Essay B: Why Stanford? (Recommended 350 words)

“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.”

Same deal as Essay A, going to borrow some key words from Stanford: Your aspirations. Stanford.

• This is what I want to do—and here is why YOU should be excited about it. (This doesn’t require a ton of backstory or setup—some setup, yes—you need our buy-in. If your idea is uninspired, guess what, so too are “you.” Sell it. Give us just enough background and then in simple terms, walk us through your aspirations. With surgical efficiency.)
• I can’t get there by myself––skill set, network, etc. such as they are today. I will need a launch pad. An incubator. An environment and set of experiences and interactions that, when coupled with what I need, given who I am and what will bring out the best in me, will give me the *best* boost toward my goals.
• While many business schools, and especially many of the most elite business business schools will propel me in great and serviceable way, The Stanford GSB presents a unique opportunity to take that boosting effect and turbo charge it. These unique features of Stanford (compared to nearby competitors like HBS, Wharton, and the like) happen to suit me, as I am, and on my ascent to my goals, in a particularly desirable way. Let me walk you through a handful of salient examples of that so you can see for yourself how Stanford, unlike another program, has a unique opportunity to collide with me to propel me toward my goals, but also, how that interaction (Me + Stanford GSB) confers a benefit to Stanford at the same time.

That’s the essay. In a nutshell. That’s what we call “the subtext.” Underneath the actual stuff you write, those are the theme that must be communicated. Efficiently. You have roughly 350 words to make that case.

In order to crush this essay, you must understand Stanford and what they’re all about. This may take some research on your end, and this is what Stanford is hoping—that after a ton of research, you have determined that this place, unlike any other, is a better fit for you than any other program you may get into. Hint hint, including HBS, and Wharton, and CBS, and Sloan, etc. If your case for Why Stanford can be met by another M7 school (or worse, any other business school), dead on arrival.

To begin, you need to establish (1) where you’re headed and (2) what you need in order to get there. You can do this within 100 words, 75 even. Now for your remaining ~250 words, we have work to do. Your task is to make a case for why specific aspects of Stanford’s GSB––offerings, the culture, all of it––collide with you and your particular skills and needs, combine to make the best match of any conceivable match available to you. You + HBS may be good, but not as good as You + Stanford. Why? How exactly? You + Wharton, also great. You’ll be plenty successful with a Wharton degree. But what will be missing? What’s the delta between You + Any Other School and You + Stanford? This is not easy. But the folks who get in are able to nail it.

How to understand Stanford well enough to approach this? Sure, spend time on the website. But, table stakes. Read about the school elsewhere—articles, anything written by current or former students. Also table stakes. Talk to former students. Now we’re getting somewhere. Talk to current students, even more interesting. Visit the campus, more interesting still. Talk to anyone and everyone, do whatever it takes to gain perspectives that aren’t simply available to others. Why? Sure, to showcase that you made that effort. But also, that research is likely to yield insights that strengthen the specificity of your case for Stanford. Not just as an intellectual exercise, but hopefully on an emotional level as well. If, in the course of your research, you’re able to forge a kind of ‘it must be Stanford’ sense, and are able to observe and articulate why that confidence is deepening, in a way that goes far beyond what’s obvious to anyone paying attention that Stanford’s reputation precedes itself… now you’re getting somewhere.

The folks who do this sincerely, are able to execute here because the legwork lends itself to a kind of authenticity and credibility that cannot be faked by someone who hasn’t done the dig-deep research. You can tell. As a reader, you can just tell.

So many ways to engage—where there’s a will, there’s a way. Read stuff by current or former professors. Notice the trends of what kinds of professors came from Stanford. Notice what kinds of companies were started at Stanford. Get a sense. Now, whatever you do, please don’t think that there is a magical phrase or a set of classes you can name drop that will trigger a successful outcome. The demonstration of “fit” here is a wildly organic one. It’s in between the lines, never the lines themselves. Stanford’s assets have to match you in a way that won’t necessarily apply to the guy sitting next to you. This is the whole point about “individuality” and “uniqueness.” Stanford is curious to see how aspects of its program and culture uniquely affect your appetite for an MBA, or for your career goals. It’s not “mentioning a class,” folks. Or “a club.” Or “a professor’s name.” It’s much, much, much more than that.

It’s an argument. An argument that connects Stanford’s assets and offerings *to* you and your skills and capabilities, specifically. It’s not just that Stanford “has” X Y and Z. Stanford knows it has those things. What it doesn’t know is how those things will react with you specifically. Make us picture this, and show us how that collision will play out. You’ll need more than one example to sell it. Minimum two, three is a great target. Here’s your structure:

• This is what I hope to accomplish (not by way of job title, but define it in terms of the intended effect, and sell us on the virtues of that outcome.(50-75 words)
• Can’t get there today, here’s what I need, from an MBA program or otherwise. Define it in terms of fundamental ‘ingredients’ that are missing, or in need of development. (50-75 words)
• Now start explaining one by one, how specific aspects of Stanford create ‘chemical reactions’ with you and your needs. Take us through what will improve, how, why, and what unique aspect of the Stanford offering is worthy of making this list. (Remember, it can’t be something easily found or replicated elsewhere.) (50-75 words)
• Rinse and repeat (50-75 words, each one)
• In your final arguments, consider a more emotional argument about how you arrived at this confidence level, in a way that instils in you a feeling that can’t really be studied under a microscope. Why do you feel the GSB is your soulmate, and you theirs? (50-75 words)

Take that approach on your first stab, and that’ll give you a nifty rough draft that we can then take to the thrasher, and start working up to something that’s Adamantium-grade.