Haas Student Ambassador and MBA 15
Location was an important factor as I considered where to go to business school. Haas’s place as a Bay Area MBA Program – a half hour from San Francisco and an hour from Silicon Valley – offers an ideal combination of academic excellence and professional opportunities with city life and the outdoors.
Here are my 7 top reasons to love the Berkeley MBA's Bay Area location:
1. The spirit of Berkeley
From a world-class university that is home to the Free Speech Movement, the discovery of four elements in the periodic table, and the third tallest bell and clock tower in the world to the city’s charming coffee shops, international cuisine, and vibrant history.
2. Natural beauty all around
Haas is nestled at the foot of the Berkeley Hills and surrounded by eucalyptus trees, hiking trails, and parks. Sometimes when I walk to campus, I look past the Berkeley Marina to the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco Skyline, and Golden Gate Bridge. And yes, I tend to walk (or bike) almost everywhere!
3. Easy access to SF
A short subway ride away, making it easy to pop in for a networking event, a fun night out with friends, even a Berkeley MBA conference. Recently, I attended >PLAY there, a conference organized entirely by my classmates and the largest student-run digital media, technology, and entertainment conference in the country.
4. Go, Giants!
Though a Mets fan at heart, I can’t argue with a team that has made it to (and won!) the World Series three out of the last five seasons.
5. Career treks at top companies
Such as Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn as well as to design and innovation firms like Frog Design and IDEO, and sports management or marketing entities like the San Francisco 49ers and The North Face. A couple of my friends even turned conversations that started on those treks into summer internships.
6. Business leaders on campus
They keynote the Dean’s Speaker Series, and bring case studies to life in the classroom. This semester, one of my professors has brought in prominent figures from Twitter, Nest, Cloudera, Hitachi, Sequoia Capital, and various startups, with the chance to chat about opportunities at their companies. Last year, the CEO of Virgin America, David Cush, came to speak at orientation, surprising our class as we were debating a case study on his company and the airline industry.
7. All the best ways to unwind
Tilden Regional Park (with its hiking trails, lakes, and golf course) is a couple of miles away, Napa is an hour, and Lake Tahoe is a popular destination for a weekend trip with classmates (if you don’t want to make the hour-and-a-half flight to Vegas, of course). Some of my classmates have even made a long weekend trip to Hawaii! Student-led clubs like the Wine Club, Culinary Club, Redwoods Club, and Partners Club (among others) give us the opportunity to experience everything the region has to offer. This year, I went camping for the very first time in Yosemite National Park and tried kayaking on Tomales Bay.
Consistently Ranked as one of the Top Places to Live and Work
And along with all of this, the weather is great all year round – our average high temperature is nearly 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) and the sun shines almost every day!
It’s no surprise that the Bay Area is consistently ranked as one of the top places to live and work in the United States. I couldn’t agree more! At Berkeley-Haas, I can feel the constant buzz of the Bay Area’s unique energy and optimism.
