the Haas program . The admissions committee wants to see that you have done your research and understand how Haas can help you achieve your aspirations. This requires a deep dive into the program's curriculum, faculty, clubs, and resources. By demonstrating a clear connection between your goals and what Haas has to offer, you show the admissions committee that you are not only a good fit for the program but also have a well-thought-out plan for your future.

Furthermore, the essays provide an opportunity for you to showcase your leadership potential and ability to make an impact . Haas values individuals who are not only driven to succeed personally but also have a desire to contribute to the greater good. Whether it's through your professional experiences, community involvement, or extracurricular activities, highlight instances where you have taken initiative, influenced others, and created positive change.

Lastly, don't underestimate the power of storytelling in your essays. Instead of simply listing your achievements or qualifications, use anecdotes and narratives to bring your experiences to life. This will not only make your essays more engaging but also allow the admissions committee to connect with you on a deeper level.

In conclusion, the essays play a crucial role in the UC Berkeley Haas MBA application. They provide an opportunity for you to showcase your unique qualities, demonstrate your fit with the program, and highlight your leadership potential. By investing time and effort into crafting compelling essays that are authentic, goal-aligned, impactful, and well-told, you can increase your chances of standing out from the competition and securing a spot at UC Berkeley Haas.

UC Berkeley Haas Essay Prompts (2023-2024)

• Prompt 1: Tell us a six-word story that reflects a memorable experience in your life-to-date.
• Prompt 2: Share a time when you questioned an established practice or thought within an organization and how your perspective changed as a result.
• Prompt 3: Describe a situation where you had to work with others to achieve a common goal. What did you learn from the experience?
• Prompt 4: Describe a leadership experience and how you created a positive impact.
• Prompt 5: Briefly describe your most significant professional accomplishment. Explain why you view it as such.

Each of these essay prompts presents a unique opportunity for you to demonstrate your abilities, values, and personal growth. It is crucial to approach each prompt thoughtfully and tailor your response to showcase your fit with the Haas MBA program. Let's delve into expert tips for each essay prompt to help you craft compelling essays.

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List of Expert Tips for Each Haas Essay Prompt

Essay prompt 1: tell us a six-word story that reflects a memorable experience in your life-to-date.

1. Be concise and impactful: With only six words, every word counts. Craft a story that leaves a lasting impression and conveys a significant aspect of your life.

2. Reflect on personal growth: Choose a story that showcases personal growth or transformation. Highlight how this experience has shaped your values or perspectives.

3. Show authenticity: Use this opportunity to reveal your authentic self. Be genuine and avoid generic or cliché stories.

Essay Prompt 2: Share a time when you questioned an established practice or thought within an organization and how your perspective changed as a result

1. Choose a relevant example: Select a situation that demonstrates your critical thinking skills and willingness to challenge the status quo.

2. Highlight your adaptability and openness to learning: Describe how your perspective evolved and what you learned from this experience.

3. Connect with Haas values: Emphasize how your new perspective aligns with the innovative and inclusive culture fostered by the Haas MBA program.

Essay Prompt 3: Describe a situation where you had to work with others to achieve a common goal. What did you learn from the experience?

1. Highlight collaboration and teamwork: Narrate a story that showcases your ability to work effectively in a team and achieve shared goals.

2. Show self-awareness: Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses in a teamwork setting and discuss how you have grown as a team player.

3. Discuss your learnings: Clearly articulate the valuable lessons you gained from this experience and how they will contribute to your success in the Haas MBA program.

Essay Prompt 4: Describe a leadership experience and how you created a positive impact

1. Define leadership in your context: Start by defining what leadership means to you and how you have embodied it in a specific situation.

2. Highlight your ability to influence: Describe how you inspired and motivated others to achieve a common goal.

3. Show the positive impact: Quantify and emphasize the positive outcomes of your leadership actions. Discuss how you left a lasting impact on individuals or organizations.

