how hard to get into haas?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
21

<p>I kinda implied that all business majors were slackers in my last post, and I didn't mean to. </p>

<p>Shadowguy, perhaps it would make senes to have more business related fields, but the business school might not feel that that is necessary, and creating programs other than the business administration one might cuase the business administration program to suffer. I don't know if they feel that creating alternative paths is necessary.</p>

<p>As to econ being a fallback to business, I am more impressed by econ majors than business majors. I am impressed by the probably high performance of business majors in their first two years (to get accepted into the program), but economics is more interesting, and how many nobel winners are in the business program? It's unfortunate that some people think as econ as a fallback if business doesn't work out, because for many it is not.</p>

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<p>I agree, it does anger me that a girl I met said economics is her "definite" fallback if she can't get into Haas.</p>

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<p>Unfortunately, fair or not fair, that's how it is. The fact is, there really are some people who really do treat econ as a 'safety major' if they can't get into busad, and that makes all the econ students look bad. It's like how how UCDavis students are often times painted as people who weren't good enough to get into Berkeley, or how people who take banking jobs at Merrill Lynch are painted as people who weren't good enough to get hired at Goldman Sachs. It may be totally unjustified and unfair, but the perception is there. </p>

<p>If the econ department doesn't like it, then what it should do is it should itself raise its admissions standards to declare the major to be equal to, or maybe even higher than, Haas's standards. That would eliminate the stigma of being the 'safety major'.</p>

24

<p>Eh, that wouldn't be fair to the econ students who are just okay and want to study econ.</p>

25

<p>Well hey, as it stands right now, it also isn't 'fair' for those bus-ad students who are just OK and want to study busad. </p>

<p>Like I said, the way to really make things fair is for Haas to admit students as freshman, the way that Wharton does now. But I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen. So as it stands, it is inevitable that there will be people who try to get into Haas and do not succeed, and those majors that they do end up landing in will get tarred as 'fallback majors'.</p>

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<p>It's too bad they're not 'falling back' into Applied Math or IEOR!</p>

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<p>so econ is just as hard are BusAd? What about PEIS? how does that compare?</p>

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<p>PEIS is fluff.</p>

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<p>Nice and fluffly, just like Political science and business administration.</p>

<p>Oh, instead of just saying "it's fluff," we could put why!</p>

<p>I don't agree with my first line, by the way.</p>

<p>Who said business adminstration is hard? After you get in, that is, how hard is it? How do you measure difficulty anyway? Philosophy is difficult in a much different way than engineering, but yet they're both tough.</p>

30

<p>so PEIS is hard? or not as hard compared to economics? what about compared to BusAD?</p>

31

<p>PEIS isn't hard or easy. Here's what the requirements used to be.</p>

<p>THE INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE IS OUT-OF-DATE. See the Student Handbook for current information.</p>

<p>How to complete the major</p>

<p>There is considerable flexibility within the PEIS major. Students are encouraged to develop their own program according to their intellectual interests and the global areas that interest them. There is, however, a framework in the major and minimal core course requirements that must be met. They are designed to provide all PEIS students with a common knowledge base and common intellectual reference points.</p>

<p>The program consists of three tiers of course work and a foreign language requirement.
Tier I: four lower-division courses providing historical, political, quantitative, economic, and linguistic skills essential for the upper-division course work and for future career and educational options;
Tier II: six upper-division core courses providing advanced study of modern political economies; and
Tier III: four courses providing in-depth study in the student's chosen emphasis (more on the emphasis later).</p>

<p>In addition to the requirements outlined above, all PEIS majors must demonstrate proficiency in a single modern language (other than English) equivalent to four college-level semesters.</p>

<p>Students are reminded that no course used to complete major requirements may be taken P/NP.</p>

<p>Is four college semesters of a language easy? </p>

<p>Is that easy? Is that hard? Okay, here's business administration.<br>
<a href="http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/Undergrad/requirements_for_degree.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/Undergrad/requirements_for_degree.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/Undergrad/applying.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/Undergrad/applying.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Okay, so it's tough to get into, but once you're in, how tough is it? I don't know. Econ? Yeah, you have to know advanced economics. The department is filled with Nobel laureates, the highest possible award in economics. It's not a slacker’s major. Some people would rather be analyzing Chauncer, some people would rather be dealing with theoretical mathematics. How can you just say "easier" or "harder" and expect a good answer? Perhaps you could ask how many hours of work do people do outside of class, or how challenged do they feel.</p>

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<p>so, basically you design your own course for PEIS? you take wtv classes you want inside of those guidelines? can't be thaat easy now can it?</p>

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<p>Yeah, you can take whatever course of study you want within specific guidelines as a philosophy major, too. Yep, you have to take a particular logic class, and two survey courses, one ancient and one modern, but besides that, you can take any class within ethics, two within Epistemology/Metaphysics, two within history, and three electives. What an easy course of study (you have so much leeway!!!). If you think that difficultly means inability to choose, check out Columbia, Chicago, or best, St. Johns. All can provide fantastic, well rounded educations, and not so much choice (particularly St. Johns). Oh, and laugh at kids at easy schools like Brown, Smith and Vassar, seeing that they have all the choice in the world. </p>

