Business School Profile: Berkeley Haas
The MBA Exchange is featuring a series of articles showcasing graduate management programs that our thousands of clients have found most rewarding. Our content is compiled from a number of credible sources and articles and expanded with our own observations based on nearly two decades of advising applicants. This profile looks at the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA program, where students embody the mantra: “Work hard and play hard.”
Haas’ rigorous general management curriculum is designed to prepare students in the fundamentals of general management, and it’s doing an excellent job of it. Through the Haas goal of “Leading Through Innovation,” students are encouraged and inspired to manage with excellence, collaborate with courage and vision, problem solve through innovation, and seek creative solutions that challenge the status quo. Two existing courses, “Leading People” and “Leadership Communications,” have been restructured to teach additional motivational skills that are too easily overlooked such as influencing others without having direct authority over them. Class sizes are relatively small size here (fewer than 500 total students spanning both years) and highly diverse culturally and professionally.
Core courses at Haas are enhanced by experiential programs that focus on such areas as international business development, innovation in the social sector, and entrepreneurship and rooted in the scientific disciplines of economics, mathematics, social sciences such as psychology and sociology. In other words, Berkeley’s offerings stretch the model for a b-school curriculum.
Well-orchestrated flexibility allows students to customize their studies — from within the Haas School and from the wider university — according to individual goals and interests; you can even design your own electives here. The spirit of innovation that infuses the Haas MBA program complements, and is affected by, the greater San Francisco Bay Area, renowned in terms of business entrepreneurship. Plus, recruiters from across the globe seek Haas graduates because they’re viewed as confident, collaborative, team-oriented, and forward-thinking. And for those with technology or venture capital high on their career agendas, the proximity to Silicon Valley is an appealing bonus.
Hard work extends beyond the classroom as evidenced by the very active club and community service scene at Haas – from standing-room-only public lectures to the popular “Consumption Functions.” UC Berkeley’s tradition of social responsibility is alive and well at Haas where almost every MBA student signs up for part of the Challenge for Charity, participating in talent shows or athletic competitions that raise money for such organizations as the Special Olympics.
And the excitement of diverse Oakland and the magnetism of San Francisco, the City by the Bay, make this the kind of place that students are eager to remain after graduation.
For more information, visit the official blog for UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
If this is an MBA program that appeals to you, please request a free evaluation of your candidacy. Are you wondering how to get into the Haas MBA program? Then contact the MBA Exchange admissions consultants so we can help you develop a strategy and tactics to maximize your chances for admission at Haas and other top-tier schools.