Graduate students at the Haas School of Business benefit from the school’s location near San Francisco, a hotbed of major businesses like Google and Visa. It’s a convenient place to find internships and jobs to supplement a business education. Through the Haas@Work program, students are assigned to projects at both local and global companies. Students earn an M.B.A. in 21 months in the traditional program, or in three years if they attend part time in the evenings and on Saturdays. Electives make up more than half the M.B.A. curriculum, and students can select courses offered at Haas or at other academic divisions of UC-Berkeley. For seasoned business professionals, Berkeley and Columbia University team up to offer an executive M.B.A. program on both coasts. Close to a third of MBA students at UC-Berkeley are international, and many business courses have a global focus. There are a few research centers on campus, including the Asia Business Center and the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics. Notable alumni include A. W. “Tom” Clausen, a former Bank of America CEO and World Bank president; Howard Lester, former CEO of Williams-Sonoma Inc.; and Walter Haas, a former president of Levi Strauss & Co. and the namesake of the business school.