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| University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business |
OVERALL 1998 RANK: 16 BW corporate rank: 16 BW graduate rank: 14 BW 1996 rank: 13 |
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1999 Profile Update School Profile School Statistics Graduates' Comments: My experience at Haas has been wonderful. The people (I mean faculty, administration, and classmates) are not only excellent professionals, but also great human beings. --Business Development Manager For those interested in high tech and entrepreneurship, Haas is a great place to be. --High-tech career path Writing, speaking, and other communications skills are a key part of the Haas MBA program. Haas has a dynamic, innovative curriculum taught by faculty who value teaching. Haas also has a much more cooperative, team-oriented environment than many business schools. The forward-looking curriculum (three pillars of technology -- entrepreneurship and internationalism combined with the school's team orientation) makes Haas the up-and-coming business school of the future. The selection of Dean Laura Tyson brings Haas needed prestige, which has unfortunately lagged a little behind the dynamite quality of the program. Time will tell how committed to the job she is. --Associate Haas is focused on entrepreneurship, international business, and management of technology. For those areas, I believe that Haas offers an excellent program. Since Haas is located in the Bay area, we enjoy tremendous resources, such as many high-tech startup companies in Silicon Valley, and Pacific Rim-related business. More than 33% are international students, and more importantly, more than 90% of the domestic students have either studied abroad or worked overseas. It is truly a global environment. Also, since Haas is a small school (240 people per class), I felt very at home. People are very friendly and helpful. I am very happy with what Haas has offered to me. --Consulting My only concern is that the job search process in the second year leads many students to lose focus from the school. Although I understand that for many people the only reason for being here is to get a better job, I think that the school should promote more standardized activities (e.g., one week off to prepare interviews, plus another week of recruiting) instead of having a permanent flow of recruiters and a one week Spring Break. This way people would be more focused on learning, which for me is still important, given that from now on we are suppossed to apply concepts and to deliver, with not a lot of time to learn. --Consulting I was very impressed with how integrated the core courses were with each other and the awareness or our instructors' class requirements. The work environment was also very team-oriented and beneficial to ascertaining the most efficient, integrated, and diverse solutions to problems. The close proximity to Silcon Valley and the financial center of San Francisco has helped tremendously with establishing a rapport with several companies for interviews and information gathering. All in all, the last two years has far surpassed my expectations, and I would make the same decision again if I had to. --Consulting This has been a great experience at a great school, and I'll be enjoying the benefits of this education for the rest of my career. I've been very pleased with the caliber of my classmates, especially their willingness to strive for success without turning into sharks. I had feared people in B-school would be nasty and cutthroat, but this has not been the case at all. Indeed, the folks at Haas know how to work as a team. They also know how to compete and to promote their own interests without back-stabbing. --Consulting The quality of instruction at Haas was truly outstanding. The curriculum is very current and continuously refined. The faculty was unbelievably prepared, engaged, approachable, and responsive to students. The administration was highly efficient and flexible -- far more than at the private institutions I have attended. In short, the student experience is the focus of all the school's efforts. The students were amazingly bright and supportive of each other. The school has an academically rigorous, supportive, and vibrant feel. --Consulting Berkeley is an outstanding school with a very friendly and cooperative environment. The best part of my MBA experience was meeting and working with my classmates. --Consulting The diverstiy of my fellow classmates created a valuable learning environment, both inside and outside the classroom. Everyone, both domestic and international, had amazing backgrounds and talents. In our class there was a maestro, a rocket scientist, and a doctor, among other professions, which led to some very interesting class discussions. For example, from my fellow students I've learned about South Korea's economy, women's roles in the former Soviet Union, and what goes into a Pisco Sour. The small size of the program helped in creating a strong sense of community and camraderie which facilitated learning. Haas students are very cooperative -- not at all cutthroat, like those in my undergraduate institution. I feel that I learned more because of this. The dedication of the core professors was evident in their enthusiasm and the quality of their teaching. At Haas it is an honor for professors to be selected to teach the core classes. --Consulting The Haas administration was very responsive to students' needs. It was wonderful to be "protected" from the hideous bureaucracy of a public school. Haas felt just like a private institution, but without the high tuition. --Consulting As an undergraduate of Berkeley, I was a little hesitant to come back to Berkeley for my MBA. The program, however, has exceeded my expectations. I have been primarily impressed with the quality of teaching within the core and the quality of my peers. The professors have all been extremely accessible and genuinely concerned for our learning. The atmosphere among the classmates is extremely team- and community-oriented. Although my classmates all try to do their best (everyone is a high achiever), there is definitely not a sense of competitiveness. People in the program are grounded and generally pleasant to be around. Although there are little pockets of distinct communities within the students, I really feel