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Hi, I'm Wil Torres, Assistant Director with Stanford GSB's MBA Admissions Office.
Today, we're joined by three students, Sara, Jack and Marisabel,
who will share their experience with the financial aid process.
Sara, Jack,
Marisabel, can you start off by telling us a little bit about yourselves?
So let's start with where you're from and
what you were doing before you came to the GSB.
>> So I was from Los Angeles and running a charter school,
kindergarten through eighth grade and a team of people who helped empower parents
of charter school kids from disadvantaged communities in L.A.
>> Yep, so
I'm Jack, I was in London before coming to the GSB.
I worked in turn around and structuring as a consultant there and moved to the US for
the first time for business school.
>> I'm Marisabel, I was in San Francisco right before the GSB,
grew up in Southern California.
Before business school, I was working in tech on e-commerce and product management.
>> All right, so let's talk about your journeys to the GSB.
Many prospects wonder if the opportunity cost of taking time out from work to
pursue business degree is worth the return on investment.
How did you come to the decision that it was the right time for you and and
that it was worth it?
>> So I can go first.
I think for me, when I was considering the opportunity cost,
I think I had a really interesting conversation with a colleague of mine
who basically talked through it being a marathon, not a sprint.
And I felt like I was trying to sprint through work.
So I think that taking the two years out to stop and
reflect was the first thing that I really wanted to do.
And then I started to look into it and did a lot of research online and
found a lot of useful articles that talked about the kind off payoff periods and
the kind of transformative experience it is.
So for me I was thinking about, is the experience going to be worth it?
And then I was sort of kind of running the numbers.
>> Great.
>> Similarly to Jack, I spoke to quite a few different alumni, especially a handful
from the GSB, to talk about what their experiences were paying off their loans.
because I really just wanted to understand what that process looked,
like having never taken out loans before.
And so they helped me actually come up with a model to look at different
pay off periods given conservative or different salary ranges.
And for me, it seemed very worth it and feasible.
And I also think less so on the hard financial side but
more about looking at these two years is a very efficient way
to understand what interests me and what I wanted to pursue.
And that I just deemed very invaluable.
because I feel,
oftentimes when you're good at something outside of business school or
in your professional life, you will keep doing that because you're good at it.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that that's what you want to be pursuing for
the rest of your life.
So I took both of those into account in my decision to
to see that the investment was worth it.
>> Before I started my research, I assumed it was just too late for
me to go business school.
I was nearing the end of my 30s and relatively happy in my career,
it had always been a dream.
And a couple of conversations
with Alumni and
my executive coach led me
to realize that this one
year in the MSX program would
give me a chance to step up.
Probably wouldn't have the opportunity to go in the future, and
it was a great time to do that.
>> Yeah, did you have any big financial concerns coming into
the process of applying for business school?
And how did you address some of those concerns?
>> Yes, [LAUGH] I'll start.
I was certain I couldn't afford to go to business school coming from
a background in nonprofit.
And looking at a few of the former students who've gone here,
the alumni also who pursued their MBAs elsewhere,
I just couldn't see how the math would work out.
Until I learned about the loan
forgiveness program at Stanford and
was blown away by the flexibility and
the ability for
me to take advantage of that,
were I to continue to pursue
a career in a nonprofit.
>> A little bit more on the loan forgiveness program.
Can you tell us a little bit about that, and what gave you the confidence that
this was something that could help support your career aspirations?
>> Well, when you're looking at programs, aside from Stanford,
this program just doesn't exist.
And that was something I hadn't really realized that at Stanford,
outside of Stanford, I could take advantage of
the federal loan forgiveness program, which is super restrictive.
It requires ten full years, it has all these kind of catches to it,
the technical catches.
And few people are actually able to take advantage of that program.
So when I learned more about that program, I was so sad,
because I figured, gosh, I really can't afford business school.
And then when I learned about Stanford, their own loan forgiveness program,
I realized, okay, this makes sense.
For every six months, I believe it's six months, increments or
a year increments, as long as you're working in nonprofit position,
part time or full time, that portion of your salary.
And there's a sliding scale as to what your salary can be up to a certain point.
Percentage of that will be, of your loans, your tuition, your living expenses,
all the loans you've taken out will be forgiven.
And that to me was just such an incredible benefit to
offsetting the cost that it would take for
someone from nonprofit background here at Stanford.
>> Great, and then were there any other concerns that you all had as you were
thinking about business school?
>> Yeah, I think for me, working in tech,
if you invest enough time at a certain company,
there's a formula for salary bumps and raises.
So my concern was, are the two years outside of the professional space,
can I recoup that after graduating business school?
So I just took a hard look at the past figures, numbers of the salaries that
people earned right after business school, especially Stanford GSB.
And kind of weighed that out with what I would be earning had I stayed in
my role for these two years.
And just saw that I would still be better off.
So that helped me a lot with my decision as well.
Some other financial considerations,
I have been helping to support my family also, leading up to this point.
So that was something that I was very nervous about as well,
just how would I be able to do that during business school?
But with the financial aid that Stanford gave me,
that relieved a bunch of the pressure.
So both of those kind of just made it seem much more feasible for me to still borrow
the money and then have enough money to be able to support my family while in school.
>> Yeah, I definitely had a lot of concerns coming in.
It was kind of my biggest worry about deciding to come and do an MBA.
