Stanford MBA Application

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Stanford GSB’s acceptance rate is the lowest of all MBA programs globally, at just 8.9%, and the school ranked #6 in U.S. News & World Report‘s Best Business Schools for 2023-2024. Learn more about this highly-coveted program here.

“Stanford seeks outstanding and diverse people who seek a transformative experience at the GSB and in turn, seek to transform lives, organizations and the world — that is, to make a significant impact,” shared a former Stanford GSB Admissions Officer on the Stacy Blackman Consulting team.

Contact us for an assessment of your Stanford GSB MBA candidacy today. Here’s a snapshot of our GSB expertise on the SBC admissions consulting team:

Stanford Program Overview
The Stanford MBA Program maintains that strong leadership “is as much a mindset as a skill set, and to make a difference in the organizations you will serve, you need both.” Accordingly, they aim to deliver a “leadership education that prepares you for your next job and for career moves 30 years from now.”

Known as one of the country’s most selective business schools, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) took a new, more personalized approach to its curriculum in 2007. This new approach tailored each student’s academic experience to match their individual career goals and abilities.

At the Stanford GSB, students and alumni describe a very supportive and enthusiastic environment in which many long-lasting relationships are formed. Stanford is known for its strength in the entrepreneurial area, and many students enter the program with ideas for new ventures already in mind. Alumni cite the school’s entrepreneurial resources and support for such ventures as characteristics which set the program apart from others.

Stanford GSB is also known for its small class size and for having an environment in which students can have closer relationships with faculty and staff than they would in a large program. The school’s vision is that of a “collaborative community” in which students can benefit from working with others who have varied backgrounds.

stanford course female entrepreneurs

Admissions Stats

Here’s a snapshot of GSB’s MBA class of 2024, relative to HBS:

Admission Stats Harvard Stanford
Average GMAT 730 737
GMAT Range 540-790 630-790
Average GPA 3.7 3.76
Estimated selectivity 12% 8%

 

Class of 2024 Harvard    Stanford 
Enrolled MBA Students 1,015 424
International MBA Students 38% 37%
Women MBA Students 46% 44%
Black American Students 11% 9%
Hispanic/Latinx Students 13% 13%
Asian American Students 24% 24%

Rounds & Deadlines

Search our MBA deadlines chart for updates on rounds and dates.

Stanford GSB Admissions Essay

Here are GSB’s main essay prompts and GSB essay tips can be found here. Even outside the actual essay prompts, GSB embeds within its application data form short answer questions that are not to be dismissed, as they are as scrutinized by MBA Admissions readers.

Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?

For this essay, we would like you to reflect deeply and write from the heart. Once you’ve identified what matters most to you, help us understand why. You might consider, for example, what makes this so important to you? What people, insights, or experiences have shaped your perspectives?

Essay B: Why Stanford?

Describe your aspirations and how your Stanford GSB experience will help you realize them. If you are applying to both the MBA and MSx programs, use Essay B to address your interest in both programs.

Both essays combined may not exceed 1,050 words. We recommend up to 650 words for Essay A and up to 400 words for Essay B. We often find effective essays that are written in fewer words.

GSB Admissions Tips

SBC reviews its admit pool each season to identify key trends and lessons. When we evaluated all our successful HBS admits across our SBC client pool, past clients who received admits, we found that their essays had some common success factors:

  1. Core passion and driving motivation shared through several examples, professional, community, personal
  2. Autobiographical and also key achievements
  3. Multi-topical as opposed to one topic, but with a structured framework of some type and not colloquial, freeflow presentation

Similarly, academic stats, intellectual horsepower, leadership track record, career clarity, and proven ambition are all table stakes for GSB  admissions.  

From the Blog

Don’t miss Create an Impressive Stanford MBA Application for strategies to help you create powerful essays that resonate with the reader.

Sample GSB Essays

Winning essays from our successful admits are new on the SBC site and can be found here:

GSB Essay Examples

What Matters Most to You and Why: Examples

More HBS Application Tips

View our extensive overview of how the application for Harvard varies from that of Stanford here.

Stanford GSB Class of 2024 Key Statistics
Applicants: 6,152
Entering Full-Time MBA Students: 424
Average GMAT: 737
Average GRE: 164 Verbal/ 163 Quantitative
Average GPA: 3.78
Average Age: 28
Average Work Experience: 4 years
Rolling Admissions: No
Women: 44%
International Students: 37%
US Students of Color: 52%
First-Generation College Graduate: 12%

Stanford GSB Important Dates

Round 1 Deadline: September 12, 2023
Round 2 Deadline: January 4, 2024
Round 3 Deadline: April 9, 2024

Contact

(323) 934-3936
info@StacyBlackman.com

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