Both Haas and Tepper are among the top Business Schools in the US. Haas School of Business is located in Berkeley, California – in the University of California, Berkeley campus - one of the 14 colleges and schools that are part of the Campus. Tepper School of Business is located in Carnegie Mellon University’s campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Location
Berkeley’s economy is primarily driven by the educational sector. According to recent employment statistics, the University of California, Berkeley was the top Employer, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was at a distant second.
Pittsburgh offers a much diverse opportunity. Although initially known for Steel trade, the city has transitioned to a hub for technology companies, with over 1600 high tech companies contributing towards the economy. Healthcare and Financial Services companies are the other two popular sectors.
Ranking
Haas School of Business has a clear advantage over Tepper. When you consider the average rank of MBA programs from US News, BusinessWeek, Financial Times and The Economist, Haas has an average rank of 10 while Tepper ranks at 20.
Incoming Class Profile
Tepper has a slightly liberal entry criterion than Haas. The average GMAT score of Tepper is 22 points below that of Haas, and the average GPA is 0.34 lower at 3.26. The average Experience and Age is similar, but the clear difference is in the class composition. The Women and International representation in Haas is higher than Tepper. When you analyze the Undergraduate Majors of both the classes, students with Engineering/Computer Science background represent more than half of Tepper MBA Class, while students with Business Background mostly represent Haas. This is a clear distinction for students who look forward to learning from their peers.
Curriculum
Both the MBA programs have given emphasis on developing analytical skills during the core courses. They also focus on developing leadership skills with Tepper’s Leadership Assessment program and Leadership Immersion workshops. Haas on the other hand have courses such as Leading People, Leadership Communications, and Strategic Leadership to develop the skills. Berkeley Innovative Leader Development (BILD) runs throughout the program, ensuring that students develop the key skills for being an effective leader.
60% of the courses in Haas School of Business are electives. Some of the unique areas covered in the electives include Entrepreneurship, Real Estate, and Innovation Design. Tepper MBA also offers a wide range of concentrations. Some of the interesting Concentrations are Communication, Entrepreneurship, and Strategy.
Exchange Programs
Haas School of Business has partnerships with world’s leading Business Schools for the Exchange Program. The schools that are part of the exchange partnership are London Business School , HEC (Paris), IESE Business School ,Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), and HKUST. This is an opportunity for students to work on problems around the world – UK, France, Spain, Netherlands and China.
Students in Tepper Full-time MBA program can experience international management practices with Global Treks in China, Dubai, India, Latin America, and South Africa. The exchange program at Tepper is in partnership with The Otto Beisheim School of Management (WHU, Germany) that offers students with the knowledge about EU and how to manage various aspects of Business – Marketing Finance & Operations in European Context.
Post MBA Salary
Haas has a clear advantage when it comes to Salary by Function and by Industry. The school attracts recruiters that provide offers with $5000 to $19,500 higher base median salary than the one offered to Tepper MBA graduates. However, a larger section of Tepper MBA Class has chosen Consulting, Finance, and General Management. Haas MBA students however have shown preference for Marketing, Consulting, and Business Development. The median Base Salary for Haas is $115,000 for the Class of 2012 against Tepper’s $100,000.
Internships
The trends seen in the Internship job opportunities were in alignment with the Post MBA Jobs by Function with the top three offers received in the Marketing, Consulting, and Business Development functions. According to recruitment trends in 2013, top Internship opportunities were provided by Amazon, Apple, Bain & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, Citi, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase, Google, Kaiser Permanente, McKinsey & Company, Monitor Group, Novartis and Visa Inc. The median monthly salary was at $ 7,175 for Haas MBA students.
According to 2011 Internships trends in Tepper MBA program the top 3 Job offers were in Finance, Consulting and General Management functions. The median monthly Salary was at $7000.
Career Service
Impact of Career Service at an MBA program can be measured by evaluating the job offers that came through the school. For Tepper, 71.86% of the job offers were through the school with 22.16% from School scheduled interviews on and off campus, and 24.55% through Summer Internship. For Haas, 80.3% of Full-time MBA job offers were initiated by the school with 32.8% of them through on-campus recruitment, closely followed by 29.8% through internal job postings.
Conclusion
Haas outshines Tepper in almost all categories – Salary, Curriculum Structure, Class Profile but for students interested in Finance, Tepper offers better opportunities than Haas.
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)
About 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.
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