Seven PhD students were the first Haas graduates to toss their caps into the air this spring at their program commencement on Saturday, May 10, in the Wells Fargo Room.
This year’s graduates are moving on to faculty positions in finance, accounting, and marketing at some of the world’s top business schools. Graduates are heading to the University of Chicago-Booth, the Wharton School of Business, the University of British Columbia, Cal Poly, University of San Francisco, Indiana University Bloomington, and Baruch College CUNY. One student is leaving academia for a position with memory storage giant SanDisk.
“We’ve had very strong placements the last four or five years, and this year’s class is continuing that trend,” said Professor Martin Lettau, director of the PhD Program. “It’s a very high-quality class. The placements have been fantastic.”
Ron Berman, PhD 14, who is taking a position at Wharton, says what he enjoyed most about his experience at Haas was not only getting help from his advisers but also collaborating with them and other students. "Also, because we're so close to Silicon Valley, we got to interact with companies and learn what problems they’re working on," he adds. "This helped immensely in preparing me for my next job."