This essay topic analysis looks at MBA admissions essays for Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB) for the 2022-2023 admissions season. Stanford is asking applicants to answer the same two questions it has been asking for a few years. The word limit of 1,050 words from last year was kept, and applicants were told to use 650 words for Essay A and 400 words for Essay B. There are also two essays about the candidate's impact and background that are optional. Let's take a deeper dive.
Looking for additional MBA programs on the West Coast?
Stanford GSB Essay A
What matters most to you, and why?
For this essay, we would like you to reflect deeply and write from the heart. Once you’ve identified what matters most to you, help us understand why. You might consider, for example, what makes this so important to you? What people, insights, or experiences have shaped your perspectives?
(Suggested Word Count: 650 words)
One of the most difficult prompts from a prominent business school is Stanford's "What Matters Most" essay. Because an answer to this essay has the potential to be profound and show a side of an applicant that the admissions committee cannot uncover elsewhere in the application, Stanford has asked this question for more than a dozen years. However, in the context of a strategic application, the question can be rather scary.
Part of the reason so many applicants struggle with this topic is that they start their brainstorming by looking for a direct answer to the question of "what matters most"—rifling through common themes like "helping others," "pursuit of knowledge," "revolutionizing an industry," and any number of textbook answers. Candidates lose momentum with each passing proposal, terrified of being lost in the shuffle of applicants who hold similar viewpoints.
The good news is that there is another strategy that has proven to be extremely effective. In summary, because the goal of this question is to help the admissions staff get to know you better, you should begin with who you are and everything you have experienced and accomplished, and then move backwards to uncover the overarching theme of "what matters most."
Make a list of the 15 to 20 most significant events, achievements, hobbies, or experiences in your life. Include the good, the horrible, the amazing, the ugly, and so on. Also, keep in mind that no time period is off limits—consider occurrences from your childhood to the present.
Examine your list and try to identify the themes that connect the major events, interests, and concepts in your life.
Now choose a limited number of items from the list that best support a certain theme and utilize them to establish your approach and begin the essay drafting process.
Working backwards allows you to not only arrive at a "what matters most" topic that truly resonates with you, but also to identify particular examples and tales to demonstrate how you have investigated what means most to you in your life.
Stanford GSB Essay B
Why Stanford?
Describe your aspirations and how your Stanford GSB experience will help you realize them. If you are applying to both the MBA and MSx programs, use Essay B to address your interest in both programs.
(Suggested Word Count: 400 words)
Stanford's second essay shifts away from philosophy and focuses on the candidate's career aspirations and motivations for attending Stanford. Rather than outlining a specific career path in this essay, you should concentrate on expressing the influence you aim to make on a service, a sector, or society at large through your chosen vocation.
When Essay B interacts with Essay A, that’s ideal. Essay A allows you to set out a philosophical explanation of what is most important to you, whereas Essay B allows you to explain how you would use your time at Stanford and your career to enhance what is most important to you.
In this essay, you must demonstrate that Stanford provides benefits that are not available at other schools. Discuss specific classes, programs, collaboration with other parts of the school, dual degree options, clubs, conferences, or other offerings that distinguish Stanford from other top business schools. Learning about the school's curriculum, special programs, and extracurricular activities—whether through an online event or a conversation with alumni—will help you develop a truly unique response to Essay B.
Question A, Optional Short Answer
We ask you to tell us about yourself and how you believe Stanford will help you reach your goals in the Essays section of the application. We'd also like to hear about the things you've done that have meant the most to you. If you want to go beyond your CV and explore some of your accomplishments in greater depth, you may provide up to three examples (up to 1,200 characters, or approximately 200 words, for each example).
Consider moments when you had a beneficial influence, whether in a professional, extracurricular, academic, or other context. What was your influence? What made it meaningful to you or others? Unlike other optional essays, this Stanford GSB essay clearly provides an opportunity to demonstrate your effect and should thus be done. This is a common subject for MBA essays; adcoms are looking for people who make an effect, whether at work or in other areas of their lives. They want to know that you will make an impact both on campus and as an alumnus as you pursue your professional and life aspirations. However, this is an optional exercise.
According to Stanford, "the two required essays shed insight on who you are and how you believe Stanford will help you reach your goals." We'd also like to hear about the things you've done that have meant the most to you. We provide an optional opportunity in this part to go beyond your CV and describe some of your efforts in greater depth." As a result, you should be picky and ensure that you are adding significant material in addition to what is on your CV.
Whether you choose an example (or instances) from your professional or personal life, it's critical to provide all of the background information a reader will need to grasp the story before clearly explaining the actions you performed and the outcomes you attained. The more specific you can be about your part in attaining a favorable outcome, the easier it will be to demonstrate your leadership abilities.
It's also essential mentioning why the influence was significant to you or others, as this might assist you demonstrate how much you respect Stanford's mission statement of "Change lives. Change organizations." "Shift the world." Perhaps you are fortunate to have a strong example for each—personal, organizational, and global—but it would be prudent to keep this mission statement in mind as you consider your effect.
Optional Short-Answer Question B
We know that each person is more than a list of facts or pre-defined categories. With this question we provide you with an optional opportunity to elaborate on how your background or life experiences have helped shape your recent actions or choices.
(1,200 characters, maximum)
This question appears in the Personal Information section of the application after applicants need to fill-in and check-off “facts and pre-defined categories.” With this question, the adcom is trying to understand how your background has shaped your perspective. In reflecting on what to potentially share, consider what you were able to cover in the required essays. Truly effective applications will find a way to make this response work in conjunction with Essays 1 and 2, reinforcing themes, complementing the ideas already presented, and completing the picture of who you are.
With a limit of 200 words, it would behoove applicants to be concise about their motivation, touching on the defining category that Stanford mentioned in the preamble. Then, connect this background information to the recent situation, interaction or project. Be explicit about how your background influenced your recent actions.
Stanford GSB Deadlines for 2023:
Round one: 13 Sep 2022
Round two: 5 Jan 2023
Round three: 11 Apr 2023