Essay Prompt 5: Briefly describe your most significant professional accomplishment. Explain why you view it as such

1. Choose your most impactful achievement: Select an accomplishment that showcases your skills, resilience, and impact within a professional setting.

2. Provide context: Clearly explain the significance of the accomplishment and the challenges you overcame to achieve it.

3. Reflect on personal growth and skill development: Discuss how this achievement has shaped your professional journey and why it holds great value to you.

UC Berkeley Haas Essay Examples From Success Admits — With Analysis

While understanding the tips and strategies is essential, studying real-life examples of successful Haas MBA essays can provide valuable insights. At Success Admits, we have compiled a collection of UC Berkeley Haas essay examples with detailed analysis. These examples will help you understand how successful applicants approached the essay prompts and how they effectively communicated their stories.

UC Berkeley Haas Essay FAQs

1. How long should each essay be? As per Haas guidelines, each essay should be limited to a maximum of 350 words. It is important to be concise and impactful within this word limit.

2. Should I answer all the essay prompts? While it is not mandatory to answer all the prompts, it is generally recommended to provide responses to as many prompts as possible to give the admissions committee a broader understanding of your experiences and abilities.

3. Can I reuse essays from other MBA applications? While you can draw inspiration from previous essays, it is crucial to tailor your responses specifically for the UC Berkeley Haas MBA application. This ensures that your essays align with Haas's values and mission.

By following these tips, studying successful examples, and devoting sufficient time for reflection and revision, you can craft compelling UC Berkeley Haas MBA essays that enhance your chances of admission. Good luck with your application!

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On December 10 & 12, Executive Director of Full-time Admissions, Morgan Bernstein, hosted two essay workshops. She provided a comprehensive overview of what the admissions committee looks for in response to both essay prompts .

Watch the workshop recordings to:

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International

Global Odyssey Journey at Berkeley

Discovering diversity, growth in the berkeley haas global access program.

I am Dan Zhu, a Chinese student from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and an academic-year visiting student in the Berkeley Haas Global Access Program . Nestled within the illustrious halls of Haas—renowned as one of the premier business schools globally —I have met with a confluence of exceptional professors , intellectually stimulating courses  and peers whose brilliance knows no bounds .

Going to such a prestigious school, having so many extraordinary experiences, and being able to pick up so much lifelong advice and cherished friends has exceeded all of my pre-trip expectations. I can't wait to share my experience and story with you, and I hope it will help more students who want to choose this Berkeley visiting-student program .

In less than a year, I feel that many of my experiences have become some of the best memories of my first 20 years of my life. Youth is all about experimenting, challenging and surpassing in order to get out of your comfort zone and gain valuable experiences!

Going to such a prestigious school, having so many extraordinary experiences, and being able to pick up so much lifelong advice and cherished friends has exceeded all of my pre-trip expectations.

A Link to Life's Classroom Experience

Delving into the opportunities and choices within Silicon Valley enterprises through vivid case analyses in the Opportunity Recognition class .

Honing negotiation skills essential for life and work through engaging role-play scenarios in the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution class .

Authentically crafting entrepreneurial ideas and company prototypes through dialogues with successful company founders in the Introduction to Entrepreneurship class .

Each meticulously designed class at Haas spotlights professors' ingenuity in curriculum design and their expectation for students to apply theory into practice, allowing us to truly experience the integration of learning in life and life into learning.

In classes like Thriving at Haas and Beyond and Equitable and Inclusive Leadership , we engage in exchanges with our peers from around the world, fostering understanding and embracing diversity, thus realizing the rich nature of life.

I recall classmates sharing experiences of their multicultural education, having studied in countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Japan and the United States during their undergraduate years to enrich knowledge and experiences.

Some were balancing roles as fashion models and photographers alongside their studies, adding a touch of magic and diversity to their lives. Others were pursuing entrepreneurship while studying in Berkeley, already establishing successful ventures with friends and now broadening their horizons through Haas' curriculum by connecting with superior alumni resources.