I was convinced that the experience would be great, but whether I could afford it or
not was the challenge.
I think I spent a lot of times speaking to the financial aid office ,who were
fantastic and gave me loads of support, pointed me in all the right directions in
terms of thinking about where to get loans as an international student,
what kind of conversations to be having, and
then even just down to how much your kind of daily costs are likely to be.
I think as well just the ease of access to loans gave me confidence
that they had confidence that I'd be able to pay them back.
So if it wasn't likely they'll be able to afford it,
they wouldn't be lending me the money as easily as they could.
Which I don't know if that makes sense, but it did to me at the time.
>> So I actually did receive a full ride at another business
school through their scholarship program.
Ultimately I decided to come to the GSB because the financial aid was
still very generous.
But then also in working with financial aid office,
they brought to light some of these extra scholarship opportunities that
would be made available to me to apply to, much like Sara covered.
And at the end of day, what I want to pursue after business school I
felt like Stanford GSB could set me up in the best way possible.
So I wasn't trying to optimize for a completely free experience.
But I was trying to optimize for something that would have
the best financial but also personal ROI for myself.
>> Yeah, so I had some financial aid from another school that I applied to.
And I think the deciding factor for
me was the generous amount that Stanford financial aid package included.
And also, in the grand scheme of things, I wanted the kind of best experience and
the most transformative experience.
And for me, that was always the GSB.
So even if the numbers were slightly different, I think it was more about
if I'm going to make the investment, it's making the right investment.
>> As you think about your everyday experience here,
are there ways that you're able to be thoughtful about either finances or
spending that still allow you to maximize your time here?
>> Yeah, I would say that it's definitely a conversation that people are having
more on campus now to create a much more inclusive environment,
especially when it comes to clubs, club dues, and those kinds of experiences.
You can raise a concern, and I've heard that the financial aid office and
the student activities office have been super helpful and receptive to that.
And I do think that there's so many extracurricular activities, there's so
many options for how you want to approach extracurricular activities.
So if you want to spend a little more on this one trip or this one event you can.
But then there's so many other options that you can also take advantage of and
still have a great time while at the GSB.
So I would say that there are range of, I guess,
costs associated with all the extracurriculars that you want to do,
so that we can create a much more inclusive environment here.
>> Yeah, all right.
And as you're looking back on your experience,
how would you advise prospective students as they think about financial aid and
planning for business school?
>> I think the big thing for me is that when it comes to planning,
is think about trying to give yourself a bit of a buffer coming in, if you can.
I think you can take the loans, and we talked about the financial aid and
how generous that is, and
you can run the numbers on the average salary data post GSB and you'll be okay.
But I think my biggest challenge was the initial cash flow,
which sounds a bit business schooly, but just the flow of some of the funds.
So if you can find yourself a little bit of a buffer coming in,
I think that would be my kind of advice or tips in terms of how to think about it,
easing some of the stress early on.
>> Yeah, I would say that's exactly right, especially in my case.
Having never taken out loans before, and I tried to be a good budgeter
before business school, but maybe not as reigned in as I would've liked.
Just looking at what your costs were your first quarter here,
and just being realistic with yourself, so not being too limiting or restrictive.
But just really understanding, okay, what are the costs or how much am I going to
need to be able to support myself while in business school this time, and
still give myself a little wiggle room to enjoy my time here as well?
So I think at first I was very restrictive, and that would stress me out.
But then, once I would look back at the models, or
whatever I had done before to show that this was worth it,
I was able to come up with a budget that helped me thrive here at the GSB.
Yeah, in addition to having that buffer before, planning for it after,
especially if you're in the Sloan or MSX program, given that it's a full year and
we're fully engaged the year we are here.
Most of us are spending our summers transitioning into a job and
don't have a job right away.
And that requires to have that buffer, so absolutely.
I'd also suggest you just call the financial aid office, talk to people,
talk to alumni, and people will be really, really supportive.
There are some also financial planning tools that you mentioned, sort of
modeling out your salary and knowing you have that confidence given the ROI
you'll have based on your experience here, that for me was incredibly helpful.
>> All right, any final words of encouragement you might have for
applicants who are out there?
>> The GSB is so worth it.
Financial Aid will work with you.
They'll come up with packages, like Jack said,
that they're confident will help you succeed.
So I think it's such a good time to just take a deep dive and
enjoy your time here, and know that you'll be supported along the way.
>> Okay.
>> I'd also say it's an incredible experience, so worth it.
And when you get here, to pay attention to the small opportunities
to have an additional $20,000 scholarship.
There are these social innovation certificates, for example,
you can apply for and then be eligible for
an additional grant that I wasn't planning on and was able to get.
So absolutely like to pay attention to the emails and the opportunities
to be a part of the financial aid opportunities that exist here.
>> Yeah, I just, sort of, if I could interrupt by saying it's been a truly
transformative experience so far and I think there's only more to come.
And I'm kind of excited for the summer to test out sort of what we're doing and
get back to the real world for a bit and come back for next year.
So I think it's been worth every penny.
>> All right, and so that's a great point to close on.
Great multiple points.
The time is worth it.
This is an investing in an experience and your future career.
You can learn more about both the MBA and
the MSX program by visiting us on the web at gsb.stanford.edu.
Thank you, and have a great day.
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