Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants

I respectfully disagree with the claim that GMAT is not a big factor for Stanford. If Stanford really wanted to take people with "save the world" potential, they would NOT require the GMAT. Let's not fool ourselves - it's no accident that Stanford has the highest average GMAT of any top b-school (substantially higher than HBS, even).

I also don't think SGSB could fill a class with 760+ people with good stats and amazing personal histories. Think of "people with amazing personal histories" as one set, and "people with other good stats" as another, and "people with 760+ GMAT" as the third set. Now draw a Venn diagram and take a guess as to how many people are at the intersection of the three sets. I doubt there are 450 people in that set year after year. Of course, "good stats" and "amazing personal histories" are fairly subjective, but I think we're all on the same page about those.

The "save the world potential" is mainly a differentiator between someone whose goal is to become a well-paid, high-level corporate drone and someone whose goal is to run a multinational company and positively affect the world. Taking a step back, you see that both of these people have the EXACT same goal, except I bet the first person talked all about his promotions at work and his track record in very real, uninspiring terms, whereas the second person probably showed an understanding of how he fits into the big picture of his company, and how his company fits into the big picture of the world. The second person probably had the courage to dream big and outline some clear steps about how SGSB fits into that dream.

So, call me a skeptic, but I think the difference between a 690 GMAT and a 760 GMAT means the same to Stanford as it does to Harvard, Wharton, Sloan, etc. You may sense a different attitude with the average Stanford student than you will at Harvard, but the same kind of people are at both places.