Haas MBA Class of 2016 Admissions Essays: The Song Remains the Same
Jul, 08, 2013
Categories: Essays | MBA | MBA留学 | UC Berkeley Haas
This is my post on the UC Berkeley Haas MBA Essays for Class of 2016 admission. You can find my post on Haas interviews here.
This is how I started my Haas essay analysis last year: “Haas always asks weird questions. Years ago, they asked who the applicant would invite to dinner and why. Last year, it was “What brings you the greatest joy? How does this make you distinctive? ” Each year brings some new weirdness. Hence their song remains the same.”
Indeed, I am right, but this time the song really remains the same because the Song question remains., though some essays were dropped and/or modified. So like last year, this post is music video enabled.
I had a dream. Crazy dream.
Anything I wanted to know, any place I needed to go
Hear my song. People won’t you listen now? Sing along.
You don’t know what you’re missing now.
Any little song that you know
Everything that’s small has to grow.
And it has to grow!
California sunlight, sweet Calcutta rain
Honolulu Starbright – the song remains the same.
Sing out Hare Hare, dance the Hoochie Koo.
City lights are oh so bright, as we go sliding… sliding… sliding through.
-Led Zeppelin, The Song Remains the Same
Well, since Berkeley Haas has again decided to ask applicants about their favorite song, so this blog post will be infused with music. Set back, relax, I will keep it musical and hopefully valuable to your quest to join the Class of 2016. I have taken the questions from the Haas website.
BILD: Are you Berkeley enough?
Before discussing BILD (Learn more about Berkeley-Haas’ Defining Principles), I could not ask for a better start to our musical journey than DJDAVE and LeaCharles’ Berkeley Enough (Fog and Smog), which will give those not familiar with town of Berkeley some possible insight.
I have visited Berkeley since I was a child and lived there at various times in the 1990s, so the following remarks reflect that. If you do not know, Berkeley, also known as the Peoples Republic of Berkeley, is one of my America’s most liberal, alternative, progressive, freaky, eccentric, left-wing, drug infested, intellectual, health food conscious, and gourmet cities. It is thus a place with very different sides to it. North Berkeley towards the hills is very affluent, while southern Berkeley merges into Oakland, a city with a long and troubled history of poverty and violence. If you are looking to go to school in one of America’s safest cities, Berkeley is not it. Students are regularly victims of crime. This could be true of any urban campus in America, so understand that Berkeley is a highly urban environment and not just a relaxed college town filled with happy old hippies drinking gourmet coffee and smoking medical marijuana, Bay Area entrepreneurs working on the next big thing, and hardworking students.
BILD
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.
I think it is worth considering these four values when thinking about your fit for Berkeley.
Question the status quo: Haas values change agents and non-conformists. This fits both within the larger prevailing worldview of UC Berkeley, the Bay Area, and the Silicon Valley.
Confidence without attitude: Haas values humility. It is important that you don’t come across as an arrogant person or egotistical leader type person in your essays. That might fly for HBS, but not Haas. Stanford Professor Bob Sutton’s No Asshole Rule surely applies at Haas. It should be reflected in the way you present yourself in your entire essay set.
Students always: Haas like UC Berkeley itself is place that values both a sense of curiosity and a passion for learning. Your intellectual capability matters at Berkeley.
Beyond yourself: Haas values people who are engaged with the world and want to make a difference. Those who have demonstrated a commitment to some issue or activity beyond their own personal concerns will be looked upon favorably. This should be reflected in your goals (Essay 4), a personal perspective you have, and/or your extracurricular activities.
Essay 1: If you could choose one song that expresses who you are, what is it and why? (250 word maximum)
“Pick a song that is meaningful to you — it doesn’t have to be popular, in English, or even have lyrics.”
Anytime you are given a question where you are asked to give something symbolic meaning, the first thing to do is think about what you want to express through the song. For example, if your objective was demonstrate your commitment to peace and social justice, you might pick Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind:
How many roads most a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
In this case, you might explain when Dylan’s first caught your attention. What it means to you and how it relates to actions you have taken in your own life. This is just one possible way of answering this question.
Your musical selection does not need to have lyrics and does not need to have lyrics in English. Even if the song has lyrics, my suggestion would be only briefly explain the meaning of those lyrics because you should really using most of your word count to explain what the song means to you.
I think the advantage of a song without lyrics, say a jazz instrumental or a classical composition (Western, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, whatever), is that it allows for easily focusing on what the song means to you. For example, I might use a song by India’s master violinist L. Subramaniam to discuss how the way the music effects me to express who I am. I might discuss 2-3 qualities about myself that are reflected in his music.
Clearly with compositional works, you have great freedom to attach any meaning you want it to it.
For songs with lyrics that are not English, there is no real difference between them and songs that are. You need to provide a brief explanation of what the song means.
I see two very different, but equally viable ways to actually think about this question within the greater context of the overall essay set:
For those who want to use Essay 1 to be the core operating logic for their entire essay set I would picking song whose theme relates to a dominant idea that connects to your professional goals and past actions. This is not easy to do, but if you were, for example, also applying to Stanford, it might very well be that the answer to what matters most you in Essay 1, could become the theme for this essay. This requires some real planning and having the time to really make the connections between at least Essay 1 and Essay 5.
