Stanford Business School, one of the privileged business schools in the nation, is well known for its outstanding selectivity, superb location, and it’s quite small class sizes. In recent years, the school’s acceptance rate has at times fallen below 10%, establishing the school’s MBA program as the choosiest in the nation. Those fortunate students admitted into this 2 years MBA program take pleasure at the resort-like Stanford campus, which lies just 40 minutes south of San Francisco in the heart of Silicon Valley. The great advantage of the Stanford Business School student body is its small size, as they face less competition for job interviews and generally know all of their classmates by graduation.
Admissions and Tuition:
Getting admission to Stanford Business School is a herculean task. Approximately 9 out of every 10 applicants are rejected during every application round as the school receives up to 5,000 applications per year but the class usually consists of about 375 seats. Applicants can exploit their chances of admission by highlighting their strong points in the three areas on which the admission committee of Stanford Business School focuses: intellectual vitality, demonstrated leadership and personal behavior. Students could highlight these three qualities in their essays required for the school’s application process.
The students are also required to have the highest GMAT scores of any business school, apart from excellent essays, as the average score for students of the entering class of 2007 was an impressive 721. Obviously, Stanford Business School will receive many applications with well-written essays and high GMATs each year, and will without doubt turndown many of those applications. Hence, students are advised to focus a great deal of time on their essays and GMAT preparation.
Lucky Applicant’s who successfully made their way to Stanford Business School should expect to pay a small fortune of their own to the school in yearly tuition. For the 2008-2009 academic year, tuition for the school will be $48,921, while overall expenses are calculated by the school to be $76,324 for single students living on campus.
The total program cost including foregone salary for Stanford Business School students is nearly $300,000, but this is likely a wise investment, as students on average experience a nearly 60% increase in salary after graduation, as per the data compiled by BusinessWeek
Academics and Curriculum:
According to the school, The newly revamped curriculum of Stanford Business School is highly customized program and it offers a more tailored learning experience to the students.
Students are allotted a list of required courses based on their experiences, and generally have two or more course choices to choose from for each requirement, during their first academic year at the business school. Despite the fact that this first year is likely to be tough for students, Stanford Business School does not permit students to reveal grades to potential employers certainly it helps avert aggressive competition that would make a demanding situation even more difficult for students. During their second year, students are typically free to pick from among 125 electives to complete their 100 credit-hour requirement, and can choose to take courses in other schools of Stanford University. Thanks to the school’s quarter schedule, students can go for 18 electives, and generally have more than one chance to secure a seat in their preferred courses, during their second year. On average, these elective courses contain 34 seats, the lowest average among the premium business schools and about one-third of the average of Harvard Business School.
Quality of Life:
Stanford Business School offers students an unmatched quality of life throughout the country. Thanks to school’s gorgeous palm tree-lined campus, as some students have associated their quality time at the school to a two-year vacation. The beautiful residential- Schwab Residential Center, a short walk from Stanford Business School campus, most of the school’s students enjoy the opportunity to live among their classmates in an unparalleled setting during their first year at Stanford Business School. Schwab Residential Center is much more than a dorm, it is also known as “grad student heaven.”
It also serves as a nerve center for the social activities of students. Such activities comprises of formal events and charity auctions hosted by the school, as well as many night-time trips to San Francisco that begin and end at Schwab. One of the negative aspects to life at Stanford Business School is the expensive cost of living as the life in and around the Stanford campus is not cheap by any means. But at the same time, this is a not a major concern for students who make an investment in the school, and the quality of life they experience at Stanford undoubtedly makes their expenses more manageable.
Employment Prospects:
When it comes to bagging job opportunities, the previously-mentioned small class sizes of Stanford Business School provide fabulous returns to students. Whereas the story of other privileged business schools is such that students must compete with up to 900 classmates for job interviews, Stanford students compete with less than 400, and are usually proficient in getting interviews with whichever recruiters they wish. At the same time, the career services office of the school is able to focus much more individual attention on students than the offices of likewise business schools. Accordingly, job prospects for students of Stanford Business School are extraordinary throughout the country and in many foreign countries. Although most Stanford grads choose to stay on the West Coast each year, many choosing to join the many other Stanford alumni in Silicon Valley, the Stanford brand name is renowned mostly everywhere, and students will likely find a helpful member of their alumni network in any big and prominent organization in which they desire to find employment. Altogether, about 94% students of Stanford Business School are normally employed within three months of graduation.
The median base salary for grads in their first year of employment reached a new high of $115,500 for Class of 2007 grads, while signing bonuses for the class were $20,000 at median.
In Sum :
Undoubtedly, Stanford Business School is, among the premium best business schools in the world. The school offers extremely qualified applicants the chance to work towards a highly-prestigious MBA degree on an elegant campus and in small class sizes than those of most other elite business schools.
Contact Information:
518 Memorial Way
Stanford, CA 94305
Quick Reference:
2009 U.S. News Ranking: 1st (tie with Harvard)
Average GMAT score: 721
Average undergraduate GPA: 3.61
Application fee: $250
Entering class size: 350
Yearly Tuition: $48,291 (2008-2009)
Percent of graduates employed 3 months after graduation: 93.5%
Average starting salary and bonus: $134,654