How To Get Into Stanford Graduate School Of Business

The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) takes its mission seriously: “Change lives. Change organizations. Change the world.” The school seeks candidates who not only will be transformed by the experience of earning an MBA but will also seek to transform lives, organizations, and the world. Members of the GSB community refer to this motivation frequently in their classes and personal explorations. In the comedic GSB Show a few years ago, they even turned it into an acronym/verb: “CLOW”!

Despite the school’s medium class size (426 students in the latest incoming class), the GSB community is tight-knit, and the program emphasizes team-based learning. On its website, the school describes its students and alumni as “insightful, passionate professionals who are never satisfied with the status quo,” as the GSB community is always looking for the next interesting perspective on business and the world. Beyond the classroom, students stay connected via such programs as the beloved tradition Challenge for Charity, which raises funds for local charities and culminates in a weekend of events in friendly competition with other local business schools; by joining some of the numerous student clubs available; and by taking advantage of the surrounding Bay Area and its offerings.

Although the GSB is proud of its Silicon Valley roots and center of entrepreneurship, the school prides itself on training global leaders across all sectors. The GSB seeks candidates who will try to make a big difference, and it is willing to consider applicants who have taken risks, are innovative, and dare to be different or do things differently. Applicants who view an MBA as merely the expected next step to advance up the corporate ladder will not stand out, and cutthroat behavior is frowned upon.

On its website, the GSB describes its campus as a “close-knit entrepreneurial community,” and entrepreneurial options are indeed plentiful. The school supports founding new ventures, joining startups, corporate innovation, social innovation, and entrepreneurship through acquisition. The Stanford Venture Studio is also available for graduate students who wish to test their ideas outside the classroom but are not ready to launch their ventures yet. Through the Stanford d.school, both MBA students and those from other Stanford schools can use design to think outside the box and develop their potential in their chosen field via such courses as “Redesigning Finance” and “Negotiation by Design: Applied Design Thinking for Negotiators.”

A Stratus consultant and GSB graduate shared: “The Center for Entrepreneurial Studies is an amazing resource for Stanford GSB students, offering experiential courses, often in conjunction with Stanford’s School of Engineering and d.school. For example, in ‘Startup Garage,’ students get the opportunity to develop, prototype, test, and even launch a new product or service. Over 130 companies, raising over $2.5 billion in funding, have been created through this class alone!”

Leadership is at the core of the GSB experience, and one of the first classes every incoming GSB student takes is the experiential course “Leadership Laboratory.” Students really do treat the school like a leadership laboratory. Aspiring managers can apply to become Arbuckle Leadership Fellows and coach first-year students using a variety of interpersonal and coaching skills. Aspiring CEOs can practice managing difficult leadership situations in such classes as “Managing Growing Enterprises” and “Political Communication: How Leaders Become Leaders.” Finally, nearly half of GSB students choose to practice storytelling and build deep connections with classmates by giving 30-minute Talks about the most formative and challenging moments in their lives. Interpersonal dynamics are at the core of the GSB experience. How will you take part in the culture?

Stanford Graduate School of Business Curriculum

The GSB curriculum is divided into quarters. Students start the autumn quarter of their first year with courses within their section, so by December, everyone knows the other members of their section very well. Much of the first year is dedicated to management perspectives and foundations, with such core courses as “Managerial Skills,” “Finance I,” “Organizational Behavior,” and “Managing Groups and Teams.”

In the winter and spring quarters of the first year, students choose from a menu of courses including “Macroeconomics,” “Information Management,” “Strategy Beyond Markets,” and “Human Resource Management.” The second year is filled with a wide array of electives—more than 100 are available annually—from sophisticated finance classes to the famous “Touchy Feely” course (“Interpersonal Dynamics”) that helps students build soft skills and connect emotionality to leadership.

Many students also take advantage of courses “across the street” in other Stanford programs, exploring design thinking, engineering, computer science, and other disciplines.

A Stratus consultant who graduated from the GSB said, “During my time at Stanford GSB, I earned a Certificate in Public Management. Now expanded to become the Certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation, this popular academic option prepares students to address public issues as future employees, board members, policy makers, and/or investors, and is earned by over 25% of the class.”

Extracurriculars at Stanford Graduate School of Business

The GSB sports a variety of clubs for students to get involved in, ranging from affinity groups to career focuses to pure fun. Among Stanford’s more unique clubs are the GSB Show—an original musical written, composed, and performed each year by GSB students—and View from The Top Leadership Team—a group that hosts speakers from around the world who are leaders in their field. Global opportunities abound as well. Students can go on eight- to ten-day global study trips to destinations all over the world or take part in the Global Management Immersion Experience, which enables students to spend at least four weeks working in a new country. For students eager to have social impact, the Social Management Immersion Fund sets students up with summer internships at relevant organizations and companies, and the Social Impact Club brings in a steady stream of social enterprises and other impact-driven organizations and leaders.

