Prompt: What are your post-MBA career goals, and how will the resources at UC Berkeley Haas help you achieve them? How do you plan to remain adaptable as your career evolves? (300 words maximum)
When writing about your short-term post-MBA professional goal and/or your long-term goal career goal, consider how your goals align with Haas's Leadership Principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself.
If you are not sure how to frame this essay, here are some suggestions that you may be able to apply to your writing:
Question the Status Quo
Confidence without Attitude
Students Always
Beyond Yourself
When you write about the type(s) of position that you want to be in after your MBA, write also about how you hope to make a positive impact on business and other people, and the type(s) of organization that you are looking to make an impact on or with, and why. If you have a mission that you pursuing, tell them about that mission.
Then describe how the full-time MBA program at Berkeley Haas aligns with your career goals and will help you to transform yourself into a leader in your area.
Haas breaks it down as:
List the opportunities that Haas will provide to you (e.g., classes, specific professors, coaching, experiential projects, the networking opportunities with Silicon Valley), and also describe how you will take advantage of these opportunities to work on yourself and become the leader that you envision yourself to be.
Lastly, you need to include an answer to the question "How do you plan to remain adaptable as your career evolves?
I recommend a two-pronged approach in your response.
The following essays have appeared in past applications.
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.
We invite you to help us better understand the context of your opportunities and achievements:
1. What is the highest level of education completed by your parent(s) or guardian(s)?
2. What is the most recent occupation of your parent(s) or guardian(s)?
3. If you were raised in one of the following household types, please indicate:
4. What was the primary language spoken in your childhood home?
5. If you have you ever been responsible for providing significant and continuing financial or supervisory support for someone else, please indicate:
6. Please elaborate on any of your above responses. Alternatively, you may use this opportunity to expand on other hardships or unusual life circumstances that may help us understand the context of your opportunities, achievements, and impact. (300 words maximum)
This essay should only be used to elaborate on special life circumstances that caused some unusual obstacles that you had to surmount or created the need for you to be adaptible. Basically, Haas is looking for a story of how you went from a youth where things might have gone sideways to a successful situation in which you are now applying for the MBA program. How did you do that?
Prompt: 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. (300 words maximum)
This is an opportunity to turn a weakness into a strength.
1. If you have not provided a letter of recommendation from your current supervisor, please explain. If not applicable, enter N/A.
2. List, in order of importance, 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:
3. List full-time and part-time jobs held during undergraduate or graduate studies, prior to the completion of your degree. Indicate the following:
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.)
The Berkeley Haas video essay should last 1-2 minutes and may not exceed 2 minutes. You should write out a video script in advance, and then send to me to review.
You will be able to test your audio-visual connection before recording. You have two (2) attempts to record your video essay before submitting it as part of your application.
Prompt: Briefly introduce yourself, then tell us what makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why?
Please share something about yourself that may not be evident in other parts of your application. We are looking for an authentic and introspective response that demonstrates how you will contribute to the MBA class and culture at UC Berkeley Haas.
Please note that Haas asks for something that will demonstrate your potential contribution, but doesn't necessarily require you to spell it out for them.
Your video, either in the self-introduction or the description of what makes you feel alive, should mirror Haas's Leadership Principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself.
Follow these general guidelines in developing your script:
I also recommend using a little humor in your video introduction – don't take yourself too seriously.
Your self-introduction to the Admissions Committee should include your name and a very brief self-description. You don't have to anchor your self-description to your job unless you want to.
For example, if I were to do a very brief self-description, I have multiple choices:
... and so on. I would choose my introduction based on the backstory that leads into my account of what makes me feel alive and why. However, also consider how you will make that first statement about yourself memorable, and it should be the thing that you want the Admissions Committee to remember you by. "Oh yes, Elaine, that accidental entrepreneur."
Now you will want to answer the question "what makes you feel alive":
"The format that truly brings forward the strongest sort of responses begins with an example, a real-life example from your personal life or your professional journey ... The second piece of that is 'Why,' an exploration of that example." - Eric Askins, Assistant Dean
Most of the essay should not be about the activity itself (this is not a "How To" manual) but about you, how you feel about the activity, and why. Three questions should be answered:
Although I recommend that you use a script (again, I would like to review it in advance), but memorize it so that you are not obviously reading.
If you are shooting indoors, set up a background that is calm and uncluttered, and make sure that you have good lighting. Try to make the background represent yourself. Don't shoot the video in your bedroom, even if it's an uncluttered bedroom. Make sure that the camera is raised to be centered on your face - you do not want a video shot up your nose.
When filming your video, think about how the background of your video might align with your story about what makes you feel alive.
Here is an example of someone making an engaging introduction (although he makes the mistake of mainly focusing on his resume). Notice how he posed in front of a world map, representing his global interests.
You may also consider the careful use of show-and-tell in your video. Be careful not to overuse props that will overwhelm and distract from your story. However, showing something related to your story can emphasize the point that you wish to make.