Stanford GSB MBA News

Get the latest MBA news from Stanford GSB.

Published: March 14, 2016

Stanford MBA Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-campus

The following Stanford MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. I met with my alumni interviewer at a public place – the environment was relaxed and casual. I emailed my interviewer my résumé beforehand per Stanford’s instructions. I also printed out a copy – which was much appreciated by my interviewer. My interviewer was an older alum – that’s probably why I had a non-standard behavioral interview. I didn’t get asked many questions such as “tell me about a time when you led a team/had a conflict/etc.” Instead, I got asked: 1. Many Read more

Published: March 7, 2016

MBA LiveWire Lights Up with Stanford GSB Dashed Hopes

MBA LiveWire has shown interview invitations trickle in from Round 2 applicants to Stanford Graduate School of Business over the past couple of days. But it was today when the flood gates opened to let a wave of disappointed applicants spill forth sharing their news of rejection. Despite some grumblings about how mean it was of Stanford to reject people on March 8th—International Women’s Day—the school, in fact, was simply adhering to the date it had always said it would release Round 2 applicants from consideration. Had that date been a week later, applicants of Irish descent might just as well have grumbled, and a week earlier could have upset the Welsh. Read more

Published: March 2, 2016

MBA LiveWire Data and Comments Provide Round 2 Revelations

We know that many of you are still in the throes of Round 2, whether you’re interviewing, awaiting a decision or—as in some cases at some schools—still holding out for an interview invitation. The waiting is hard at any stage—we wish you patience, strength and hope! But for other Round 2 applicants, it’s already time to celebrate. We’ve seen reports of Round 2 acceptances from close to 200 of you to places including Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, INSEAD, Oxford’s Said Business School, UNC’s Kenan-Flagler, UCLA Anderson and NYU Stern, among others. Just within the last few hours there’s been a flurry of submissions from triumphant applicants to Emory’s Goizueta Business School. Congrats to you all! Read more

Published: February 24, 2016

Could Nike’s Phil Knight Pay for Your Stanford GSB MBA?

Nike Inc. Co-Founder Philip Knight has given $400 million to Stanford University to establish a scholarship program that will fully fund 100 high-achieving students each year in their pursuit of graduate degrees at any of Stanford’s seven graduate schools, including Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). The new Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program, announced yesterday, is co-named for Stanford’s outgoing President John L. Hennessy, who will become the program’s inaugural director when he steps down as president later this year. "John and I dream of a future 20, 30 or 50 years from now, when thousands of graduates—who can think outside the box as skilled problem-solvers—will be working together for a more peaceful, habitable world," Knight said in a statement. His gift is intended in part to honor the outgoing president’s 16-year tenure leading Stanford, he added, calling Hennessy “one of the great academic leaders of our time." Read more

Published: February 23, 2016

The Business of Healthcare: MBA Programs that Best Prepare Students to Tackle a Challenging Industry

Shaan Patel’s path to business school was a little different than most. With three years of medical school under his belt, the Las Vegas native traded the University of Southern California (USC) for Yale School of Management (SOM), where he’ll complete his MBA before returning to USC for his final year of med school. “As a medical student, I wanted to learn more about healthcare management,” he says. Yale SOM has been great, he continues, offering plenty of healthcare electives as well as opportunities to collaborate with the Yale School of Medicine. “One of the problems with medical school is that you become so focused on the pathophysiology of disease and clinical medicine that there’s not much exposure to the business side of medicine, healthcare administration, insurance,” he says. One Yale SOM class in particular—“Healthcare, Economics, Finance and Policy”—helped him learn about things like Medicare, Medicaid and the roles played by pharmaceutical and insurance companies. “Most medical students have to learn those things on the job after they are in practice,” Patel notes. Read more

