Stanford GSB (Optional Deferred Program for College Seniors)

For Stanford GSB there is no exclusive program for college seniors such as HBS 2+2. However, they encourage seniors to consider applying to the MBA program. Harvard usually takes in around 110 college seniors through its 2+2 program. The number of students who get in through optional deferred program are quite less according to me. I think the number is less than 10, but it's just my guess. But, I still encourage college seniors to apply as you learn a lot about yourself. It is a self-realizing process and the satisfaction is immense. You also get to know which areas you can improve in. And, you get that extra few crucial years to improve yourself than you would have got if you had started applying after working for a few years.

Few of the qualities they seek in an undergraduate applicants are
1) Intellectual Vitality: This can be demonstrated through many ways but not only by grades and test scores. GSB considers our attitude to learning to be as important as our aptitude. Stanford wants to shape the future and they want to see our passion, dedication and genuine interest in expanding our intellectual horizon. They would also like to know whether we mastered any concepts that are not immediately relevant to our immediate career, to carve a path in ambiguous environment. This helps GSB to know whether we will be able to support the school's goal of developing knowledge that deepens and advances the practice of management.

2) Demonstrated Leadership Potential: By this, they would like to know about our character. This leadership activities can be demonstrated through activities, research or internships. They want to know more about our personal motivations and convictions, and our ability to confront complex, unfamiliar issues with good judgement through our essays.

3) Personal Qualities and Contributions: They want to know about our experiences that significantly influenced how we work with others, beliefs, passions, dreams, goals which would help them evaluate how we can not only contribute to, but also, how we can benefit from GSB. College seniors who get in normally have high maturity and self-confidence.


Also we should be able to articulate why we need to attend business school. Ultimately remember, Stanford wants to change lives, change organizations, change the world.

To submit Stanford application by third deadline

The last two months was pretty hectic for me. After submitting my HBS application, I realized that there was a lot of things which I had not addressed properly in my application such as the optional essay questions which asked about the career vision and how is it meaningful to you. I have done a lot of introspection from that time and I have found out what I really want to do. Somehow, that application has helped me tremendously even though I got rejected. I would recommend any person to apply as soon as they graduate or when they are in the final year so that they can truthfully judge themselves and see what lies ahead in store for them.

Regarding Stanford, I decided to apply just before the third deadline as I don't think it is going to make a difference whether I submit my application in my second round or in my third round as I am applying to the deferred program. It is very difficult to get selected for the Stanford's deferred program as they don't have any specific number of students to select such as HBS 2+2 program which selects about 100 students (10% of the total students selected). Since, it is very difficult to get selected I might as well apply as late as possible but bring out the best application that I can. The questions in Stanford application is more or less similar to the HBS 2+2 program, having said so, one must not cut and paste the answers. The answers to each school should be tailored to that particular school. 

The First of many posts in my journey to an MBA degree

Hello. My name is Lokesh and I have started applying to business schools (I turned 20 a couple of months back!). I had always wanted to apply to business schools ever since I was in 6th grade and I have been working towards it. Now, I am in my senior year of my college. Not a lot of students apply to business school with no work experience. But, I thought, I want to be one of the few who gets into a business school with no or very little work experience. After all, Harvard and Stanford are trying to get younger and younger students. I did apply to the HBS 2+2 program. I was 1 in 800 odd applicants for that program. Even though I got rejected, or dinged as many people say, my confidence level has never gone down and I will be applying to at least 2 more programs this year (Yale silver scholar program and to The Stanford GSB). It has been over a year since I started drafting my essays and almost 3 months since I submitted by HBS application. I applied to HBS with my GRE score which I think was a mistake. Now having taken my GMAT and having received my AWA scores, I will submit it for the other b schools. I will be applying before the second round for both Yale and Stanford. Stanford is a school which I would like to get into due to the entrepreneurship culture that prevails there.

My ultimate career goal is to become the CEO of a management consulting company. I would also like to start a venture capital firm and provide help to other entrepreneurs. For this, as of now, I do not have the sufficient work experience and education (in terms of thinking what I would do in different cases for which the case studies thought by the b schools would help me tremendously and also interpersonal dynamics is another course I am looking forward to learn). My short term goal, assuming that I get accepted to a deferred program in a b school, is to work in a consulting firm, earn an MBA, go on to work in the same or another consulting firm and get as much exposure and experience in as many fields as possible to eventually rise up to the position of a CEO. The first step of working in a consulting firm is more or less achieved as I been selected to work in BEROE as a research analyst.

The reason that I want to do an MBA very early in my life is due to the fact that I have very big dreams and to achieve my long term career goals, an MBA is absolutely necessary and the sooner the better.