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Haas MBA Brian Maxwell Fellowship - $40,000 (Entrepreneurial Candidates)

Haas MBA Brian Maxwell Fellows offers $40,000 – Entrepreneurial Candidates

History

In honor of Brian Maxwell, co-founder of PowerBar, Jennifer Maxwell, his wife, established the Brian Maxwell Fellows program at the Haas School of Business in 2006. Every year, the Brian Maxwell Fellows Selection Committee grants up to two graduate fellowships to deserving Haas students based on their potential to maximize opportunities and create innovative solutions that have far-reaching impact on the world.

Prospective fellows can access the Brian Maxwell fellowship application through the Haas MBA application portal. There is a separate essay question that applicants must answer.

Amount: $40,000 (to each fellow)

Number of Awards: 2

Decision: The fellows are announced in the late April to May timeframe

Criteria: The committee evaluates the applicant on entrepreneurial traits - determination, persistence, passion, optimism, courage, fearlessness, strength, creativity, generosity, humility, and peacefulness.

Reference

Brian Maxwell Fellowship

Berkeley Haas MBA Essay Guide

Question 1: What makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why? (300 words maximum) (Video Essay)

Question 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)

Question 3: Distance Traveled: At Berkeley Haas, we consider "distance traveled" as the contextual information that helps us understand the unique circumstances, challenges, or influences that have shaped your personal and professional journey.

We invite you to share aspects of your background, personal circumstances, or significant experiences that have meaningfully impacted who you are today and how you've reached this point. Please tell us how these experiences have influenced your perspectives, decisions, and aspirations, and how they contribute to the person you are becoming. (300 words max)

Download F1GMAT's Berkeley Haas MBA Essay Guide

Atul Jose F1GMAT's FounderAbout the Author 

I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.

For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.

 

My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.

 

I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.

 

The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.

 

Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.