Stanford GSB MBA Essay C for 2008/2009 Admission

This is the forth of five posts analyzing the Stanford GSB MBA Essay Questions for 2008/2009 Admission. The first post provides an overall perspective on applying to Stanford GSB. The second post is on Essay A. The third post is on Essay B. The fifth post is on additional information, resume, employment history, and activities.

Two years ago, Stanford introduce behavioral interview-style essay questions. Stanford applicants now have the opportunity to write about their accomplishments, failures, difficulties, impact, and other characteristics. This has made the Stanford Essay Set a more balanced set of questions. If Essay A is ultimately about what you value and B is about what you want, C is about what you can do.

When Stanford GSB started asking behavioral essay questions, it was clear that they had borrowed this from MIT. This distinctive style of question is based on an interview method that I will discuss below. Before reading the rest of this post, I strongly suggest downloading a copy of MIT's excellent guide to behavioral interviews, The MIT Sloan Interview Guide, because reading it first will maximize the value of my comments below.

The behavioral essay questions that MIT and Stanford ask have their origins in behavioral interviewing. This method is not old:
“Bill Byham, CEO and founder of Development Dimensions International, originated the behavioral interviewing method in 1970.”

In fact, the STAR technique outlined in MIT’s guide was developed by Byham as THE WAY to answer behavioral questions:

Byham calls an example of past behavior a STAR, because a complete example consists of a situation or task, the specific action you took and the result of your action. The result you describe doesn't have to be positive; it could be that you learned a valuable lesson from doing something the wrong way.

In his book "Landing the Job You Want: How to Have the Best Job Interview of Your Life" (Three Rivers Press, 1997), Byham tells candidates how to identify the skills for a job; explore their own "behavioral dimensions" (the behaviors they use every day to get things done); and recognize and present a STAR with positive impact in an interview.

In addition to the MIT SLOAN Guide, I suggest also taking a look at the slightly different guide to the Star Technique that MIT Career Services provides.

The STAR technique is really the core method you need to use for answering behavioral questions in Stanford's essays. It is simply this (taken from the MIT Sloan Guide):

• Situation: define the situation or “set the stage.”
• Task: identify the task/project performed.
• Action: describe the action you took.
• Result: summarize the outcome

Just keep in mind that you need to be introspective as well, so write what you thought as well as what you did. Don’t just present “the facts” but actively interpret your actions. There is really nothing overly complicated about this as long as you understand that you need to tell a DETAILED story. Pure abstractions disconnected from a concrete set of action steps are highly likely to result in a weak answer. Similarly, grand actions not told in any depth are also likely to be weak. Identify specific actions that contributed to the result so as to establish a clear link between cause and effect.

As when answering any kind of question, another important consideration is to think very critically about what your story selection, understanding of the task, actions taken, and results say about you. Keep in mind that the whole point of asking behavioral questions is to determine how someone acts and thinks as a basis for selecting or rejecting that person. It is obviously critical to be aware of your own message.

Before looking at the specific questions, lets look at the instructions:

Essay C: Short Essays—Options 1-4
Answer two of the questions below. Tell us not only what you did but also how you did it. What was the outcome? How did people respond? Only describe experiences that have occurred during the last three years.

Stanford specifically requires that these experiences come from the last three years. This time constraint is important to keep in mind. Essay C is the space to focus on the present or recent past.

I will analyze one question at a time, but four things to keep in mind are:

1. You need to show the capacity for analyzing and acting in different ways, so, while both essays should utilize STAR, don’t tell them in the same way. Make sure you are presenting different sides to who you are by telling your stories differently.

2. If at all possible discuss different situations in these essays, not two different stories from the same situation because you are trying present as wide a spectrum of events and qualities about yourself as you can.

3. You should ask yourself “What does this essay reveal about me?” If you can’t answer that clearly, you need to clarify your message. When asking this question, think about both what you intend the reader to think and what you might also be revealing. Control for the possibility of sending out unintended signals. One of the best ways of handling this issue is to have a very careful and intelligent reader review these essays. If you are working with an admissions consultant, they should be able to do this. Getting multiple perspectives on what you wrote will help you better understand your likely impact on an admissions' reader.

4. All four options below allow for great variation and the most important thing is to tell the best stories you can:
We all have important stories to tell. We want to share moments when we have achieved great things or helped to shape the world around us. Essay C lists four potential questions (or prompts) to help you identify which are the two most important stories you have to tell us. The prompts themselves are not as important as the stories that they bring to the surface.

THE OPTIONS ARE ALL ABOUT HAVING AN IMPACT:
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.

