Stanford08 taking questions

duckling1101

谢谢tuxiaoyang，虽然大龄,也照样要申STANFORD,我想年龄不是关键问题,重要的应该是思想!

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-12-3 16:42:10编辑过]

loafer

想问一下, director's corner是每个月一期吗?

expert

3x

SZH123H

请问,SANFORD 对于申请者的TOEFL分数有没严格的规定(比如最低必须多少)?或者说是只做参考?

tuxiaoyang

以前的director's corner是一个月一期，和news letter一起出来。现在好像不是了。请参考前文。

tuxiaoyang

关于托福：

The minimum TOEFL score for graduate study at Stanford University is 250 for the computer-based test (CBT), 100 for the internet-based test (iBT), or 600 for the paper-based test (PBT). http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/fees_testresults.html

我想说两件事情，没有责备你的意思。

1、这类问题在stanford网站上很容易就能找到答案，而且你如果打算申请S你应该对这些基本的东西有很好的了解。其实不光在申请学校这件事情上，做很多事都要更主动积极才好——如果自己完全能做而且能做好，那为什么要依靠别人呢？

2、假设说stanford没有最低托福要求，我仍然觉得如果一个人托福没达到最低要求，那么这个人的英语能力恐怕真的成问题——不是说这个人念不下来，关键是没法好好利用学校的资源好好提高自己，而且对同学们也不公平。我不觉得分数本身有多重要，但我的确觉得英语能力比较重要，因为我们毕竟是在美国念书。

happyme

以下是引用tuxiaoyang在2006-12-2 13:46:00的发言：

再回答happyme。

非常抱歉没能在你来之前回信。

问：

1.  So far, based on your experience, how different is Stanford from what you have imagined?
2.  How well are you clicking with fellow classmates so far?

答：

1. I don't know. It's difficult to make the comparison, because everything I knew about Stanford (before I came) was mostly superficial, generic, or vague. Now the information I'm getting is just the opposite: often too specific and too personal, I can't help but be biased. Also Stanford is so vast and so complex, it's a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But I'm not even one bit disappointed, I like everything I see.

2. I guess I'm doing ok. I'm not a particularly extroverted person, so there are still hundreds of people I haven't met. Quite naturally, all the Chinese classmates are becoming friends real fast. Most my classmates are interesting and nice persons. So generally speaking, I like the environment here - but I don't know what other school is like.

Again, this is only one data point.

thank you for answering my questions!  da hao ren.

wisgo

Hi, Tuxiaoyang

Thanks for your effort helping people here. I read many of your posts here and in businessweek forum.

I have a question regarding Leadership. Stanford emphazies leadership, and it's a very important factor of the application. As an engineer without any management expereience ( I don't have many extracurricula activities either), I don't know how to write about it. I remember you mentioned the basketball team. Did you have any management experience before you got into Stanford? How did you solve this problem?

Thank you very much and I really appreciate it.

tuxiaoyang

Wisgo,

The question you raised is a common problem faced by many applicants with engineering background. Apparently you have given it a lot of thoughts, so I really don’t have a clear cut solution for you. I will just try to repeat the things you probably already know.

1.     Leadership is not a title, it’s a mindset, and it’s an attitude. For that reason, management by itself doesn’t necessarily constitute leadership. I’m sure you can think of instances where you took the initiative to do something that wasn’t clearly your responsibility, or where you helped your peers to grow, or you looked at the bigger picture and did something that’s unusual, or you simply paid more attention to issues that involved leading people/organization or changing behaviors. Don’t limit yourself to work environment, although work examples are arguably more convincing, anything leadership opportunities you seized and delivered can be good stories.

2.     What helped me was a simple exercise I talked about in previous posts. I will repeat again. 1) Ask yourself whether or not you are a leader; 2) If yes, tell yourself what makes you come to that conclusion; 3) organize all your supporting evidence. (Remember that you are a leader not because you are applying to B-school, but because you are a leader.)

3.     I was a Project Manager, but I didn’t have any direct reports. I didn’t have much extracurricular activities either. But I tried my best to extract the leadership aspects of my various activities and organized them in a coherent fashion so they seem more convincing.

4.     If you are limited by the circumstances and simply can’t find many convincing examples, tried to show your potential and your understanding. And attack the problem upfront; let the adcom know that you are fully aware of your weaknesses and what you are doing about it.

Sorry about the longwinded answer, I hope it helps.

wisgo

Hi, Tuxiaoyang

Thank you very much for your thoughts. I will think more about my past experience to make my stories more convincing.  

Thanks again for your warm-hearted help.