Meet The Berkeley Haas MBA Class Of 2025

LEARNING HISTORY…THROUGH HAMILTON

Outside of Vodafone, Arthur notes that he made it to Mars – well, a microchip with his name on it. Sabrina Tan can speak five languages, while Travis Bautista has visited every American state. Ever hear of sandboarding? Think of it as snowboarding in the desert, something Shefali Agrawal did in Saudi Arabia. She probably had more fun than Renzo Viale Paiva. He completed his first Ironman 70.3 and 5,000-meter summit – think a 16,404-foot mountain – in the same month.

If you’re seeking resourcefulness among the Class of 2025, Jonathan Santoso possesses it in spades. “I aced my US History class as an international student by watching Hamilton video/song clips on YouTube,” he jokes.

FOUR DEFINING PRINCIPLES

Ask the Class of 2025 and they’ll tell you that Haas’ marquee attraction isn’t the Bay Area digs or the experiential learning opportunities. Instead, they will highlight the culture, which is codified under the Four Defining Principles. Think of the principles as the values that students, faculty members, and administrators are expected to meet. They are front-and-center – the rationale behind school decisions, student awards, and faculty incentives. In other words, these principles hold everyone accountable for meeting the same standards.

The first principle is Queston the Status Quo. It taps into Berkeley’s rebel roots a call to ask questions, proactively pursue options, and fearlessly innovate – regardless of conventional wisdom. This call to action appealed greatly to Renzo Viale Paiva, who hopes to bring the venture studio model to Latin America.

“Things are the way they are because of past or present conditions and circumstances. To continue growing, we need to improve or disrupt our paradigms entirely. I deeply believe that if we are not growing, we are dying.”

Confidence Without Attitude represents the second Defining Principle. Think of it like a football touchdown – an internal coach telling you to “act like you’ve been there before” instead of shamelessly showboating. At its heart, Confidence Without Attitude means working as a team, bringing everyone into the fold and elevating their talents – more modesty and less swagger. This is the kind of confidence that Peter Jorgensen hopes to hone over his two years at Haas.

“I want to be the kind of leader who can express expertise without ego, acknowledge and address my own skill gaps, and empower those with diverse experiences to challenge established best practices. Since arriving on campus for Days at Haas, every interaction with Haas students has proved that my classmates truly embody Confidence without Attitude. Haasies will engage you in a discussion about anything from Barbenheimer to the debt ceiling before daring to brag about themselves. Hours into a coffee or happy hour, you’ll learn that, beyond being just fabulous conversationalists, your classmates are helicopter pilots, sports policy experts, or small business owners without an ounce of ego.”

STUDENTS ALWAYS AND BEYOND YOURSELF

Never stop learning. Always look for ways to grow. These maxims are the foundations for Students Always, a principle that values curiosity and eagerness. For Veronica Peltz, Students Always boils down to keeping an eye out for ways to improve ourselves. That makes learning a life-long commitment, adds Danica Barhumi, who last worked in business development at Cisco Systems.

“No matter how old or experienced we are, learning never stops and it is what opens the door to new possibilities.”

The Four Defining Principles conclude with Beyond Yourself. For many, this principle is a call to action. It makes Haas MBAs responsible for pursuing the greater good or change for the better long after they earn their degree. More than that, says Shefali Agrawal, the principle is designed to make students conscious of how their actions impact others, in ways big ad small. Two years ago, Charlie Yates had fractured his spine, prompting him to weigh dropping out of the program. Now a ’23 grad who spent the summer at McKinsey & Company, Yates appreciates how Beyond Yourself encourages classmates to rally around each other in times of need.

“Through the support of my academic study team, administration, and professors, I was able to stay enrolled full-time. Moreover, people across Haas signed up to drive me to appointments, brought me groceries, and even kept me company at my home when I was bedridden. I don’t know if I would have received the same level of support and love at any other institution.”

A CLASS PROFILE

As a whole, the Class of 2025 consists of 244 full-time MBAs, down three students from the previous year. On average, first-years bring a 732 GMAT to campus. That’s a three-point increase over the previous class (and a six-point point improvement in two years). As undergraduates, the class averaged a 3.63 GPA, with their peers taking the GRE posting 163 quant and 161 verbal scores.

In terms of demographics, 47% of the class hails from outside the United States – a 10% climb over the past two years. That said, the class features students from six fewer countries (39) than the previous class. At the same time, the percentage of women fell five points to 41%, with underrepresented minorities making up a 13% share of the class.

