Haas Visit

OK so first thing's first...practice exam #5. I took my first GMAT Prep exam. Overall score was only 690 Quant 47 and Verbal 38. Wow, I missed a lot of questions. On the Quant section the first question I missed was #5 and we all know that's a big no-no. Then I continued to answer another 14 questions incorrectly! My time management was really bad as was my focus...again. I know this about myself alrady so why do I try to take these exams in public places? I was at Border's. I swear the next one I take (Wednesday) will be in a room at the library! The verbal section I didn't miss nearly as many questions but still there were a lot of incorrect answers, 9 to be exact. And again time management on verbal was horrendous. The last 10 questions I had approximately 2 minutes to answer. Oops. But I suppose since I seemed to screw up so bad and still managed to get a 690...that's a good thing? I'm trying to look on the bright side. My next practice exam I need to take really seriosuly because it's my last GMAT Prep exam and from what all you MBA bloggers say, those are the ones that tend to be closest to reality.

Now about my visit to Haas. I had to wake my lazy bum up at 6am to allow time to shower, get dressed into the suggested 'business casual' attire, get my coffee, and make my way to Berkeley (an hour drive). I got there just a little after 8 and was able to find parking really close just across the street. They had sent out an email warning us that parking would be difficult and suggested a lot that was about a 15 minute walk from Haas. I'd like to see you walk 15 minutes in heels! No thank you! So I paid $0.50/hr for the lot across the street that I'm not sure I was supposed to be at, but there was no ticket when I got back to my car.

I entered the Bank of America Forum and there was quite the spread of pastries, bagels, fruit and of course coffee. I definitley did not expect anything like this. The info sessions at Stanford and at Yale were so quick and short and informal, I guess I was expecting more of the same. They had people registering and eating until about 9am. I spoke with a few potential applicants but not too many. I was also surprised about the number of people in attendance. They said 250 people had signed up. This was their first ever Saturday, summer time info session...apparently it was a success.

We were seated in the Arthur Andersen Room, a rather large auditorium, and the info session began. First to speak was one of the Director's of admission. This was the first school to actually take advantage of the university's notoriety. When I went to Stanford and to Yale, neither of the presentations said anything about the fact that the business schools were at Yale or Stanford. I think those are big selling points and shouldn't be overlooked. Anyway, the guy from Haas took note of the fact that Haas is located at UC Berkeley and that Berkeley is a great university in itself. Anyway, he sold Haas and the rankings and the programs and all the basics. And of course adding that there's a collaborative, not competitive environment at Haas (Yale and Stanford said the exact same thing...hmmm??). At this point, about an hour into the presentation I was starting to think I might want to apply to Haas and consequently starting to panic about adding another application to my to do list. Then a second director of admissions spoke about the application process. I really liked how they presented themselves. They were very clear and honest about the entire process. So now, 2 hours into the presentation and I am cursing at myself because I like what they had to say and dammit, now I'm going to have to consider Haas too?!

At the 15 minute break we were able to ask the adcom guys some specific questions (I asked about the fact that as an engineer for years at the same company my title never changed but my responsibilities did and I had many salary increases, he gave some good advice on how to show that on my resume and how to work with my recommender so that he too could note that in his letter).

After the break the Director of Career Services came on. I wasn't impressed. The only thing that I liked about their career services was that they emphasized the interview counselors and how it's very important to take advantage of the mock interview sessions that are available to you, as many as you want as long as you sign up. Other than that I wasn't impressed. So now I'm thinking ok at least there's an item I can put on the con side of my pro/con list...maybe there's hope and I won't have to apply to Haas after all!

Then the financial aid guy came up to give his presentation. He covered all of the basics. No surprises there. They, like Stanford and Yale, have a loan forgiveness program for people who go into non-profit or gov't as long as their salary is below the standard $70k.

At this point I am pretty impressed with the time they took to prepare this info session and the comprehensiveness of it all. It was very informative and they did a really good job presenting everything.

So now comes the 6 student panel. 2 students were about to start their second year at Haas, 2 had just graduated in '06 and 2 had graduated in '05. Three men and three woman (definitely not representative of the class I'm sure). They took questions from the audience and a couple students answered each one. After the panel spoke they gave us a quick tour of Haas. And I have to say out of the three schools I've visited thus far Haas has by far the best facilities!

The student panel is where I lost my interest in Haas. To tell you the truth the the staff of the school had me sold but when I heard the students I decided this isn't where I want to go to school. No disrespect to that panel. They all seemed to be nice and incredibly bright people but for some reason I kept thinking that I couldn't imagine working on a team with any of those people on the panel. I can't place my finger on why? I'm just not sure? I mean it's hard to judge that from just listening to them answer questions for an hour but I think I have good intuition and I know myself well. I just don't think Haas is the place for me.

What this did teach me though is that I definitely need to go back to Stanford while it's in session and talk to some current students. I've met the alumni and I really felt a connection with them so at least I know that. At Yale I met students and didn't feel a connectin with them like I did with the Stanford alumni but I thought I could definitely work with them in groups and would have no problems. My point behind all this blabber is that I now FINALLY understand that word everyone keeps throwing around..."fit". I just didn't "fit" at Haas.