One thing that is common to all four is that you must tell stories that show how you had an impact. Keep in mind what Derrick Bolton has written about this question:
Unlike the two previous essays, in which you are asked to write about your life from a more “global" perspective, these questions ask you to reflect on a specific recent (within the last three years) experience that has made a difference to you and/or the people around you. The best answers will transport us to that moment in time by painting a vivid picture not only of what you did, but also of how you did it. Include details about what you thought and felt during that time and your perceptions about how others responded. From these short-answer responses, we visualize you "in action.

LEADERSHIP STORIES
Options 1 and 2 are clearly leadership stories. Options 3 and 4 might be depending on the subject. I have developed the following grid to help you outline leadership stories. The categories this grid employs may go beyond any particular school's essay requirements. Filling it out completely will help you write about your leadership in a way that will convince admissions of your leadership potential.
CLICK TO ENLARGE. EMAIL me at adammarkus@gmail.com if you want the original excel version.

How to use the grid:
1. Decide on a specific story.
2. Identify the most significant things you did in the situation- these are you action steps.
3. For each action step identify:

• What skills or qualities you demonstrated to complete this step
• The strengths you demonstrated to complete this step
• The kind of leadership you demonstrated
• What you still need to learn about leadership

4. Think about the results and identify how they relate to your action steps. So at minimum, you should be able to state the impact on others and/or yourself.

5. After completing the chart you will see that some aspects of your action steps may be repeated. If there is a total duplication and nothing new is shown, either you need to redefine the action step or you may decide not to focus on it very much.

6. Once you think you have two to four fully worked-out action steps, write your first draft.

7. Next start re-writing. Eliminate duplicate points made between action steps. Make choices about what parts of each action to step to highlight. Given that there are usually word limits, you will have to make some decisions about what to include.

Simply providing a description of your actions, is not enough. Think about what it signifies about you. Think about what your actions reveal about your leadership potential.

Finally, thinking and writing about leadership is an important part of preparing for interviews because you can be certain that you will have to talk about leadership. So, you might find that the parts of the outline you jettison now will become valuable when you will want to have alternative stories for your Stanford interview.

SHOULD YOU WRITE ABOUT FAILURE IN OPTIONS 3 OR 4?
Some applicants will, no doubt, tell a failure or setback story using options 3 or 4. They will most likely do this because they are lazy and simply wanted to reuse content from another application. Keeping in mind that you need to tell your best stories, unless you experienced a failure or setback that impacted you a truly significant way and led to some positive change for yourself or others, I don't suggest doing it. The possibility is certainly there within these two options (it says "tried" in both cases), especially within option 4, to write about something that did not succeed, but I am not necessarily suggesting it is a good idea to do that. I can certainly imagine it might work well in some situations, but my first impulse would be to say that it is mistake to volunteer failure unless what you learned is so significant that it will actually create a positive of impression of you.

Specific Comments about each option:

Option 1: Tell us about a time when you built or developed a team.
Given the 300 maximum word limit here, you really need to be focused on your most important action steps. I also suggest you don't just simply a tell story with the following structure: "I led a team of X people. I told them what needed to be done and they agreed. They did it. The result was..." Not only will this be boring, but it will not really highlight why this story best demonstrates your team leadership skills. You need to show what was hard and how you overcame it. Don't be overly dramatic, but get admissions to understand the significance of what you have done. Don’t feel obligated to provide a work related answer to this question even though you may have developed such an answer for another school. Two questions to think about:
1. What skills or qualities did you demonstrate in the process of building or developing the team?
2. What does this story reveal about the way you interact with organizations and/or individuals?

Option 2: Tell us about a time when you felt most effective as a leader.
Basically this is the option for telling your best leadership story. Define what being an effective leader means to you and explain what you did that made you effective.

Option 3: Tell us about a time when you tried to reach a goal or complete a task that was challenging, difficult, or frustrating.
Clearly think about what “challenging, difficult, or frustrating” means to you. We have all had challenging situations that ended badly and that we wish we had handled better, but that is not necessarily what you should write about here. As I mentioned above, I do not necessarily think most applicants should write this as a failure story (If you do, see my analysis of Harvard Essay 2). Instead, focus positively on how handled this task. If what you are going to write about is not related to leadership, think of it terms of the STAR technique.

Option 4: Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, established, or expected.

Going beyond something defined, established, or expected may involve breaking the rules. Stanford GSB is place for those who are not traditional and are flexible in their thinking. If you are a maverick, a risk-taker, or simply unconventional in your approach to adding value, this essay option is for you. This essay is likely to take either the form of a leadership essay or an accomplishment. As I suggested above, I don't think most applicants will find it useful to write about about failure, but if you do, see my analysis of HBS Essay 2. If you write about it terms of an accomplishment, but are not necessarily focused on leadership, see my analysis of HBS Essay 1, but keep in mind that you are telling only one accomplishment and not three.

IN CONCLUSION
Behavioral questions are not necessarily harder than other types of questions, but they do have their own underlying logic: Past behavior is a guide to future behavior. Keep that in mind, so that Stanford GSB sees what you want them to see and believes in your future potential.


Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to.
-Adam Markus
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Stanford GSB Essay B: What are your career aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve them?

This is the third of five posts analyzing the Stanford GSB MBA Essay Questions for 2008/2009 Admission. The first post provides an overall perspective on applying to Stanford GSB. The second post is on Essay A. The fourth post is on Essay C. The fifth post is on additional information, resume, employment history, and activities.

Unlike Essay A, which a question specific to Stanford, Essay B appears to be a fairly standard education and career goals essay:
Essay B: What are your career aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve them?

Commenting on Essay B, Eric Abrams, at the Stanford GSB presentation last year in Tokyo, said to think beyond goals. He suggested thinking of aspirations in terms of the following question: "What do you hope to become?" Given the amount of personal attention you will receive, how will you leverage that attention and your opportunities at Stanford GSB to become as Abrams said, "your best self."

THIS IS A FUTURE DIRECTED QUESTION
Unlike some other "Why MBA" questions, Stanford is not asking about the past. You will write about that in the other essays. Instead focus not just on your goals, but on your mission. How will you make a difference and how can Stanford GSB help you do that?

You need to be ambitious. Simply stating what your goals are and why Stanford is the best place for you to accomplish them is not exactly what you need here. Instead, you need to articulate a vision related to your goals and a vision that is connected to Stanford's mission to train global leaders.

ARE YOUR GOALS HOT?
Making career goals exciting requires thinking about whether your goals are compelling. Admissions committees ask applicants to write about their goals after graduate school, but can applicants actually know what will be on the cutting-edge in two or three years? While many applicants will be able to successfully apply with relatively standard goals ("I want to be a consultant because..."), communicating aspirations requires going beyond the typical.

Be informed. Stanford Admissions needs to believe you know what you are talking about. If you are changing careers, no one expects you to be an expert, but you should come across as having a clear plan based on real research into your future. If you are planning on staying in your present industry, you should be well informed not only about the companies you have worked for, but about the industry as a whole. If you are not already doing so, read industry related publications and network.

Those who are changing fields should most certainly read industry related publications in their intended field. Additionally, I suggest conducting informational interviews with at least one peer level and one senior level person in that field. Conduct a peer level interview to get a good idea of what it would be like to actually work in that industry. Conduct a senior level interview to get the perspective of someone who can see the big picture and all the little details as well.

Don't know anyone in your intended field? Network! One great way to start is through LinkedIn. Another is by making use of your undergraduate alumni network and/or career center.

LEARN WHAT IS HOT. No matter whether you are changing fields or not, learn what is hot now and try to figure out what will be hot by the time you graduate. Now, of course, this is just a plan and chances are that what is hot in your industry or field now may very well be cold in the future. The point is to come across to Stanford as someone who is not only well informed, but has CUTTING-EDGE knowledge. Some great general sources for learning what is hot:

From the Business Schools: Feed your brain with cutting-edge ideas from the best business schools in the world. Most Stanford GSB faculty research papers are available for free in PDF format on the Stanford GSB website at https://gsbapps.stanford.edu/researchpapers/. Other great sources of information include Stanford Social Innovation Review, Harvard Working Knowledge, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School Publishing, University of Chicago GSB's Working Papers, The University of Chicago's Capital Ideas, Knowledge @ Wharton, and MIT Sloan Management Review.

You may also want to do a search on itunes for podcasts: My favorites are Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (from the Stanford School of Engineering, but totally relevant to the GSB), Chicago GSB Podcast, Net Impact, and Harvard Business IdeaCast. INSEAD, IMD, LBS, and Wharton also have podcasts.

LinkedIn Answers: I would suggest that everyone join LinkedIn and make use of LinkedIn Answers. LinkedIn Answers is a great way to tap into cutting edge expertise (including my admissions advice!). Follow LinkedIn's rules and you will often be able to obtain excellent information.

Hoovers: For information about specific companies, Hoovers is just a great way to learn about key facts including competitors (a very useful way of knowing who else you might want to work for and to learn about an industry). While primarily focused on the US, Hoovers does have listings for companies worldwide.

Vault: For scope of coverage, this site is a must. Vault includes both career and admissions information. It includes both company specific and industry-wide information.

Other sources: Read magazines, websites, and books that relate to your intended field.

DOES IT ALL MAKE SENSE?
When formulating goals, the necessary prerequisite for formulating aspirations, I suggest going through a formal process of goals analysis.

