Stanford Essay Topic Analysis 2007-2008 » Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

APPLICANT RESOURCES

Clear Admit Interview Guides
Be as prepared as possible for your MBA interviews this season with the Clear Admit Interview Guides! School-specific sample questions and in-depth strategy, campus visit details and places to stay.

Clear Admit School Guides
Seventeen titles available! Understand how the leading programs compare and learn more about the MBA experience in and beyond the classroom through Clear Admit School Guides. As featured in the Economist.

Application Deadlines
Below are the upcoming deadlines for Fall 2008 entry to top-tier schools.
Apr. 1: UT Austin McCombs R3
Apr. 2: Dartmouth / Tuck R4
Apr. 3: INSEAD R4
Apr. 4: Oxford / Said R3
Apr. 23: UCLA / Anderson R4
Apr. 28: CMU / Tepper R4
May 2: LBS R4
Jun. 6: Oxford / Said R4

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics for the 2007-2008 admissions season.
The Career Goals Essay
Berkeley / Haas
Chicago GSB
CMU / Tepper *
Columbia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
IESE *
INSEAD
London Business School
MIT / Sloan
Michigan / Ross
Northwestern / Kellogg
NYU / Stern
Oxford / Said *
Penn / Wharton
Stanford GSB
UCLA / Anderson
UNC / Kenan-Flagler
UT Austin / McCombs *
UVA / Darden
Yale SOM
* denotes last year's commentary

Categories
Use categories to access all that has been written on each of the topics. We have categorized by school and by subject matter.

Interview Reports
A selection of interview field reports from fellow applicants posted to the MBA Admissions Wiki. Add your reports when you are finished with your interviews.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan / Ross
MIT / Sloan
Stanford
UNC / Chapel Hill
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
London Business School

GMAT Resources
GMAC
Manhattan GMAT
GMAT Club
Princeton Review
Test Prep New York
Kaplan
Beat The GMAT

Writing Resources
Guide to Grammar and Writing
The Internet Grammar of English
English Usage, Style and Composition
The Economist Style Guide
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant

School Rankings
Rankings are a good way to start your research on various MBA Programs. Keep in mind each uses a different methodology.
Business Week
Economist
Financial Times
Forbes
USNews
Wall Street Journal

Career Guides
The following resources should be useful to those who want to research the careers open to them after (or before) earning an MBA.
Vault.com
Wetfeet

Business School Resources
The following are business resources offered by a variety of leading Business Schools. It's useful to subscribe to these resources, especially for the schools to which you are applying.

MBA Programs: North America
If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
Berkeley / Haas
Carnegie Mellon / Tepper
Chicago
Columbia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Emory / Goizueta
Harvard
HEC Montreal
Indiana / Kelley
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
Northwestern / Kellogg
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Kenan Flagler
Pennsylvania / Wharton
Queens
Stanford
Texas / McCombs
Thunderbird
Toronto
UCLA / Anderson
Virginia / Darden
Western Ontario / Ivey
Yale

MBA Programs: Rest of the World
As there is some variety in the length of international MBA programs, we have denoted the length of the program next to its name (1 = one year; 2 = 2 years). If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
AGSM (Australia) 2
Cambridge / Judge (UK) 1
CIEBS (China) 2
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (China) 1
ESADE (Spain) 1 or 2
HEC (France) 2
IESE (Spain) 2
IMD (Switzerland) 1
INSEAD (France) 1
IPADE (Mexico)
ISB (India) 1
London Business School (UK) 2
Oxford / Said (UK) 1
Rotterdam (Netherlands) 2
University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) 1

Additional Resources
Here we link a host of additional resources available across the web. E-mail info@clearadmit.com to have resources added to this list.
AACSB International
Association of MBAs
Beyond Grey Pinstripes
EFMD
gradschools.com (worldwide)
Infozee
mba.com (GMAT Scores)
MBAInfo
mbaleague.blogspot.com
MBAzone
MBA Jungle
TOEFL
Top MBA

MBA Tipline
We encourage admissions officers, students and applicants to alert us of interesting news and developments, please send an email to news@clearadmit.com so we can blog it.

Blog Archive

Submit a report to the Clear Admit Wiki, win $10 to iTunes!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Stanford Essay Topic Analysis 2007-2008

As followers of the MBA admissions space know, Stanford’s application has been undergoing some changes of late. Whereas applicants to the GSB were once given up to 10 pages to write on the subjects of their career goals and what matters most to them, the school reduced the length of these essays last season and introduced two more required responses detailing the applicant’s behavior in specific situations. This year, Stanford continues to fine-tune its new format, further narrowing the recommended page allocation across for its Essays A and B (from 3-4 pages to 3, and 2-3 pages to 2, respectively) and slightly adjusting the wording and focus of the four Essay C options.

