What the Haas Atmosphere is Really Like

I remember when I was applying to Haas and scouring for as much information as I could find about. For the most part, what surfaces are random forum comments describing the brutal, cutthroat nature of of Haas students and their willingness to sabotage one another to get ahead on the ever so notorious "Haas Curve". For the overwhelming majority of students that I've encountered, this couldn't be further from the truth. It remains true that this is the mind-set of some Haas students, and if the id were allowed to take over control of the mind, this scenario might play out. But in general, students tend to be helpful towards each other and very friendly. The real culprit here is the Institution itself. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but the utmost respect and highest regard for Haas, but the attempts by the administration to instill this wedge-driving grading policy is a knock against the school in my book. The curve reinforces that sabotage way of thinking and is the source of competition, but it is the only way to differentiate top students and maintain high business school rankings. So, the competition is put in place by administration and left for the students to meddle over. But this is a business school we're talking about after all, so competition is needed despite what anyone says about the byproducts. If all that wasn't enough, the Haas Undergraduate program has recently implemented a new curve where an even smaller percentage of students get A's (something like 5%). Fortunately, many professors don't follow the new curve as it is a recommendation and not mandatory (or so it appears). But beware, consistently getting straight A's in Haas is anything but easy.