Stanford Business School

Hello once again. Hope you are all well.

Following the HBS information session, I went to the Stanford information session 2 weeks ago at the BP building in St James Square. I was curious to see whether (i) the Stanford alumni were noticeably different to their HBS counterparts and (ii) how the overall information session would compare to the ones I previously attended.

As I entered the BP building (very nice location near Green Park) - I notice sandwiches! Surprisingly I didn't eat one as I was too busy talking to other applicants but a nice touch from Stanford.

The crowd was slightly smaller than the number of attendees at the HBS event. Perhaps reflective of the school itself. Stanford admits around 350 students, compared to 900 at HBS. It is a small school by design. From memory, I believe Stanford has around 3500-4000 applicants for 350 places. So yes I'm afraid......extremely competitive! For the uninitiated, Stanford is a top 5 business school in California famed for its entrepreneurship and strength in technology/media/innovation (amongst many other strengths).

The session begins with an explanation of life at Stanford, the curriculum and the application process. Interestingly quite a bit of time was spent on tips for the application process - more so than HBS in my opinion. Very useful for people thinking about applying and just starting their MBA "journey". Again there were some videos showing current students, interesting & genuine but perhaps not as flash as the HBS one.

Moving onto the Q&A panel with the Stanford alumni - I hear "investment banking" & "consultancy" from five of the six individuals when asked to describe their background. Now at this juncture some members of the audience who are not from a finance background, voice their concerns about how competitive their application will be given the composition of the panel. The moderator reassures them that the panel is not representative of the diversity in the Stanford classroom. I am inclined to agree with the moderator here, especially when looking at the statistical breakdown of classes on the Stanford website; but perhaps they could have chosen a more diverse panel? Or are investment bankers naturally the most willing to help? Hehe. From my own point of view, I am heartened by the panel as I am from an IB background. However I acknowledge that my app falls within the "IB pool" and will be ridiculously competitive. I hope I have done enough in my essays to stand out!

The alumni were impressive as usual. As they recounted their stories about their time at Stanford, I could see genuine joy in their faces. They clearly had a wonderful time and stressed the opportunities to try new careers, visit exotic locations, the strong ties with Silicon Valley and of course the Cali weather! I get the impression that the MBA programme is pretty much flat out, and you will be constantly busy. Sounds good to me. In comparison to the HBS alumni - I don't see much difference. Perhaps more international representation (i.e. Europeans, Americans and English) than the predominantly English panel at HBS. But in terms of personality they were all very bright, engaging and articulate. Drinks follow the event.

I have actually submitted both my HBS and Stanford applications this week for Round 1. More on this in future posts!