Perhaps your business school journey began with a nagging sense that there must be something more to the 9-to-5. Something more stimulating, more rewarding. Something with more passion and ownership.

So you decide to get an MBA. It will open doors--to leadership, opportunity, and change. And now, you begin the process of weighing what seems like a staggering number of options for b-school.

How will you choose? 

These could be the best two years of your life, if chosen wisely – so thorough research is imperative. 

You’ve probably already realized that a number of top MBA programs are well positioned to help you to advance your career, start a business, or pursue a dream. We’d like to tell you a bit about what differentiates the Berkeley MBA from other top-tier programs:

A Location with Innovation in its DNAWhen Berkeley MBA students organize a conference on digital media (as they do every year), 600+ people turn out, including top industry speakers such as Facebook CIO Tim Campos and Box CEO Aaron Levie.

That’s because the Berkeley MBA Program’s Bay Area location puts you at the heart of the global technology industry, the birthplace of venture capital, a growing hub for cleantech and biotech, and the center of the U.S. wine market. This is b-school as the backstage pass.

Lyft CEO Logan Green and Andreessen Horowitz Partner Michael Copeland address the student-run >play Digital Media Conference

Katie Benintende, MBA 15, describes this as “learning the tech ecosystem from the best seat in the house,” since students get to hear from speakers such as Indiegogo Co-Founder and alumna Danae Ringelmann at orientation, Autodesk CEO Carl Bass in a class on intrapreneurship, and Novartis CEO and Dean’s Speaker Joe Jimenez (A Haas alum). Our location creates opportunities as well for some meaty competitions and challenges.

Berkeley MBA 14 students compete in the Bosch Robotic Challenge

And then there’s UC Berkeley, one of the world’s top universities and a name that opens doors around the globe. Behind that name you’ll find top-ranked graduate programs (the Berkeley MBA among them) to tap for cross-disciplinary classes and colleagues.

Team an MBA student with a mechanical engineer and you bring new clean technology to market

A Class Size that Yields a Student-Driven ExperienceYes, it’s who you know. But it’s also how well you know them. Each full-time Berkeley MBA class is made up of 240 accomplished yet attitude-free individuals (see Culture below)—and you get well acquainted in surprisingly short order.

Bonding starts with orientation, or “Week Zero”

Being smaller than most other top MBA programs means we offer students the opportunity to form stronger bonds, to take leadership roles, and to receive greater personal attention from faculty and from career advisors.

It also means that Berkeley MBA students make things happen. They organize industry conferences, exploring topics from digital media to healthcare and business in Latin America.

Co-Chairs Stephanie Curran and Lauren Fernandez, both MBA 14, applied design thinking to the 2014 Women in Leadership Conference

They plan global treks for their classmates over semester break, taking them to sip tea with the vice president of Taiwan, tour a Toyota plant in Japan, meet the mayor of Jerusalem, and study innovation in a closed economy in Cuba.

More than 60 classmates and partners joined Moulay Driss Belkebir Mrani, MBA 15, on a visit to his home country of Morocco, one of many student-led treks for the class of 2014.

The five Berkeley MBA students who guided 55 travelers through Israel wanted their guests to experience of the “reality” of the country, based on personal experience and not on perception.

Traveling with your Berkeley MBA classmates over semester break (here, in South America) requires no leap of faith

A Culture that forges Innovative Leaders and Lifelong FriendshipsHere at Berkeley-Haas, we focus on developing innovative leaders—who know how to put new ideas to work, and to do so responsibly. These leaders hone their skills not just through classroom learning, but through our four Defining Principles, a set of values shared by the Berkeley-Haas community: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. 

Question the Status Quo, one of four Berkeley-Haas Defining Principles

It makes all the difference to study with professors who request feedback on their teaching, to be in a classroom with fellow students willing to ask questions, to be part of a project team whose members don’t hesitate to share their expertise (or study notes) with others.

Students go beyond themselves on a public service day  during orientation

And our alumni—the ones who work in consulting and in finance, in marketing and in strategy, the ones who have launched that cool startup—

Tube Mogul co-founders, Brett Wilson and John Hughes, both MBA 2007 from Haas, took first place in Haas’ business plan competition while students

—they become part of your Haas family, too. Steeped in the same values you hold, they are the kinds of people who will take your call. In any given year, over 500 alumni support the job search for current MBAs.

So, that’s a little about us (OK, more than a little). Now we’d love hear about you. What’s your background?  Where are you headed?  What are your interests? We hope you’ll take the time to tell us—and be sure to let us know how we can help.