The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) typically receives more than 8,000 applications a year. Of those, it interviews approximately 1,000 candidates to fill a class of around 420. It doesn’t take intense GMAT prep to recognize that the odds of getting in are pretty slim! Despite these admittedly high hurdles, there were some positive results reported on Clear Admit’s MBA LiveWire, our community tool where applicants report admissions decisions in real time.
Over the course of Round 1, GSB rolled out interview invitations across several weeks, culminating in a final mid-November flurry of interview invitations and rejections. Rejections reported via LiveWire all came in on November 14th and 15th, in contrast to interview invitations, which trickled out gradually beginning in mid-October.
Just as we examined LiveWire interview results reported about Wharton, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth and Harvard Business School, we’re now taking a closer look at the profiles of candidates who threw their hats in the ring for Stanford GSB.
A Sliver of Difference
For those who were invited to interview, reported GPAs on the 4.0 scale ranged from 3.1 to 4.0, with an average of 3.76. The GMAT score range was 680 to 790, with an average of 741. The statistics for candidates who received a ding were ever-so-slightly lower across the board. The GPA range for those rejected was 3.0 to 3.9, with an average of 3.6, and the GMAT score range was 670 to 790, with an average of 740.
We told you—the differences were SLIGHT. Without rounding, the difference in average GMAT scores between those invited to interview and those dinged was .05 points. Not only that, there were several instances in which data points that for one candidate coincided with a rejection were identical to data points that for another candidate led to an interview invitation.
To see identical data points result in opposing results suggests—as we’ve also observed with other schools—that Stanford truly does evaluate its candidates holistically. Especially when factors like GMAT score and GPA are so close, other application materials carry significant weight.
Taking that into consideration, candidates targeting Stanford for Round 2 might want to spend some time now brushing up on our Stanford GSB Essay Topic Analysis to help ensure that you back up your strong stats with equally strong application content.
As always, we should note that our sample size is relatively small and likely subject to some response bias, which is to say that applicants who scored well on the GMAT or had strong GPAs may be more inclined to share their numbers publicly (albeit anonymously).
Have you received an invitation to interview? Congrats! You may want to take advantage of Clear Admit’s Interview Guide for Stanford GSB, which can help you prepare. Thanks for sharing your results via Clear Admit’s LiveWire. Keep ‘em coming!
Clear Admit Resources
Thanks for reading our LiveWire analysis of this year’s GSB admissions decisions. As you prepare for your interview, we encourage you to consider all of Clear Admit’s Stanford offerings:
- Stanford GSB Profile on the Clear Admit website: up-to-date advice and admissions information
- Clear Admit Stanford GSB School Snapshot: overview of key curricular details and application information
- Clear Admit Stanford GSB School Guide: in-depth program and campus information and side-by-side school comparisons; everything you need to know for a successful application!
- Clear Admit LiveWire: admissions updates submitted in real time by applicants to Stanford GSB
- Clear Admit DecisionWire: school selections in real time by admits to Stanford GSB
