At Menlo Coaching, we noticed that most MBA essays will fall into one of a number of categories: personal essays, career goals essays, behavioral essays, etc. Read ahead for our expert guide on approaching these essays for Haas School of Business.
- What makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why? (text box, 300 words maximum)
- How will an MBA help you achieve your short-term and long-term career goals? (300 words max)
The Berkeley MBA program develops leaders who embody our four Defining Leadership Principles.
- Briefly introduce yourself to the admissions committee, explain which leadership principle resonates most with you, and tell us how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life. (Not to exceed 2 minutes.)
- Can you please 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? (300 words max)
- Optional Information #1: We invite you to help us better understand the context of your opportunities and achievements.
- 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.
Finally, Berkeley Haas also asks applicants for supplemental information, which include some additional prompts.
Applying to UC Berkeley Haas
In this program, students are encouraged “to take risks and make mistakes.” They are looking for students who are moved to create. Through the story you relate in your essay, the admissions council is looking to see if you reflect the same values that the school does. Berkeley Haas is looking for students who are looking to develop their emotional intelligence and eager to use rigorous analysis. The best way to represent that you possess those qualities is through the type of essay you choose to write.
The Personal Statement Essay
Like we touched on earlier, schools are looking for the right fit for their campus community, just as you are searching for the school that aligns best with your goals. In the personal essay, this is your chance to show Berkeley Haas the values that drive you both as a person and as a student. These values tell the admissions council what you prioritize, the moral code you live by, and, most importantly, who you are as a person.
Berkeley Haas is looking for applicants who want to contribute to a larger purpose. The program is dedicated to students completing their own research and analysis in order to make decisions. They encourage intelligent risks.
In these essays, you can talk about almost anything; typically, applicants will write about relationships in their lives, or times when there was a hardship they had to overcome. Be warned, though: there are some topics to avoid, and we have outlined a few things to watch out for in this article.
The Career Goals Essay
You’re not the only one hoping you’ll have a job after you’ve graduated with your MBA. Admissions committees are looking for students who are motivated and clear in their intentions so that when they get a job post-grad, they’ll be more willing to speak positively of their experience in the program. And, of course, in the hopes that their alumni will earn enough money to become a donor to the school one day.
There are three aspects to the career goals essay:
- What you want your future profession to look like.
- Why an MBA is necessary to advance your career.
- Particularly, why a degree from Berkeley Haas will be most beneficial to you and your job plan.
Your aspirations need to be convincing, ambitious, and realistic. Berkeley Haas is looking for applicants who have meaningful goals grounded in their past experiences, and it’s important that you relate that notion in your essay, however it applies to your experience in life.
The Video Essay
Berkeley’s MBA video essay specifically pertains to their defining leadership principles, meaning that you will need to consider how your strengths as a leader reflect the values sought after by Haas.
But in terms of practical steps to take when recording, here is our advice:
- Practice—but don’t memorize: it’s always clear if someone has memorized what they intend to say in a video essay verbatim, and this can make your content seem staged and inauthentic. If you find that you’re repeating the same speech over and over again, change the first sentence. You’ll be surprised at how this will throw you off!
- Make sure that your setting is appropriate: you want to make sure that your lighting is good and that there are no empty tequila bottles in the background.
- Speak slowly and clearly: clear diction can make a big difference when it comes to reviewing your video essay.
If you are interested to know more about what Haas looks for in its students and, indeed, their video essays, you can head to our page on Berkeley Haas admissions basics.
The Behavioral Essay (Diversity)
To make it simple: the behavioral essay is meant to show the team at Berkeley Haas that you have developed some sort of leadership skills, what your values are as a leader, and how you are going to most benefit from their development programs in terms of your experience with and exposure to DEI, justice, and belonging.
The admissions committee is looking for applicants that are self-reflective. Whether it’s through a setback you’ve experienced, or how you dealt with situations that have gone awry, the school is looking for students who are resilient and able to learn from their mistakes.
Do not overexaggerate (or underexaggerate!) the situations you decide to write about. Be honest about what happened; the Haas School of Business is looking for genuine people to join their campus community, and they are less likely to admit an applicant who has overinflated their prior experiences.
Last but not least, make sure to describe what you learned and how you implemented this in a subsequent situation. This is an expected element of the behavioral essay, even if it’s not directly written in the prompt. The school is looking for applicants who will act with humility, and have confidence without attitude. Prompts that deal with these topics can be daunting, especially when they require you to write about a weakness you have or a failure you’ve experienced.
Optional Essay
An unusual aspect of the Haas application is that they have two optional essays: one traditional optional essay, in which you can elaborate on or clarify any element of your application you feel requires further consideration, and an additional family information essay, in which you can expand on your family background and any unusual life circumstances that could fortify your overall application.
One trap that MBA applicants fall into is using the additional space provided by the optional essay to write on a whole new topic. However, this is not always the best idea.
You should only make use of this essay if you what you write will provide context to an element of your application to improve your candidacy—you don’t want to jeopardize your chances by adding unnecessary noise to your application.
Supplemental Information
Finally, UC Berkeley’s Haas MBA program has some additional prompts pertaining to your application. Here you will have the opportunity to detail activities that enhance your MBA profile as well as explain any peculiarities in your application.
Supplemental Information Prompts
1. If you have not provided a letter of recommendation from your current supervisor, please explain. If not applicable, enter N/A. (text box, no word limit)
2. List, in order of importance, up to five significant community and professional organizations and extracurricular activities in which you have been involved during or after university studies. Include the following information for each using the format below:
- Name of organization or activity
- Nature of organization or activity
- Size of organization
- Dates of involvement
- Offices held
- Average number of hours spent per month
If not applicable, enter N/A. (text box, no word limit)
3. List full-time and part-time jobs held during undergraduate or graduate studies indicating the employer, job title, employment dates, location, and the number of hours worked per week for each position held prior to the completion of your degree. If not applicable, enter N/A. (text box, no word limit)
4. If you have ever been subject to academic discipline, placed on probation, suspended, or required to withdraw from any college or university, please explain. If not, please enter N/A. (An affirmative response to this question does not automatically disqualify you from admission.) (text box, no word limit)
Conclusion
Writing strong, coherent, genuine stories is an essential part of your MBA application. These essays are meant to help you stand out among many other applicants, so it is worth your time to do the work and write about situations unique to your life and that you truly learned from.
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