Situated at the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) has become synonymous with the iconic technology hub. The school is ranked first in venture funding amassed by its alumni and in the number of unicorn founders adjusted for alumni size, outperforming other schools in both categories by a wide margin. True to the startup spirit, Stanford GSB keeps its MBA class small at 400-450 students, selecting only the most talented few. This selectivity was well demonstrated in the makeup of the MBA class of 2023, which had an admission rate of 5.7% and an average GMAT of 738.
Stanford’s MBA is by no means limited to budding entrepreneurs; in keeping with its “change lives, change organizations, change the world” motto, the program draws passionate change agents from across all fields of endeavor. A testament to Stanford’s cross-discipline excellence, the US News & World Report ranks its MBA program second best in management and entrepreneurship, and third best in nonprofit and marketing. Additionally, it is highly international by US standards, with 47% of the 2023 cohort being foreign nationals, dual citizens or US permanent residents.
After graduation, Stanford GSB alumni commonly retain the school’s close-knit, high-performance markers; they are typically the highest paid graduates of all business schools, and many of them remain in California. As for sector preferences, the MBA class of 2021 mainly opted for finance and TMT at 33% of graduates choosing each. Entrepreneurship, private equity and venture capital were also wildly popular, accounting for 18%, 15% and 11%, respectively, which are some of the highest figures of any school. Notable Stanford GSB alumni include Sir Howard Davies (Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, MBA 1979), Vinod Khosla (Co-Founder of Sun Microsystems and Founder of Khosla Ventures, MBA 1980), Mary Barra (CEO of General Motors, MBA 1990), and Sam Yagan (Co-Founder of OkCupid, MBA 2005).
Small Town
Large City
100
1,000
Flexible
Structured
30%
90%
10,000
110,000
680
740
Top 25
Top 5
$100,000
$175,000