You can use my GAP, SWOT, AND ROI TABLE FOR FORMULATING GRADUATE DEGREE GOALS for this purpose (see below). I think Gap, SWOT, and ROI analysis are great ways for understanding what your goals are, why you want a degree, and how you will use it. (Click here for the Businessweek MBA ROI calculator. Click here for a GMAC report on MBA ROI. )

(To best view the following table, click on it. For a word version, please email me at adammarkus@gmail.com)

How to use this table:

Step 1. Begin by analyzing your "Present Situation." What job(s) have you held? What was/is your functional role(s)? What was/are your responsibilities?

Next, analyze your present strengths and weaknesses for succeeding in your present career. REMEMBER:WHEN YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS DON'T ONLY THINK ABOUT WORK, THINK ABOUT OTHER ASPECTS OF YOUR LIFE. In particular, some of your greatest strengths may have been demonstrated outside of work, so make sure you are accounting for them.
Strengths: What are you good at? Where do you add value? What are you praised for? What are you proud of?
Weakness: What are you bad at? What are you criticized for? What do you try to avoid due to your own limitations? What do you fear?

Next, analyze the environment you work in right now. What opportunities exist for your growth and success? What threats could limit your career growth?

Step 2. Now, do the same thing in Step 1 for your "Post-Degree" future after you have earned your graduate degree. IF YOU CANNOT COMPLETE STEP 2, YOU HAVE NOT SUFFICIENTLY PLANNED FOR YOUR FUTURE and therefore you need to do more research and need to think more about it.

Step 3. If you could complete step 2, than you should see the "Gap" between your present and your future. What skills, knowledge, and other resources do you need to close the gap between your present and future responsibilities, strengths, and opportunities?

Step 4. After completing Step 3, you now need to determine how an MBA will add value to you. It is possible that an increased salary as a result of job change will be sufficient "ROI" for the degree to justify itself, but you should show how a degree will allow you to reach your career goals. How will the degree enhance your skills and opportunities and help you overcome your weaknesses and external threats? If you can complete Step 4 than you should be ready to explain what your goals are, why you want a degree, and the relationship between your past and future career, as well as your strengths and weaknesses.

The above table will also help you answer such common interview questions as: Where do you want to work after you finish your degree? Why do you want an MBA (or other degree)? What are you strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are your goals? Thinking about these issues now will help you to develop a fully worked-out strategy for how you will best present yourself both in the application and in an interview.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT STANFORD!!!!
How will your education at Stanford help you achieve them?
Your objective in the essay is demonstrate why you would greatly benefit from a Stanford MBA education. Actually without that, your aspirations will not make sense because you must have aspirations that require Stanford. Assume that for your aspirations to be effective, Stanford admissions has to make the determination that you are someone who will make best use of their resources. Stanford is proud of what they are and what they can offer. They can reject anyone and they do reject a higher percentage of applicants than other schools. Keep in mind what Derrick Bolton, the Director of Admissions, says about Stanford Essay B:

How do you plan to take advantage of the incredible opportunities at Stanford? How do you envision yourself contributing, growing, and learning here at the Business School? And how will the Stanford experience help you become the person you described in the first part of Essay B?

One thing I think that separates great versions of Essay B (the ones that get applicants an interview) and mediocre versions (the ones that usually don't get applicants an interview) is the extent to which the applicant is able to show that Stanford is not a mere afterthought or an option, but actually a necessity to accomplish one's aspirations. Fully account for that in your essay. Learn as much as you can about the program and think deeply about who it will impact you. Stanford views itself as a change agent. Show in you essay how it will change you.

The writing process: After going through a process of reflection and analysis, prepare a version of Essay B that includes everything you want to say. Next begin the process of revision. Here are a few key things to consider when revising:

1. Think about the most important thing you need admissions to know about your aspirations and why Stanford GSB is the best place to prepare you for them. Begin your essay with that. Chances are good that on your initial draft the most important thing is somewhere in the middle or end of your essay.

2. Prioritize the rest of your content: What do they really need to know? Chances are you have lots of details that can be cut.

3. Make a formal argument: Your essay should be neither a set of disembodied points or a summary, instead it should be a formal statement. It may very well partially take the form of a memo or it may be rather creative. The important part is that the reader should be able to understand it clearly and be convinced by it.

Finally, once you have put together Essay B, consider how the rest of your application supports what you say in it. Without over-marketing yourself or even necessarily writing it directly in the essays, make that your other essays and other aspects of your application show how your potential will contribute to your future aspirations.

STANFORD GSB IN A TIME OF CHANGE
Finally, I think it is important to understand that Stanford GSB is going through a process of change. Not just in terms of the new curriculum that was launched beginning with the Class of 2009 (see the first post in this series), but also in terms of "developing new multidisciplinary programs with the seven other schools to help understand issues facing society and to bring about important changes," and the construction of the Knight Management Center, a new campus for GSB, scheduled to open in Academic Year 2010-2011. For more about all of these changes, click here. All these changes will impact those who want to join the Class of 2011. These second two changes may or may not impact what you write in Essay B, but I do suggest you consider them.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to.
-Adam Markus
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Stanford MBA Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?

