As followers of the MBA admissions space know, Stanford GSB’s essays and application have 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 additional, shorter required responses detailing the applicant’s behavior in specific situations. As for changes this season, Stanford has implemented exact word count restraints instead of giving required page limits. Meanwhile, the school continues to fine-tune its new format, slightly adjusting the wording and focus of the four Essay C options.
In spite of these recent changes, however, the original 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? (750 words)
The open-ended and somewhat philosophical nature of this question can make it a challenging 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 career aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve them? (450 words)
All told, this is a fairly standard career goals essay. In fact, Stanford has narrowed the scope of the question (last year’s wording simply asked ‘what are your aspirations’) to keep the focus on one’s professional objectives. Though Stanford leaves the question somewhat open, 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.
Essay C: Answer 2 of the questions listed below. (300 word maximum)
Option 1: Tell us about a time when you built or developed a team.
Option 2: Tell us about a time when you felt most effective as a leader.
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 first two options are new for this year. The first, about building or developing a team, is a sort of reframing of last year’s topic about empowering others, but with a slightly different focus. While the spotlight remains on one’s abilities to foster the growth of others while working together toward a goal, the shift to a team setting narrows the set of applicable situations (eliminating one-on-one mentoring, for example). Meanwhile, the addition of the word “build” expands the set of applicable anecdotes to include instances in which an applicant has built a team from scratch or recruited key players to work on a project.
The other new prompt, about feeling most effective as a leader, is essentially a softly stated “greatest leadership accomplishment” essay. While Stanford is primarily interested in the process and your leadership itself, it seems clear that the story you share here should include a positive end-result. Be sure to explain the desired outcome of the project and any challenges you faced in order to be successful, as this will help the reader understand the significance of your accomplishment (and therefore why you felt you were effective).
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.
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