Some have started families and careers, becoming fathers while studying here in Berkeley, relishing the joy of acquiring knowledge and parenthood simultaneously.

The diversity and breadth of my classmates' experiences and perspectives astonish me, and simultaneously remind me that life is an expanse, where nothing can impede our progress.

I  also recall in the Equitable and Inclusive Leadership class, the professor invited a guest speaker who is a Haas alumni and now a CEO of a startup and a rap artist to share his story. When I asked how he defines his life in those multi-aspects, he replied, "What you are doing now is building your life. It's like swimming in the ocean but swim with a root. You can always find yourself an anchor and do anything."

This resonates with Haas' principle of Beyond Yourself  and all the sentiments I have experienced here. I have come to understand that irrespective of our qualifications, age, nationality or background, we are free to explore our dreams and future.

Exceptionally Novel Extracurricular Activities

At Haas, we regularly invite academically accomplished alumni or industry leaders to deliver lectures , and organize frequent visits to various companies in Silicon Valley and the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Whether understanding Visa's future investment directions in San Francisco or witnessing a plethora of familiar gaming IPs at Twitch, we are awestruck by the inclusivity and developmental prowess of the Bay Area. In Berkeley, we can witness students basking in the sun while reading on the lawn or engaging in sports activities on the playground amidst the twilight's glow. Enjoying nature, life and oneself emits a signal of rejuvenation within this healing-centric campus. Upon arriving in Berkeley, you are bound to fall in love with its beautiful campus and diverse extracurricular activities.

Apart from required courses, I opted for various sports classes in Berkeley , including tap dance, ballet, hip-hop and boxing to enrich my experience here. These diverse and undoubtedly entertaining courses not only enhance my self-improvement through physical exercise and skill acquisition, but they also introduce me to many interesting local students and amiable professors.

Simultaneously, I joined the Drama Club among hundreds of other clubs on campus and staged an immersive theater performance at the end of the semester after weekly rehearsals collaborated with Berkeley undergraduates.

I also enrolled in Poker Decal course offered by Berkeley students, participating actively in online and offline Texas Hold'Em matches with friends. Sometimes I choose to go night hiking with friends to Big C, releasing stress while enjoying Berkeley's beautiful night scenery.

Here, everyone's life is uniquely their own. In California, in Berkeley, I have truly grasped the essence of "play hard, work hard."

Upon arriving in Berkeley, you are bound to fall in love with its beautiful campus and diverse extracurricular activities.

Unforgettable Life Journey Memories—Beyond Berkeley

The swaying tropical rainforests and snorkeling in the biodiversity of island life in Hawaii .

Savoring lobsters and experiencing the atmosphere of prestigious universities in Boston .

Traversing the Walk of Fame and Hollywood Park and experiencing the cultural confidence of Los Angeles .

Witnessing dazzling performances in glamorous Las Vegas .

Scaling the bustling heights of New York .

Indulging in the fantasy world of Walt Disney World .

Embarking on scenic train rides over 30 hours to witness the auroras amidst the harsh snows of Alaska with friends.

I have lost count of the beautiful places and countless amazing stories I've encountered over the past year.

Becoming a "traveling soldier" during vacations, exploring numerous delicacies and scenic wonders, and broadening horizons with friends have been among the most worthwhile things to share during my studies here. To me, traveling 10,000 miles is as crucial as reading 10,000 books, which embodies the spirit of free exploration that I learned in class.

Every time I flip through those unforgettable photos or recall those moments of ecstatic travel, I feel immense excitement and happiness. Traveling is the first step I took in opening the world's book, and using my steps to measure it is my vow to enrich life. Harvesting in learning, growing in travel—this is probably the most satisfying answer I can offer for this visiting-student study opportunity .

Undoubtedly, this experience at Berkeley, at BHGAP, has become the most important and enriching chapter in my life journey. Thank you, Berkeley! I will carry the knowledge and experiences I have gained here forward, bravely exploring life continiously!

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