In spite of these recent changes, however, the first two essays still constitute the heart of one’s application. Ideally, an applicant’s responses to Essays A and B would work together to provide the adcom a picture of the guiding force or principle behind his or her experiences to date (which can be covered in the first question) and objectives for the future (discussed in the second). While it’s possible that the thing that matters most to an applicant might be something completely removed from his or her professional objectives, it almost seems natural that the career goal discussion would be a slightly narrower continuation of the theme developed in Essay A.

Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (3 double-spaced pages)
The open-ended and somewhat philosophical nature of this question makes it a daunting (and potentially paralyzing) starting point. If a topic doesn’t immediately spring to mind, a constructive approach might be to think about your work experience, outside activities and general interests and look for some unifying theme among some or all of them. Because it’s always a good idea to introduce specific details and anecdotes to really tie the general ideas expressed in your essays to the key elements of your candidacy, it would be wise to select a topic that not only gives the adcom a sense of your values and priorities, but also allows to you discuss some of the ways you have translated these into action.

Essay B: What are your aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve these? (2 double-spaced pages)
All told, this is a fairly standard career goals essay. Though Stanford leaves the question rather open ended, it will still be to the applicant’s benefit to sketch out a specific short and long-term goal, explaining the motivation and reasoning behind each, and to provide a detailed discussion of the ways a Stanford MBA would be conducive to achieving these aims as well as the potential contribution he or she could make to the program.

There’s one notable addition to this question is the following prompt that was added this year:

As a Stanford MBA student, you will be assigned a team of advisors who will guide both your academic experience and your personal development. Your team will include a faculty advisor, a career counselor, and a leadership coach. Use Essay B to help you prepare for your first conversations with these mentors.

With this hint in mind, it would certainly make sense to demonstrate awareness of Stanford’s new curriculum and comment on they ways you might proactively take advantage of the new offerings in pursuit of your educational and professional goals.

Essay C: Answer 2 of the questions listed below.

Option 1: Tell us about a time when you empowered others.
Option 2: Tell us about a time when you had a significant impact on a person, group or organization.
Option 3: Tell us about a time when you tried to reach a goal or complete a task that was challenging, difficult, or frustrating.
Option 4: Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, established, or expected.

The question about empowering others is new for Stanford this year, replacing an essay about a time the applicant felt effective or successful, an interesting shift away from interest in personal achievement and toward leadership potential and interpersonal skills. The rest of the inquiries are essentially unchanged from last season.

While these action-oriented essays serve as a contrast to the preceding broad questions about the candidate’s motivations and objectives, truly effective applications will find a way to make these responses work in conjunction with Essays A and B, reinforcing themes and complementing the ideas already presented, and completing the picture of who you are.

In addressing any of these questions, it will be important to provide a clear description of the initial situation at the outset of the essay, as this will help the reader to understand the reasons for your thoughts, feelings, words and actions. Providing a detailed “before picture” will also allow the adcom to fully appreciate the difference you made. To decide which two of the four options to select, it would be wise to consider all of the situations you could discuss in response to each question, and select those that will provide a balanced picture of your activities and interests (one story from work and another from a key extracurricular might be a nice balance) while supporting the message set forth in response to Essays A and B.

DISCUSSIONS / BLOGS / WIKI

Clear Admit's Most Recent Entries

Wiki

MBA Admissions Wiki
The Clear Admit Wiki is designed to allow b-school applicants to share their experiences through the application process. You can learn from others' experiences and contribute your own reports to the community. Below are the five most popular pages in the wiki:
Wharton Interview Field Reports
HBS Interview Field Reports
Kellogg Interview Field Reports
Chicago Interview Field Reports
Columbia Interview Field Reports

Discussion Boards

BusinessWeek Forums
The BusinessWeek Discussion Boards are a great way to learn about the issues applicants face. Recently BusinessWeek updated their interface, here is a link to the original interface. Also, Clear Admit hosts the Ask Clear Admit thread, which should help answer your questions. Here are the five most recent discussions.

StudyLink Forums
Clear Admit manages the Applying section of the StudyLink MBA discussion boards.

student 2 student
The student-2-student Discussion Boards are managed by Wharton, but include discussions about all of the top schools. Here are the five most recent discussions.

Chicago Discussion Forums
The Chicago Discussion Boards are managed by the University of Chicago. Here are the five most recent discussions.

School-Hosted Blogs

Straight from the source: aggregated posts from students and administration. Below are the seven most recent posts in school-hosted blogs.

Individuals' Blogs

A selection of the latest updates to MBA blogs compiled by Hella.
MBA Applicants

MBA Students

Bloggers by School

The following are links to bloggers at each of the schools listed.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Chapel Hill
Stanford
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
Yale
ESADE
IESE
INSEAD
London Business School

Community Blogs

Bshoolers.com
Community blog with MBA student and alum contributors.

Forté Foundation MBA Diaries
Video blog entries posted by women MBA students.

Owen Bloggers
Independent blog with content by Vanderbilt MBA students.

Best of Blogging

2007-2008 Top Ten:

2006-2007 Top Ten:

2005-2006 Top Ten:

2004-2005 Top Ten:

Blog Information Profile for clearadmit