The MBA Challenge for Charity (C4C) is a nonprofit organization that was launched at Stanford GSB nearly 40 years ago and has grown to feature chapters at eight other MBA programs on the West Coast. The C4C hosts an annual event, typically during the spring, where students from each program compete in athletic, social, fundraising, and volunteering opportunities. The winner—the school with the highest attendance and sports performances during the C4C weekend and the most active volunteering and fundraising throughout the year—receives the Golden Briefcase. On its website, the C4C describes its mission as “to develop future business leaders with a lifelong commitment to community involvement and social responsibility.”

Notable Professors and Classes at Stanford GSB

Adina Sterling

Adina Sterling is an associate professor of organizational behavior at the GSB, which she joined in 2015 and where she teaches such courses as “Equity by Design: Building Diverse and Inclusive Organizations” and “Economic Sociology of Markets and Organizations.” Professor Sterling’s research concentrates on topics including economic sociology, inequality, labor markets, and strategic HR. She also leads the Equity by Design Lab, which “studies structural and cultural contributors to workplace inequality, and the ways organizations reduce it,” according to the lab’s website. Professor Sterling is the Business School Trust Faculty Scholar for the 2022–2023 academic year.

Baba Shiv

Baba Shiv, who serves as the Sanwa Bank, Limited, Professor of Marketing at the GSB, is an expert in the area of neuroeconomics. His courses in the MBA program include “Neuroscience and the Connection to Sustained Excellence” and “Designing Solutions by Leveraging the Frinky Science of the Human Mind.” Professor Shiv frequently consults with start-up companies, and his work is often included in such publications as The New York Times and the Financial Times.

Anne Beyer

Anne Beyer joined the GSB in 2006 and today serves as The Staehelin Family Professor of Accounting and the co-director of three programs: the Stanford dy/dx, the Directors’ Consortium, and Finance and Accounting for the Nonfinancial Executive. She has received numerous accolades for her teaching, including the MBA Distinguished Teaching Award. Her courses in the MBA program include “Financial Management for Entrepreneurs,” “Introduction to Financial Accounting,” and “Entrepreneurial Finance.” Professor Beyer also teaches in the MSx and PhD programs at GSB.

Interpersonal Dynamics

This elective course has become a staple at the GSB after being available to students for more than 45 years. In fact, the course has been the most popular elective at the school in each of those years. The course divides students into groups of 12, where they practice giving and receiving feedback with a facilitator and build leadership skills. The goal of the class is to “[create] more productive, professional relationships,” according to the GSB website. One Stratus consultant who graduated from the GSB called the class their favorite during their time at the school, saying, “This class is an incredible, immersive, and very intimate experience with a very small set of classmates. The friends I made in my ‘T-group’ are still some of the classmates I feel closest to now, over 25 years later.”

Designing Solutions by Leveraging the Frinky Science of the Human Mind

Taught by the aforementioned Professor Baba Shiv, this elective course explores brain-body systems in relation to performance within the workplace. Students examine the topic via mini case studies and in-class exercises, and they complete individual assignments near the end of the course. On the GSB website, Professor Shiv highlights such class takeaways as “appeal to emotion,” “seek advice with a rough prototype,” and “expect the best to get the best” as some of the counterintuitive or “frinky” insights explored in the class.

Strategic Leadership: Crafting and Leading Strategy

This elective course is “designed to help you understand, shape, and lead your organization’s strategy by providing you with a framework for thinking about the issues that shape your organization’s economic prosperity,” according to the course description. The course uses Professor Jesper Sørensen’s book, Making Great Strategy: Arguing for Organizational Advantage (co-written with Glenn Carroll, Columbia Business School Publishing, 2021), to explore how strategy constantly evolves. The school particularly recommends this course for students who are hoping to take on roles with responsibility for product or service success post-graduation.

