How to master Stanford’s “what matters most to you and why?” essay question?

Show emotional intelligence in your stories.

Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?

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?

Re-read the question and the instructions right now. Pay attention to the words we put in bold for emphasis. This has been Stanford GSB’s go-to question for years. And it’s the most challenging application question in MBA history. They’re telling you exactly what they want in the instructions. Don’t disregard this. Give them exactly what they want.

Most applicants will spend too much time on the “what” of the story – or spend ALL their time on the *what* and they’ll get rejected. However, the key to mastering the telling of your story in this essay is the “why” rather than the “what.”

Now for the biggie – see the WHY at the end of the question? The WHY is so important that they mention it again in the instructions to hit you over the head with how important it is. OK, but what does it mean compared to WHAT?

WHAT: These are the facts of the stories, the details. In the world of storytelling, we call this “exposition.” If you only tell us the WHAT of the story, you haven’t answered the question the way they want. In fact, if each paragraph is a different story, then you must boil down the WHAT to the bare minimum. Be very economical so you can move to the WHY.

WHY: This is all about self-reflection. You’re looking back at an event and describing how you FELT and what you THOUGHT. Take us back to that moment and describe what was going on internally and how you learned from it. It’s the head, but most importantly it’s the heart too. You’re analyzing your behavior here – it’s no mistake that Stanford conducts “behavioral” style interviews. They want to understand your past behavior in order to predict your future behavior. Remember this. It’s key.

LANGUAGE AND TONE

Self-analysis. Behavior. Self-reflection. Personal evolution. Head and heart.

When you’re doing your WHY reflection, then use EMOTIONAL language. Meaning tell us what emotion you were actually experiencing at that very moment. This is the key to demonstrating your EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EQ). And demonstrating your EQ is the key to nailing Stanford GSB’s essay.

For example:

“I was shocked to discover.”

“The experience left me totally heartbroken.”

“I felt the purest possible joy during our collaboration.”

“It was thrilling to reach the peak of Mount Kiliminjaro and look down below.”

Let us know how you felt. And when you tell us what you thought at that very moment, actually use language to describe your thinking. So you’re using language to describe your HEAD and your HEART.

Stanford is known for being more “touchy-feely” than Harvard. The Harvard essays are typically more action and accomplishment oriented. You’re showing how you’re a leader that gets stuff done and how you’ve evolved as well.

However, Stanford takes touchy-feely to a much deeper level.

So if you’re applying to both schools and plan to leverage elements of your HBS essays into your “what matters most” Stanford essay and impact essays (which can often work out quite well), then it will be crucial to adjust your language, tone, stories and positioning accordingly. We guide you on precisely how to craft your story for each school because you need to tell adcom exactly what they want to hear based on their school’s ethos.