The Stanford Graduate School of Business has posted the MBA application deadlines for the 2013-2014 admissions cycle.  This year’s three deadlines are as follows:

Round 1

Deadline: October 2, 2013

Notification: December 11, 2013

Round 2

Deadline: January 8, 2014

Notification: March 26, 2014

Round 3

Deadline: April 2, 2014

Notification: May 7, 2014

The Stanford GSB notes that more applicants have been applying in Round 2 over the past few years, making the second round larger and more competitive. For those considering applying in either Round 1 or Round 2, the school strongly encourages applicants to consider Round 1. All applications are due at 5 p.m. PST.

For additional details, visit the Stanford GSB’s admissions website.

It looks like the admissions department at Stanford Graduate School of Business is on a mission to bring the truth to the people as Allison Davis once again takes to the MBA admissions blog and dispels three persistent assumptions regarding Stanford’s admit process.

MYTH 1: If I worked full-time during college, I can count those months as “full-time work experience.”

THE TRUTH: In the Full-Time Employment section, please include only the months of full-time work experience SINCE you graduated from your undergraduate university. We ask you to calculate how many months you will have from your college graduation until September 1, 2013.

You can list work you did during college, even if it was full-time, in the Part-Time Employment section of the application. That section includes a field for hours per week so you will be able to indicate that you worked full-time. We read everything and will connect the dots that you were working throughout college.

MYTH 2: After I submit my application, I will receive regular updates on my status throughout the application process.

THE TRUTH: Unfortunately, we do not have the staff to update each applicant’s status for every step in the process. When you submit your application (…) you will receive an immediate message thanking you for your submission. Your application status in Hobson’s ApplyYourself shows as “Submitted.”

Approximately two weeks after the application deadline, all applications are updated to “Your application is currently under review.” This line will appear under the “Submission Status: Submitted” line. (Note that all applications are reviewed even if they are missing documents like recommendations. We will evaluate your application and make a decision based on the application documents that you submitted.)

You will be contacted via email by our office if you are invited to interview; your application status will remain “Under Review.” On the decision notification date, you will receive an email that the decision on your application has been posted. You will be directed to log into your Hobson’s ApplyYourself account, where you will see your decision letter.

MYTH 3: It’s critical to visit campus before I apply. If I can’t schedule a visit before the application deadline, I’d better wait to apply in the next application round.

THE TRUTH: Visiting campus does not affect your chances of admission whatsoever. It may be of value to you as part of your research on which schools to apply to; that’s up to you. Keep in mind that many of our applicants come from outside the U.S. so we couldn’t expect everyone to visit. If you have only one chance to visit, come after you’ve been admitted for Admit Weekend, where you’ll meet students, alumni, faculty, and your future classmates.

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So there you have it, folks, straight from the admissions team at the Stanford GSB. If you’re applying in Round Two, coming up on January 9, 2013, and would like guidance on your MBA application, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Contact us to learn more.

The Stanford Graduate School of Business offers a new post this week attempting to clarify any misconceptions or confusions related to the letters of recommendation required as part of the MBA admissions process.

Here, Allison Davis sets the record straight so you have plenty of time to get this aspect of your application sorted out in advance of the Round 2 deadline on January 9, 2013.

MYTH 1: I will be at a disadvantage if I cannot get a recommendation from a current direct supervisor.

THE TRUTH: Rest assured that you are not the only applicant in this situation. You may not be disclosing to your employer that you are applying to business school. You may have started a new job recently, and your supervisor does not really know you that well.

Perhaps you are self-employed, run your own company, or work in a family business where your direct supervisor is a relative (…) If you’re in one of these situations, you just need to be a little more creative in terms of where you get your recommendation. You could ask anyone who is in a position to evaluate your work: a previous supervisor, a client, or a member of your board of directors.

MYTH 2: It is okay to submit more than 3 recommendations. In fact, more is better!

THE TRUTH: We discourage you from sending additional letters. More is not better. In fact, it can have the opposite of the intended effect as it adds an additional burden to our staff who read literally thousands and thousands of pages over the application season. When we receive additional letters of reference, we do add them to your application file, but there’s no guarantee that they will be read.

MYTH 3: It is better to get my recommendations from three different sources to highlight different aspects of my professional and personal background.

THE TRUTH: It’s your decision how to present yourself in your application, what to highlight and what to focus on. And, this goes for your choice of recommenders as well. Some applicants get all their references from work; others include references from outside of work. Some get all their references from their current employers; others include previous employers.

There is no one right way. The mix of recommendations does not affect your chances of admission. When choosing a recommender, our best advice is to (1) choose someone who knows you really well and can provide the detail, examples, and specifics that support their assertions; and (2) choose someone who is truly enthused to write a recommendation for you and will spend sufficient time writing a thoughtful letter.

MYTH 4: Recommendations must be written in English.

THE TRUTH: Recommendations must be submitted in English, but we do not expect the English to be perfect in recommendations written by non-native speakers. We focus on the content of the letter, not the writing style, so we will ignore minor syntax or grammar errors or awkward phrasing.

However, if you and your recommenders think that their English is not sufficient to convey complex ideas, it may be to your advantage to have them write in their native language and then get it translated into English either by a friend or colleague of the recommender, or from a paid service.

