Overview
Electives Webinar
An overview of the electives schedule for that semester.
VP of Academics Elective Nights
A panel of faculty will be present to talk about their courses and answer any questions you may have.
Department Elective Nights
Some of the faculty groups may choose to host a panel to discuss the courses being offered in their subject for the upcoming term.
International Exchange Info Session
Learn about the opportunities to go abroad for a semester.
1st Year Advising Sessions
Group advising sessions for 1st years geared towards how the start the elective process and what the next part of your journey will look like.
2nd Year Advising Sessions
Group advising sessions for 2nd years geared towards how the electives fit into your MBA goals (professional and personal) now that you are out of Core.
3rd Year Advising Webinar
Webinar for 3rd years geared towards questions about degree progress.
- Course Descriptions (linked to the Elective Schedules)
- TIES scores – Professor and GSI evaluations
- EWMBAA Peer to Peer Elective Events
- Career Management Group
- Clubs
- Centers and Institutes at Haas
- Faculty Groups (ex. Accounting, Business and Public Policy, Marketing, etc.)
- Academic Advisor
Units
In a given semester, students must be enrolled in a minimum of:
- 6 units to receive financial aid, including student loans
- 1 unit to receive career services and student services
- Students enrolled in 0 units are withdrawn
The maximum course load per semester is 9 units, unless exceptional approval is granted by the Program Office*.
*The 1 unit WE Innovate course in the Spring semester does not count towards the 9 unit maximum limit.
For more information about unit workload policies, please click here.
If you wish to take over 9 units in a semester, please fill out the exception request form and explain your situation and why you will need to take and can handle more than 9 units.
The average EWMBA student course load is about 6-7 units per semester. This can be broken up into two 3 unit courses or three 2 unit courses, or a combination of 3, 2 and 1 unit courses depending on your preference.
| Number of Units | Number of weeks | Example Timeline |
| 3 | Evening: 16 weeks (15 instruction plus finals week) Weekend: 15 weeks (14 instruction plus finals) |
January to May |
| 2 | 10 weeks (either weeks 1-10, or 10 meeting dates) | January to March OR February to April OR February to May |
| 1 | Varies. Typically 2 all day sessions or 5 meetings during the evenings.** | Two Sundays in March 9AM-5PM OR Four Sundays 9AM-1PM |
** Attendance policy for 1 unit courses: Attendance at all 1 unit course sessions is mandatory. Please note that you are only allowed to count a maximum of four 1 unit courses (excluding Core courses) towards your degree requirement of 42 units.
Electives Schedule
Yes and no. The elective semester is 16 weeks from January to May. The course schedules vary depending on units. A 2 unit course runs 10 weeks and can start in the beginning or middle of the semester. Check the course descriptions to make sure you do not double book yourself.
During Core, students are on a schedule track, Evening (Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday) or Weekend (Saturday).
During Electives, students are on a similar schedule track, Evening or Weekend. Electives are held the entire week excluding Friday. evening students may take courses any evening, not necessarily what their Core cohort was (ex. if you are Monday/Wednesday, you are not restricted to only Monday/Wednesday courses). Weekend students may take electives on Saturday or choose select Sunday courses. Sunday courses are also open to Evening students.
Most evening electives run 6-9:30PM Monday-Thursday. There may be some off-schedule electives that run 4-6PM (ex. it may be dual-listed with Full-Time).
Saturday electives will run from 9AM-12PM (morning) or from 1-4PM (afternoon).
Most Sunday electives run over two Sundays 9AM-5PM.
| EW224A.1 (2 units) | Course Number (# of units) |
| Managerial Accounting* | Course Title, * denotes dual-listed with the FT MBA Program (class will include both EW and FT students) |
| Briginshaw, C110 | Professor Name, Room Number |
Evening Courses – Electives being offered Monday through Thursday 6-9:30PM. These are generally 2 or 3 units.
Other Evening Courses – Electives courses that take place in the Evening but are not standard times or durations, ex. 4-6PM. These can be 1, 2, or 3 units.
Flexible Courses – Courses that are being offered as 100% online, or Hybrid (partially online with an on-campus component). Please be sure to read the course description for all course requirements and meeting dates and time.
Saturday Courses (AM and PM) – Electives being offered on Saturdays.
1 Unit Courses – Courses that are for 1 unit. These courses generally meet on Sundays. Sometimes they may meet on an evening date.
There are a variety of electives offered in both evening and weekend format. There is sometimes, but not always, an overlap in two sections of the same class. We try to provide a variety of options for both cohorts. Some classes, however, are only offered for Evenings (such as Haas@Work and Social Sector Solutions) because of the nature of the class. They may involve consulting or be dual-listed with the Full-Time program.
Please visit the Unit Workload Policies page to see how many times you may take those courses. For more information about other academic opportunities, please visit Other Academic Opportunities page.
Bidding Process
What is bidding and why do we we use the bidding process?
