Haas has made some notable changes to its essay set for the coming admissions season. First, the program has promoted the introduction to last year’s third essay, making it into a preamble for the entire set of prompts:
At Berkeley-Haas, our distinctive culture is defined by four key principles — question the status quo; confidence without attitude; students always; and beyond yourself. We seek candidates from a broad range of cultures, backgrounds, and industries who demonstrate a strong cultural fit with our program and defining principles. Please use the following essays as an opportunity to reflect on and share with us the values, experiences, and accomplishments that have helped shape who you are.
Applicants would therefore do well to select examples and respond to each of the program’s required essays in a way that, in aggregate, touches upon these four principles.
Haas has also slightly reduced the overall length of its essay set; while there are still six required essays, the list now features just one “long response,” with the remaining five coming in at 250-words maximum. Let’s take a closer look at each of these essays:
What brings you the greatest joy? How does this make you distinctive?
Last year’s lead-off question about the applicant’s greatest passion has morphed somewhat, focused this year on pure pleasure than a deeper drive. In asking this question, the adcom may be seeking to understand applicants on a more basic, human level, since it’s easy to slip in a career-goals-focused frame when the word “passion” is involved. Candidates might begin by reflecting on the sorts of activities or accomplishments that bring them the greatest happiness or satisfaction, and begin to build an essay from there. Of course, in discussing this source of joy, it would be ideal to share an illustrative example that introduces information relevant to your candidacy; consider ways to tie your work activities, career goals, academic interests or extracurricular involvements into your response.
What is your most significant accomplishment?
This is a very tall order for a 250 word essay, so brevity will be key. You’ll clearly want to select an impressive achievement to discuss – ideally one in which you had a positive impact on a person, group or organization (as it would reflect well on you to say that you consider it significant that you improved something for others). It will be important to comment not only on the results, but also on the actions and thought process by which you brought them about. Note that the question does not limit you to the professional realm, so feel free to think of examples from your outside activities in selecting a topic for this short response.
Describe a time when you questioned an established practice or thought within an organization. How did your actions create positive change?
A new question for this season, this prompt gets to the heart of Haas’s “question the status quo” principle, and could provide a nice opportunity to demonstrate “confidence without attitude” as well. The parameters of this essay are fairly straightforward, and it’s clear that Haas is looking for students with prior experience as change agents. For some candidates, an example will come readily to mind, while others may have to be a bit more creative in identifying an anecdote they can spin as a response to this question. Either way, you’ll want to provide a brief summary of the situation that led you to make a suggestion or question a practice, walk the reader through your process in escalating the issue or enacting change, and providing a clear picture of the improved state of affairs afterward.
Describe a time when you were a student of your own failure. What specific insight from this experience has shaped your development?
This prompt about learning a valuable lesson from a failure represents a fairly conventional b-school essay topic, with the added challenge of conveying all of the pertinent details in just 250 words. As is common practice for this sort of response that requires candidates to introduce negative information, you’ll want to summarize the situation and the failure itself in relatively few words, reserving the bulk of the essay for a treatment of the insight you gained from this experience and the ways it has shaped your development and experiences since. Haas’s wording about being a student of one’s own failure suggests an emphasis on reflection and a willingness to learn from one’s mistakes, so it may also be prudent to demonstrate a proactive approach to growing from the situation you chose for this response.
Describe a time when you led by inspiring or motivating others toward a shared goal.
While the wording of this prompt is new for this season, the Haas application has included an essay focused on leadership for several years running. With an impressive story to tell within a tight word limit, effective responses will provide a clear outline of the process by which the applicant inspired or motivated others, as well as a description of the positive result. It would be ideal to provide a solid professional example here, but an example from an extracurricular activity would suffice as well if you have made a more significant impact on an outside organization than you have in the workplace. To an extent, your topic choice may depend on how you’ve answered the earlier questions (since you’ll want to achieve balance across the essays).
What are your post-MBA short-term and long-term career goals? How have your professional experiences prepared you to achieve these goals? How will an MBA from Haas help you achieve these goals?
This is a fairly standard career goals essay asked by virtually all MBA programs, requiring applicants to provide an overview of their career to date, describe their short- and long-term objectives and explain their reasons for seeking an MBA from Haas in particular. As a general rule, specificity of career goals is of the utmost importance. Given the wording of Berkeley’s question, it will also be beneficial to draw explicit links between your previous experiences and future objectives in addition to touching upon the skills you’ve gained and lessons you’ve learned over the course of your career.
As the subject of the final question of this prompt suggests, demonstrating an understanding of the unique merits of Berkeley’s program is crucial to an effective response to this question. Taking the time to learn about the school’s curriculum, special programs and extracurricular activities – whether through a visit to campus, conversation with alumni or reading the Clear Admit School Guide to Haas – will pay dividends here.
Interestingly, Haas chooses to end its essay section with the typical career goals essay, whereas most schools lead off with this topic. Rather than providing an overview of, and introduction to, your candidacy, as is the case with the career goals essay for most schools, this essay will instead be the culmination of your message to the adcom. Make sure to tie together the themes that you’ve introduced in your other responses, and end on a note of enthusiasm about the program and the timing of your application.
Read the full article: Berkeley / Haas Essay Topic Analysis 2011-2012