The translation does not need to be from a paid service unless that is the only option available to the recommender. The translation is the responsibility of the recommender; the translator cannot be the applicant or a friend or family member of the applicant.

Your recommender would then upload both the original language and the English translation into the recommendation form, and must also supply us with the name and contact information of the translator in case we have additional follow-up questions.

For more on the subject of recommenders, I invite you to read my U.S. News blog post from September on how to strategize and manage the MBA recommendation process. In it, I recommend that applicants create a recommender package, which has four main components and provides instruction on both process and content. Your recommenders will appreciate your assistance and thoroughness, and will undoubtedly produce a better recommendation on your behalf.

Allison Davis from the admissions office at Stanford Graduate School of Business updated the MBA admission blog yesterday with this information, designed to sooth the frayed nerves of those suffering from pre-interview angst.

Here, she dispels three persistent myths surrounding this part of the admissions process at the GSB.

MYTH 1: The interview has a lot of weight so if I blow the interview, I have blown my chances of being admitted.

THE TRUTH: There is no specific weight assigned to the interview; the interview is one part of a comprehensive process. A positive interview does not guarantee admission, while a less than favorable interview does not, by itself, preclude admission. The written application, including the essays and letters of reference, is a critical part of the evaluation process. The interview is a key source of supplemental information.

MYTH 2: I received my interview invitation early in the round so it must mean I have a better chance of getting admitted.

THE TRUTH: The timing of your interview invitation reflects only the order in which your application was reviewed (and the order in which your application was reviewed doesn’t mean anything, honest!). Interview invitations are extended from about a week or so after the round’s deadline until about a week before the round’s notification date, because it takes the Admissions Committee that entire period to review all applications thoroughly.

MYTH 3: I will be interviewed only if there is an alumni interviewer in my local area.

THE TRUTH: Please rest assured that we will work with you to match you with an interviewer. If there is none in your area, we may ask if you’d like to fly to another location or consider a “virtual” interview.

Remember, if you’re invited to interview at the Stanford GSB, or other b-school of your dreams, prep and practice will help ease any interview performance concerns you may have. Start by reviewing your applications, review typical questions, and write out some bullet points to outline what you would say in response to those questions.

Finally, practice, practice, practice! Enlist the help of family and friends, and ask them to provide constructive feedback. Perhaps most importantly, try to have fun and not to get too stressed out by the process.

More international students, fewer with undergrad business degrees, and a slight dip in diversity over the previous class were just a few of the changes recently reported by the Stanford Graduate School of Business when it released the MBA Class of 2014 profile.

While no two Stanford MBA students are the same, here’s what they all have in common: intellectual vitality, demonstrated leadership potential, and stellar personal qualities and contributions, dreams and goals. Here are a few key areas of change for the Class of 2014, as revealed by the school:

• The representation of international students increased to an all-time high of 42%, comprising 53 non-U.S. countries.
• U.S. minority representation reverted from last year’s 20-year high of 27% to a more typical level of 20%. All types of diversity matter at Stanford. Our outreach efforts will continue to foster students whose unique perspectives will enhance our learning community.
• The breadth of undergraduate study continues to dazzle us. This year, a few more engineers and humanities majors joined the MBA program, with a handful fewer students who studied business.
• The industry mix changed slightly, but the absolute number both of schools, (especially non-U.S. institutions), and of organizations represented, reached an all-time high. Two-thirds of our new students are the sole person to come directly from that organization.
• Work experience in the class increased slightly to 4.2 years from 4.0 years. This is a peak for the last decade.

The school attributes these shifts to the fact that the admissions process is about admitting individuals—not categories. Stanford is looking for outstanding individuals, and has welcomed exactly 398 of them this year after receiving 6,716 applications.

Round 2 deadline is coming up on January 9, 2013. If applying to Stanford GSB is part of your action plan, check out our Stanford MBA essay tips for guidance on how to best showcase your goals and achievements.

With entrepreneurship becoming the fifth most popular concentration at business schools today, we thought we’d share the Graduate Management Admission Council‘s recently published list of dozens of  b-schools that offer innovation and entrepreneurship concentrations. If you’ll remember from a few weeks ago, Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine released their annual ranking of the 2012 best graduate programs in entrepreneurship.

Several top-tier MBA programs have expanded the number of classes and centers devoted to entrepreneurship, and roughly 5% of full-time 2011 business school students  founded their own companies right after graduation.  The jump has been particularly notable at places like the Wharton School, Stanford Graduate School of Business and MIT Sloan School of Management.

For many people, an MBA program serves as a business incubator where they can develop their business idea or product in a low-risk atmosphere, and network and build relationships with partners and potential investors.

Granted, the best programs acknowledge that they don’t actually create entrepreneurs—they merely nurture innate ability. But whether you fall into the camp of nature or nurture as it relates to entrepreneurship, most people would agree that an entrepreneur needs to know the same basic skills as someone running a more established company. After all, every company began as a startup, launched by an entrepreneur.

If anything, you need to know all of the basics as opposed to specializing in one area. Our advice to current and prospective MBA students interested in entrepreneurship is to pay close attention in all of your classes—even in the areas you plan to outsource as soon as you have the budget.

(infographic courtesy of MBA.com)