In the latest “Business Casual” podcast, John Byrne from Poets and Quants, along with co-hosts Maria Wich-Vila and Caroline Diarte Edwards, interview Heidi Hillis from Fortuna Admissions. Heidi, a senior expert coach with three degrees from Stanford, shares her meticulously assembled research on the class profiles of Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) for the classes of 2023 and 2024. Her incredible,  in-depth analysis reveals key trends in Stanford’s MBA class, from the rise of tech company representation to the importance of consulting backgrounds and international experience. (See the Poets & Quants article about this analysis here; download the FULL report DIRECTLY from my friends at Fortuna Admissions here).

Personally, I was really struck by the high percentage of students who had either their undergraduate or graduate education within the United States,– while a large percent of the class is “international”, a huge percent of those have either an undergraduate or graduate degree from a college in the US. are international. Additionally, the significant percentage of students with substantial international work experience stood out to me, indicating Stanford’s strong emphasis on global perspectives. I also expected an even distribution among large tech companies as “feeders” …but found that Google and Meta had a much larger representation compared to companies like Apple and Amazon. Why would that be?  Listen on to hear my theory why. 

This episode offers valuable insights for anyone navigating Stanford’s admissions process!