that there are no barriers between these communities. It is very easy to approach just about every student. --Consulting The location influenced enormously what I got from the MBA. For a person that wants to concentrate in an area like entrepreneurship, coming to the right place (meaning availability of resources, contacts, professors etc) makes THE difference. Berkeley was outstanding in this area. --Consulting Haas has been a wonderful experience both personally and professionally. I've truly enjoyed working with and learning from my classmates who were both tremendously diverse and talented. Professionally, Haas has given me exactly the skills and network I desired. Haas offers a special certificate in Management of Technology. I took classes jointly with MBAs and engineers covering myriad topics, including product development, information technology and data warehousing, technology strategy, systems implementation project management, and supply chain management. Furthermore, there have been many interesting and valuable lectures, workshops, and seminars on campus which have expanded greatly my education in the field. Through invited speakers and field projects with high-tech companies, I have built a network that helped me get my first post-MBA job and will likely be the source of my second! --Consulting The small size of the program and the close relationship between faculty and students greately enhanced my experience at Haas. Being part of the best public university (UC Berkeley) means that academic values are never challenged at Haas. Being able to work as a Graduate Student Instructor (with undergraduate students) during my second year allowed me to interact with the academic community in a way that I hadn't expected before coming to Berkeley. Also, it helped me to develop my communications and leadership skills in a very practical way. Finally, conducting several projects with high-tech firms from Silicon Valley opened up doors to an industry in which I had no previous experience. --Consulting While I feel Haas excelled at creating international diversity, the program did a poor job attracting domestic minorities and using classes to capitalize on the program's cultural diversity. There was little academic interaction between international and domestic students, with students often forming homogenous study and project groups. Additionally, little effort was made to make underrepresented domestic minorities feel comfortable in the program. For example, on several occasions racist remarks (both overt and covert) were made during class discussions, and the faculty and administration did nothing to assuage the concerns of minority students when these incidents were brought to their attention. Furthermore, the program administration has a policy of demographically dividing students into groups (known as cohorts) for the first semester. The result is that underrepresented minority students often find themselves the only black or Latino student in their cohort. --Consulting Not only the curriculum and faculty, the environment in the Bay area was great. No matter how busy I was, I always felt happy studying here. As an international student, I enjoyed interacting with diversified Americans as well as people from many different countries. --Entrepeneurship My standard for teaching quality is very high. I attended law school at the same time as business school and found myself comparing teaching, administration, and students constantly. The best teachers in my law school were better than the best at Haas. However, the worst teachers in my law school were also worse than the worst at Haas. Some Haas professors, like Glazer, Schroth, Lyons, and Wallace were tremendous. Overall, the accomplishments of Haas faculty, particularly in Marketing, Finance, and Economics are awe inspiring. Unlike my law school, Haas administration actually cares about its students, and it does so with sincerity. They listen to us and let us participate in important school decision-making in a manner unlike I could have ever imagined. Although my law school classmates were every bit as bright as my Haas classmates, my Haas classmates were far more accomplished, interesting, diverse, wise, friendly, helpful, cooperative, and had qualities that are difficult to quantify but easy to appreciate. The caliber of Haas students is second to none. --Unknown The best thing though is UC Berkeley overall and its relationship to Haas. If you are interested in the high-tech or biotech industry of Silicon Valley, where else can you attend physics and chemistry or computer science classes taught by Nobel prize winners the same day as you attend a class from a Nobel prize winning economist at Haas or a former chairman of the Council for Economic advisers? Only MIT and Stanford come to mind to provide that. But Haas does it for 1/4 the price and twice the fun. --Unknown Finally, Entrepreneurship at Haas is its most underappreciated asset. I witnessed real venture-backed companies started by many classmates; biotech companies and Internet companies that are the real thing in Silicon Valley. Haas attracts students who are imaginative and think outside the box. That is its best asset, and I thank the school for fostering entrepreneurship not just through classes and programs but by connecting us to the pulse of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship and by admitting students who don't allways dream of working for a giant "blue suit" corporation. --Entrepeneurship Haas is in the hot bed of one of the most powerful locations in the world. Because of the school's proximity to Silicon Valley, it has really played up and maximized the high tech component of the MBA. There is no doubt that as high tech plays an increasingly more pivotal role in the U.S. economy, Haas students will be better equipped than other MBA students. Additionally, Haas'international reputation and diverse student body lend the school an environment that mimics the real world. --Entrepeneurship The Haas School is a strong general MBA program, but does not rightfully deserve the top-ten ranking it so zealously seeks. The professors and GSIs are excellent, but the lack of a star department (save for Real Estate) or focus (International Business, for instance, is a joke) is a serious impediment to attaining this goal. The alumni network is nonexistent, and the career services