Stanford MBA Admissions Questions

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Does an early interview invitation translate into a higher chance of admission?

First, congratulations to all of you who submitted your applications in Round 1!

Many of you have asked whether there is a relationship between the timing of your interview invitation and your chance of admission. You'll find the "what" and "why" of interviews on our website in Interviews and the Director's Corner, so I'll focus on the "when."

Please be assured that your likelihood of admission bears no relationship to when you receive your interview invitation; the timing of your invitation simply depends on when we review your file - and there is no pattern to application review.

Interviews for Round 1 applicants start as soon as possible after the application deadline - typically early November - and last through mid January. In fact, we began emailing Round 1 interview invitations yesterday.

We expect to send Round 1 interview invitations pretty regularly, every business day or so, through mid December. Even during Stanford's winter shutdown (24 December 2007 through 1 January 2008) we continue to read feverishly but tend to bundle invitations and send them every few days. (One reason for the bundling is that our building is unheated for the entire shutdown and we are thin-blooded Californians!)

We hope to send almost all interview invitations by 11 January, though some will go out later. We also may ask some of you to join the waitlist without an interview.

No matter when you receive your invitation to interview, you have the same chance of admission as any other candidate.

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Why are letters of recommendation due on 19 Oct 2007?

We ask Recommenders to submit their letters a few days earlier than the actual deadline to help prevent system slowdown on deadline day. However, this earlier date is a suggested deadline only!

I know some of you are still fine tuning your application and you have until 5pm (Pacific Time) on 22 October 2007 to submit your application.

If you have technical problems, contact Technical Support (use the link in the application). If you need last minute advice, call the MBA Admissions Office during regular business hours +1 650.723.2766

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Essay Length
When we say the number of pages for the essays must not exceed 7 pages total we mean 7 pages of text. In other words, if you took the continuous text for all your essays, it should not cover more than 7 pages.

In the example shown below, you can see that it would be ok to submit 8 pages, because if you took out the blank half pages you'd end up with a total of 7 pages of text.

Interviews
Many of you are concerned about when the interviews are scheduled and whether or not we will be able to reach you. Interviews are by invitation only and we will try very hard to connect with you. That's also the reason why we ask you to select an email address that you can check from just about anywhere, even while traveling.

Everything you ever wanted to know about interviews is listed on this page http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/interviews.html

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TOEFL Waivers
Here are some examples to illustrate when the TOEFL is or is not required:

Xiaogu from China went to Bejing for his undergraduate degree. Since the language of instruction was Chinese, he is required to take the TOEFL.

Ning from China got her undergraduate degree in London and is not required to take the TOFEL because the language of instruction in London was English.

James from the United Kingdom went to Germany for his undergraduate degree and is required to take the TOEFL (even though he is a native English speaker) because the language of instruction at the university was German.

Suki from Japan received her undergraduate degree from an American college where the language of instruction was English and is therefore not required to take the TOEFL.

Fayza from Pakistan who went to school in Islamabad where the language of instruction at her university was English is not required to take the TOEFL.

The example below illustrates a situation where you may request a waiver of the TOEFL requirement:

Chin from China went to Bejing for her undergraduate degree but then went to London for a graduate degree. Chin may request a waiver of the TOEFL requirement because the language of instruction at the London university where she earned her graduate degree was English.

To request the TOEFL waiver, use the Additional Information section of the application and give a short explanation. You may assume this waiver is approved unless we notify you.

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I've heard that visiting campus will give me an advantage in the admission process

Alicia from Brazil asks: I'm currently in Chicago on a short term assignment and was hoping to come to Stanford for a class visit and to check out the campus. If I can't squeeze this trip into my schedule before I return to Brazil will it affect my chances of getting admitted?

No worries Alicia. Attending any of our on-campus or off-campus events is not an admission requirement and we don't track who's come to visit and who hasn't.

If you have the opportunity to visit it might help you in deciding whether to apply. However, a visit is not necessary to demonstrate your interest in Stanford.

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If you didn't hear it from us, it may not be true

A few days ago I received this email and wanted to share it with you because it is a great example of what can happen when you rely on hearsay*.

"I'm concerned to hear from people that adcom is interested only in what I am doing right now rather than what I have accomplished in the past. I struggled hard to achieve a gold medal in the national games when I was 14. Do these achievements lose value with age? Some people even suggested to make just a passing mention of my medal in the essays. But the journey was incredibly tough and my values come from that journey."

