Stanford GSB: What Matters Most to you, and Why?
Stanford GSB’s MBA application asks one of the most well-known essay questions of the MBA world:
What matters most to you, and why?
The school also provides some additional guidance in the prompt:
For this essay, we would like you to reflect deeply and write from the heart. Once you’ve identified what matters most to you, help us understand why. You might consider, for example, what makes this so important to you? What people, insights, or experiences have shaped your perspectives?
Let’s analyze the prompt in detail, understand what Stanford GSB looks for, what topics to choose, and learn how to write a compelling What Matters Most essay.
What Stanford GSB looks for
Stanford GSB’s tagline of “Change lives. Change organizations. Change the world” summarizes the kind of students the school looks for: changemakers who want to make a difference. That doesn’t just mean high achievers, but people who uphold strong personal values. These are people who build and sustain communities - something that is core to the Stanford brand.
That’s why Stanford GSB wants to get all up close and personal with you in this essay. Note the wording of the prompt. Particularly “write from the heart”. The school wants to hear your most genuine answer about what matters most to you - with all the emotion and passion that comes with it.
So when you answer this essay, don’t simply write about what you’ve accomplished. The AdCom has your resume, they already know that. They want to see the raw, unfiltered choices and experiences behind your life decisions, and to know more about the people that have influenced them.
So when you approach this essay, don’t think about how ‘impressive’ it looks. This is an incredibly intimate essay, more so than your most other b-school applications demand. So yes, your extracurriculars and work may come into the story, but only to frame an intimate discussion about yourself. Next, let’s discuss the topics you may decide to write about in this essay.
Topics to write about
Stanford GSB says that “There is no “right answer” to these questions — the best answer is the one that is truest for you.”
That’s good advice that you should certainly follow, but it’s rather vague. What does it mean to be authentic while writing an essay about what matters most to you?
Our clients have previously written about topics that require intense introspection, a good deal of vulnerability, and honesty. Examples of some of the challenges they faced and wrote about in their “what matters most” essay included:
Abusive family members and toxic living situations.
Broken homes
Getting evicted due to financial liabilities
A family member overcoming an addiction
Learning difficulties
Seeking personal guidance from a mentor
Giving up a dream to support family
Leaving home early to pursue a passion
Emotional attachment to a failing family business
So, you might write about your family, community, a cause, or a passion. You could write a whole essay about why your family business is important to you, or how you are passionate about financial health because you grew up in a disadvantaged household. But that’s not where the real story is. The real story is usually in the human sacrifices you’ve made for something you value, the opportunities you passed up for a greater cause.
While writing your essay, you’ll reflect on the choices you’ve made so far. But also consider the ones you didn’t:
Did you give up a dream for the betterment of those around you?
What difficult decision did you have to make to get out of a traumatic life circumstance?
What jobs did you reject, or which career paths did you choose not to pursue? Were they more lucrative?
Did you penny pinch and couch surf so you could save up for something important, like travel?
Did you isolate yourself from your friends because you were trying to launch a startup and make it succeed?
Did you pull long hours and sacrifice your weekends mentoring someone at work because they were having a hard time?
Did you earn a reputation for being ‘difficult’ because you stood up for the right thing?
Don’t just think about your life choices and the values that have driven you to make them. Think about what they cost you and why you prioritized them when they were up against other important things. And if what you prioritized didn’t pay off, that’s okay! Discussing your failures, weaknesses, and ability to bounce back from an unsound decision can also make for a strong essay.
A good “What Matters Most” essay demonstrates leadership qualities like resilience, decision-making, perseverance, and the ability to reflect on one’s decisions and behaviors.
How to structure your What Matters Most essay
Storytelling is a crucial aspect of how you answer Stanford GSB’s “what matters most” essay.
So after you’ve identified what you want to write about, we recommend using the SCAR framework to structure your essay:
Situation: Set your story up by describing the experience or the person(s) that have impacted you. How did it unfold?
Challenge: What was the tough choice that you had to make? Stanford GSB is interested in the ‘why’ behind your choices, so ensure that you explain your decision, what it cost you, and why you chose to go ahead with it anyway.
Action: What actions did you take to pursue this choice?
Result: What was the result of your decision? It’s best to quantify this as much as possible, to give the reader a clear, tangible picture of the impact of your choice on you and those around you.
Analysis: Reflect on the values and lessons you gained from this experience. How do they inform your decisions today, and how will you use them in the future? Would you do anything differently today?
Finally, a note about tone: don’t be afraid to write more personally and casually than your other MBA application essays. Considering how personal this essay is, chances are that the emotion will come through naturally! Like former Stanford GSB admissions director Derrick Bolton once described it, “Essay A should be so personal that if you were working on it at 2am and accidentally printed a copy to your office printer, you would break out in a cold sweat, grab the keys, floor it and drive as fast as you could to the office to snatch the essay before anyone could read it.”
Applying to Stanford GSB? Book a free chat with us today to craft your What Matters Most essay.
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