Academically, 23.8% of the class majored in Engineering-related fields as undergraduates, a near equal proportion to the Class of 2024. Economics (16.8%) and Business (13.9%) majors also make substantive shares of the class, as do the Social Sciences (13.5%) and Finance (7.8%) majors. Among professional backgrounds, the biggest difference involves Technology. 20.1% of the class last worked in the Tech field, up seven points over the previous year Consultants again account for the largest bloc of students at 24.2%, with Financial Services (16%), Non-Profits (5.3), Healthcare (4.9%), and Military Service (4.5%) represented in the class.

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ASSISTANT DEAN

Thus far, 2023 has been kind to the Haas School. In The Financial Times MBA ranking, the program rose from 14th to 7th, while returning to the Top 10 in Bloomberg Businessweek ranking. At the same time, it ranked as the top part-time MBA program in the United States according to U.S. News. When it comes to programming, the Haas curriculum could be described as comprehensive. In a survey of business school deans and MBA directors, the Haas MBA ranked among the ten-programs for Finance, Business Analytics, Entrepreneurship, International Business, Management, Marketing, Nonprofits, and Real Estate. When it comes to post-graduation bounty,  the Class of 2022 saw their base pay jump by $15,000 on average.

What can Haas do for an encore? We posed this question – and many more – to Wendy Guild, assistant dean of MBA Programs over summer. Here are her thoughts about what Haas is doing – and where it is going.

P&Q: What have been the two most important developments in your MBA program over the past year? What type of impact will they have on current and future MBAs?

Guild: “We have doubled down on our priorities of innovation, sustainability, and inclusion in full support of the University of California’s commitment to social mobility. We’re proud that 20% of our entering full-time MBA class of 2025 are the first in their families to attend college.

Extensive investments have been made to execute on our strategic plan for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice and Belonging (DEIJB), including faculty and staff hiring, the hiring of a DEIJB faculty instructional consultant, funding for DEIJB student-led initiatives, additional staff hiring in our program office and a DEIJB team that supports admissions, faculty, and students.

We have also reimagined the Haas MBA student experience. Our refresh emphasizes career outcomes, engagement and inclusion, and a multifaceted academic and co-curricular experience. Together these improvements support our students’ development as Berkeley Leaders.”

P&Q: Give us your one-minute pitch for your business school. What makes you unique?

Guild: “Berkeley Haas is the Heart of What’s next.

“This year, Haas is celebrating 125 years of mission-driven innovation and entrepreneurship, with the more recent additions of sustainability and DEIJB. We are deeply connected to reimagining business. (As Dean Harrison said: “We look back with pride, but we move forward to have impact.”)

Our students are from diverse backgrounds. At Haas, they experience a sense of belonging, and move forward to lead with impact in many sectors. The secret to our success is our ability to attract outstanding people who carefully cultivate a culture at Haas, exemplified by our Defining Leadership Principles (DLPs): Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, Question the Status Quo, and Beyond Yourself. These DLPs identify who we are and we truly lean into them at Haas. We are known as a tight-knit community solving challenging problems and creating new opportunities that, through our global reach, make the world a better place.

P&Q: Sustainability has emerged as a major attraction to prospective MBA students. How does your full-time MBA program integrate sustainability across its curriculum?

Guild: “We are committed to developing climate-fluent leaders by integrating the theme of sustainability throughout our curriculum. The school offers a critical mass of excellence, expertise, and programming for students in five key sustainability areas: energy/cleantech, the built environment/real estate, finance, food/agriculture, and corporate social responsibility. And across UC Berkeley, there are more than 800 courses related to sustainability.

Students also have the option to choose an area of emphasis in Corporate Social Responsibility, Energy and Clean Technology, Social Sector Leadership, Sustainable and Impact Investing, Entrepreneurship (Energy and Environmental Innovation) and Equity Fluent Leadership to complement traditional disciplines such as finance, accounting, or marketing.

Haas also plans to launch a dual master’s degree with the Rausser College of Natural Resources in fall 2024.

For students who want to dig deeper than basic literacy in climate change and sustainability, Haas offers the Michael’s Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Business. Both the Graduate Certificate and the Masters in Sustainability will enable students to take courses and draw on resources across the Berkeley campus, and tap Berkeley’s wealth of talent and its research as one of the most highly rated institutions for environmental science in the US.”

Next Page: Profiles of 12 Members of the Class of 2025