Hello all. I hope you’re enjoying your Sunday and have had a nice weekend so far. I had planned to post this entry yesterday, but, with it being Valentine’s Day, I figured that no one would have seen it until today anyway. Besides, I’m not exactly a huge fan of V-Day (especially not this year), so I didn’t really feel like typing anything up. I’ll never understand why a holiday that was created to sell candy, flowers, and cards has become such an institution. Wouldn’t it be so much better if people bought those sorts of gifts for their significant others randomly throughout the year instead of having everyone go buckwild in the middle of each February? And, for all you lovebirds out there who don’t agree with me on this, Roland Martin from CNN.com wrote a great article laying out the argument (Link to article). The name of the game should be to show your loved ones that you care 365 days per year, not just focusing on Feb 14.

Moving on from the intro…As some of you may know, I respond to every non-spam email that comes into the Inbox for this blog. It may sometimes take a month or longer for me to get to an email, but I know that people are counting on me for insight so I try to come through for all of them. There have only been a couple of times that an email has driven me to consider not responding to it. The first one was about a year and a half ago when a guy literally copied an essay question from the Columbia Business School application (including the reference to the school’s dean and the word limit in parentheses) and asked me to give him my perspective on it. And, the guy seemed to think that I wouldn’t catch on that the question was copied directly from an application…like I would actually fall for the okie-doke like that, right? Well, the latest one is the email below, but, because I didn’t read through it before starting the response, I ended up giving a full-on response. The issue with the message below isn’t that the reader asked bad questions because his questions were actually fantastic ones for someone starting their research on Stanford GSB. The problem was that the guy was asking all of those initial research questions to me instead of taking the time to do his own due diligence, which would have provided the answers to several of his questions…plus, he hit me with a laundry list of questions, which y’all know I don’t like. Word to the wise…you should always exhaust the resources available to you to find out something before asking someone else to give you the answer. I didn’t read his email before I started responding to it, so, as you read downward, you’ll likely see my frustration growing with each successive question. It got me to the point that I didn’t even realize how much I was writing until I got toward the end of his list of questions. You’ll see what I mean as you read below. Some of you might say that I was a little rough in my response (and maybe even in this intro) and I KNOW that I’m going to get an email from my mom about this too I acknowledge that perspective, but also want to remind everyone that we’re all grown folks and, sometimes, tough feedback is warranted AND needed. This feedback was not given with ill will and I hope the reader understands that. So, without any further delay, let’s get to today’s entry…

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MS wrote:

“Hi Marquis,
I’m planning to apply to GSB this year when I came across your blog. It is an awesome resource. Thanks for putting in so much time and effort for the same. I have a few questions listed in order of importance below. I would really appreciate it if you could help me with a few.

1. What is the diversity in a class? I Stanford has a great emphasis on diversity, but I am trying to understand why. Do you see the impact of diversity on your learning? Or do you see it helping you succeed post MBA? If yes then how? Also when Stanford talks about diversity does it mean diversity of backgrounds, thought process etc?

2. What makes the MBA experience about at Stanford unique? Is it the classroom culture, the faculty etc.. ?

3. What opportunities at Stanford can prepare you for life in the Technical domain? Are there specific courses targeting technology management? If yes then what are they? Are there opportunities for engineers and business school students to work jointly for projects, business plans etc? What can you tell me about the Sloan courses that students take at Stanford?

4. What possible career paths can I expect to pursue after an MBA at Stanford , if I wish to still stay in the High Tech Area?

5. I’m sure the school has a strong Alumni network in Tech (being in Silicon valley) ? How do students get to connect to this Alumni pool ? How can the students leverage their help?

6. I’m sure the school is strong on Entrepreneurship. What are your experiences with the same – in terms of learning opportunities, specific courses, activities etc.