Stanford Graduate School of Business Statistics

Class Profile (Class of 2023)

Class Size: 426
Average Work Experience: 4.8 years
Average GPA: 3.78

Women: 44%
US Students of Color: 48%
International Citizenship: 47%
Average GMAT: 738

GMAT Range: 610–790
Average Verbal GRE: 165

Average Quantitative GRE: 165

Career Placement (Industries, Class of 2021)

• Finance: 33%
• Technology: 29%
• Consulting: 18%
• Healthcare: 5%
• Media/Entertainment: 4%
• Consumer Products: 2%
• Real Estate: 2%
• Agriculture: 1%
• Education: 1%
• Energy: 1%
• Hospitality/Travel: 1%
• Manufacturing: 1%
• Other: 1%
• Transportation and Logistics: 1%

Geographic Placement (Class of 2021)

• Outside North America: 4%
  • Europe: 3%
  • Asia: 1%
• North America: 93%
  • West: 56%
  • Northeast: 22%
  • Midwest: 7%
  • Mid-Atlantic: 4%
  • South: 2%
  • Southwest: 2%

How to Answer Stanford GSB’s 2023-2024 Essay Prompts

The Stanford GSB has used the same two essay questions for years now, and they capture very well what the school is looking for in its applicants.

Since Kirsten Moss’s arrival as director of MBA admissions and financial aid in June 2017, the GSB has reinforced its commitment to looking for students who are introspective and willing to show vulnerability. The GSB values students who will connect with each other “beyond the resume,” have a vision for themselves as change agents and leaders, and believe that the GSB will enable them to realize that vision. Dig deep, and get ready for some soul searching!

• Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (650 words recommended)
• Essay B: Why Stanford? (400 words recommended)
• Optional Question 1: Think about times you’ve created a positive impact, whether in professional, extracurricular, academic, or other settings. What was your impact? What made it significant to you or to others? (1,200-character maximum)
• Optional Question 2: Tell us about a time within the last three years when your background influenced your participation at work or school. (1,100-character maximum)

Click here to read our advice on Stanford Graduate School’s essay questions.

Application Requirements for Stanford GSB

Bachelor’s degree and transcripts

The GSB requires all applicants to have completed a four-year bachelor’s degree (or its equivalent if the applicant graduated outside of the United States) and to provide unofficial academic transcripts with their application. If the applicant is admitted, they are expected to provide official academic transcripts.

Resume

All GSB applicants must submit a one-page resume with their application. “We are more interested in the impact you have had in your workplace than in the name or stature of the organization,” the GSB website reads.

Recommendations

The GSB requires two recommendation letters from each applicant. In business school applications, obtaining a recommendation from a direct supervisor or a manager is usually the best option. If you do not have a current direct supervisor or manager, consider past supervisors, colleagues, or clients, based on your work situation. Family members, friends, and professors are typically not suitable recommenders. “You should choose individuals who know you well through significant, direct involvement with you within the last three years; will provide detailed anecdotes and examples to support their assertions; [and] are sufficiently enthused to spend time writing a thoughtful letter,” the school says on its website.

Test scores

The GSB accepts the GMAT and the GRE to fulfill the test score requirement. All applicants must provide a test score, although the school does not have a stipulated minimum score. For the Class of 2024, the average GMAT score was 737, while the average GRE quantitative score was 163 and the average verbal score was 164. International applicants are also required to provide a TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE score.

Anything else?

An interview and two written essays are also required of GSB applicants. GSB interviews are conducted on an invitation-only basis by admissions officers and alumni. Interviews are hosted both virtually and in person off campus. These are some of the questions that are commonly asked during GSB interviews:

• Take me through your resume.
• Why do you want an MBA?
• Why Stanford?
• What matters most to you and why?
• How do you want to get involved at the GSB and what will you contribute?

Stanford GSB FAQ

What is Stanford GSB best known for?

The GSB combines the prestige of the Stanford reputation and the innovative spirit of the business school. Its collaborative spirit and motto of developing “insightful leaders” attracts applicants from around the world. The GSB is known for its strengths in such areas as social impact, finance, and entrepreneurship.

How much does tuition cost?

Estimated tuition for the GSB full-time MBA program is $126,465 for single students and $152,157 for married students for the 2023–2024 academic year. This includes program charges for two terms, room and board, health insurance, and such additional fees as transportation and books and supplies.

How difficult is it to get accepted into Stanford GSB?

As is the case with all top-ranked business schools, the GSB has a highly competitive acceptance rate—in 2022, the school received 6,152 applications and admitted 528 applicants. This means that approximately 8.6% of applicants received an invitation to join the program. Out of the 528 applicants who were admitted, 424 decided to enroll.

Stanford GSB is known worldwide for its stellar reputation as a leading business school and for its strengths in such fields as finance, social impact, and innovation and entrepreneurship. However, do not let a school’s reputation steer you elsewhere if it doesn’t seem like a perfect match right away! Visiting campus and speaking with alumni and current students can give you a better idea of whether a school is right for you.Are you considering applying to Stanford GSB? Whether you are looking for comprehensive MBA admissions consulting, hourly help, or perhaps interview prep, we at Stratus Admissions Counseling can help you! You can browse our admissions consulting packages here and book the most suitable option for you.

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