Published: February 17, 2016

Waiting for Bolton: Applicant Anxiety Lends Itself to LiveWire Creativity

We know, Tom Petty, waiting is the hardest part. And some schools—cough, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), cough—certainly aren’t making things easy on Round 2 applicants. The stress is high, the updates are few and the results are pure poetry. For anyone who’s completely befuddled, we’re talking about the creative ways candidates have taken to LiveWire to let off steam as they wait anxiously for interview invitations from schools that have yet to share them. Though Stanford GSB has provoked the greatest outpouring of silly LiveWire posts, UC Berkeley’s Haas School has also elicited a few, and there have been some general grumbles about MIT Sloan thrown in as well. Read more

Published: February 4, 2016

Vote Now for the Best MBA Interview Report for January ’16

We're back again! We've taken the liberty of choosing the top 5 MBA interview reports that were submitted in January. Now, we're turning it over to you (because we can't decide). Read more

Published: January 26, 2016

Stanford MBA Interview Report: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus

The following Stanford MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant. I had mailed the alumna to set up a time and she suggested a star-hotel’s cafe on same week’s Friday morning. I waited for 30 minutes beyond our scheduled time. Had to actually call her – turned out she forgot to set a reminder. As we sat in the quiet cafe, she apologized for being late and explained how the interview would go. She said it’ll be a behavioral interview, that it is blind, and asked for a paper copy of my résumé. She said Read more

Published: January 25, 2016

Choosing a Business School for Entrepreneurship

Typing “startups are hard” into Google returns approximately 32 million results—ranging from “Startups Are Hard in 100 Different Ways” to “15 Reasons Startups Are !@#$ing Hard.” Perhaps that has a little something to do with why more and more savvy entrepreneurs are choosing top business schools as their training ground. With expanding entrepreneurship curricula, cool campus startup accelerators and ever increasing numbers of business plan competitions—to say nothing of the all-important access to powerful networks of potential investors—the MBA is becoming the preferred path for many would-be founders. Read more

Published: January 18, 2016

Stanford MBA Interview Report: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus

The following Stanford MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant. I met with my interviewer in a coffee shop and the interview lasted about 75 minutes. It was extremely conversational and incredibly friendly, the friendliest interview I had out of all schools. The interviewer was weaving in and out from trying to get to know me to probing leadership examples/stories for him to get a sense of my leadership style and how I act in those roles. All my questions were leadership questions related to every single one of my jobs on my résumé. Stanford Read more

Published: January 18, 2016

Stanford to Offer LGBT Executive Program to Business Leaders

This post has been republished in its entirety from its original source, metromba.com. Stanford University's Graduate School of Business (GSB) has announced that it will offer an LGBT Executive Program. Beginning in late July 2016, the week-long program is described as the first of its kind. The program is designed for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered leaders who are seeking to rise to the C-suite level in their careers. Read more

Published: January 4, 2016

Vote Now for the Best MBA Interview Report for December ’15

Back in November we put out a call for the best MBA interview reports, and you responded in droves! We received more than 50 quality reports from the applicant community, and for that we thank you! Read more

Published: January 3, 2016

Average GMAT, GPA Scores for Round 1 LiveWire Entries: How Do You Measure Up?

While entries continue to trickle in, the volume on Clear Admit’s LiveWire has slowed—no real surprise given where we are in the MBA admissions cycle. The vast majority of applicants in Round 1 have received decisions from their target schools. Round 2 applicants, meanwhile, are focused on wrapping things up with their applications as deadlines fill the days and weeks ahead. The relative lull has given us a chance to dig into the data submitted by applicants over the course of Round 1, which we thought the Clear Admit audience might find interesting. For starters, we’ve computed average reported Read more

Published: January 3, 2016

Stanford MBA Interview Report: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus

The following Stanford MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant. Read more

Published: December 9, 2015

Stanford MBA Interview Report: Round 1 / Alumna / Off-campus

The following Stanford MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant who was accepted. I interviewed with an alumna at a local coffee shop. I had emailed her my résumé, as requested by Stanford GSB and she brought a printed copy which she had clearly reviewed ahead of time. She began with the why triad (Why MBA? Why now? Why Stanford?), then shifted gears to behavioral questions drawn from a printed list. From what I recall, the questions were as follows: – Tell me about your career path. – Tell me Read more