<p><a href="http://ias.berkeley.edu/iastp/peis/requirements.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ias.berkeley.edu/iastp/peis/requirements.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Click on the "Student Handbook" link to read about the current policy. God forbid people study what they find interesting.</p>

34

<p>Lol, read what a highschool classmate of mine said in his online blog. Note that he is very salary oriented, and money is very important to him:</p>

<p>"If I don't get into business school, I can't major in Business, so I have to major in Economics, which isn't bad at all actually--there's just no way to get an MBA in Berkeley with a major in Economics. An Economics major is based on very similar ideas as a Business major and the average salary is around the same, but it's just the fact that I would be settling that bothers me. Being at a school like Berkeley, it seems like kind of a waste to just graduate with a BA, which is why I am aspiring after Haas so much. MBA=more opportunities=more success, simple formula. If I don't get into Haas here, I'm gonna have to pursue an MBA in all likilihood at SJSU, which umm, no offense to friends in SJSU, is kind of a step down from Berkeley? "</p>

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<p>Haha please go educate this person . . . please?</p>

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<p>Ah what the heck. Here's the WHOLE blog entry:</p>

<p>"But yeah, something has been on my mind since a couple days ago, and I just need a place to express it, so here it is. Long read, read it if you want, I don't really mind...I just need a place to vent. I have been having serious doubts about my future and where I'll end up. I guess my biggest fear in life is failure, not living up to my potential and what I should be. Okay, so the main reason I chose to go to Berkeley is cause Haas School of Business is here, one of the top business schools in the nation. I can apply to it as early as the fall of my sophmore year. 50% of the admittance process is based on grades and coursework.</p>

<p>If I don't get into business school, I can't major in Business, so I have to major in Economics, which isn't bad at all actually--there's just no way to get an MBA in Berkeley with a major in Economics. An Economics major is based on very similar ideas as a Business major and the average salary is around the same, but it's just the fact that I would be settling that bothers me. Being at a school like Berkeley, it seems like kind of a waste to just graduate with a BA, which is why I am aspiring after Haas so much. MBA=more opportunities=more success, simple formula. If I don't get into Haas here, I'm gonna have to pursue an MBA in all likilihood at SJSU, which umm, no offense to friends in SJSU, is kind of a step down from Berkeley? </p>

<p>Of the three classes I'm currently enrolled in, let's just say I'm not doing so hot in two of them. I mean, it's not like I'm getting Cs....but something like a 3.3 GPA is not getting me into Haas. I mean, with my middle school and high school, I have always been a good student, always near the top of the class and I always knew how I had to adjust to get my grades. Easier classes, work less and still get the A....harder classes, study more and get the A. And now, I've been consistently getting Bs on papers, and it's not like HW is 40% of your grade like it was in high school, so papers and tests take up a significant portion of your grade. Some of the more sympathetic people will probably say "Oh, it's Berkeley, it's supposed to be hard, don't worry about a couple of Bs" but the thing is...it is ENTIRELY FEASABLE to get an A on at least 90% of my assignments that I've been dissapointed with. It's not like these assignments are mind blowingly impossible to comprehend, albeit it is significantly more difficult than high school and I'm only enrolled in 13 god damn units. I mean, it's not like I'm going out every day and getting drunk off my ass which deters me from academics...I spend about 3.5 hours per essay just thinking of a god damn one sentence thesis and each essay takes me like 9 hours min. to write. The effort and potential is just not proportionally matching up to the results.</p>

<p>And all of this leads to the question of why I'm incapable of performing up to my potential in this college enviornment which is really what's bothering me. I mean, on a direct scale, these grades only matter for Haas, because if I major in Economics...a good GPA is pretty much irrelevant since it doesn't take much to get a BA. But I guess it's just me...I've always had high expectations for those around me and especially myself. Maybe it's the way that my parents raised me since they never had proper educational background to be financially prosperous. My ideal job in a perfect world would be being a writer for ESPN.com writing up editorials about the NBA, but I know that something with business and a big salary is what I need to chase after. I just feel that right now, I'm falling short of self expectations and I've never been one to aim low just to get that false sense of achievement. What scares me is how this will reflect in my future if it does happen to continue on. Or hey, maybe I'm just completely blowing this thing out of the water, I'm totally willing to accept that, but this is just what I'm feeling right now, that what's coming from this just isn't enough. Sigh...winter break needs to come faster...no pressures about anything school related, just relaxation."</p>

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<p>What do you think of these as alternatives?</p>

<p>Industrial Engineering and Operations Research </p>

<p>Interdisciplinary Studies</p>

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<p>You consider getting into the College of Engineering's IEOR major an alternative if you don't get into Haas?</p>

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<p>I didnt mention it as a fallback, but as something that is an alternative.</p>

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<p>so you want to get into Haas which is going to happen in your junior year. By that time, i don't think IEOR is a viable alternative unless you fulfill all the lower division requirement. However, engineering is pretty hard, so if you try to fulfill these requirements while taking required classes for Haas, you might be screwing yourself over. you need like a 3.5 to get into Haas, i think</p>