KillerApp
esdykes
thebdouglas
Both are great programs and both admit quite different students (with some overlap)....I myself got dinged at HBS but was interviewed @ GSB (+ Haas & Anderson) and am hoping for an admit.
100% agree. I'm actually in the opposite boat. Eternal wait for Stanford, but interviewed at HBS (+Darden & LBS). Hoping for an invite from HBS. In hind-sight, I can definitely see that my style and therefore essays were much more HBS than Stanford material. Only wish I had realized that before submitting!
How would you differentiate the styles for HBS and Stanford? Just wondering what to expect for GSB application in R2. How did you realize that these styles are so different?
Others can chime in here but at a very superficial level, HBS focuses more on you as an individual leader and what you have overcome to achieve results through teams. You can see this in their essays: what have you done well. What do you wish you had done better? Both focused on me the individual.
Stanford in the other hand is looking for people that feel a deeper connection to improving the world through their leadership. It's similar but different from achieving results. This is reflected in the essay prompt of what matters most to you. Also, I think their tag line sums it up well - ending with change the world.
I'm not passing judgement on which is better, instead I think it's more a question of what drives you at your core that pushes you to achieve great things. It's a bit hard to describe, but this is at least my attempt. I would also throw out there that this is not 100% true but more of a general trend.