Admissions Chat: Haas School of Business

The school's admissions director and a first-year student recently fielded questions on how to get into UC Berkeley's business school

Peter Johnson
Admissions Director
UC-Berkeley

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The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley accepted 18% of the 2,727 applicants to its MBA program in 2006. Rising from No. 17 in 2004 to No. 8 on BusinessWeek's 2007 list of best B-schools, Haas is praised for its ability to give students access to the high-tech and entrepreneurial sectors.

Those who are California dreaming of a B-school with such credentials recently asked questions of Peter Johnson (PeterAtHaas), director of Haas admissions, and first-year full-time MBA student Kathy Barris (KathyHaas), during an online chat event on BusinessWeek.com. Fielding questions from the audience and B-schools reporter Francesca Di Meglio (FrancescaBW), Johnson and Barris shared insider tips on everything from writing an essay to organizing your first-year schedule. Here is an edited transcript of the conversation:

Dhanraj: Where can we get some guidance on [writing] the essays?

PeterAtHaas: As a start, I would encourage you to listen to our podcast about presenting a successful application. It discusses all facets of the application and what we are looking for.

gmugmu: I have looked at www.haas.berkeley.edu. Recruitment statistics will be more useful if they could provide the information as to what the candidates' pre-MBA salary was, how much experience they already had, etc. Is there any way to access more detailed information?

PeterAtHaas: We don't normally report any pre-MBA salary data, but we do list averages and medians for things like overall compensation and amount of pre-MBA work experience, which you can find in our profile data on the Web site.

JohnSmith123: I have heard that a person who attended UC Berkeley as an undergrad very rarely is accepted to the MBA program. Is this true?

PeterAtHaas: That is completely untrue! We accept a number of candidates with Berkeley undergraduate degrees every year.

gmugmu: What kind of formal and informal interactions exist between MBA students and [computer science] or other reputed departments and labs?

PeterAtHaas: In the case of the "CS" department (which is actually the School of Information at Berkeley), we jointly offer courses in our Management of Technology program. Many students from other graduate schools at Berkeley participate with MBA students on teams for the business plan competition, in the Berkeley-UNIDO Conference, and in other initiatives. All MBA students also have the opportunity to take some of their elective courses in other graduate programs outside the B-school.

KennyHarley: Can you address the MBA/MA Program in International and Area Studies? What are the advantages of doing it, how many people do, what careers do they [consider]?

PeterAtHaas: The advantage of completing that program is that students have the opportunity to earn both degrees in less time than it would take to complete them individually. Most people who have pursued that program have tended to have interests in areas related to international public policy and are thinking about careers with NGOs, etc.

kanesnyder: Has your career services office had any difficulty or luck placing older candidates? I will enter B-school at 35.

KathyHaas: Haas has had a number of "older" students go through the program and has had no problem placing them in positions afterward. Not sure what you are interested in doing, but two of my classmates (I am a first-year in the full-time program) who are over 35 are going to be doing their internships in management consulting.