Friday Factoid: A Diverse but Tight-Knit Community at UC Berkeley Haas

The Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley is one of the smaller top MBA programs in the United States, with an average class size of only 240 (compared with more than 900 at Harvard Business School, for example). Despite its small size, however, Haas offers a very diverse community, both regionally and professionally. Roughly 30%–40% of each incoming class is made up of international students, and each entering class as a whole reflects a wide array of interests and professional backgrounds. Each of Haas’s incoming classes is divided into four cohorts of 60 students each, and students remain in their cohort, taking all core courses together, for the first semester. Within the cohort, students are further divided into study groups of five. Study group members work together to prepare for presentations and exams as well as to study cases, and these small groups help enhance and reinforce the relationships between classmates. Noted a second-year student with whom mbaMission spoke, “With everyone trying to work out their identity at the start,” the cohort “makes everything less overwhelming.” Indeed, Haas offers a well-defined structure that supports a collaborative community.