How hard is it to get into Haas?

<p>^ 2.5-3.0? really? no one would survive out in the business world with that unless they had bomb skills/experience. </p>

<p>hell, top firms even think gpa’s below a 3.5 is too low.</p>

<p>that being said, and acknowledging i don’t have the sources to back me up, allow me to still make a much more educated “guess” than you have presented the thread with.</p>

<p>first off, the middle 80% GPA range for <em>incoming</em> haas undergrads is<br>
3.40-3.95 and avg gpa was a 3.7 (see [Class</a> Profile, Undergraduate Program - Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley](<a href=“Class Profile - Undergraduate Program - Berkeley Haas”>Class Profile - Undergraduate Program - Berkeley Haas))
At haas you have to finish at least 38 units of UpperDiv business classes in order to meet the minimum eligibility to graduate.
with this in mind, I’d say the middle 80% range GPA of a haas undergrad student at graduation is something like between 3.25 and 3.8. with the average at about 3.5</p>

<p>take it with a grain of salt: you could be in the bottom 10% for all i know. </p>

<p>also, what do you want to go to grad school for? business? if so, MBA’s aren’t primarily concerned with GPA as perhaps a Law school or Med school may be. top MBA programs look for people who have proved they are leaders, have experience in the business world, and are resourceful. sure, strive for a good gpa and gmat, but naturally, EXPERIENCE is a key part of your b-school application.</p>

<p>(it goes without saying a good undergrad gpa from haas will get you a lot of recruitment opportunities out of college.)</p>

<p>to OP, 2.5-3.0 is a little extreme, it’s more on the lines of what crowslayer stated… around 3.25 - 3.8. The program is competitive but remember it is in terms of getting A’s…there’s still plenty of rooms to get B’s and in fact most students do end up getting B’s. That being said, those are for the CORE courses and not for electives where there are projects, and perhaps even papers and the grading is more lenient. </p>

<p>Haas is not exactly a cakewalk but it’s not too bad either. Because everyone is trying to get a 3.5+ GPA for recruitment and the long lines comes recruiting season, it may feel competitive at times…</p>

<p>I didn’t mean to suggest that all people get 2.5-3.0 GPAs. It just seems from all of the talk about Haas, that is almost what it seems like. I saw on some previous threads that people were pretty unhappy about the 5% A policy. </p>

<p>I haven’t attended Haas or anything. I first need to get in, which is why I started this thread in the first part. I am just curious how difficult it is to 1) gain admission, and then 2) leave with a decent GPA. Of course, experience is much more important than GPA, but a lot of grad schools play a numbers game to some extent. Not saying that I completely approve of it, but if that is how it is done, I want to be sure that it will be nearly impossible to graduate with a GPA that will give me a good chance of going somewhere good for grad. </p>

<p>Also, you mentioned that “everyone is trying to get a 3.5+ GPA.” Is that generally a good goal for a GPA? What sort of range do top grad schools look for? From my understanding, it seems that Berkeley students may be at a disadvantage when competing for admission to grad schools against other students from schools that could possibly inflate GPAs.</p>

<p>So you apply during junior year? Or is it sometime during the sophomore year?</p>

<p>Also, do they care about the summer following the end of senior year in high school?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~hilfingr/report/index.html]Grade”>Grade Distributions for EECS and LSCS Students]Grade</a> Distributions for EECS and LSCS Students<a href=“from%201999”>/url</a> says that upper division EE and CS courses typically had around 30% to 35% A grades (including A+ and A-). B grades (including B+ and B-) made up about another 40% or 45% or so.</p>

<p>What years/summers will they take into account? I think most of the people I know are just relaxing during the summer after senior year, instead of looking for internships and stuff.</p>

<p>Anything you can put down on your application will help. It doesn’t matter if you start now or later but just make sure you have some good stuff to put down there in the end.</p>

<p>Oh ok. So it would be best to go and try to find an internship somewhere this summer? If I attend Cal, it is sort of far, but I’d need time during the summer to get ready, so I don’t know how many quality weeks I can spend doing an internship.</p>

<p>I don’t know many people that did an internship in the summer between hs and college. Most people do an internship during the school year or the summer after freshman year. Actually, you know what, you don’t even have to do an internship at all. There are people who have gotten in who never did an internship until it was almost time to graduate. You just have to do SOMETHING.</p>

<p>If some people can skip some classes because of AP credit, does that give them an advantage if they take the upper lane courses? I think there’s this English R1A and B requirement. People who took AP English could skip it with a 5, but for those who don’t have it, does that make you disadvantaged in terms of admissions?</p>

<p>[FAQs</a>, Undergraduate Program - Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley](<a href=“FAQ - Undergraduate Program - Berkeley Haas”>FAQ - Undergraduate Program - Berkeley Haas)</p>

<p>If Haas sees the math classes as the same, and also the R&C classes as the same, then why are there cases of people with good activities and leadership positions and high 3.8+ GPAs not getting in? Would it be wise, then to sign up for the hardest R&C classes and hardest breadth classes and hardest math classes?</p>

<p>I doubt harder courses would matter. I’m in Haas. I’m sure those ppl who didn’t get in with good gpas and ecs wrote mediocre essays.</p>

<p>Ah I see.</p>

<p>So an example of what I’m talking about for Math–taking 16 instead of 1 series or 53 or 54.</p>

<p>Or taking “easier” R&C courses like German, Scandin, Slavic, Asian American studies, etc.–they actually don’t care? I know some who are applying this semester, and those horror stories of 3.8 GPA people getting rejected conjures up rumors and speculation.</p>

<p>Surely they would never just look and say, “oh, this applicant took scandin. He’s out.” despite a high overall GPA? My initial thought was that the essays might not have cut it, despite good GPA and ECs. What do other people think?</p>

<p>Did you get into Haas as a Berkeley student or a transfer? I’m wondering if you have to take hard classes relative to your group. If you are a transfer, take harder classes than other transfers. If at Berkeley already, take harder stuff than other Berkeley kids?</p>

<p>Course load does not matter. I’m not even sure if essay quality matters as I wrote mine on the night of and I personally disliked it.</p>