Tuesday Tips: UC Berkeley Haas Application Essays, Tips for 2024-2025
The Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley is a highly selective school with a small class to fill. Therefore, it’s crucial to stand out from the crowd and show how you will benefit the Haas MBA class. These tips for the Berkeley Haas application essays will help you create that positive impression.
According to one of the former Haas admissions officers on the SBC team, “Haas is really focused on its experiential learning and its four Defining Leadership Principles. Candidates need to know the principles (almost with the ability to recite them by heart) and talk about why at least one of the principles resonates with the candidate.”
The new video essay specifically asks about the principles, and you should also consider them as you answer the other essays in this set. Likewise, keep these principles in mind when you interview with Haas and interact with students and faculty.
Curious about your chances of getting into a top B-school? Contact us to talk strategy with a free 15-minute advising session with an SBC Principal Consultant.
The Berkeley Haas Application Essays
Required Essay #1: What makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why? (300 words maximum)
The Haas MBA admissions team has asked creative, open-ended questions for many years. Essay one exemplifies that style. As a first step, think about activities you find completely fascinating—for example, hobbies, sports, or artistic pursuits. Or, maybe there’s an activity at work that absorbs you. Above all, it should reveal something personal and go deeper than your resume.
After you have identified a meaningful activity, then you need to describe why. The “why” is more important than the “what” because it reveals who you are. For example, maybe you enjoy research projects. You like to solve problems at work and have the freedom to pursue the question wherever it takes you.
In that case, consider whether you enjoy research because it allows you to be creative or solve problems. Delve into your motivations to see what is driving you—being specific about the “why” will help you with all of your essays.
Required Essay #2: What are your short-term and long-term career goals, and how will an MBA from Haas help you achieve those goals? Short-term career goals should be achievable within 3-5 years post-MBA, whereas long-term goals may span a decade or more and encompass broader professional aspirations. (300 words maximum)
This is a traditional essay asking about your career goals and how an MBA from Haas will get you from here to there. While this question does not ask specifically “why Haas?” think about the attributes of the program that will enhance your career goals.
According to SBC’s Haas experts, “Haas can get a lot of entrepreneurs, engineers, and people with really untraditional paths because they think Haas is an untraditional program. Folks who want to transition to a start-up or do their own venture really need to have a clear idea why Haas and why now. Their path needs to be very specific and why their career trajectory is either right for a transition or continuing down the same path, but taking a breath for the MBA.”
This advice is great for any candidate. Be specific about your path and very clear about why an MBA is necessary. Some reasons might include the coursework, the network you will build, and the practical experiences you will have.
Make sure you have researched Haas thoroughly and know what is available through the program and how you will take advantage of it. In addition to online resources, you can reach out to your personal and professional network. Talking to current and former students is always useful!
Note that Haas asks for both short-term and long-term career goals, and specifies what is meant by both. When you consider your career trajectory make sure you identify the timing of your career moves.
For example, if your long-term goal is to be a CEO, your short-term goal will be a role in the industry you are targeting that may focus on strategy or operations to prepare you to run a company as a general manager in the long term. Always think about your long-term goal as a combination of past experience, your MBA, and your short-term goals.
Required Essay #3: One of our goals at Berkeley Haas is to develop leaders who value diversity and to create an inclusive environment in which people from different ethnicities, genders, lived experiences, and national origins feel welcomed and supported.
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?
Candidates seeking consideration for mission-aligned fellowships may use this space to reflect on their commitment to the mission of those fellowships. (300 words max)
Diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging are important aspects of business culture and MBA admissions. Aside from formal programs that many companies sponsor, being an inclusive leader is crucial for business results.
Whether you are personally experienced in being part of an underrepresented community or not, you can be a champion for belonging. This essay is best answered with a short example or two that you can pull from any aspect of your life. There is a wide scope of experiences you can draw upon for this essay, including personal stories.
Think about when you have participated or led formal efforts to drive diversity or when you have supported justice at school, work, or in your community. For more resources to answer this question, don’t miss this blog post on how to address diversity essays and sample essays.
