What makes Haas my dream school ??

 

As I had promised previously in one of my posts,  I will be writing next few posts on why I chose to apply to Haas and why Haas is my dream school. I have applied to Haas in round 2 and Haas was my last application and my best application in terms of essay responses. I applied it as the last application because I wanted to make sure I submit the best application possible to my dream school.

One thing that clearly differentiates Haas is the emphasis on Leading through Innovation and creating leaders who possess Confidence without Attitude. And the Haas lives up to this challenge by being a highly innovative, collaborative and student driven community.As I have mentioned multiple times before, small class size and collaborative culture were among the important factors in my school selection and Haas easily scored in this. But what other factors contributed to my Haas dream ? Read on.. Here goes my Haas story

Informational Interview Haas student Pejman

My first peek into the Haas experience was through a current Haas student, Pejman. I thoroughly enjoyed conversation with him and his candid review of life at Haas and the MBA decision. He also shared his entrepreneurial journey of founding Magoosh with me. You can read the full interview on my post Haas Student Interview

They say 1st impression is the best impression and it was true for Haas. I was more inclined towards Haas after this interview and decided to dig in more. 

Haas in social media 

Visiting Haas is not the only way to learn and understand the Haas program. For me understanding the the culture of the school is as important as understanding the MBA program. Being an international, today I have a very good understanding of the school, MBA program, and the Haas culture; thanks to the wealth of information available online. Haas has a strong social media presence on twitter, linked in, facebook, blogs and more.Visit haas.berkeley.edu/haas/socialmedia to get latest updates from Haas.Also Haas students and alumni (e.g. Kryzak on gmat club) are very active on various MBA forums and are ready to share their thoughts and perspectives with Haas aspirants. You can also directly interact with Haas admissions team on the Haas messageboard. Also Haas students are very friendly and open to conversations. So I got in touch with few current students to get a more holistic view of the program. A good starting point to reach out to them would be to get in touch with the Haas student ambassadors

Berkeley coffee chat Bangalore

I attended the Haas coffee chat which happened few weeks back in Bangalore. Rohan Reddy, Haas class of 2011 was here in Bangalore to do the coffee chat and the session was extremely helpful in getting a first hand perspective of life at Haas. Unlike other information sessions, there was no big crowd. We were a group of 10 15 people who really were interested in Haas. So it was a very meaningful exchange of thoughts and ideas. I knew Haas had a very collaborative culture but after talking to Rohan I realized that Haas is a very student driven community. Right from GPA disclosure to course electives, students have the complete freedom to choose what is best for them. That is really nice to know about. I also learned more about 3 clubs which am most excited about - Redwoods@Haas (The Haas outdoors club), Berkeley Net Impact and Haas Technology club.
You can learn about various clubs@Haas by visiting this link : http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/MBA/student/

Why Haas is a perfect school for me

When I was researching the schools and learned more about Haas and decided to apply, there were many people who said -
"Hey Haas is great school but it is very particular about the work experience of the applicants. You have much lesser work ex than the school average and you are just wasting your efforts"

This did deter me a bit initially but the more I learned about the Haas, the more interacted with the Haas community, the more I loved the school. And I decided to go ahead and apply to Haas. I knew my candidacy was more than few data points. I knew I could relate my previous experiences ( in Technology innovation and social entrepreneurship) and my future goals really well with Haas MBA program.
(  I am passionate about emerging technology innovation and my current stint in a tech start up has further reinforced my ambitions for a technology innovation career. But I am equally passionate about sustainability initiatives. So my dream is to pursue a career in sustainable technologies like clean technology which would be a perfect way to leverage both my passions - emerging technology innovation and sustainability - making it a dream career after my MBA.)

And let me tell you Haas is big in both these fields. When it comes to technology, Haas perhaps has one of the best technology programs. And its specially has a strong focus on emerging technologies such as clean tech. The newly opened Haas energy institute, the cleantech-to-market program all are wonderful initiatives which ensured that Haas can really offer the best resources for me in my MBA. And of course the location of Haas with a close proximity to Silicon Valley makes it a top notch technology program.  To quote the Veritas Prep Haas annual report

One of Haas' truly distinctive elements is the school's focus on technology and its ability to place students into the tech industry. Haas sends 30% of each graduating class into the tech sector, which is not only the highest percentage among elite business schools, but is also twice that of the next closest programs (Ross and MIT Sloan). This emphasis, combined with Berkeley's tradition for innovation, leads to truly unique programs such as the school's latest push for the commercialization of clean technology.

I place high emphasis on Business ethics and the importance of having a socially conscious attitude in business. In fact this is what makes me interested in sustainable businesses. Haas again was able to amaze me with its strength in the field of responsible business.The Haas Center for Responsible Business is dedicated to "create a more sustainable, ethical, and socially responsible society". Just what I expect from a MBA program and more generally from the world of business. I strongly believe business is more about creating value to the people, to the society than just making profits.

Great technology program, wonderful opportunities to learn about clean technology, strong CSR focus and wonderfully collaborative community. Perfecto !!!! Now that's what I call a perfect fit.

