<p>I just recently got accepted to Berkeley, Umich, and Stern and I am having a hard time deciding which is the best choice. Im from out of state and if I go to Berkeley, I plan to apply to the Haas school sophomore year. I was wondering if any Haas alumni/students could tell me about their experiences at Haas so far. Is it worth out of state tuition? How would you rate the classes and professors? Is Haas particularly strong in just one area (like finance vs. management vs. marketing) or is it strong across the board? What are the strengths and weaknesses of Haas?
Also, I couldnt find any detailed employment statistics online for Haas. Could any alumni or current Stern students tell me more about recruiting at Haas? How helpful is the recruiting office? How aggressive are they at attracting recruiters that are not conveniently located in California? Is Haas able to attract recruiters from all regions of the U.S., like the east coast? Also, what are the most popular fields Haas graduates enter upon graduation? When looking at the list of companies that recruited at Haas in the past three years, the majority of them seemed to be finance related. Does Haas attract recruiters from all business fields, or mostly finance? If any Haas students/alumni could answer these questions and share their recruiting experiences, I would appreciate it so much. Thanks</p>
<p>hey! i'm in exactly the same position.. deciding between those 3 schools..</p>
<p>Haas is primarily in SF, which is tech based, and is very small compared to NYC, where Wharton and Stern rule.</p>
<p>i wonder what the median starting salary with just a bachelors from Haas is? i heard for wharton it was near 100k with just a bachelors</p>
<p>That's wrong. Virtually No one can make 100k their first year out now, maybe when the economy was great. A study showed that the average salary 5 years out of Wharton BS was 97k, and Stern BS was right around there. I know Haas trails both to a significant degree.</p>
<p>I'm afraid I have to disagree. You still can make 100k right out with a bachelor's. Not with straight salary, but with salary+bonus, it is quite achievable. Granted, you almost certainly have to go into IB, hedge-funds, private equity, and the like where the bonuses can potentially be huge and also heavily depend on what deals you work on and how successful they are. </p>
<p>For example, I know two guys who came out with bachelor's in management from MIT-Sloan and cleared over 150k last year in investment banking (I think one may have cleared over 200k). And that was in their first year of working. Granted, they were unusually successful and worked on some very successful deals (obviously not every first year made that kind of money). And neither of them expects to make anywhere near that kind of money this year. But the point is, 100k is still highly achievable for a first-year in the right field who is sharp.</p>
<p>If you think Haas students are based only in SF then your kidding yourself. I'm willing to bet that more Haas alumni end up in LA rather that Haas. After all, half the student body is from southern California (last I heard).</p>
<p>LA has a very very small finance industry. There's one ibank, Houlihan, and basically the rest is a satellite brokerage house.</p>
<p>What makes you think that everyone want to go into investment banking?</p>
<p>Well its very very tough to get into a hedge fund, pe/vc, etc with no MBA.</p>
<p>hmmmm, its pretty hard to get into haas, i'll say that much for now, when i get in, i'll tell you the rest of the horror stories =P</p>
<p>Good luck at Haas. I'm sure you will enjoy Berkeley. Just work hard and good things will come.</p>