7. What are the class room teaching styles?

I really appreciate your help with any of the above.
Regards,
MS”

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My response:

MS,

I hope this response finds you doing well. Thanks for checking out my blog and thinking of me as a resource for your questions about Stanford GSB. I had a fantastic two years there and, if you get in, I believe that you would have a great experience there, as well. I hope this response isn’t getting to you too late to be helpful…as you can imagine, I’ve got a ton of emails in my Inbox and it takes a while to get through them.

As I’ve mentioned in my blog before, I don’t like responding to long lists of questions because they take a lot of time for me to address everything in the sort of depth that I usually try to provide…I think a list of seven questions qualifies as “long”. With that said, I’ll try to give you something decent for the questions that you’ve posed. In your future interactions with alums, students, and other B-school affiliates, I’d suggest developing a list of your two or three most important questions and asking ONLY those two or three…Not everyone is as cool and as willing to help as I am, so you wouldn’t want to risk seeming like you’re not being mindful of someone’s time. Now, let’s get into your questions:

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1. What is the diversity in a class? I Stanford has a great emphasis on diversity, but I am trying to understand why. Do you see the impact of diversity on your learning? Or do you see it helping you succeed post MBA? If yes then how? Also when Stanford talks about diversity does it mean diversity of backgrounds, thought process etc?

When you ask about the diversity in a class at the GSB, I’m assuming that you’re asking about the demographic breakdown among the students. If so, you can find a VERY detailed breakdown of this information on the Stanford GSB website on the Class Profile page.

I found the diversity among my classmates to be very additive to my learning because it exposed me to so many different ways to thinking through an issue or about a problem. Outside of the classroom, I benefited from hearing about my classmates’ life experiences, which presented many differences along with some surprising similarities across national/regional/cultural lines. Before the GSB, I never would have thought that someone could learn from my own life experiences, but my two years taught me that even a scraggly little dude from the country in VA like me could be a contributor to someone else’s learning about the world and life in it. After graduation, I immediately reaped benefits when it came to interacting with team members and clients from various backgrounds on different consulting engagements during my years at McKinsey. I don’t even know if I can communicate the full value that one can enjoy from being immersed in a truly diverse community of smart, driven, and genuinely nice people like we had at the GSB.

2. What makes the MBA experience about at Stanford unique? Is it the classroom culture, the faculty etc.. ?

Quick question…did you read through any of the early archived entries in my blog? If not, you might want to do so because the first three year’s worth of entries are filled with commentary on what makes the Stanford MBA experience unique. Anyways, you had great timing with this question because I just answered for an interview that I recently completed. Here’s how I answered the question for that interview:

‘At a high-level, I was looking for the following things in a business school and Stanford offered all of them:
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a. Strong general management program –> My goal was to finish B-school with a strong overall understanding of business, so I targeted general management programs when selecting schools. Stanford is among the top general management programs out there, so it immediately make the short-list of schools for me.

b. Small class size –> I wanted a school where each incoming class was small enough for me to really get to know my classmates over my two years. I was trying to find a place that would allow me to be a name and not a number and Stanford’s average class size of 370 made it a great fit in this metric.

c. Strong “transformational” and diverse culture –> Every business school has a strong culture, but not every school’s culture will be a fit for everyone. I was looking for a culture that embraced diversity of thought, background, nationality, and perspective among its students. Even more important to me was finding a school whose culture left its students feeling like they’d reached their full potentials and had been transformed by their MBA experiences. As I researched Stanford and spoke to students, I learned that the GSB scored off the charts in both of these areas, cementing its position as my #1 choice school.
– ‘

3. What opportunities at Stanford can prepare you for life in the Technical domain? Are there specific courses targeting technology management? If yes then what are they? Are there opportunities for engineers and business school students to work jointly for projects, business plans etc? What can you tell me about the Sloan courses that students take at Stanford?

Once again, I’ve got to ask whether you reviewed any of my past entries because I’m sure that I’ve previously answered questions about how Stanford can prepare its students for life in Tech. And, I’m almost positive that your question about opportunities for engineers and B-school kids to work together is addressed extensively on the GSB’s website. That GSB website also has a special section with tons of information about the Sloan Master’s in Management program. I’m starting to wonder whether you did the requisite due diligence on the school (or even on topics I’ve covered in my blog before) prior to emailing me.

