Berkeley-Haas EMBA essay tips 2025-2026

1 - Personal Story: To help admissions get to know you, please share something about yourself that may not be evident in other parts of your application. Examples might include information about your family, culture, hobbies, and lived experiences. Please avoid professional topics. (Ideally 300 words, up to 400)

Question behind the question: are you a work robot or do you have more depth to offer the class? Will you be a social value-add to your cohort?

Also, do you have a background or interests that would expand the perspective of your fellow participants?

One way to start brainstorming for this essay is to think about non-work peak experiences:

1) when did you feel happiest?
2) when did you feel most proud?
3) when did you feel most fulfilled?

When you have a clear, vivid memory about something you’re passionate about – that’s fertile ground for a good essay.

Another idea is to discuss a transformational experience. They care about the essay content but also, they are looking for those who are open to transformation, the higher goal of an EMBA. This harks back to their “Students Always” ethos – they want students who are coachable and transformable, able to question their assumptions and perceptions.

Checking out the 4 Principles https://mbaforexecs.haas.berkeley.edu/why-haas might bring ideas to mind but make sure the examples are personal. Professional examples are good to include in the recommendation.

Keep in mind you have ample space for community and professional organizations in the application boxes, so if you pick one of those, this will need to be a more personal, deeper dive.

It’s a tender balance; you want to focus on something that differentiates you from others, but do not present it in a salesy way. They really want to feel they got to know you as a person from this essay. For that reason, I would recommend you stick to one story – depth is better than breadth.

2 - Professional Statement:  Please summarize your primary area of professional expertise or knowledge. What do you do, and what are you known for? (Up to 150 words)

They want a diverse class, and want you to make it easy for them to figure out what professional perspective you will be sharing.

This is your elevator pitch – resist the temptation to unload all your technical skills and instead, give a cogent, jargon-free statement of what you do.

Then state what problems you are known for solving – why would someone give you a particular project or initiative? Does it require curiosity, patience, determination, etc.?

Follow this up with a quick example in challenge/action/result format.

3 - Career Goals: Briefly describe your career goals. (100 words maximum)

They want to make sure they can help you; that your goal is realistic for Haas.

For most EMBA programs I might discourage putting down “starting a venture” as your primary ambition but Haas is the exception. Their chance of you accepting their offer is pretty good if that is your aim. That said, if your venture is a far-off passion project, show how you would benefit from the program where you are now.

Other options are the usual suspects: getting into senior leadership, getting promoted, switching industries as a senior leader (but make sure they have deep alumni in the new industry.) I work with people in entrepreneurship & VC roles who feel the cachet would help them, but I would recommend approaching this on-paper from another angle.

It’s best to give them role/industry/geography – because a clear goal is more actionable and likely to be achieved (I groan when I see “this at the intersection of that.” If you have room left over, tell them why this excites you, and what skills you are missing to get there.

If you are applying from outside the Bay Area, please explain your plans to attend classes on campus. Please include your employment plans and whether you intend to relocate or commute. (up to 150 words)

It’s fairly obvious here, if you are outside the Bay Area, they want to make sure you are down for taking Thursday and Friday off from work once per month (probably flying on Wednesday afternoon in reality), able to fully engage.

All things equal, you might have better odds of an admit if you are local or plan to be. The chance of picking them back is so much higher. Their career services is very Silicon-Valley centric.

If you don’t plan to relocate, make sure the goal shows why Haas is a good fit. Do you need credibility in tech or innovation? Sustainability? Access to West Coast capital markets? I would expand on this in the optional essay if you need more room to articulate the USP of Haas for you.

Normally I emphasize showing common values, and Haas is very values-driven, but here the plan has to be practical.

OPTIONAL ESSAYS

At Orientation, we like to share fun facts about our students (without identifying your names). If you are willing, please share a fun fact (big or small) about yourself that you wouldn't mind sharing with your future classmates. (1-2 sentences suggested).

My advice for this is similar to the personal essay. I would recommend you go with funny, quirky or unexpected more than “I am trying to impress you” as the audience is your fellow classmates.

This section should only be used to convey relevant information not addressed elsewhere in your application. This may include an explanation of academic aberrations, supplemental coursework, etc. You are encouraged to use bullet points where appropriate. (250 word limit)

It’s important to take an objective look at your trajectory and consider what they might wonder about. Don’t create any unsupervised thinking. You don’t want to call unnecessary attention to minute issues, but you definitely do want to proactively address things that might be perceived as aberrant.

For example, I have a client who took a 2-year break from his professional career to work as a substitute teacher. I think the explanation actually adds value to his candidacy.

Here are some typical things to address:

• If you had poor grades in quant subjects in college.
• If your test score is sub-optimal and you have evidence of quant abilities not covered in other parts of the application.
• There are 150 words in the application for work gaps/unemployment but if you need this space to expand.
• If you haven’t engaged in any extracurricular activities.

If your recommender isn’t a current or past line manager, you can show their relevance in the recommendation “how do you know this person” section.