Mr. Renewable Energy

Given your mechanical engineering degree and your pursuit of a PhD at a top five U.K. university, I would imagine that when you do get a GMAT score it should be pretty high. You say you are aiming for 730+. You will definitely need it to be seriously considered at Stanford which accepts less than 7% of the candidates who apply. I am not so sure, however, that the GSB would want a PhD in its MBA classroom. It’s unclear what your PhD is in. You say it is “a topic I was always passionate about.” The admissions team may feel that you would be more difficult to “shape” or fully benefit from their MBA experience.. Graduating from a top 15 U.K. university for your undergrad could also be an issue at Stanford which is very much enamored with prestige undergraduate credentials. When you look at the educational backgrounds of the Class of 2020 at Stanford, there are four students with degrees from Imperial College London, three from Oxford, two from Cambridge, and one each from Durham in geophysics with geology, Oxford Brookes in applied accounting, Birmingham in physics, Manchester in chemical engineering, Nottingham in engineering, and Warwick in politics and economics. The positive side of this is that the U.K. is the best represented international market for undergraduate study at Stanford, with 14 enrolled students from nine different universities, according to a recent analysis of LinkedIn data by Fortuna Admissions. But the one-offs are just that: one-offs. So the feeder schools are really Imperial, Oxford and Cambridge. I am going to assume that you are not a graduate of one of those schools. It’s also unclear to me whether the Fortune 500 firm you worked for as an R&D engineer is a feeder company to Stanford. One-third of the students in Stanford’s Class of 2020 had worked in consulting in at least one of their full-time jobs, most typically at MBB. Bottom line: I would say your chances are not much better than the overall admit rate.

Hi, Mr. Renewable Energy, Julie-Anne Heafey here from mbaMission. It’s always hard to evaluate chances with an absent GMAT score, but you certainly seem like an academic powerhouse. I worry about the PhD, though, because MBA programs tend to steer away from folks who might appear to be overly invested in collecting academic credentials. Stanford’s looking for those who are going to create a big impact in business, and while that’s a stated goal of yours, past results tend to be the best predictor of future performance and I just don’t have enough info on that here… What kind of a mark have you made in your current role and how do you think you might create change in the future? Those will be super important things to cover in your application. The other thing I’d warn you is that Stanford’s fantastic for renewable energy and innovation…but as a result attracts a ton of folks with that goal–so you’re going to have a ton of competition. My biggest piece of advice for you is to find a compelling angle that’s unique and emphasize a specific vision of how you’ll change the world. Stanford’s so competitive, with an admit rate usually around 6%, I’m going to rate you just slightly above that, but the odds are tough. Good luck! Julie-Anne