Just to be nice, I’ll give some quick treatment to your questions here. The GSB can prepare you for any number of opportunities in the Tech domain and offers several classes with a tech focus, including Technology in Markets and Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital (which has a strong tech bent to it). There are many opportunities, including in a couple of the entrepreneurship courses, for B-schoolers and engineers can interact and work on projects (including business plans) together. As far as I know, the Sloan students take courses with the same professors as the MBA’s do and often take MBA electives right along with the MBA’s. One difference might be that their core courses are taught in separate sections with only Sloan students, but I can’t think of any others.

4. What possible career paths can I expect to pursue after an MBA at Stanford , if I wish to still stay in the High Tech Area?

OK, seriously…did you do ANY research about the GSB before emailing me? I just did a simple Google search and used “Stanford Graduate School of Business employment”…and LITERALLY the first item returned was a link to the Stanford GSB Career Management Center employment reports. Alternatively, you could have found this after a review of the school’s website. Come on, man…you’ve got to put a little time into learning about the school on your own before asking alums and other affiliated people about certain topics. Upon review the employment reports, you’ll see that a Stanford MBA prepares graduates to move into careers in a wide range of industries and functional areas. So, if you want to stay in the High Tech arena, you’ll have tons of paths available to you, including Product Management, Finance, Operations, Strategy, and Marketing.

5. I’m sure the school has a strong Alumni network in Tech (being in Silicon valley) ? How do students get to connect to this Alumni pool ? How can the students leverage their help?

Stanford GSB certainly has a strong alumni network in the Tech industry, but that alumni network is strong within several other industries, as well. Some folks will point to the total number of alums as a testament to the strength of their schools. Instead, I will mention the strength of the Stanford GSB and how it drives all of us to want to help one another, even after we’ve finished our two years at the school. Plus, because we have a smaller class size, there are fewer alums out there, so we all go out of our way to help fellow GSB alums and students. Students have many options to get connected to the alumni community, including the GSB Alumni mentor program, special alumni relations events, and through self-driven outreach to individual alums.

6. I’m sure the school is strong on Entrepreneurship. What are your experiences with the same – in terms of learning opportunities, specific courses, activities etc.

There are a lot of details, but I’ve already written a lot above and, as I mentioned earlier, I don’t do well with long lists of questions. So, instead of writing about those details, I’ll direct you to yet another resource available on the GSB website, the site for the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. You should be able to find tons of useful information about entrepreneurship at the GSB.

7. What are the class room teaching styles?

This is yet another question that could be easily answered by doing some due diligence on the GSB (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/academics/teaching_methods.html). OK, you REALLY didn’t do your homework before emailing me, but, since I’m at your last question and it’s a short answer, I’ll just say something about it. The GSB teaching style combines many methods, including case studies, lectures, and classroom simulations, to promote the learning of its students. Some B-schools use a single teaching method, which is fine for some students, but I found the combination of tools and formats at the GSB to exactly what I needed in an MBA experience.
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I hope you found my answers above to be helpful. As I mentioned above, you REALLY NEED to do your due diligence on other schools that you might be interested in before asking questions to alums/students/affiliates. There is a lot of information out there about just about every school under the sun and the person with whom you’re conversing would expect for you to have exhausted those resources before asking questions. You need to know that this sort of thing can make a person wonder how much interest you truly have and result in you making a bad impression on those with whom you connect about a particular school. Don’t take this advice the wrong way because it isn’t given from a position of ill will. I’m just trying to help you out as you look ahead in the process. As you can imagine, lots of people hit me up to ask about Stanford GSB and there’s nothing worse than being asked something that I KNOW is posted on the GSB website. Anyways, take care and good luck with your applications to business school.

-Marquis