Haas MBA Deadlines and Essays for 2025 Entering Class, Subtle Change in prompt and Quick Writing Tips

Haas MBA has three rounds of deadlines. The first round is on Sept 12th, 2024, 2nd is on Jan 9th, 2025, and the third by April 3rd, 2025. 

Haas Full-time MBA Deadlines (2025 Entering Class)

What are the latest essays for the Haas Full-time MBA Program?

Required Essay #1: What makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why?(300 words max)

Required Essay #2: What are your short-term and long-term career goals, and how will an MBA from Haas help you achieve those goals?

Short-term career goals should be achievable within 3-5 years post-MBA, whereas long-term goals may span a decade or more and encompass broader professional aspirations.(300 words max)

Required Essay #3: Video Essay: One of our goals at Berkeley Haas is to develop leaders who value diversity and to create an inclusive environment in which people from different ethnicities, genders, lived experiences, and national origins feel welcomed and supported. Describe any experience or exposure you have in the area of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging whether through community organizations, personal, or in the workplace? Candidates seeking consideration for mission-aligned fellowships may use this space to reflect on their commitment to the mission of those fellowships. (300 words max)

Required Essay #4: Video Essay: The Berkeley MBA program develops leaders who embody our four Defining Leadership Principles. Briefly introduce yourself to the admissions committee, explain which Defining Leadership Principle resonates most with you, and tell us how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life.

Please review the Defining Leadership Principles in advance and take time to prepare your answer before recording. You will be able to test your audio-visual connection before recording. Video essays should last 1-2 minutes and may not exceed 2 minutes.

What has changed in Haas MBA Essays – 2025 Entering Class?

Well, nothing much has changed from last year except that Haas MBA Admissions has made the prompt clearer. 

Goals Essay: The school has clearly highlighted how Haas will help in achieving the goals. Last year, the phrase was “How will an MBA” help? 

Clarity helps the applicant tune their narrative from focusing on the general value of an MBA to the specific value proposition that Haas MBA offers. Those who have editing and review assistance from Consultants like me already know this secret. But if you are going on your own, clearly quote parts of the curriculum that will have the most impact on achieving your MBA goals.

DEI: Another clarity that the school has offered in this year’s essay prompt is in diversity that the school values.

“ethnicities, genders, lived experiences, and national origins.”

Last year, the prompt was simplistic - diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging. These qualities could be interpreted in so many ways. There were more options for applicants to explore. 

This year, Haas MBA Essay has limited the narrative to 4 groups

1. Genders 
2. Nationalities 
3. Ethnicities 
4. Nationalities

In the previous version, the identities were much broader

1. Race
2. Ethnicity
3. Gender
4. Age
5. Religion
6. Language
7. Abilities/Disabilities
8. Sexual Orientation
9. Gender Identity
10. Political Diversity
11. Socio Economic Status
12. Geographic Region

What identities have been merged or de-prioritized in the new Haas MBA Essay prompt?

“Language, Abilities/Disabilities/Political Diversity, Sexual Orientation” has been merged into lived experiences?

I am not certain why Haas did that. Perhaps the narrative on sexual orientation might be overrepresented, or political diversity is a touchy topic in the current political climate. 

Once the contentious and over-represented narrative has been removed, we are left with Language and Abilities/Disabilities. 

Language is covered by Nationalities. 

Abilities/Disabilities might be an underrepresented narrative that doesn't require a special mention for the application pool. 

I have written a few sample essays covering the four groups in 

• Sample Haas MBA Essay on DEI  (Building Inclusive Teams to Address Domestic Violence Among Native Americans)  (300 Words)    
• Sample Haas MBA Essay on DEI  (Silicon Valley and Black Entrepreneurs) (295 Words)
• Sample Haas MBA Essay on DEI (DEI in Design) (298 Words)   

My approach in writing the DEI essays was not to segregate the theme into groups, although I had a clear idea about the beneficiary. 

Even in Essay Editing, my first read is to evaluate if the applicant has defined the main character. The applicant obviously is the protagonist. Once we know the main character in the narrative, the second objective is to clearly mention the hurdle. 

This hurdle could be small in context or inter-generational.

Tackling inter-generational hurdles has the highest recall, like 

1. Representation of women in certain roles (C-Suite/SVP)
2. Economic inequality from racism (subtle and obvious), discrimination against ethnicities, or casteism (applicants from Indian sub-continents)
3. Unethical business or societal practices that impact one particular demographic in the four groups. 

These are some of the examples. 

I would highly recommend that you read how I have structured the essays by downloading the latest Haas MBA Essay Guide from F1GMAT’s Store. 

Most of the essays I have edited get the beneficiary and the hurdle right. It is offering the background of the injustice that require fine-tuning. Some are preachy. Many are too methodological without any emotions. Both are bad. 

If you need help editing your essays, Subscribe to F1GMAT’s Essay Editing Services.