Stanford University GSB

Africa is often not targeted by top Business Schools when it comes to MBA Admissions. But Stanford Graduate School of Business fellowship program, started in 2013, shows that the trend is changing. Schools have now realized that the next wave of growth will be in Africa, and the region requires trained management professionals. To meet this need, and to encourage management students to work in this region and contribute towards the economic and social development of this region, Stanford GSB has announced The Stanford Africa MBA Fellowship Program.

Amount: US$140,000

No of Awards: 8

Requirement: Within 2 Years of graduating from Stanford GSB, Students should work in Africa for 2 Years

For Details, visit Stanford GSB Africa Fellowship Page

With the Final Round of MBA Admission nearing, Stanford Graduate School of Business has opened registration for Campus Visits. As Stanford MBA Admission aspirants might know, the First Round of Stanford MBA Admission Deadline is in October. However, the school’s Academic Calendar does not allow Campus visit during that time.

For MBA Aspirants entering during the fall of 2014, this is your chance to register for a campus visit and learn more about the program, up close.

There are two advantages:

1) You can be at Stanford when the weather is great

2) Campus visits are ideal for your research. Here is an excerpt from the article - 3 Tips for Business School Campus Visit

“Too many people think of a campus visit as a chance to show off and impress the school. This is a poor use of your energy, for a couple of reasons. First, a campus visit is all about acquiring information – info that will help you choose your list of schools and info that will help you gain admission in the first place. You are on an investigative mission, not an audition. Second, MBA programs simply will not know whether you were amazing or an abomination. No business school has the resources to closely...

Business Simulations are an extension of the traditional classroom lectures and case-study method of teaching in an MBA Program. The real value of this tool comes from testing what you have learned through these simulations.

How valuable are these simulations?

It gives students the ability to take the type of risks that normally cannot be taken in real life. By observing the consequence of these actions, students can learn about themselves and how various elements in a Business Environment influences each other. Simulations require collaboration with team members and teach students to think for the team and effectively communicate with each other. The learning experiences develop team building, leadership and problem solving skills.

The Simulation Games can be broadly categorized based on the learning function – Communication, Finance, Sustainability, Leadership & Teamwork, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain, Change Management, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, Economics and Pricing, and Statistics.

Let us look at some of the best simulation games used in top Business Schools.

Communication

The Tip of the Iceberg cultural team is a...

CommonBond, has recently announced that it will disburse $2.5 million in student loans at Wharton, benefiting as many as 50 students. What makes this significant is that the loans are funded by Wharton alumni itself. CommonBond is a startup founded by Wharton Alumni. They oversee the disbursal process. At the heart of CommonBond's effort is a philanthropic quest - a positive social change. A case in point is that for every fully-funded degree, the company will sponsor a child's education, for a year in partnership with the African School for Excellence.

The news is a boost to the nascent alumni-sourced loan industry, which seeks to ease the difficulties faced by MBA students looking for loans. Students do not have to put up with the intense scrutiny and paperwork, which they must go through otherwise. And even more significantly, the interest rates are just 6.24%, lower than the lowest Federal loan rate of 6.8%. Private loan rates go even higher, averaging around 12%. Alumni who contribute to the loan pools get returns of above 4.25% - profits with a cause attached. What's more, the risk factors are very low. The 10-year cumulative loss rate estimated for the Wharton loan pool is around 0.70%.

...

Dec 22nd 2012: The school is closed for the holiday season and will reopen on Jan 6th 2013.

Round 2 Deadline is on 9 January 2013, 5:00 PM PST.

Dec 12th 2012:  Students for first round of Class 2015 MBA were admitted.

To help MBA students, Stanford MBA AdCom has debunked myths about application and recommendation letter.

Recommended Resources

1) Stanford MBA Essay Guide
2) Stanford MBA Interview Guide
3) Stanford MBA Admission Blog

Stanford MBA AdCom has debunked myths about MBA Admission, Recommendation letter and Interviews in their blog. Here is the summary:

Stanford MBA Admission Myth Debunked

1) Regular Updates: You will not receive regular updates about your MBA Application status. The statuses that would be visible to applicants are:

a) Submitted
b) Under Review

On the day of the decision, you will receive a link to the decision letter in ApplyYourself.

2) Full Time work experience: This does not include experience during or before your undergraduate degree. Include months of experience from completing your undergraduate degree until Sep 1, 2013.

3) Campus Visit: Visiting Campus does not increase your chance of admission other than helping you with your research. There are many International students who is admitted without any campus visits (You can bookmark Stanford MBA or Business School Research pages for your Research).

Stanford MBA Recommendation Letter Myths Debunked

1) More Recommendation Letters are Not Better: Presenting your profile in required number of recommendation letters is better. More is not...

MIT Sloan and Stanford GSB are two of the top B-schools in the world. Both are next door to exceptional undergraduate programs that regularly usher in radical new technologies. Along with other schools on campus, both Sloan and GSB are well known for its world class entrepreneurial environment. Students with a tech background and an entrepreneurial attitude are naturally drawn to the schools, at times facing the dilemma of choosing one over the other. We have picked five factors for your consideration before picking on over the other.

1) Location

Stanford is in sunny California, while MIT is in the colder city of Boston. Stanford has a large campus, and is located in Palo Alto, a suburban area, with fewer transport options, and almost no other college students around except for those at Stanford. Sloan is in the city, with all major infrastructures close to the campus. The school is also next door to Harvard, and so presents a diverse set of students to interact with. The extra space at Stanford supports better infrastructural facilities as compared to MIT.

The big advantage for Stanford is its vicinity to Silicon Valley. Major companies visit both schools for...

