My MBA Experience in the Age of COVID

I am Shashank, a BTech (ECE) graduate from IIIT Hyderabad. After graduating in 2016, I wrote my GMAT in 2017 and got 770. Then, I availed Reachivy’s services and took their advice while building my resume. I took part in social service, created my own mobile app, got an award at HSBC Technology for my work there, got a job at Microsoft in which I did well, and improved my interpersonal skills. I applied for my MBA in 2019 and got shortlisted for Kellogg, UCLA and Berkeley Haas. Reachivy helped prepare me for the interviews and other relevant stages. Finally, in December 2019, I got the offer from UCLA and was waited listed for Berkeley Haas.
I got my offer from Berkeley Haas in the first week of April 2020. I was elated. I had just resigned from Microsoft on March 30th 2020 due to the offer from UCLA and now, I had gotten an offer from Berkeley Haas, a top-10 B-school! I looked forward to joining Berkeley. I also expected the COVID crisis to abate by June.

Alas, it did not! Far from my VISA interview, I barely made it from Bangalore to Hyderabad during the peak of the lockdown on May 16th. On June 30th, I had to make a choice – whether to defer my admission or not. My well wishers kept oscillating. On one day, they would warn me that doing the MBA from India risked my job prospects in the US and on the next day, they warned me that deferring would mean that I had to wait for one year. Many others who got Berkeley MBA offers from India deferred admission to next year.
Finally, I decided to attend this semester. I didn’t expect to physically go to Berkeley this semester but I believed that there was a high chance of doing so for the second semester, due to which my job prospects would not be hit. However, there was a risk that I wouldn’t be able to go for two semesters and my career would take a hit.

In August, I had my first classes. The classes at Berkeley started out fully online. Some online classes are done on Zoom while others are done on a new software called Barco, in which Berkeley has invested more than $500k and that renders a realistic class experience. This software has a physical setup in which the professor has a big screen in front of him in which everyone appears as a square and I can see the professor and the class as if I were sitting in that “square” on the screen. There are also other components of the software such as blackboard, slides, etc.

In the last week of August, the unexpected happened. The embassy suddenly opened and all the first year Berkeley Haas MBA students from India got VISAs. We reached the Bay Area in the first week of September and found a temporary Airbnb. Through our seniors, we were able to find a good independent house whose rent was relatively low. We moved in and continued our semester from there.
Then, the college started opening a physical component to each class. For the physical sessions, I am expected to have a negative COVID test before attending. It is easy to get tested for COVID here. I need to register and within three days, I will get an appointment. The process of testing is swift without any wait lines. Results come within another two to three days. Most importantly though, testing for COVID is free!

Eventually, I had to take exams. The exams are online with a timer. However, it is expected of everyone that they follow the honor code and not cheat. People here follow the honor code, especially since all of us put in so much effort to get here. I did well in the exams, scoring above average consistently.