Calling all Stanford Fall 2009 applicants!

can someone please tell me if 810 words is acceptable for essay 1?
all my essays are just within limits so i'm definately crossing the 1800 limit.

its just that esay 1 cld not be better for me and any modifications right now would compromise what matters the most to me.

i've not had a prob with word limit for other schools. Its just the passion stanford demonstrates and asks for thats got me tizzy right now

Ok, maybe half was an exaggeration. But, there must be some reason they make it the first required essay and guide you to use 42% of the total word count there.

From the adcom's perspective, the essays are to "get to know you". I can't think of a better essay question that does that than essay A. Career aspirations don't define you as a person...

They have that essay in order to filter out all the douchebag applicants who care about nothing else than being greedy and making lots of money.

As a matter of fact I actually thought this was one of the best essay questions that any of the schools have. We are more than goals and leadership experiences - we are people. I want to go to bschool with people not a bunch of shiny resumes....

But that's just me...

I agree, how many people do you know who changed their career vision/goals after going to graduate school? I think some people flat out lie about their goals, and some people just naturally change what they are interested in. But "what matters most to you" should stay consistent throughout your life...it shows a lot about you, and should be fairly static. I thought this was one of the most interesting questions to answer (but definitely the one of the more difficult ones).

No, they definitely DO NOT guide you to use 42% of the word count. The example they give uses 750 words for Essay A but they explicitly say to use your own judgement how to distribute the words.

Ok, so what can essay A demonstrate, provided you were totally honest - because if you could lie on the goals essay, you could lie here as well? It can demonstrate your character and your integrity. Is this enough to convince someone you can be a good leader? I think not. And Stanford does want to produce leaders with clear goals. So, unless you manage to demonstrate this in your resume (unlikely to be very convincing there) and in your recommendations (which are not in your control), your only option left are essays B and C. I mean, obviously for someone who's been a manager or had her own company, there is no need to elaborate too much in the essays. But in other cases, your essays are pretty much the only way to demonstrate any leadership potential.

From the GSB website:

Essay Length

Your answers for all of the essay questions cannot exceed 1,800 words. Each of you has your own story to tell, so please allocate the 1,800 words among all of the essays in the way that is most effective for you. We provide some guidelines below as a starting point, but you should feel comfortable to write as much or as little as you like on any essay question, as long as you do not exceed 1,800 words total.

* Essay A 750 words
* Essay B 450 words
* Essay C 300 words each

Yes, they say you can write as much as as little as you like, but I think the fact that they say 750 words is a starting point and the 750/450/300/300 structure is a guideline (their word, not mine) says something?

We can argue about it all we want, but we're not the adcom. Personally, I'm sticking pretty close to their guidelines...

chineseburned: yes, you are entitled to your opinions and it does say "use your judgment", but just remember if they give you a "guideline", there is probably a good reason behind it.

Feel free to do deviate from the recommendations, but just know that it leads to a risk (not getting in because you didn't answer the question they care about most) that you must be ready to accept.

I agree with chineseburned here. I think it's possible to answer Essay A sufficiently in 650 or even 550 words.

IMO 300 words for each of the last two essays isn't enough to leave a good impression.

I think arguing about the rigid word limits is relatively fruitless. Realistically, as long as your aggregate word count is within the reasonable bounds for a timely essay read-- I think it's safe to assume that the adcom will still take interest in what you have to say, regardless of how your words are allocated to each individual essay. I can't imagine a GSB adcom reading somebody's Essay A and think to herself, "This candidate only wrote 550 words on what matters most to him. Clearly, the world matters less to him than that other candidate who wrote 800 words."

I think the conclusion you can draw, however, is that Stanford is particularly focused onwhat makes you tick, what's important to you, and how you have manifested those interests/goals in all aspects of your life. I think it's equally safe to say that colorful anecdotes of "what matters most to you" can just as easily appear in other Essays (B, C), even if it's not in Essay A. And while you won't be fighting world hunger in every single essay, I think overarching themes of "empathy" and "thinking outside yourself" (or whatever matters most to you) can easily transcend multiple essay topics.

So in my opinion, the main takeaway is to focus more on what you're writing and how you're writing it, and less so where you're writing it.

well said Mikus. kudos

Perfect. That gives me an idea for a plan. Thank you.
No more disagreements Kryzak

I meant for this year. Holding class size and yield constant and given some of the numbers that are being thrown out there 20-40% increase in applicants, or even more....5% seems pretty optimistic as an admit rate this year.

That's what I'm saying. No matter the increase in applicants, we know that 6575 people applied. We also know Stanford has 370 in the class. the minimum admit rate possible (with 100% yield) is 370/6575 = 5.6%. Keeping last year's yield constant at 80%, that's still 462.5/6575 = 7%.

Not quite sure how you got 5% as optimistic.

The 6,575 applicants was last year (class of 2010). I think Sleepy is talking about this year (class of 2011). if we see a big jump in applications this year, the 7% acceptance rate could be as low as 5% since the class size will be the same.

Oh I see, sorry about my mistake. I can see that now. Though last year we were estimating it would go up to 7000 applicants, but it only went up to 6575. So there may still be hope.

FYI I updated the opening post on this thread with GMATclub applicant stats. Please PM me or post a reply if you have applied and then again with your accept/ding result (hopefully the former!!).

TL - I will be applying in R2