This is the second of five posts analyzing the Stanford GSB MBA Essay Questions for 2008/2009 Admission. The first post provides an overall perspective on applying to Stanford GSB. The third post is on Essay B. The fourth post is on Essay C. The fifth post is on additional information, resume, employment history, and activities.

A SIMPLE QUESTION
Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?

From my experience, successful applicants to Stanford write essays for at least one or two other schools first. While they are doing those other schools, they have already started THINKING about Essay A. Which raises the following question:
WHERE DO SUCCESSFUL ANSWERS TO ESSAY A COME FROM?
In my experience answers to this question that result in acceptance, come from the HEART and the HEAD. The two combined will allow you to tell your story about what matters most. GSB's Admission Director, Derrick Bolton, makes this very clear in his advice regarding the question:

In the first essay, tell a story—and tell a story that only you can tell.

This essay should be descriptive and told in a straightforward and sincere way. This probably sounds strange, since these are essays for business school, but we don’t expect to hear about your business experience in this essay (though, of course, you are free to write about whatever you would like).

Remember that we have your entire application—work history, letters of reference, short-answer responses, etc.—to learn what you have accomplished and the type of impact you have made. Your task in this first essay is to connect the people, situations, and events in your life with the values you adhere to and the choices you have made. This essay gives you a terrific opportunity to learn about yourself!

Many good essays describe the "what," but great essays move to the next order and describe how and why these "whats" have influenced your life.

The most common mistake applicants make is spending too much time describing the "what" and not enough time describing how and why these guiding forces have shaped your behavior, attitudes, and objectives in your personal and professional lives.

While you will need to consider the leadership implications of what matters most to you, as I suggested in my first post in this series, I suggest beginning with no fixed assumptions about what Stanford wants here.

HEART: The admits I worked with found what matters most to them by looking inside of themselves and finding something essential about who they are. No one is reducible to a core single concept, a single motivation, or any other sort of singularity, but certain things do make each of us tick. Beyond the most basic things of survival, what motivates you? What do you live for? What do you care about? How do you relate to other people? Are you driven by a particular idea or issue? Where do you find meaning?

HEAD: Once you think you have identified that essential thing that matters most to you, begin analyzing it. What is its source? WHY does it remain important to you? HOW?

The heart will tell what it is, but the head must explain it. From my perspective, great answers to this question combine a very strong analytical foundation-A FULL ANSWER TO WHY AND HOW IS MANDATORY- and specific examples. At the Outreach Event I attended last September, Eric Abrams, Director of Outreach at the MBA Admissions Office, gave an incredibly informative and humorous presentation using the best set of Power Point slides that I have seen at any school's session. At his presentation Eric Abrams emphasized the importance of "Why?" during his presentation. Avoid the common mistake that Derrick Bolton mentions above of ignoring the "Why?" and the "How?" by focusing too much on the "What?"

If you are having difficulty answering Essay A to your own satisfaction, I have few suggestions:

1. Write some other schools essays first. In the process of doing so, you may discover the answer. This has worked for a number of my clients.

2. Stanford admissions repeatedly emphasizes that there is no one right answer. Some applicants become paralyzed because they want THE RIGHT MESSAGE. You need to fully account for who you are and what you have done, but should not try to overly sell yourself to Stanford because that is simply at odds with the way in which the school selects candidates. Therefore don't focus on finding THE RIGHT MESSAGE, instead be honest and give an answer that is real.

If you are having some more fundamental difficulties with this question, one book I suggest taking a look at is Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. This classic is worth a look for anyone who is thinking about what their life is about. Frankl makes us think about meaning from the most extreme of perspectives, inside a concentration camp, and in the process helps us to understand that meaning itself is deeply tied to our own survival. If you need to engage in some self-reflection, Frankl’s book is one place to start. I might also suggest reading Plato or doing some mediation, but in my experience those take more time and Frankl's book has the advantage of being short, inexpensiv, available at many libraries, and has been translated from the original German into twenty-two languages.

3. The answer may be real, but is it a good one? If you are not sure, look critically at Stanford GSB's mission statement:
Our mission is to create ideas that deepen and advance our understanding of management and with those ideas to develop innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who change the world.
Does what matters most to you fit within this mission? Think about this statement in the widest possible way. In his presentation, Eric Abrams emphasized that fit is a very important consideration at Stanford GSB. Given the small class size and the highly collaborative nature of the program, admissions will only be doing its job right if they select students who fit into Stanford GSB's mission. As I stated in the first post in this series, Stanford is looking for leaders, but leaders come in many forms and the values and ideals that inform them vary greatly. If what matters most to you is something that admissions can clearly connect to informing your ideals as a leader than you are on the way to forming an effective answer to what is Stanford's most unique essay question.


Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to.
-Adam Markus
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スタンフォード ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング 大学院 エッセイMBA留学

Stanford GSB MBA Essay Questions for 2008/2009

This is the first of five posts analyzing the Stanford GSB MBA Essay Questions for 2008/2009 Admission. It provides an overall perspective on applying to Stanford GSB. The second post is on Essay A. The third post is on Essay B. The forth post is on Essay C. The fifth post is on additional information, resume, employment history, and activities.

In this post I provide some overall comments about the essay set for admission to the Class of 2011, an analysis of the centrality of demonstrating leadership potential for admission to Stanford GSB, and some suggestions for how to proceed in order to put together a great application for Stanford GSB.

ESSAYS:
As I will mention the specific essay topics below, here they are for your reference:

Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?

Essay B: What are your career aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve them?

Essay C: Short Essays—Options 1-4 Answer two of the questions below. Tell us not only what you did but also how you did it. What was the outcome? How did people respond? Only describe experiences that have occurred during the last three years.

• 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.

PAGE LIMITS OUT, WORD COUNTS IN
The Stanford GSB MBA Essay Questions for 2008/2009 are short:

Your answers for all of the essay questions cannot exceed 1,800 words. Each of you has your own story to tell, so please allocate the 1,800 words among all of the essays in the way that is most effective for you. We provide some guidelines below as a starting point, but you should feel comfortable to write as much or as little as you like on any essay question, as long as you do not exceed 1,800 words total.

• Essay A 750 words
• Essay B 450 words
• Essay C 300 words each

With word counts for the first time, that laid back California page limit attitude has been replaced with a more uptight East Coast HBS-like precision. With the C essays coming in at 300 words each, Stanford has outdone Harvard's 400 word maximum per essay for essays 2 and 3. For both schools you get 1800 words maximum. Use them well. Otherwise the biggest change is that two out of the four options in Essay C have changed.

THE NEW CURRICULUM
But other things are changing at Stanford GSB as well. Consider the following "Student Perspective" from Karen Hart, Class of 2009:

Former Goldman Sachs banker Karen Hart says she appreciates the new curriculum's emphasis on globalization and managing in a global environment.... Although the workload can be challenging—at the beginning of the term she was spending up to 60 hours a week on class preparation and now averages 30-40 hours a week on academics outside class—Karen remains pleased at the ongoing level of collaboration among students.

Now if Karen was doing 60 hours per week when the program commenced and now is doing 30-40 hours of academic work per week, what about students whose first language is not English? The new curriculum that commenced in Fall 2007 is clearly no piece of cake and anyone who thinks that Stanford GSB will be easier than schools that are well know for being tough, like HBS and Darden, is likely to be in for a surprise.

THE CENTRAL ROLE OF LEADERSHIP AT STANFORD
Another consideration is that in the past, Stanford has clearly not been so closely associated with a leadership-focused education. Whether this is true or not is another issue, but it certainly has been the case that HBS has been much more clearly associated with a leadership-focused education. At this point, I would not consider such a dichotomy to be particularly useful. Consider what Stanford says about the first quarter, Management perspectives curriculum:

Through your first quarter Management Perspectives courses, you will examine questions that transcend any single function or discipline of management such as:

• What responsibilities does a corporation have to society?
• What do markets do well, and what do they do poorly?
• What are the costs and benefits of commitment?

You will begin to understand the larger context of management and recognize deficiencies in your own knowledge that you will fill with Management Foundations classes in your second and third quarters.

Right from the start, you also will focus on developing your leadership style and honing your skills of oral and written persuasion.

Compare this to how HBS describes its Required Curriculum:
HBS's MBA curriculum includes a range of exciting courses and is frequently refreshed with new content. The goal is to give students a firm grasp of broad-based fundamentals. The School's inductive learning model goes beyond facts and theories—a process that teaches individuals not only how to manage organizations, but also how to continually grow and learn throughout life.

Now I will not deny that there are significant differences in the use of learnings methods, culture, and the overall structure of these two programs, but are the expected learning outcomes different? If the objective is to teach individuals how to be global leaders who can change and grow overtime, the answer is "No." Maybe this comes as no surprise to the reader, but I do point it so that no one thinks leadership matters less at Stanford than it does at HBS.

STANFORD IS LOOKING FOR LEADERS
A recent blog post by Kirsten Moss, Stanford GSB's Director of Evaluation, indicates the extent to which there is a focus on finding students who demonstrate leadership potential (this post also includes the full set of questions and Moss's comments in regards to them, so I have reprinted most of it):

This year's essay and recommendation questions are really the result of a journey that began over three years ago. Derrick Bolton, the Director of MBA Admissions, and I worked with experts in the field of leadership assessment from all over the world. We wanted to develop a set of questions that would stand the test of time--that would effectively elicit only the information most critical to our assessment criteria.

