<p>Hi All,</p>
<p>My goal is to get into Haas. I’ve been floating around, a bit lost as a Veteran using my GI Bill, at a few Northern California community colleges but am just now getting serious and my goal is to get into Haas. </p>
<p>My plan is to apply next fall for Fall 2016 admission as a transfer.</p>
<p>I plan on having all Haas pre-reqs done, as well as all 7 Breadths. I can’t speak to what my GPA will be, but I’d imagine 3.6-3.7 … hopefully a bit higher but that may not happen.</p>
<p>A few things I have going for me: I am a disabled (and decorated) combat veteran, I am a re-entry student (currently 28 years old), and have business experience from owning a business since 2008, where I am in a leadership position, along with being in a leadership position while I was in the Army. Needless to say, I’ve faced some hardships and my experiences are fairly unique.</p>
<p>I plan on being more involved on campus this spring and next year as I prepare for getting into Berkeley. Also plan on being more active in the community but my business, for example, raised money to build 5 water filtration treatment systems in Nepal for poor schools.</p>
<p>My grades won’t be bad, but I know there will be many people with far higher GPA than I, as well as more convincing awards, internships, ECs, etc. With that said, how much do you think being a re-entry disabled combat veteran will help?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I also have a few questions about extracurriculars. What all are they looking for? I understand being actively involved in clubs, especially with leadership positions, are important, as well as being involved in the community … but I’m also a member of various groups like the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the United States Bartenders Guild and the 82nd Airborne Association, and will join Phi Theta Kappa and my local college’s Veteran’s club in the spring.</p>
<p>Do these random ones, aside from school related ones like PTK and the Veteran’s club, mean anything? Or not really.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Not sure about the extracurriculars. </p>
<p>Thanks for your service. Make sure you get all prerequisites done…it seems Haas eliminates a lot of applications for those who don’t. </p>
<p>The biz experience and the disabled veteran status will certainly help, IMHO. Focus on getting top grades and write kick ass essays. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for the response, UCBChemEGrad! I don’t want to fall back on being a disabled veteran, but it is certainly a hardship I’ve faced so I know it can be used in my favor to some degree, and maybe the brain damage I incurred during my service will explain some of those B’s…. lol (kidding … not about the brain damage part though)</p>
<p>I will have all my breadth and pre-reqs done for sure. I’ve spent hours ensuring my plans gets everything done as it should be and to set myself up for success. Summer school here I come.</p>
<p>I’m sure some of the odd ECs won’t help, but I do plan on getting a leadership position in an on-campus club this year.</p>
<p>The biggest pain is the language requirement. I took 2 years in high school, and 3 in HS is required. So now I get to do a language again. Not the biggest setback as I’ve actually wanted to pick up German again, but not something I wanted to add to my plate now.</p>
<p>My essays will be solid too. I’m a journalist/publisher and have plenty of friends/connections that are serious writers and proofreaders, and I can get a pretty compelling story I think.</p>
<p>Thanks again! Honestly, after seeing how much I had to do and this “late” in life at 28 and not being able to actually get in until 30, I almost threw in the towel …. but I decided to go all in.</p>
<p>You’re fine. The average age of an undergrad transfer Haas student is a bit older (average is 23, oldest is 48 according to their webpage: <a href=“Class Profile - Undergraduate Program - Berkeley Haas”>Class Profile - Undergraduate Program - Berkeley Haas). You have more experiences to share. </p>