Published: December 7, 2015

U.S. News Short List Takes a Closer Look at How Many Applications Top Business Schools Receive

As Round 1 applicants anxiously await word from their top-choice MBA programs, does it help or hurt to know just how many applications those programs receive each year? U.S. News, best known in the MBA space for its annual ranking of top business schools, this week devoted its separate Short List—in which it parses data collected as part of the rankings process to spotlight individual data points—to overall application volume at leading schools. Perhaps not surprisingly, the schools that draw the greatest number of applicants also occupy most of the top spots in the U.S. News rankings. Specifically, in 2014 the three schools that received the most applications were also ranked as the top three business schools. Read more

Published: December 7, 2015

Stanford MBA Interview Report: Round 1 / Alumna / Off-campus

The following Stanford MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant who was accepted. Congratulations to them! My interview was scheduled for 4:15pm on a Friday – this was a bad choice (duh!). My interviewer came in 10 minutes late and had to leave precisely on time, so what I thought would be a 45-75 min interview was only 35 minutes. The interviewer also seemed tired and disengaged. My advice: schedule something Tuesday or Wednesday morning. I had also prepped too much for this interview — two mock interviews, read every anecdote online that Read more

Published: December 6, 2015

High Earning Stats for Stanford MBA Grads

This post has been republished in its entirety from its original source, metromba.com. The 2014-2015 employment report recently published by Stanford Graduate School of Business revealed all-time highs for the school’s graduating MBA class of 2015. The Stanford MBA median salary, constant for the past four years, this year reached $130,000, a 4 percent increase. The average base salary, $129,618 last year, rose to $133,406. Read more

Published: November 23, 2015

LiveWire Data Offers Insight into MIT Sloan, Stanford GSB Interview Invitations

In recent weeks, Clear Admit’s MBA LiveWire has continued to be on fire with submissions from applicants making their way through the Round 1 application process at top schools. We’ve received reports regarding a great many schools—including Columbia Business School, Oxford’s Said Business School, NYU Stern and Cornell’s Johnson School. For today, though, our data analysis will focus on MIT Sloan and Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), whose interview invitations and rejections have given scores of LiveWire participants cause for elation or despair. Read more

Published: November 17, 2015

Bloomberg BusinessWeek Rankings Data Reveal High Cost of MBA Networking

While most who are contemplating an MBA at a leading business school are well aware of the steep costs of tuition and foregone earnings, the budget line item for “extras” is sometimes overlooked. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, as part of its annual ranking of full-time MBA programs, asked students from the Class of 2015 just what they spend on nonessential items. The findings? The more prestigious the school, the higher the cost of networking. Harvard Business School (HBS), which was number one in Bloomberg BW’s most recent overall rankings, also topped the charts in terms of students’ median expenditure on nonessential items, at $16,290. Read more

Published: October 11, 2015

Stanford GSB, School of Engineering Confer 100th Online Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

This post has been republished in its entirety from its original source, metromba.com. Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), together with the School of Engineering, earlier this month announced the award of the 100th online Stanford Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SI&E) Certificate, part of a unique partnership founded between the two schools in 2012. The honor went to Francisco Santolo of Dubai, a trade marketing manager for the Middle East and Africa. Santolo, who earned an MBA from the Universidad del CEMA in 2012, already had some startup experience but wanted to expand his skills and renew his motivation in forming new businesses. The certificate program gave him the opportunity to connect with other entrepreneurs and assist them on a pro bono basis. In the process, he was invited to return and co-teach a course at his business school alma mater. Read more

Published: October 2, 2015

Average GMAT Up, Percentage of Women, Minorities, International Students Down at Stanford GSB

Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) this week released its Class of 2017 profile, revealing the highest average GMAT score—733—of all leading business schools. It’s just a one-point gain over last year for the Palo Alto school, but enough nonetheless to stay in front of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where the average this year was 732. The average undergraduate GPA for the incoming class at Stanford GSB also was a record setter at 3.75—perhaps part of what led the Admissions Committee to add that component to its publicly shared profile statistics for the first time this year. As it does each year, the school noted that especially given its smaller class size, “even two students can, and do, create” variations in percentages in the overall profile, This year, those variations included dips in the percentage of women (40 percent this year, down from 42 percent last year), minorities (19 percent, down from 23) and international students (40 percent, down from 44). Read more

Published: September 13, 2015

Stanford Dean Resigns Amid Contentious Litigation Involving Current, Former Faculty

The dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) today announced that he will resign at the end of the current academic year, just one year into his second term as dean, according to a post today in the Stanford Report. "I have decided that it is in the best interests of Stanford and the GSB, two institutions that I love, that I step down," Saloner said in an email that went out to the GSB community today. Since Saloner assumed his role in 2009, the school has raised more than $500 million in private support, opened the new Knight Management Center campus and adopted a new MBA curriculum, among other achievements, the Stanford Report noted. Read more

Published: August 31, 2015

Social Media as a Window to Your Soul? Stanford GSB Prof Says Yes

So last week we shared some tips and cautionary tales from admissions directors at leading business schools about MBA applicants and their social media presence. In a nutshell, we found that different admissions committees use social media to varying degrees as part of the MBA admissions process, but a general rule of thumb is to not be an idiot. In fact, recent research out of the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) suggests that monitoring an applicant's social media behavior over the long run could actually reveal more intimate traits and core personality than face-to-face interviews. Adcoms: take note. Assistant Professor Michal Kosinski, who teaches organizational behavior at Stanford GSB, was surprised to learn as part of research he conducted recently just how much what an individual “likes” on Facebook can reveal about a person. Read more

Published: August 21, 2015

UCLA Hosts 13th Annual Diversity MBA Admissions Conference Saturday, August 22nd

Admissions representatives from 25 leading business schools meet with prospective business school applicants today in Los Angeles as part of the 13th annual Diversity MBA Admissions Conference (DMAC). This annual event is organized by the Riordan Programs Alumni Association (RPAA), a Los Angeles‒based organization devoted to helping prepare high school and college students and recent college graduates from diverse backgrounds and underserved communities for careers in management. Admissions team members from Columbia Business School, Cornell’s Johnson School, Dartmouth’s Tuck School, Harvard Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business are among the more than two dozen slated to attend. Prospective MBA applicants who attend will get to interact directly with admissions directors from top schools face to face as part of small-format roundtable sessions, learning about the schools’ curriculum and student culture as well as each school’s admissions process. Read more

Stanford GSB

CLASS SIZE: 431

FEMALE: 46%

MEAN GMAT: 738

MEAN GPA: 3.77

Livewire Decisionwire Interview Reports Essay Topic Analysis MBA Admissions Deadlines View Full Profile

MBA Applywire

November 20, 2024 9:42pm ET

Applying: Babson / Olin, , Carnegie Mellon / Tepper, Emory / Goizueta, Rice / Jones, Rochester / Simon, SMU Cox, UCI Merage, Washington U. / Olin

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Technology - Entrepreneurship

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology, Entrepreneurship

GRE: 333

GPA: 2.56

Years of Work Experience: 5

Location: Lagos

Notes:

I just got rejected for WashU Olin and I have an interview invitation with Questrom. GPA continues to bother me but I addressed it in my supporting essays.

