TotalGadha GMAT

I was browsing through my feeds and realized that I have missed on reading so much of late. Frankly the fault is mine only, I end up subscribing to so many websites that I am always lagging behind in reading news and updates….no matter how much I’d love to stay updated. I wanted to crib more about it but I digress.
Day before yesterday Stanford Admission MBA Blog posted a video on Application Tips from the MBA class of 2008.You must go and watch it. (click on image to watch the video)

The summary is that you have to be yourself. Don’t think about what admission committee wants to hear from you but think about the aspects that you would want to tell the admission committee to prove that you are worthy of being a part of their school.
Last year Stanford cleared a lot of myths about the school and its admission procedure.Let’s have a look.

Stanford: You do not need a specific amount of work experience to apply to Stanford GSB. It is not one of the eligibility criteria. It is up to you when you apply to the B School.
My Opinion- Although this may be true that Stanford does let you to apply even when you have no work experience but this way you are only raising a competition against you. The norm is that people like to work for a few years before they consider themselves fit for a B School. Also, a lot of students who have jobs in hand calculate the opportunity cost before they finally decide to apply to a B School which in turn leads candidates to apply with more number of work experience. But on the other hand if you think that you have great acads, a good GMAT score, justifiable essays, and you can flaunt your extracurriculars, go for it. Stanford would still accept your application. Ultimately it is the quality that will make your application stand out from the rest and not the quantity.
Stanford: Just because applicants with less work experience are welcome doesn’t mean applicants with more experience are unwelcome.
My Opinion- Schools always prefer candidates who can contribute to the diversity of a class. There is good mix of both the candidates with higher number of work experience as well as lower. Where candidates with high number of work exe contribute to the experience and maturity in the class, students with lower work ex are flexible in terms of demographic changes as well as the kind of positions that they would be offered after the course. So, all is good.

Stanford: A non-US school does not at all put you at a disadvantage.
My Opinion: Before agreeing to what they say, I decided to look at the class profile of MBA 2010 and this is what I found.
Advance Degree Holders:
U.S. Institutions -77
Non-U.S. Institutions - 79
Countries (including U.S.) -54
I also checked the geographical distribution of Alumni which may not give a very clear picture but cannot be out rightly ignored as well.
Reported Geographic Distribution
United States 17,805
International 5,181
NOTE: Information is based on addresses reported in the Alumni Directory as of February 2007.
Well! that very much proves that having a Non US degree is not a disadvantage at all. B Schools always seek for diversity and welcome experience coming from different backgrounds and nationalities.

Stanford: I’ve heard that visiting campus will give me an advantage in the admission process. Not True.

My Opinion- I may not disagree that it leaves an impression on admission committee which translates into how interested you are in attending that B School. But who said that it gives advantage or is an admission criteria? What if the school is located in my hometown itself? The only thing that would matter to ad com is how serious are you about applying to that B School, so whether you collect information from the school’s website, talk to alumni members or contact them directly, every thing would zero down to the level of interest that you show in attending that B School. Also isn’t this your advantage that you would be able to decide better if you visit a B School to collect information? You would be helping yourself in clearing the clouds of dilemma about attending the particular B School.