Your answers for all of the essay questions cannot exceed 1,800 words.
You have 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 1: 750 words
Essay 2: 450 words
Essay 3: 300 words each
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Essays Essay 1: What matters most to you, and why? Essay 2: What do you want to do—REALLY—and why Stanford? Essay 3: Answer two of the four questions below. Tell us not only what you did but also how you did it. What was the outcome? How did people respond? Only describe experiences that have occurred during the last three years.
Option A: Tell us about a time when you built or developed a team whose performance exceeded expectations.
Option B: Tell us about a time when you made a lasting impact on your organization.
Option C: Tell us about a time when you generated support from others for an idea or initiative.
Option D: Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, established, or expected.
Recommendation Questions (3 recommenders) For Your 2 Professional/Workplace recommenders 1. Please comment on the context of your interaction with the applicant. If applicable, briefly describe the applicant's role in your organization. 2. How does the candidate's performance compare to those of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant's response. 3. Please make additional statements about the applicant's performance, potential, or personal qualities you believe would be helpful to the MBA Admissions Office.
For Your Peer recommender 1. Please comment on the context of your interaction with the applicant. If applicable, briefly describe the applicant's role in your organization. 2. Describe how the candidate has generated support from others for an idea or initiative. Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant's response. 3. Please make additional statements about the applicant's performance, potential, or personal qualities you believe would be helpful to the MBA Admissions Office.
Employment Statistics Median Base Salary: $125,000 Top Industries: Financial Services (36%), Management Consulting (27%), Technology (13%) Top Locations: West (44%), International (20%), Northeast (13%) Number of students starting their own business: 40 (11%)
Top Employers of Recent Graduates: Number of Hires Not Published List of Top Employers
General Management Perspectives Your first quarter will begin with General Management Perspectives, a series of courses designed to give you insight into the perspective of a senior manager and leader. Essential to Perspectives is the Critical Analytical Thinking (CAT) seminar, in which a senior faculty member and 16 students analyze, write about, and debate fundamental issues, questions, and phenomena that arise in many forms in management.
General Management Foundations Toward the end of your first quarter, you and your faculty advisor (who is also your CAT instructor) will develop a personalized plan for your General Management Foundations courses, which will provide the base for your general management education. In your second quarter, you will begin General Management Foundations. In most cases, you will complete these courses in your third quarter.
One Size Does Not Fit All As part of the Stanford MBA Program, you'll learn in a variety of ways, including case studies, role-plays, and simulations. Because we know that no one approach can effectively address the range of challenges you'll encounter throughout your career, this diverse education is designed to give you the breadth and depth of skills and experience you'll need for success. We choose the most appropriate method for each subject. For example, a strategy course might use case studies while an accounting course might combine discussions and case studies. We firmly believe in learning by doing. Being a small program enables us to provide our students with intimate, hands-on learning experiences that give you ongoing opportunities to bridge academic theory and real-world practice. Teaching Methods
The Global Management Immersion Experience (GMIX) encourages students to gain international work experience by completing a summer project of a minimum of four weeks in an unfamiliar location outside the United States.
Students typically participate in a GMIX between your first and second year of the MBA program, after you have completed your regular eight to ten-week summer internship.
In 2010, we supported 91 students who engaged with 66 organizations in 23 countries around the world, including Australia, Brazil, China, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, and Switzerland.
Company sponsors include organizations in the corporate, government, and NGO settings.
You can find GMIX projects in a variety of industries, including consumer products, international development, energy, finance, healthcare, media and entertainment, technology, and telecommunications.
Following your participation, you will have the option to complete a research paper on a topic related to your GMIX for one or two units of academic credit.
Participation in the GMIX program fulfills the Global Experience Requirement (GER), which you need to complete by the start of your winter quarter in the second year. The GER is a graduation requirement ensuring that every student broadens his/her understanding of the global context of business during the course of the MBA Program through a significant global experience related to the topic of management.
Stanford was the first MBA program to offer a certificate in public management. The GSB has prepared government, nonprofit, and socially responsible business leaders for more than 40 years through the Public Management Program (PMP).
As part of the Center for Social Innovation, the PMP remains the premier program to equip MBA students to apply management skills to social and environmental concerns.
Each year, the PMP offers 20-30 electives in public policy, nonprofit management, social and environmental entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, and more. These courses highlight collaboration among government, nonprofit, and business entities and explore various paths to creating social and environmental value.
In addition to taking elective courses in areas such as public and nonprofit management, social entrepreneurship, international development, environmental sustainability, and philanthropy, you can extend your learning outside the classroom through participation in a variety of domestic and international service learning trips, clubs, conferences and speaker events.
