Title: Stanford MBA Program Information Session (Downtown)

Date: 10/08/2007 

Time: 07:00 PM to 09:00 PM

Location: Goldman Sachs & Co. 32 Old Slip, Auditorium

New York, NY

10005

 

Overall, this was a great and informative event, and I appreciated the level of professionalism with which it was organized and executed.  I was also impressed with the student alumni who participated in the panel discussion – each one of them was smart, accomplished, well-rounded, but also funny and very nice. 

 

The state-of-the-art Goldman auditorium, equipped with huge projector screens and microphones at every seat, was a perfect venue for Derrick’s impeccable presentation and the several hundred prospective candidates who showed up for the event.  Derrick spent the first hour speaking about the program and its new curriculum, then introduced a panel of several alumni, who shared their experiences at Stanford, and concluded the presentation with a discussion and Q&A on the admissions process.  The session ran well over its scheduled end time of 9 pm and most of the panel alumni stayed around for another hour to mingle with the candidates. 

 

Throughout the presentation, Derrick stressed the close residential community of Stanford and the nice and supportive people – students, faculty and alumni – who genuinely care about each other.  I walked away from the presentation with a feeling that of all business schools, this might be actually true at Stanford. 

 

In the Admissions section, Derrick emphasized that the GMAT is only one of the factors, and that he can only recall one or two incidents when the decision to admit someone came down to the GMAT score.  He advised candidates to “do their best” and “not worry so much about scoring 50 points higher.”  This is obviously inconsistent with the fact that Stanford has the highest average GMAT of over 720 and the lowest admission rate among all business schools.  Derrick mentioned the range of 570-790, adding that there are a lot of people with the higher- than average, as well as lower- than average score.

 

In response to a question from the audience on “Essay B: What are your aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve them?” Derrick noted that the question does not specifically ask about “career aspirations” even though one may choose to discuss career aspirations.  Please note that Stanford changed the question, as it used to state “career aspirations” on the school’s website earlier this year.

 

The panel included several recent alumni, from ’03 to ’07, who now live and work in

New York.  Given the relatively low finance job distribution of Stanford graduates (Class of 2006: 10% Hedge Funds, 9% Private Equity, 5% Investment Banking), this group, as I would have expected, had an unusually high representation in finance, with firms (pre and post MBA) such as Goldman IB and Goldman Global Special Situations Group (GSSG), McKinsey, Bain, Alliance Bernstein, media and other private equity firms, and hedge funds.  One of the girls worked in high tech prior to MBA and is now doing NBA sports marketing and operations – she was one of the students who introduced Sports Management course to the MBA curriculum several years ago while she was a student.  And one of the guys started a men’s pants design company with his roommate at Stanford.  At one point, he walked around the podium advertising his pants, which retail on his company’s website for $140 – the pants, with color-printed pockets, were actually pretty cool.  All of these guys seemed to have genuinely loved their experiences at Stanford, and all of them had significant international experiences while at school, ranging from internships in China to study trips to Uganda, to fun trips to Brazil and

Spain.

 

Here are some of the other presentation discussion points:  

 

o       Admissions Process

·        Recommendations: 3 recommendations, of which 1 needs to be from the current direct supervisor.  Derrick stressed that it is important to add a 1-2 sentence brief explanation in the “Additional Information” section if unable to provide one from the current direct supervisor.  Derrick also mentioned that the majority of students waive their right to view the recommendation – I personally find it hard to believe – but that it makes no impact on the application.  The waiver question is required by Federal law.

·        Interviews: by invitation only and conducted blind (resume only) by alumni, Derrick stated (repeatedly, as I remember the same number quoted in a different event at which he spoke) that they interviewed “800-1,200” out of approximately 5,000 applicants – which seems to me as a very broad range – of whom about 440 get admitted (10%) and 360 enroll (8%).

·        Loan Forgiveness Programs: for public-service sectors; similar to HBS

o       New Curriculum:

·        general management focus, Management Perspectives and Management Foundations groups of courses, all of which can be tailored to fit personal needs

·        ability to tailor curriculum not only in the 2^nd year, but also in the 1^st year, which is unique among business schools; thus, students who are proficient in statistics will not place out of statistics altogether, but will take a more challenging course in statistics while others will take the intro course

·        classes mentioned include Strategic Leadership, Leadership Perspectives (with access to major leaders) and Global Context of Management; professor Garth Saloner seems to be a star

·        no majors or concentrations

·        intensive seminars on cutting-edge ideas with only 14-16 students per class in the 1^st year and one- and two- week seminars in the fall of the 2^nd year

·        University-wide classes ‘across the street’, including research studies with students from across the University

o       Personalized Education:

·        Derrick emphasized this point with a big slide that connected Your Needs with the GSB Opportunities into Maximized Potential

·        personalized faculty and career advisor assigned to every student

·        accessible faculty advisors and coaches to guide students through their learning experience, with the highest student-to-faculty ratio of 7:1

·        capstone seminar at the end of the 2^nd year  

·        strategic class size of 360 students, alumni network of 25,000

o       Required Global Experience: This can be satisfied in one of several ways:

·        GMIX: 4-week unpaid internship abroad in the summer after the 1^st year (27% of students do this) sponsored by companies abroad

·        Global Study Trips: 2-3 week trips, about 15-20 organized every year

·        Service Learning Trips: more focused trips, typically to

China (Tsinghua) or India (IIM) with an academic component, unique to Stanford

o       Career Services

·        Management Communications Program, with a focus on interviewing skills and public speaking

·        Career Workshops and Career Treks, including lottery interviews for those not selected for interviews by potential employers

·        International career advisors

In light of Dep Dean Kester’s letter to the Times, below, noting that HBS was never for get “rich quick”  types, we are reminded of this very recent WSJ article (in full at more)  featuring new book by HBS  assoc. prof Rakesh Khurana– “From Higher Aims to Hired Hands,” – which

“argues that famous B-schools, including Harvard, have lost track of their original mission to produce far-sighted leaders who can help the economy run better. As Prof. Khurana sees it, M.B.A. training has deteriorated into a race to steer students into high-paying finance and consulting jobs without caring about the graduates’ broader roles in society.”

 Oh man, what’s a girl to do?  We are caught between sermonizing Dep Dean who says HBS mission is leadership and upstart assoc. prof  who complains au contraire!!! HIRED HANDS. (OK, mini profs  need to publish, but so do Dep Deans, well letters anyway,  esp. when school is getting slimed in NY TIMES as being off the fast track)

anway,here is the WSJ story –
Business Schools Forgetting Missions?
By GEORGE ANDERS
September 26, 2007; Page A2 (more…)