How should I craft my application to Stanford GSB?

I'm a Penn senior graduating in 4 years with a management degree from wharton, computer science degree from engineering (3.8), and public policy masters (3.9). I have a perfect GRE score.

My past experience includes:

Publishing research papers on innovations for improvements to supply chain models
World Bank / IMF / OECD / UN type public policy internship
Top 10 VC firm
Booz/IBM/Deloitte/Accenture Consulting Internship
Boutique IBD, tech-focused (pre-college)

Potential tracks:

1. Public policy slant. Talk about how I enjoy working at the intersection of public policy and business. Ideally I would like to focus on social entrepreneurship innovations in emerging economies working on vc/angel models, but would want to move into management roles with more say in allocating funding/selecting projects. hoping to use bschool to broaden my exposure to business models and funding solutions

2. Tech oriented. Talk about experience creating and innovating supply chain models, VC internships, and senior design projects

3. Business oriented -- focus on VC/Consulting/IB experiences

13 Comments
 

spot on actually. the thing is most of my ECs are pretty ordinary and tend to be business aligned given my undergrad background -- mainly along the lines of remote consulting for nonprofit organizations on recruiting processes and member retention in india and ghana, member of an energy focused investing team that focuses on the energy market and pitches investment ideas.... and intramural soccer.

i'm not sure how this should tie together because it doesn't seem to be the main focus of what i'm looking at -- advice would be much appreciated.

thanks for your time!

 

based on how you structured your post, it seems as though you are most passionate about track #1. and despite being one of the emerging trendy interests among undergrads, social impact is imo more unique than the other two options

 

thanks for the input -- i guess i was hesitant because social impact seems to be fairly saturated as a track because a good number of peers at wharton have concentrated in that and utilized such structures for b-school applications.

also wouldn't tech be a better consideration fitwise with stanford gsb

 

also i feel that listing too many educational qualifications in different domains might imply a lack of focus and indecision? does this usually disadvantage b-school applications in general?

 
Best Response
raigeki_shin

thanks for the input -- i guess i was hesitant because social impact seems to be fairly saturated as a track because a good number of peers at wharton have concentrated in that and utilized such structures for b-school applications.

also wouldn't tech be a better consideration fitwise with stanford gsb

This is internally inconsistent. On the one hand, you're worried that wharton is saturated with folks focusing on social impact, and on the other hand, you want to structure your application towards tech for stanford because it is saturated with folks focusing on tech. Maybe just focus on whichever track you're most interested in and stop worrying so much about things you can't control, like what some random admissions person will or will not think.

 

was referring to kids coming out from wharton undergrad applying to b-school and 2+2s focusing on the social impact structure. but yeah you have a point there

 

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