Bidding is the first opportunity for students to secure elective classes for their schedule next semester. The process allows students to use their bidding points towards classes that they are most interested in and/or related to their career/educational goals. You may or may not have a full schedule after bidding depending on your specific strategy.
Bidding is a mechanism to allocate scarce resources in the most popular classes, and it is a fair process to allocate seats where demand exceeds supply. the number of seats made available in a given class is carefully considered and determined by a committee of faculty.
Students are allotted bid points which they can allocate strategically to obtain a seats in a classes they are most interested in. This provides all students the most equal opportunity possible to identify a class that is most aligned with their professional career goals and use their bid points to maximize their chances of securing an available seat in that class.
As students progress through the program and achieve seniority, the number of bid points made available to them increases, so students who are closer to graduating have the greatest chance of securing a seat in an elective class that may be oversubscribed during the scheduled term.
All students are encouraged to work closely with academic and career advisors to identify several electives offerings that would align well with their individual professional goals.
Bidding is the first opportunity for students to secure elective classes for their schedule for the following semester. Bidding has two rounds. Add/Drop is the next step in rounding out your schedule for the semester using a waitlist process. There are four rounds of Add/Drop, meant to provide students several rounds to adjust and finalize their schedule
Bidding is done through OLR. OLR is the Online Registration system for Haas students. For more information, please see the Bidding Overview page.
Please be sure you are using your Haas login (usually firstname_lastname) and password. If you need to reset your password, please email helpdesk@haas.berkeley.edu well in advance of bidding so you are able to login OLR within the bidding timeframes.
What if I want to bid on both evening and weekend courses? For any given semester, a student can choose to go undeclared if they wish to bid on both evening and weekend courses. However, you will receive 500 less bid points than declared students during Round 1. You will then revert back to either declared evening or declared weekend for future semesters. Should you wish to be undeclared for future semesters, you will then need to request to go “undeclared” each semester thereafter.
There is a deadline to submit your declaration will be posted in the Registration Timeline.
Some classes are open to both declared evening and weekend during Round 1 of bidding – like our online classes and Sunday 1-unit classes.
A declaration is the schedule option based on your resident cohort (ex. Evening or Weekend). Unless otherwise requested, students are defaulted as a declared student in their resident cohort for bidding. Each declaration will have a corresponding number of bid points based on your year (2nd or 3rd). You will go into bidding as one of the following:
- Declared evening
- Declared weekend
- Undeclared
No, the class schedule will be available before the deadline to declare.
- Request a permanent one-time schedule switch. You will not be able to “switch back” for future semesters.
- Request to be “undeclared” for any given semester. This is not permanent; you will revert back to your original declaration for the following semester.
Students have the opportunity after they complete the core to make a one-time, permanent switch to either evening or weekend. You will not be able to “switch back” for future semesters. Your schedule option will remain the same for the duration of the program. This declaration is important because it dictates the classes you are able to bid on during Round 1 of bidding (i.e. the class you place as highest priority).
Some classes are open to both declared evening and weekend during Round 1 of bidding – such as online classes and Sunday 1-unit classes.
However in Round 2 of Bidding and during add/drop, students can bid or add classes in both the evening or weekend schedule.
I’m not sure which option to choose. Who may I talk to?
You may contact your advisor explaining your situation and schedule an advising session.
Bid Points
We place the 7 unit max to allow all students to get a chance to bid successfully on 2 to 3 classes. For students who ultimately want to take more than 7 units, you will have the opportunity to add additional units/classes during add/drop. Please note that bidding is just the first step of the registration process to try and lock down courses that you are interested in taking next semester. It is not meant to get your full schedule. Add/Drop will take place during the beginning of the semester and will be your next chance to add to, adjust, and finalize your schedule.
In order to maintain fairness across all students, the units you are pre-enrolled in will be counted towards your maximum of 7 units during bidding. For example, if you are pre-enrolled in a 2 unit class prior to bidding, you will be able to bid on a maximum of 5 additional units during bidding.
Bid points are just points to be divvied up as you see fit during bidding.Each student is allotted a certain number of bid points based on their year and declaration (ex. 2nd or 3rd year, declared or undeclared). Please refer to the bid point table on our website for more information.
Yes, bid points are only for one semester, so do not save them! The number you have is determined by your declaration and your year in the program. Refer to the Bid Point Table to check your number of bid points.
No, bid points cannot be rolled over. They must be used in for that bidding period. The number you have is determined by your declaration and your year in the program. Refer to the Bid Point Table to check your number of bid points.
The minimum bid point for a class is 1 point, and the maximum bid point for a class is 1 point less than your total allotted number of bid points (e.g. maximum bid for a declared third year student is 2,999, maximum bid for a declared second year student is 1,499, etc). The OLR system will not prevent students from exceeding the maximum bid points, but all bid submissions that exceed the maximum bid for a class will be adjusted within OLR before all bids are processed at the end of each round. For those students who exceed the maximum bid points on any particular class, they will be refunded that one bid point for Round 2.Â
Tip: It is in your best interest to bid only the maximum bid points for a class.Â
The reason for the minimum/maximum bid structure is to allow students the opportunity to be enrolled in two courses at the end of the bidding process. Additionally, from a program standpoint, we need the bidding process to yield an accurate count of student interest for each course on the schedule. Courses that do not meet the minimum enrollment requirement of 20 students through the bidding process may be cancelled by the Dean’s Office.