only adequate. Finally, there is the definite feel of being part of a public institution, and the university's insistence on combining the undergrads with the grads lessens the experience for the latter while boosting the rankings for the former. I have visited other MBA programs, and they have a more professional feel to them. Personally, I was disappointed with my two years at Haas. Though I appreciate the school's small size, I didn't like the social life. It was quite a cliquey bunch. --Finance Haas is very strong in students, faculty, international business, and exposure to all that happens in the Bay Area (Silicon Valley, venture capital, wine industry, etc.). There is great teamwork within the student body. Its greatest weakness has been in promoting the Haas name and getting companies to recruit here (hard to get Haas grads to leave the Bay Area). New dean (Laura Tyson) could offset those weaknesses well. The Bay Area seems like the place to be for MBAs this year. --Finance I strongly feel that the Haas School of Business offers students the widest range of career paths compared to other business schools. The school not only provides the experience and education required by large Fortune 500 companies, but it also offers a diverse array of courses and professional networks to facilitate alternative careers in entrepreneurship, international business, and nonprofit organizations. As a result Haas attracts an extremely diverse range of students. My impression was that the school had more international students and nontypicial pre-MBA backgrounds (ie. consulting, investment banking) compared to other top tier schools. I feel that my day-to-day interaction with my classmates greatly enriched my MBA experience. --Finance The most positive aspect of my program has been my fellow students. I was worried that my classmates would fit the stereoptypical mode of MBAs -- hypercompetitive, shallow, self-centered, interested only in money, etc. That has not been the case at all here; most students are just as likely to volunteer in the community as to play golf or mountain bike in their spare time. Many start a student-initiated class in a new area of interest, or work on the newspaper or form a new club as well. Whether or not that's because MBAs as a whole are mistakenly typecast, or whether Berkeley is unique and special I can't say. But I've gained a tremendous amount of respect for many of my classmates, and am pleased to be an alum. -- Finance Berkeley is on a path of continuous improvement. The administration was super-responsive to student suggestions for upgrading the program. Haas is vastly superior to what is was five or six years ago. It will take time for the increases in the program's quality and selectivity to be reflected in the overall alumni pool. I am confident that within ten or fifteen years Haas will have one of the very best alumni networks. The school and the students have worked hard in recent years to make the core outstanding. --Marketing The small size of the program created an outstanding learning environment. I got to know my professors and nearly all my fellow classmates. I feel fortunate to have learned from and made friendships with people who are going to be very effective business leaders. I think those friendships will strengthen and facilitate networking in the future. Haas also delivered on its international business promise. I recommend that all future students go on the International Business Development program which was the academic highlight of the program. The school has definitely better prepared me to do business in Asia. --Marketing Haas has helped me tremendously. It enabled me to do things, learn things and meet people that I never would have been able to do without the education and support I have received from the school. The school was instrumental in my landing a coveted summer internship with a highly regarded venture capital firm. In signing with my full-time company, the experiences I had while at Haas were directly correlated with my job offers. --Unknown For instance, during my last semester, I took a cross-listed class with Prof. Eric Brewer in the Computer Science department. The class was titled software management. I managed eight graduating undergraduate computer science students as we developed a fully functioning, real-time Java-based system for purchasing theater tickets online. This class was as close to the real world as possible. We worked from concept to product specification to fully functioning product. --Unknown I do not know of another school which affords this hands on opportunity. Moreover, our professor was also the co-founder of the recently IPO'd company, Inktomi. His real world experience in growing his company and managing his software developers was invaluable to the class. He also provided deep insight into the entrepreneurship process as he went through it in real life. I also believe that the school's proximity and access to Silicon Valley has positioned Haas as the school of the future. --Marketing Overall, Haas (UC Berkeley) provided a great experience. I was a "career changer" (from CPA to Marketing), and I felt Haas provided me with flexibility and the variety of courses I would need to effect this change. I definitely would not have been able to make this career change without my MBA, and in that respect, I feel I received a pretty good return from Haas. Also, contacts I made while at Haas helped me land a summer internship and eventually a full-time position at Adobe Systems in the field I was interested in, high-tech marketing. --Marketing The experience was fabulous and every bit worth it. The only weakness I would say is that the program does not sufficiently leverage the outstanding technical school at Berkeley. Other than that, I would recommend it to anybody, without hesitation. --Marketing The school has made strides in the last year to be more proactive about recruiting American under-represented minorities. The school needs to continue this effort or it will be severly affected by having graduates with little or no experience working with blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans. The school also needs to make an effort to hire more under-represented minority faculty. --Non-profit Back to Top 1999 Profile Update School Profile School Statistics |
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