The 2008/2009 questions have changed little from last year; based on our satisfaction with the thousands of essay responses we read last year, we only made slight refinements.

Let me summarize why each of them is meaningful to our committee:

Essay A: What matters most to you and why?
This question helps us learn about your ideals and values. They set the context for how you see the world. They are your guideposts when you make any decision from what type of job you pursue to what type of culture you will create in leading an organization.

Essay B: What are your career aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve them?
This question helps us understand your professional dreams and from where your passion comes to achieve them. We also get a glimpse of what skills or knowledge you think you need to develop to reach them.....

We all have important stories to tell. We want to share moments when we have achieved great things or helped to shape the world around us. Essay C lists four potential questions (or prompts) to help you identify which are the two most important stories you have to tell us. The prompts themselves are not as important as the stories that they bring to the surface.

Good luck completing your application this year. I hope my "confessions" have given you a little more insight into the journey you are about to begin.

Moss's "confession" makes it very clear that rather than having completely open-ended criteria about who will fit at Stanford, the admissions committee is specifically looking to admit applicants who can (ESSAY A) express values and ideals that will guide them as leaders and/or decision makers, (ESSAY B) express why their professional goals require a Stanford MBA education, and (ESSAY C) clearly demonstrate leadership potential. In one way, these criteria are not new because demonstrating leadership potential was always a consideration, but for me, as someone who has had clients admitted to Stanford in the Classes of 2010 (click here for my client's testimonial), 2008 (Click here for my client's recommendation on LinkedIn, but you have to join LinkedIn to see it), 2007, 2006, and 2005, the clear focus on leadership represents a significant change. (I also had clients who were interviewed for the classes of 2009 and 2007, but not admitted.) But shortening the essays and by adding Essay C, Stanford GSB has created more focused questions designed to make it easier for them to determine who to interview.

STANFORD IS LOOKING FOR HONESTY
On the other hand, one thing that has not changed is that the applicants I have worked with who have gotten interviewed and/or admitted, wrote their own essays and were honest in their presentations of themselves. In my discussion of Essay A, I will discuss the critical importance of providing honest answers to Stanford's questions, but the following comments from Derrick Bolton apply to the essay set as a whole:

Please think of the Stanford essays as conversations on paper—when we read files, we feel that we meet people, also known as our "flat friends"—and tell us your story in a natural, genuine way.

Our goal is to understand what motivates you and how you have become the person you are today. In addition, we’re interested in what kind of person you wish the Stanford MBA Program to help you become.

Reflective, insightful essays help us envision the individual behind all of the experiences and accomplishments that we read about elsewhere in your application.

I can confirm that what has always made a winning set of essays for Stanford is the ability to commit to making an honest and insightful presentation of yourself. Based on my experience I can say the following are not effective:

1. Over-marketing: While I believe in the value of the marketing metaphor to some degree, I also believe you have to be able to understand that a crude, over-determined approach to doing so will not work here (For more about this, click here). If you are not real, you fail as one of Derrick Bolton's "flat friends."

2. Not writing your own essays. If your essays are not written in your own voice and don't reflect your English ability, don't expect to make it past Derrick Bolton's team. Their position is quite clear:

Begin work on these essays early, and feel free to ask your friends and family members to provide constructive feedback. When you ask for feedback, ask if the essay’s tone sounds like your voice. It should. Your family and friends know you better than anyone else. If they do not believe that your essays capture who you are, how you live, what you believe, and what you aspire to do, then surely the Committee on Admissions will be unable to recognize what is most distinctive about you.

However, there is a big difference between "feedback" and "coaching." There are few hard and fast rules, but you cross a line when a piece of the application ceases to be exclusively yours in either thought or word (excluding the letter of reference, which should be exclusively the recommender’s in thought and word).

Appropriate feedback occurs when you show someone your completed application, perhaps one or two times, and are apprised of errors or omissions. In contrast, inappropriate coaching occurs when either your essays or your entire self-presentation is colored by someone else. You best serve your own interests when your personal thoughts, individual voice, and unique style remain intact at the end of your editing process.

The above sounds very good in theory. If you have a friend or family member who can act as mentor in the way Stanford suggests, that is great. As I have discussed elsewhere in a series of posts on mentors, admission consultants, editors, and ghostwriters, such unpaid advisors are indeed valuable. However many applicants may very well find that they have no one around them who can provide such advice and Stanford's position does not account for that. Also the dichotomy between "coaching" and "feedback" is simply false because coaching is about feedback. What I find particularly ironic about Bolton's position on this issue is that Stanford GSB provides extensive career coaching to its students through the Career Management Center (CMC):

Personal advising and support—with only 360 students per class, the CMC staff works directly with you on your interests and goals.
Self-assessment—help with identifying and leveraging your strengths, as well as direction for skill development, if needed.