I'm so glad the writer of this email contacted us directly so we could tell her that what she heard was wrong.

I'm pretty sure the source of confusion was the fact that for Essay C we ask that applicants rely on experiences that occurred during the last 3 years. However, this is not true for Essays A and B.

In fact, her passionate email would translate well into Essay A "What matters most to you and why".....but now imagine the same essay where she follows the advice of her friends and gives the medal and the experiences leading up to winning it only a passing mention...

Many people claim they know our admission requirements and are only too willing to share. However, even friends who are currently enrolled at the GSB may not be able to answer nuanced questions or be familiar with the latest essay questions.

Everything you need to know in order to put together a compelling application can be found on the Stanford MBA Program website . If you need additional information please feel free to contact us directly. We'll be happy to answer your questions.

Researching the schools you're interested in can be time consuming but unfortunately there are no shortcuts. As illustrated above, you run the risk of putting yourself at a significant disadvantage by relying on hearsay.

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Talent knows no borders

Today's question comes from a prospective candidate in Africa:

Sa'ad from Nigeria asks: I'm thinking seriously about applying to Stanford. Are prospective students from Africa with undergraduate degrees from non-US schools at a disadvantage?

Answer: Being from Africa (or any other continent) or having an undergraduate degree from a non-US school does not at all put you at a disadvantage. Our students have very diverse backgrounds which is, in fact, something we actively seek.

Let me illustrate this with a few statistics: The MBA Class of 2008 includes students from 48 different nations; members of this class went to 162 different colleges and universities around the globe (84 US schools and 78 international schools).

In addition to classmates from every continent, you will also find lots of support among the GSB student-run clubs, many of which focus on specific geographic areas including Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and even Texas.

Let me also quote Eric Abrams, Director of Outreach: "The Stanford GSB strives to build an intellectually diverse student body. We enroll talented leaders--and talent knows no borders."

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Just because applicants with less work experience are welcome doesn't mean applicants with more experience are unwelcome.

Thanks for your feedback and questions! Here's a great one for our Myth Buster Category:

Ahmed from Cairo asks: Many MBA Admission blogs are saying that Stanford MBA Adcom is not interested in applicants above 27 years old.

Allison Davis, Director of Operations, MBA Admissions Office, reponds: Not true! (I hope you took the opportunity to ask Derrick about this at his info session in Cairo earlier this week.)

This myth came about because we started reaching out to candidates earlier in their careers after realizing that many were waiting longer to apply because they thought schools wouldn't consider them seriously without 4+ years of work experience.

And even though candidates kept telling us they felt ready to apply after working just one or two years they tended to wait because the advice they got from co-workers, friends, and advisors was that more years in the workforce made them more competitive for admission. Again, this is not true.

Reaching out to candidates earlier in their careers also gave us the opportunity to attract more women to the GSB. While women apply to other professional schools in record numbers (everyone knows you don't need any work experience to get into law or medical school), many don't consider business school until after they have established their careers; a time when the idea of getting an MBA seriously competes with taking time out for children.

In addition, we found that some excellent candidates (both male and female) were so successful in their careers that the opportunity costs of coming to business school were too high with the result that they didn't apply. Yet they might have considered--and benefitted from--an MBA earlier in their careers.

I hope this explains why our efforts to reach candidates earlier in their careers created this myth. As Derrick Bolton frequently states: "Just because applicants with less work experience are welcome doesn't mean applicants with more work experience are unwelcome."

The most important advice we can give you is that since you know best when the time is right for you to enter our MBA Program, apply when YOU are ready!

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No preferred amount of work experience for the Stanford MBA Program

One of the many myths floating around is that you need to have a certain number of years of work experience before you become eligible for admission to business school. This may be true for some schools but NOT for the Stanford MBA Program.

As we say over and over, we believe that you know best when the time is right for business school. When you feel ready, apply. Whatever your career stage, use your application to make a case for how you will contribute, grow, and learn at Stanford.

Many applicants tell us that the right time for them is after three or so years of working. But what if you feel ready for the Stanford MBA Program after working for a decade or longer? Regardless of the myths you've heard this can be the perfect time in your career to apply. (Little known fact: the Stanford MBA Program competes vigorously with the Stanford Sloan Master's Program for talented mid-career candidates.)

You think you're ready to make an impact right after college? Well, go ahead and apply! College seniors, we have a lot of information for you on our website http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/college_seniors.html