No, it does not matter when you bid. The main thing is that you bid. Students can make changes to their bids up until the round closes. At the end of each round, students are ranked by number of bids highest to lowest and students will be enrolled as there are as many seats.
No. It depends on the course, how many 3rd years will bid on the course,and how many points they will bid. For instance, while you may bid 1499 points for a course with 31 seats available, 31 3rd years may bid 1499 or higher on the same course. On the other hand, you may bid 1499 points and only 10 3rd years bid 1499 or higher.
If you are unsuccessful in Round 1 of bidding you will be refunded all your points and will be able to bid for more courses in Round 2.
Tip: In the end, if there is a course that means a lot to you, you can go “all in” for Round 1. However, as a backup plan, have 2 or 3 other courses in mind for Round 2.
We do not have past records of bids. Bid points and strategies vary by semester and are often based on the student interest in specific courses, the number of elective courses offered, and the faculty teaching the course. Some students may go “all in” for a particular course and others choose to spread their bid points across various courses.
As a 3rd year, you will have more bid points than a 2nd year, but this does not equate to priority enrollment in a course during bidding. It is possible that if a 2nd year bids more points than you for a course, they will be enrolled in the course before you. Please refer to the Bid Point table to see how many points you will be allotted.
For example, there are 30 seats in a course. You are a 3rd year and bid 1000 points out of your 2000 points. A 2nd year bids 1499 (their max number of points) on the same course, and perhaps a total of 40 other 2nd and 3rd years bid between 1999 and 1000. Thirty students will be enrolled, starting with the highest bid (1999) until all seats are filled.
No. Someone who has extended their graduation date (ex. graduating December 2017) will have the same number of points as someone entering their 3rd year (ex. graduating May 2018).
In Round 1 of Bidding, no, evening declared students will not be able to bid on Saturday courses. However, evening declared students may bid on Sunday courses.
In Round 2 of Bidding and during add/drop, students can bid on or add classes in both the evening or weekend schedule.
Please note that Sunday courses are generally 1 unit and meet on two separate Sundays. Some Sunday courses may have conflict. Please review the posted elective schedule for the course dates.
After Bidding Ends
Please contact your advisor immediately.
For declared students who are unable to secure a class within their scheduling preference (evening or weekend), the Program Office will work with them to fix their schedules. Please note that this is to help those who need to stay within a schedule preference (evening or weekend) and is not a guarantee of seats in first-choice classes to those individuals.
Bidding is the first step of the registration process. The next opportunities to make changes to your schedule will be during Add/Drop at the beginning of the semester. Dates for Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and Round 4 – Drops Only will be posted on the Registration Timeline. Please note that no other changes can be made to your schedule after the Add/Drop period is over.
Waitlists are not generated from bidding and no waitlists will not be carried over to Add/Drop.
After bidding has ended, the Program Office and the Dean’s Office will review current enrollment and room capacity and seek opportunities to increase classroom size. Due to the limited classroom space and room capacities at Haas, as well as classroom needs from the other programs, a larger classroom is not guaranteed.
The next opportunity for students to make changes to their schedule is during Add/Drop. During this time, seats may or may not become available as students drop. There is always a chance that seats open up, but it is not guaranteed.
For courses that are dual-listed with the Full-time Program, they have been predetermined to be dual-listed and capacity has been split equally between EW and FT. Both Program Offices taking into consideration past enrollment, demand, and instructor preference when making these determinations. If you are still interested in the course, you will have the opportunity to add yourself to the waitlist during the Add/Drop period.
Add/Drop
- Fall semester tuition and fees are generally assessed in mid-July and will be due in August.
- Spring semester tuition and fees are generally assessed mid-December and will be due in January.
Tuition and fees will based on the number of units a student is enrolled in at the end of bidding. If a student will does not change their enrollment during Add/Drop, this is the amount due for the semester. If a student makes changes during Add/Drop, tuition and fees will be reassessed during Add/Drop to reflect those changes.
The Program Office acknowledges that the payment deadline is prior to the end of Add/Drop. Here are suggestions regarding the amount to pay:
- Pay the full amount as noted in CalCentral. If a student ends up enrolling in less units, the difference will be refunded (please be sure to set up an Electronic Funds Transfer account to receive funds efficiently). Conversely, a student will be billed appropriately if a student takes more units.
- Pay however many units you know for sure you will be taking (ex. 6 units is needed for most financial aid to be disbursed, so 6 x $3046.70).
Regardless of the options, the Program Office suggests paying the amount due by the deadlines to avoid any late registration or late payment fees.
Students are welcome to reach out to the Financial Aid Office regarding any loans that are dependent on the number of units a student is enrolled in, or need verification of how many units a student is enrolled in.