Resume and cover letter preparation—CMC staff can assist you with developing personal marketing tools that will stand out above the clutter, emphasize your abilities, and target your specific goals.

Mock interviews—role-playing and practice interviews enable you to gain confidence, hone your responses, and think on your feet.

It seems as though Stanford has two different standards for coaching: Stanford claims admissions consulting is bad because it helps applicants get into Stanford, but Stanford career consulting is good because it helps Stanford students get jobs. The services that Stanford offers to its students are the ones I and other ethical admissions consultants offer to their clients. The type of service I provide falls within Stanford's notions of the acceptable, though they would call it "coaching." There are other admissions consultants who will provide rewriting and ghostwriting, but I don't suggest using them if you want to go to Stanford or other top schools. Whoever assists you had better be able to make sure that their feedback helps you to best present yourself authentically.

IS STANFORD RIGHT FOR YOU?
Stanford really does provide great advice about both the Stanford GSB essays and about how to handle your applications. Review the curriculum, the school's mission statement, and the vast online resources (including a blog, podcasts, and "Myth Busters" ) that admissions provides to make this determination. Don't make assumptions about what Stanford GSB is or based on what someone told you it is. Instead, make that determination yourself after sufficient research. If you are thinking about Stanford GSB and have not yet attended one of their Outreach Events, I suggest doing so if you can.

DON'T WRITE STANFORD ESSAYS FIRST IF YOU CAN HELP IT.
Essay writing is a learning process. The more you do, hopefully the better you become. As such, given the difficulty of getting into Stanford, it seems like a bad idea to me to give them your rawest stuff.
Instead try work on two to three other schools first so that you have a better idea of what your best stories are. You will need them for Stanford.

SHOULD I WRITE ESSAY A OR B OR C FIRST?
Applicants sometimes ask me this question.

I think it is important that your goals, Essay B, be clearly established first. If you think about it, what matters to you most (A) must be consistent with and complimentary to your goals. As far as Essay C goes, the potential you show through the skills and values that you demonstrate in Essay C must also support the goals you write about in Essay B. Therefore start with Essay B.

As to whether you should then do A or C, chances are, if you have written a bunch of essays for other schools first, that you have multiple options for Essay C, but don't make any final decisions on Essay C until you write Essay A because you might very well find that a particular story that is ideal for Essay A was one you were considering for Essay C. Use your best examples to support what you say matters to you most because you should try to make your answer to Essay A, the only truly Stanford specific question, as strong as possible.

CONCLUSION
Getting into Stanford GSB is simply harder than getting into any other MBA program, but if it is where you want to go and if you think you fit there, commit to putting a significant amount of time into making a great application.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to.
-Adam Markus
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What will GMAC do with Scoretop's customers?

I guess because I don't deal in the realm of the criminal, I had never heard of Scoretop back in the days when it was selling real GMAT questions. Based on GMAC's FAQ, I am sure they are figuring out what their legal options are vis-a-vis the Scoretop customer base. According to Businessweek, only one customer's scores have been canceled, but he bragged about using the service publicly, so probably has no legal defense. My guess is that GMAC will decide that the potential litigation involving one or more class action suits by plaintiffs who claim that they were the victims of Scoretop and not engaged in cheating on the GMAT is enough for GMAC to decide it is not worth do mass score cancellation. Combine this defense with potential privacy issues and it is has the makings for some serious litigation that GMAC will probably want to avoid. But if I am wrong, assume you will be hearing a lot more about Scoretop.

I really do like what GMAC has done with the Scoretop website. This is my favorite part:

"If you are caught disclosing, accessing, or using "real" GMAT^® questions:

• Your GMAT^® scores will be cancelled.
• You will not be allowed to take the GMAT^® exam again.
• Business schools will be notified.
• You may be subject to a civil lawsuit or criminal prosecution.

You are responsible for making sure your preparation materials don’t violate our intellectual property rights. In other words:

• Do not purchase, request, or share materials that claim to be “real” GMAT^® questions in any form.
• Do not download GMATPrep^® software from anywhere but www.mba.com, where authorized GMATPrep^® software is available for free.
• Do not request or distribute pirated software or books such as the GMAT^® Paper Tests, GMAT Focus^TM or the Official GMAT^® Guide."

Whether GMAC takes action or not against the Scoretop customers, I think it is good that they delay making any decision as long as possible because those who did cheat, regardless of what is said by some of them, knew they were getting something they should not have. I hope they are sweating. Maybe the experience of worrying about being caught will be sufficient to scare them straight so that they don't become future perpetrators of the next Enron scandal.

And for those who are thinking about gaming the system, my advice is to study, get the best GMAT score you can, apply intelligently, and go knowing you did not cheat.

What do you think? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
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