The Berkeley MBA - Haas students taking questions

[Charles Pan]

Hi all,

If you have any questions about UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, please feel free to post them here. I'll try to help out and get my fellow students here to provide their perspectives.

The first question I answer is:

Q: How do you like the sunshine in California??

A: I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good luck to you all.

Charles

P.S. We Taiwanese Haas students are thinking to host an information session in Taipei during the winter break. If you're interested, you cant let us know here.

[陳鵬文]

Hi Charles:

Nice to see the initiatives from your end as this is a good chance for prosepctive students to shoot whatever they have. UCB had been one of my dream school the first time I went there for a summer English session and the impression had stamped on my mind. I did not apply in the first round for Hass because it is somewhat different from my career focus. I still want to know more about Hass so maybe I can adjust my school pickup in the second round to come.

Here comes my question, How many Taiwanese students had been admitted to Hass these few years, what were their backgrounds, and most important of all for me as a career switcher, what do they do after they graduate from Hass?

Sorry for the long question and appreciate your response if possible.
Thans a lot

[jamieyeh]

Hi,
This is Jamie, second year student from Haas and currently on exchange to LBS. To quickly respond your question, we have 10 students from Class 07 and four from Class 08. In terms of 07, some from technology industry, some from consumer products , and some from Finance, quite diverse, isn't it?
For career switcher, it really depends so I can just share my own experence. I was doing product marketing in a hardware company before but did Corporate Finance in an Enterprise software company during summer internship. It's possible to switch but i would say it will take you more lots of work than you stay in the same sector. Career center will help you also.
Hope this helps.

Jamie

[陳鵬文]

Thanks Jamie for your prompt reply to my question, will investigate a bit more into the program and ask if something come to me.

[Charles Pan]

Hi,

There're 2 more first year Haas students with a Taiwanese root, but Jamie is right, there are 4 of us coming to Berkeley directly from Taiwan. Profiles are diversified in terms of experience, age, gender, etc. I have a background in venture capital and investment banking mostly in Greater China and Silicon Valley.

Wish you great luck with your application to Haas. Let us know if we can be of additional help.

Charles

[陳鵬文]

Hey Charles and Jamie:

You guys are both so helpful and the backgrounds of you guys also rocks, no wonder you both got admitted to Hass. It's a tough decision for me since the admitted rate is comparatively low(around 18% I guess). But I know that as long as you are qualified, you don't really care about the admitted rate because you are gonna admitted anyways. Thanks folks for your timely reply, will take serious consideration to apply Hass in the seconid round, viewing this as one step closer to my dream, whether it's a reachable one or not!

[fujen64]

Hi 鵬文

I am second year student at Haas.
Glad to hear that you are interested in studying at Haas.
Haas is a quite diverse and supportive community and we are looking forward to seeing you to join us.

The tip I can give is that you need to think how unique you are.
Admissions office will look the entire package and won’t judge based on one criterion.
Therefore, the range of GMAT (students directly from Taiwan) is from 660 to 760.
Our working experience varies from 2 to 6 years.
However, each of us has very distinct background and unique story.
Haas like people have well-rounded personalities and love to take any challenge.

My feeling is that Haas is not a traditional b-school which emphasizes the success of post MBA is to get in IB or consulting. We believe there are lots of opportunities to stretch your potential and make more contributions in different areas. We appreciate the value we can bring no matter working in Goldman Sachs or a small nonprofit organization.

So seeking the school fits you is most important and you will definitely enjoy the 2 years learning experience whenever you are.

Looking forward to meeting you all and sharing our experience during winter break.
Please feel free to ask any question and all of us will love to give our perspectivies.

Jimmy

[Charles Pan]

sad cafe seems to be relatively inactive this year. hopefully that implies a less competitive year for mba aspirants. good luck to all.

charles

[lightsaber]

您好,

想請問一下,
台灣過去幾年Berkeley的畢業生(特別是以"轉行"的身分)
進consulting的人數大約有多少人?

謝謝

[fujen64]

Dear lightsaber,

The top industries that Haas graduates work in

Technology 25%
Financial Services 22%
Consulting 20%
Biotech/Healthcare 8%
Consumer Products/Retail 7%
Entrepreneurship 5%
Real Estate 5%

If you want to know specifically Taiwanese students who get in consulting firms after graduate, as far as I know, the figure is as follows.

2005, 4 Taiwanese students: 2 Financail services, 1 Consulting (previous background is consulting), 1 Biz Dev in high tech
2006, 3 Taiwanese students: 2 Financial services, 1 Consulting (previous background is Entrepreneur)

[lightsaber]

Dear Fujen64,

I really appreciate your timely feedback.

May I ask that who will be a typical fit for HAAS? (If any or according to your knowledge)

What qualities in particular should they possess or demonstrate?

Thank you,
Samuel

[MarkHsu]

Just to clarify, I believe the 2005 Haas grad who went into consulting was a sponsored student.

For people who are not familiar with consulting, the big strategy houses sponsor candidates to attend business school with the stipulation that they return to the firm. This explains why there is such a high percentage of MBA grads who go into consulting.

For the career switcher looking to attend an MBA to move into consulting, you should have REALISTIC expectations about your possibilities.

[chihfei]

Hi,

Haas has been one of my dream schools and I'm very interested in the MOT program.
I'd like to put some questions.

1.What's the class size? Do classmates build close network?
2.How about the internship opportunity for Taiwan students?
3.What do you do for extracurricular activities?

Thanks.

[giraffe]

Hi, Charles & Fujen64:

I just got the interview invitation from Haas. Would you share

some interview experience to us, please? BTW, do u have idea about

the ratio of admission to interview invitation?

Thank both of you.

[william700314]

I am quite interested in Haas and want to ask you some questions.

I know that there is an event called Super Saturday.
I think that people are only invited to attend that event for interview.
From the reply of the interviewees, I know that about 75% of the poeple who attend this event will be admitted.
Does it mean that when invited to the interview, the chance to be admitted is high?

Tks for your reply~