I am an undergraduate at Stanford right now, and I want to apply to GSB for the joint MBA/MA in Education program. Right now, I could easily construct a coursework plan that would allow me to graduate in Spring 2016, and start GSB in Fall 2016. However, if I were to do this, I would need to apply to GSB in September or January of this year. This can be done, but I’m worried about doing it because of my background.
I transferred into Stanford last year ( Fall 2014) from a CC,which means I will only have 1 year of Stanford coursework to submit to GSB. Before coming to Stanford, I worked for about 6 years between high school and college. I was a model, then worked in project management, and eventually started my own solar energy company. After dissolving my company, I decided to go college and ended up at Stanford. I was told that my work history makes me a strong candidate for GSB, so I’m not worried about the experience part of it. I’m also confident that I can get very strong recommendations. I AM worried about the coursework side of it. I’m assuming that my Stanford coursework is preferable to my community college coursework, and that GSB will want to see as much of it as possible. However, I’m only 34 units into Stanford and that’s how many I will have completed by the time I apply (assuming I do first round, which is ideal). My Stanford GPA is a 3.8, and my major GPA is a 4.0. This is in the correct range for the GSB but, again, it’s based on only a year’s worth of coursework. I should also say that I have a 3rd year of funding available if I were to choose to extend my UG career for another year.
So basically, I’m wondering if I should stall graduation to bulk up my Stanford transcript and apply for 2017, or just cross my fingers and apply to GSB this year. What do you guys think?