Check out B-Schooled Podcast #116: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and the MBA
Video Essay: The Berkeley MBA program develops leaders who embody our four Defining Leadership Principles. Briefly introduce yourself to the admissions committee, explain which Defining Leadership Principle resonates most with you, and tell us how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life.
Please review the Defining Leadership Principles in advance and take time to prepare your answer before recording. You will be able to test your audio-visual connection before recording. Video essays should last 1-2 minutes and may not exceed 2 minutes.
Begin preparation for this video by researching how Haas views leadership by reviewing its set of principles. The fundamental principles are: Question the Status Quo, Confidence without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. For Haas, leadership is both inclusive and bold. Also, Haas prioritizes innovation, community, and collaboration.
Next, think about your personal definition of leadership. If you had to define your leadership principles, what would they look like? For example, perhaps helping is a core part of your identity. And, for you, leadership means driving the development of your team. Therefore, you aspire to be a leader who develops others.
Then, think about an example you can share in this video that illustrates the leadership principle. If you are focused on developing others, think about a story when you managed a team or project. Or even a mentoring experience either at work or through your network.
Once you have figured out what you will say in the video, rehearse a few times before recording. Make sure you are still coming across as conversational and expressing your personality. The reason to use a video instead of a written essay is to understand a bit more about your personality, style, and expression. finally, make sure to show enthusiasm for leadership and your future at Haas.
Did you know SBC offers video essay and video interview prep services? Leverage our video platform for unlimited practice, self-assessment, and a professional review with written feedback. This platform is identical to the one used by several schools for video essays.
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 understanding applicants completely. Therefore, this question provides a chance to go deeper into your family background and your life circumstances. In addition, the admissions committee can understand your accomplishments in context.
For example, you might have a highly educated family, and your parents are professionals. But, you moved to another country for college or a job. An experience like that is essential to explain how you learned a new culture or language.
Or, maybe your parents are fully employed now. However, a period of unemployment in your family impacted you. Therefore, that information shows how you handle challenges at home.
Finally, think about times you changed course because of your circumstances. And, think about the areas of your life that asked the most of your resilience. As a result, how have you used those experiences to continue to achieve?
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.
Applicants should note there is a specific place to indicate that they won’t have a recommendation from their current supervisor in the supplemental information section. Therefore, you do not need to explain that here in the optional essay.
Haas recommends using this space to address any information you could not adequately cover elsewhere. Specifically, any employment gaps or academic issues.
Otherwise, you can use one or two examples to demonstrate that you have an analytical mind. Use examples to show you take a quantitative approach to problem-solving and evaluating data. Alternatively, explain any supplemental coursework to improve your quantitative profile.
Any unexplained gap of several months between two jobs needs addressing. Therefore, if your resume has significant employment gaps, you should describe what you did between jobs. For instance, you can point to additional education, training, volunteering, or traveling during this gap.
In addition, re-applicants can describe hard improvements to their candidacy. For example, these could be an improved GMAT score, new grades from quantitative classes, or a promotion. Also, other improvements might include refined career goals and additional leadership opportunities.
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Stacy Blackman Consulting has successfully coached applicants for the Haas MBA each admissions year. Now that you’ve seen these tips for the Berkeley Haas application essays, please contact us to learn more about how we can help you set a winning application strategy.
Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.
Ashley
Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...
×Kerry
Kerry is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). During her 5+ year tenure at HBS, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a wide range of backgrounds across the globe. She also led marketing and outreach efforts focused on increasing diversity and inclusion, ran the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), and launched the 2+2 Program during her time in Admissions. Kerry holds a B.A. from Bates College and ...
×Pauline
A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally. Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...
×Geri
Geri is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). In her 7 year tenure in HBS Admissions, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a diverse set of academic, geographic, and employment backgrounds. Geri also traveled globally representing the school at outreach events in order to raise awareness for women and international students. In additio ...
×Laura
Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years. Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...
×Andrea
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...
×Jennifer
Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...
×Erin K.
Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...
×Susie
Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...
×Dione
Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford. Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...
×Anthony
Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year. Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...
×Meghan
Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...
×Amy
Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team. During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...
×Ally
Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS). During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...
×Erin B.
Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...
×Emma
Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director. Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants. ×