For those who simply want to answer this totally twisted question and get on with the rest of their essay set, I would suggest that unless something occurs to you immediately, work through the rest of the essay set and then figure out what value(s) or quality(ities) about yourself that you have been unable to communicate elsewhere in the essay set. Assuming you have a list of few such qualities, I would then start to think about music and come up with some options. Link those values/qualities to something specific in your background.
Again, I think both ways are equally viable. The point is to give Haas admissions insight into what kind of person you are. Whatever kind of person that is, I suggest it be someone who fits at Haas. On that basis, I can’t recommend picking any music from GWAR:
But hey, maybe someone can make that work. If you get into Haas using a song by GWAR, let me know. Drinks are on me.
Essay 2: What is your most significant accomplishment? (250 word maximum)
With all your power
What would you do?
-Flaming Lips, Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
This is actually a totally standard issue essay topic. What have you done (with your power) so far? Where have you had the biggest impact and/or what accomplishment is most meaningful to you?
If your accomplishment meets at least the first two of the above criteria, you likely have a good topic. That said, I have two simple tests for determining whether an accomplishment really belongs in this essay. The first is whether Haas really needs to know about this accomplishment. After all, you might consider getting the love of your life to marry you to be one of your most substantial accomplishments, but will Adcom care? The second and final simple test I have for determining whether an accomplishment really belongs in this essay is based on the idea that something that is totally obvious about you to anyone looking at your resume and transcript is probably not worth mentioning. If you were a CPA, having an accomplishment that merely demonstrated you passed the CPA exam would be rather dull. Instead it would be important to show something more specific that reveals something that is not obvious by a mere examination of the basic facts of your application.
Finally, as I mentioned above what you include here is a real test of your judgment, so think deeply and come up a unique accomplishment that reveals something something about you that will compel admissions to want to interview you.
ESSAY 3: Describe a time in the last three years when you overcame a failure. What specific insight from this experience has shaped your development? (250 word maximum)
In some ways, I think this is the hardest essay in the entire set because you have do so much in very few words. This essay is not just Failure + Learning, but rather Failure + Overcoming Failure + Learning that has Impacted Your Development.
Regarding the failure, you might very well succeed from the perspective of others, but fail from your own perspective. In other words, the failure can be as subjective (“I feel like I failed because I did not live up to my own goals.”) or objective (“My team failed to meet the deadline.”).
Overcoming a failure can take several forms. For example, you might find a solution to the problem that the failure creates. Alternatively you might overcome a failure by getting over the financial, psychological, or other pain/negative impact that it creates. You might also overcome a failure by taking what you learn from it and simply applying it to a new situation so that you regain your own or someone else’s confidence.
A specific insight means what you learned. You should be able to clearly identify what you learned. You should then be able to explain how you took that learning and applied subsequently. This is a great opportunity to show you are open to changing your thinking and using it for your own self-development.
The time described might be professional or not. It might very well be a personal or academic failure. Just keep the time requirement in consideration. Haas is looking for a situation you learned from recently. This means that want to see a recent situation that highlights your ability to learn through the process of struggling with something.
The basic components of an answer:
1. Clearly state what the situation was.
2. Clearly state your role.
3. Clearly state your failure.
4. Explain how you overcame the failure.
5. Explain how your failure impacted your subsequent development.
This quite a bit to do in limited word count so obviously you need to effectively summarize and analyze here. Keep descriptions brief and to the point.
Finally, cliches are boring, so don’t write stuff like “Rome was not built in a day and neither was I.” Here is a song about that:
ESSAY 4: a. What are your post-MBA short-term and long-term career goals? How have your professional experiences prepared you to achieve these goals? b. How will an MBA from Haas help you achieve these goals? (750 word maximum for 5a. and 5b.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF-rtkrcQRg
Doing it your way is what any goals essay should be about. With the exception for the need to discuss your past experience and Berkeley specific content, please refer to my analysis of Stanford Essay 2 for formulating a goals essay.
You have 750 words to answer this question, so make the most of them and convince admissions that Berkeley is really your first choice. Those who have visited Haas and/or networked with students and/or alumni will have a distinct advantage in making that case over anyone who simply cuts and pastes some class names into their essay.
Reapplicant Essay: We strongly recommend that you submit a statement outlining how you have improved your candidacy since your last application, as the Admissions Committee will be looking for substantive change in your qualifications. You can use the optional essay question to provide this information.
The whole point of reapplication is to give Haas another chance to love you. Reapplicants should see my reapplication guide. Use this space to specifically explain what has improved about you since you last applied. You can certainly mention improved test scores, but I would not use very much of your word count for that. Typical topics include: development of a new skill, promotions that demonstrate your potential for future success, involvement in an extracurricular activity, learning significantly more about Haas, and why your goals discussed in Essay 4 now are better than the ones you presented last time. They want to see career growth or at least personal growth. Help them want to give you a chance.
Optional Essays