Guys, am I missing something critical here, or are the letters of reference questions listed above way different this year? The Stanford GSB website shows these set of questions:
Questions We Ask Your Recommenders
For Your 2 Professional/Workplace recommenders 1. Please comment on the context of your interaction with the applicant. If applicable, briefly describe the applicant's role in your organization. 2. How does the candidate's performance compare to those of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant's response. 3. Please make additional statements about the applicant's performance, potential, or personal qualities you believe would be helpful to the MBA Admissions Office.
For Your Peer recommender 1. Please comment on the context of your interaction with the applicant. If applicable, briefly describe the applicant's role in your organization. 2. Describe how the candidate has generated support from others for an idea or initiative. Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant's response. 3. Please make additional statements about the applicant's performance, potential, or personal qualities you believe would be helpful to the MBA Admissions Office.
Hello everyone ! im a newbie here ! was baffled a bit ! but came up with some concrete plans ! this is sudhir frm india ,in the final year now ! haven taken the gmat but looking at my prep,i think i can be able to score 700+ , my principal,after he watched me closely,suggested me to go stanford gsb (taking into consideration my extra-curriculars ), n recently i just browsed through ur website n found u even take students frm the college directly il just list some accomplishements of mine 1)president of student redressal committee of my college 2)organiser of sports in my college 3)captain of my college football team and also a captain of the rfb football club team(dont have a meterial proof though) 4)helped with some infos and solutions for my uncles company(dont wanna reveal the name) 5)volunteered for the most famous india against corruption movement headed by anna hazare 6)will be volunteering for the disaster relief and child education programme shortly 7)took up the task of teaching english to some of my college mates (i was appointed by my principal) when in the first semester,i faced some situation which so many ppl might not even have thought of , faced mental trauma, was not able to write my first sem exams ,took sometime to recover , and created a record in my college by clearing all the 3rd sem and 1st sem examinations at one shot with a first class %(15 subjects at a go) although because of that my marks were low (just 60% aggregate in my first and second sems) if u draw a graph of my developement, the line will be in an acclivity ! although by not attempting 1st sem examination,was the least scorer in my class,in the last sem,i topped my college .. . . . looking at all these,my principal suggested my to go for it as he knew that i would be fit for this ! and im a business management grad . currently in the final yr ,with an aggregate of 68(thanks to my first and second sem marks) . . . do u think i need to go for it?
(This is actually not the section to post this on, but I believe a moderator can move these 2 posts elsewhere)
Hi Sudhir,
No one can tell you whether you should go for GSB or not, and also whether or not you can get in (except for GSB adcom ofc).
You appear to have some very good EC's, been through some very tough times as well and show academic potential too. So, first go through Stanford's website thoroughly, understand what the GSB is all about, what you can gain from an MBA at GSB, how GSB can help shape your future & what you can give back to the Stanford community.
Do no just apply because your Dean said so, first get to know whether you need an MBA right after graduation (rather than apply after working for a few years), and attend a Stanford session in India if possible to understand why & whether Stanford would be the best fit for your unique profile.
Guys, am I missing something critical here, or are the letters of reference questions listed above way different this year? Is the Stanford GSB website info outdated or is the info in this post outdated? Please clarify!!
The info re. "questions to references" in this post was outdated. We have now updated it. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. _________________
Hello everyone ! im a newbie here ! was baffled a bit ! but came up with some concrete plans ! this is sudhir frm india ,in the final year now ! haven taken the gmat but looking at my prep,i think i can be able to score 700+ , my principal,after he watched me closely,suggested me to go stanford gsb (taking into consideration my extra-curriculars ), n recently i just browsed through ur website n found u even take students frm the college directly il just list some accomplishements of mine 1)president of student redressal committee of my college 2)organiser of sports in my college 3)captain of my college football team and also a captain of the rfb football club team(dont have a meterial proof though) 4)helped with some infos and solutions for my uncles company(dont wanna reveal the name) 5)volunteered for the most famous india against corruption movement headed by anna hazare 6)will be volunteering for the disaster relief and child education programme shortly 7)took up the task of teaching english to some of my college mates (i was appointed by my principal) when in the first semester,i faced some situation which so many ppl might not even have thought of , faced mental trauma, was not able to write my first sem exams ,took sometime to recover , and created a record in my college by clearing all the 3rd sem and 1st sem examinations at one shot with a first class %(15 subjects at a go) although because of that my marks were low (just 60% aggregate in my first and second sems) if u draw a graph of my developement, the line will be in an acclivity ! although by not attempting 1st sem examination,was the least scorer in my class,in the last sem,i topped my college .. . . . looking at all these,my principal suggested my to go for it as he knew that i would be fit for this ! and im a business management grad . currently in the final yr ,with an aggregate of 68(thanks to my first and second sem marks) . . . do u think i need to go for it?
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