The Haas application

What an application !! With 7 essays and 3000 words limit, Haas was the most challenging yet most enjoyable application I did in my MBA application journey. Fitting my ever expanding thoughts into 250 word essays was a real challenge and so were the other long essays. I have put in a lot of effort to reflect on my past experiences and how would I, with the help of Haas MBA, translate it to my future goals. I hope the effort pays off.

What next ?

Will I make it to Haas ? I will know by March 17th. Now all I can do is to pray that Haas also sees that ideal fit in me and embraces me into its wonderful community. Fingers crossed.

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Update 1
P.S Just learned that my dear friend Fábio Póvoa, also a fellow international blogger at MBA in The USA made it to Haas in round 1 with full tuition scholarship. Am really really really happy for my friend and he deserves every bit of it. Congratssss Fabio :) It will be great to join you at Haas this fall.

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Update 2 -
Haas is keeping on my toes. Deadline is approaching fast and I am eagerly awaiting for some news. Haas are you listening !! I feel strong is my strongest application and best choice in terms of fit. fingers crossed !!

I met this Tepper Alum in Tepper event.

Alumni network and connections can be one of the biggest takeaways from the MBA program. Carnegie Mellon really scores on this front. CMU brand is also strong back in India. I feel its mainly due to the legendary Computer Science school at CMU.

In the Tepper event that happened in Bangalore, as I told in my previous post  there were 5 Tepper alumni present and ready to share their story with us. One among them was Vikram Narayan who currently heads a technology enterprise in Bangalore.

But I just found more about his entrepreneurship adventures. He was featured on the YOUNG TURKS ON THE ROAD (CNBC) show. Here is what I saw and I am thrilled to know what I learned about this alum. Hats off Vikram.

Darden admission event and my rants about the little small things in life and the big impact

This is a long pending post about my experiences about Darden admission reception at Bangalore. I would like to dedicate this post to few people who inspired me to write this post. The two Bangalore auto drivers who made sure I attended the event and the Dean at Darden school of Business, Mr Bob Bruner. Read on to know why.

I have always felt a liking towards Darden school and culture. I have a personal liking towards the Darden admissions director Sara Neher, specially so after watching her video blogs. I had also heard a lot about the Dean Bruner.I got a chance to meet him in person and it all started when I got the mail about Darden admission reception at Bangalore in September. I was thrilled to learn that Dean himself will be present at the event and I registered immediately.

Comes the admission event day and things were far from being perfect. Work was hectic as usual and it was pouring heavily in Bangalore. When I finally finished my work and came out of office to go home, it was raining cats and dogs and I had no option but to drive back home on my bike in that heavy rain. After that crazy experience I decided to play safe and take an auto to venue instead. Then started the usual scene of Auto driver tantrums. In Bangalore auto drivers have the bad reputation of being snobbish and not people friendly. One should reach out for a minimum 5 auto drivers before they agree to drop you to your destination. And things get worse if its night and topped up with heavy rains. After 10 minutes of a failed auto hunt, I was getting impatient to stand on the road in the rain. Finally one auto driver agreed to drop me to my venue that too at the normal price (God bless him). I don't remember his name or face but I can never forget his sense of duty and honesty. If at all I get into Darden, he will have his share in it..

I reached the venue bit late and found that people have already reached. The setup was very warm and informal and we had Dean Bruner, Asst director of admissions Sandy and alumni Jatin representing Darden. All of them were very friendly and open to all our questions. I was just waiting to meet dean Bruner who was having a chat with few other aspirants and I joined the group. It was the 1st time I was meeting the Dean of some top Business school. He was very warm and friendly and introduced himself to me. That friendly gesture helped me open up and I had some great time chatting with him about my questions about MBA and Darden. I asked questions about University of Virginia campus, First coffee at Darden and learning teams. And the answers he gave was detailed and perfect. He vividly explained his thoughts and each of his answers were reconfirming my fit for Darden. I never expected to have such a friendly conversation with The Dean himself. This is something I will cherish in my memories.

I can't wait to apply to Darden and I have moved back Darden to round 1. I have done enough of research and am confident about putting my best foot forward in round 1 itself. I have always felt that fit for this school and I hope I will get a admit. I hope to meet Dean Bruner again in first coffee. (Addition to my dreams list)

And it was the same experiece while going back home : it was still raining heavily and auto drivers were still refusing to come or asking exorbitant money. But again I met one more honest auto guy who safely dropped me back home. These are the kind of people who command very high respect from me. 

So what was my take away from this experience

• A chance to meet and interact with Dean. A lesson that a person can still remain friendly and down to earth even after achieving great things in life. 
• The profession can not decide the worth of a person but the passion and honesty about the profession is what makes one respectable. 
• The actual strength lies in lasting that extra mile while backing out at any moment might mean that you just missed reaching your goal. If only I had decided to go back home after failing to get an auto for long time, I would have missed the whole new experience.
  

That day I met 3 persons who were just the kind of persons I love to meet ; honest and passionate about what they do. Dean Bruner and 2 auto guys. This post is for you guys.. You guys rock !!

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Madz