November 19, 2024 12:51pm ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Cornell / Johnson, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, INSEAD, Michigan / Ross, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Tech in government

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Entrepreneurship Companies: Bain , McKinsey

GRE: 319

GPA: 2.9

Years of Work Experience: 7

Notes:

I got cancer when I was undergrad that's why my undergrad GPA is low. After MBA I want to work in consulting then make a social impact in Africa through entrepreneurship

November 19, 2024 12:06pm ET

Applying: Duke / Fuqua, Harvard Business School, Michigan / Ross, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, U. Washington / Foster, UNC Kenan-Flagler, UT Austin / McCombs, UVA / Darden

Pre-MBA Career: Wealth Management and Military

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Asset Management, inc. HF, Other Companies: Bain , BCG , Deloitte , McKinsey , Goldman Sachs , JP Morgan Asset Management , State Street , Vanguard

GPA: 3.80

Years of Work Experience: 7

Location: San Diego

Post MBA Location: Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis, Charlotte

Notes:

UG Degree: BBA Financial Markets at an Accredited Institution.

Civilian Work History: 3 years as Wealth Advisor under an RIA in Minneapolis and Denver. Total AUM of ~$350-400M, served as a salaried advisor in a primary and secondary capacity. Holistic services to include investment management, estate planning, retirement planning, insurance planning, tax planning, etc.

Military History: 4 years as a supply/logistics officer heading efforts for air/ground mobility, defense contracting, supply and procurement, and fiscal budget management while located at various bases within CONUS and multiple forward deployed locations.

Professional Certifications: Obtained Certified Financial Planner designation (2022) and Series 65 (2019).

November 18, 2024 12:50am ET

Applying: Columbia, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, Emory / Goizueta, NYU Stern, UNC Kenan-Flagler, Yale SOM

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Consulting

Post-MBA Target Industry: Investment Banking Companies: Bank of America , Barclays , Citibank , Credit Suisse , Goldman Sachs , JP Morgan Chase

GRE: 323

GPA: 3.32

Years of Work Experience: 7

Notes:

Education:
- Combined Major in Economics and Statistics
- CFA Charterholder (passed all three levels on the first attempt)

Professional Experience:
- Manager at a Big 4 firm Specializing in capital projects and infrastructure, with a role similar to investment banking
- Seven years of experience, mainly in financial services in Ghana

Extracurricular Activities:
- Pro bono capital-raising services for SMEs
- Aspiring to run a full advisory firm for SMEs in the future
- CFA exam coaching and tutorial classes for candidates
- Founder of a travel and tour club offering affordable trips to explore beautiful and historic scenes in Ghana

Will being 32 years old affect the attractiveness of my candidacy?

November 17, 2024 9:24am ET

Applying: Columbia, , Georgetown / McDonough, Harvard Business School, INSEAD, NYU Stern, Oxford / Saïd, Stanford GSB, UCLA Anderson, Yale SOM

Pre-MBA Career: Higher Education

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology, Investment Banking, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Media, Undecided Companies: Bain , BCG , McKinsey , JP Morgan , Morgan Stanley , JP Morgan Chase , Apple , Google , Microsoft , Andressen Horowitz , Charles River , Sequoia Capital , Blackstone , KKR , 21st Century Fox , Comcast , Walt Disney

GPA: 3.97

Years of Work Experience: 5

Location: Denver, Colorado

Post MBA Location: New York City

View or Submit Entries

MBA LiveWire

November 22, 2024 1:39am ET

Rejected at Columbia

Round: Round 1

Received via portal on November 14, 2024

GMAT: 695

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: India

November 22, 2024 1:07am ET

Interview Invite to Carnegie Mellon / Tepper

Round: Round 1

Received via email

Note:

Interview with admissions team member

November 22, 2024 1:02am ET

Accepted to Rochester / Simon

Round: Round 1

Received via phone November 21, 2024

GMAT: 625

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Entrepreneurship

Application Location: India

November 21, 2024 6:44pm ET

Accepted to Rochester / Simon

Round: Round 1

Received via phone November 21, 2024

GPA: 3.82

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Operations Management

Application Location: Nigeria

Note:

Application submission was on the 14th of October. Interview was on the 7th of November. Admitted with scholarship.

November 21, 2024 5:41pm ET

Accepted to Rochester / Simon

Round: Round 1

Received via email November 21, 2024

GPA: 7.4/10

GRE: 321

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Healthcare

Application Location: India

View or Submit Entries

Live
Wire