An MBA in General Management provides you with a well-rounded management education, where you cover the entire range of management functions, but specialize in ‘management.’ There are two major advantages of such a focus. One, it provides graduates with all the tools required to oversee the successful management of a company – the perfect route to reach the top of the management rung. Most CEOs tend to have majored in one of the General Management disciplines. The second advantage is that it opens up an entire range of industries and verticals as careers options, offering possibilities of career flexibility and sector switching. For MBA aspirants looking to reach the top with a wide choice of career paths, here are F1GMAT’s pick for the top five General Management MBA programs:

1. Stanford MBA

Stanford University’s 2 year Full-time MBA is the standout choice for those seeking a career in General Management. The first year of the program is divided into two core halves - General Management Perspectives and General Management Foundations. The subjects covered include Critical Analytical Thinking, Leadership Labs, Managerial Skills, Managing in the Global Context and Managing...

In 2011, 16% of the graduating MBA class at Stanford reported that they were starting entrepreneurial ventures. This is a surprisingly large number for any Business School in the world. Not for Stanford though. According to the October 2012 report by two Stanford professors, since the 1930s, Stanford entrepreneurs have founded companies that generated revenues of $2.7 trillion annually while creating 5.4 million jobs. 55% of the entrepreneurs chose Stanford because of its entrepreneurial environment.

Google, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems are among the 39,900 companies that originated from Stanford. If we combine them as a country, it will be the #10 economy in the world.  Some of the renowned non-profits originating from Stanford are Kiva, a microfinance organization, and The Special Olympics and Acumen Fund that assist entrepreneurs in developing economies.
 
While the above stats are for Stanford as a whole, MBA graduates have only benefitted from this environment...

This is the second part of the series – MBA Marketing Rankings. If you have missed the first part, read MBA Marketing Rankings - Part 1 (Kellogg and Fuqua)

Kelley MBA

The Kelley School of Business has an MBA program that stands out for its focus on Marketing. As a result, 30% of the graduating class of 2012 earned a career in the marketing function. The median salary was $97,000, with a range of $71,000 to $120,000. As for the signing bonus, the median was $22,000, ranging from $1,500 - $45,000.

Students from Kelley have been placed in an extremely wide cross section of careers like marketing, marketing research, brand management, business-to-business marketing, and advertising, in a large range of industries. While Proctor & Gamble sources most of its managers from this school, the other major recruiters for marketing are Kraft, Nestlé, 3M, PepsiCo, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Best Buy, IBM, Eli Lilly, Abbott Laboratories and Cummins.

The faculty at Kelley is among the world’s best, and has published 2,000+ articles in 300+...

How should I prepare for MBA Admissions Interview? What are the skills, personalities and fit that top schools like Harvard, Stanford and Wharton are trying to figure out through the interview? Are there any additional aspect of my application that should be highlighted in the interview or consistency is the key?

In plain English, through the interview process, they want to know that you can listen, respond and connect with another human being in front of you (not everyone is good at that!). It is not just your ability to talk, but also your ability to communicate effectively face-to-face with another human being.

To do this, practice talking about your candidacy OUT LOUD. Either talking about it to someone (friend, family member, spouse, dog, cat, hamster, etc.) or to yourself (yes, it will sound strange and weird at first).

Interviews are not intellectual exercises. They are not carefully rehearsed speeches. A great interview is one where BOTH the interviewer and interviewee are fully engaged in conversation (but obviously with the interviewee doing most...

The ratio of US to International students selected every year will give you a perspective on the class composition over the years.

Here are the percentage of International students over the past five years:

2012: 37%
2011: 33%
2010: 34%
2009: 34%
2008: 37%

A 33-37% International students over the past five years is a healthy class composition. You will get a better understanding of your chance to get into stanford full-time MBA program if you look at the regional breakup for the class of 2012.

Africa: 2 %
Asia: 11 %
Europe: 6 %
North America: 64 %
Latin America and the Caribbean: 5 %
Oceania: 1 %
Dual citizenship: 11 %

Another factor that influence the admission is the gender of the applicant. We haven’t come across many top Business Schools that have consistently maintained a strong female representation for their Full-time MBA program. Here are the % of female students in Stanford Full-time MBA Program.

2012: 39%
2011: 34%
2010: 36%
2009: 38%
2008: 32%

Another positive aspect of Stanford MBA program is the representation of US Minority in the Full-time MBA program.

2012: 23%
2011: 21%
2010: 24%
2009: 23%
2008: 17%

So if you...

Before you apply for Stanford MBA program, research about the type of profiles that is selected for the past 5 years.

The academic competency (Undergraduate GPA and GMAT Score) are used as the first point of elimination for top Business Schools. If the AdCom notices that you have low GMAT or GPA (below class average), they quickly look into other aspects of your profile. If the non-academic aspects of your profile do not stand out, your application will be under ‘Review Later’ category.

GPA Average GPA for Stanford MBA is 3.69

Let us look into previous year’s GMAT Score range and median score for Stanford MBA graduates.

The Stanford AdCom has clarified that they will not take GPA scores in absolute terms. They will evaluate your GPA relative to the highest and lowest scores in your university. The evaluating factors and criteria are different across various countries. If the scores do not give a clear picture on your ability to excel academically, the AdCom looks into your GMAT Score. In any case, GMAT score is important for top Business Schools.

GMAT Score is crucial. If you look at the past four years, here are the range and median GMAT Scores

2012 GMAT Scores Range 580-790 Median 730
2011 GMAT Scores Range 540-800 Median 730
2010 GMAT Scores Range 530-790 Median 730...