Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] Speaker A: Welcome to the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. I'm your host, Graham Richmond, and this special episode is part of our very popular Admissions Director Q and A series. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Erin Nixon from Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Erin's type is assistant Dean for admissions and financial aid, and she is a Stanford alumna, having earned both undergrad in econ and then an MBA from the university. Her professional journey includes time at the Boston Consulting Group, LinkedIn, and even a stint as an entrepreneur, which I'm hoping maybe she'll tell us a little bit more about. She's originally from Austin, Texas, and has spent some time living and working outside of the USA in both London and Barcelona. With that, I want to welcome Erin to the show. It's great to have you.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Thanks, Graham. I'm really happy to be here.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: So I have a number of questions, as you know, and the first one relates to what I was just kind of doing in the. In the intro here. I just would love to hear a bit more about your background and how you kind of, you know, are kind of ended up in your current role at Stanford. So coming a little bit full circle because you did your MBA and undergrad there.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So I thought your recap was a beautiful one. I will answer this question in a slightly different way. And so when people ask me how it is I stepped into this role, I like to point to three main things. So, first of all, as you read in my bio, I love Stanford. And so as a little girl from suburban Texas, it was always my dream school. And so being able to go there for undergrad and then again for my mba, it's just opened worlds of opportunity and possibility in my own life and in the lives of the people around me. And so when Stanford reached out about this opportunity to come back and fill this role, I was just incredibly excited. It felt really meaningful to me. Secondly, as you talked about sort of walking through parts of my career by training, I'm a strategy and operations professional. And so that means that I've learned sort of a core. I call it a first principle skill set that has enabled me to step into many different worlds over the years and kind of come in, work with brilliant people, and try to figure out how to have impact. And so you've mentioned, I started my career in Boston Consulting Group. I was in Los Angeles and also Amsterdam. During that time. They also sponsored my MBA to Stanford gsb. Afterwards, I worked in San Francisco for them before getting recruited away to LinkedIn, where I was able to lead a large media business, helping companies attract talent into their roles during LinkedIn's phase of hypergrowth. And so I did that both, of course, here in Silicon Valley and then also in London before ultimately making sort of the biggest pivot of all into the world of wine. So moved from London to Barcelona, where my entrepreneurial journeys into the world of wine and also into VC backed tech startups began. And so, yeah, it's been a bit of a whirlwind tour, but that first principles thinking is something that I'm very much looking forward to bringing into this role as well.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it sounds.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: And then finally.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Go ahead.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Oh, I'm sorry. I have to say there's one more thing that I always have to talk about when it comes to me stepping into this role, which is it just fits perfectly with my purpose and my values. And so when Stanford reached out, the fit in terms of connecting potential with opportunity and helping people live the biggest, most impactful version of their lives, it was just, you know, my heart just said, yes, this is absolutely the right next step.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I totally share that enthusiasm. I mean, even from where I sit at Clear Admit, just seeing people go through this process of discovering what management education can do for them and just the trajectories that it puts them on. But wow, what a whirlwind. I mean, you've just done so many interesting things and I'm just certain that that's gonna pay off, whether it comes to reading files and understanding different types of backgrounds. I mean, it just sounds like you've had a lot of really interesting experiences. I guess it might be early to ask you this because you started, I think, in July, but I wanted to know, what is it that you like about the job so far and is there anything that you don't like?
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Yeah. So to your point, I am four months in, so this is a great question to ask me again a year from now. But so far it's a couple of things I've absolutely loved reconnecting with the Stanford GSB community. And so faculty, you know, even the ones who taught me 15 years ago, alumni, staff, of course, our students on campus, it's just there's an energy here that I absolutely love. I've also really enjoyed this privilege. You know, the first round is of course out reading the stories of our applicants and really getting inspired by, you know, what they've done with their lives and the impact that they seek to have in the world. And then finally, it's just really fun to be back on a Campus, you know, and so there's sporting events and guest speakers and, you know, concerts and all kinds of different ways to get involved. You also asked what I don't like, and it is still pretty early. But I suspect what will be the hardest part, of course, is reading all of these, you know, incredibly thoughtful applications and knowing that given our small class size, not everyone will be admitted. And so I hope that applicants understand that we really very much respect their stories and their aspirations, and even if we're not able to give them a seat in the class, like, we're very much rooting for them. Them.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I actually, I was having a conversation earlier today with a colleague of yours at another, you know, MBA program, and she was saying to me how the thing that's hardest is knowing that she could fill her class multiple times over with great, really great candidates and that it just comes down to, yeah, this, you know, you have to make your choices. I did want to ask you, you know, everyone thinks of Stanford. They think of certain things. Right. And I'm not going to say what those things are, but I'm just wondering, is there, is there a stereotype that you would like to debunk when it comes to Stanford gsb?
[00:06:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I think what I will say is perhaps what you were thinking. I'm learning that many people think that Stanford and entrepreneurship are one and the same. And I want to be clear that the majority of people who go to the GSB do not go into entrepreneurship. We absolutely love our entrepreneurs, but they're only one part of our community. The majority by far go to work for companies or organizations of a broad spectrum of size. Family organizations, public organizations, nonprofit organizations, and across a number of different industries. And so I think it's because the Stanford motto is very much oriented around change. Change lives, change organizations, change the world. That people group that in with entrepreneurship. But the truth is there's many ways to have impact and to innovate in the world, and that's exactly what our alumni do in many different ways.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: Got it. Yeah. I suspect that you saw that even at maybe bcg, where you can come into a large company and impact change by just giving them an idea of different way of seeing.
So, yeah, that's great to hear. And you're absolutely right. That's kind of what I was thinking about. People always talk about Stanford and entrepreneurship. But yeah, when you look at the career reports, it's obvious that people are doing a number of things.
What's going on on campus these days? Is there anything happening or maybe something Forthcoming that you want people listening to the show to know more about.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: Yeah, so there's always incredible things happening on campus. But what I want to highlight now is that Stanford GSB is celebrating our centennial. And so that's 100 years of the DSB. I think the 100th class is the class that's just started. And so there's a number of events happening all over the world with our alumni, with our students, I think with our admits, too, to celebrate that this is happening. A number of live events, virtual experiences, and kind of in true Stanford GSB style, it's very much about celebrating our history as it is about celebrating the next hundred years and all the dreams yet to come.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: Got it. Wow, that sounds exciting. I had no idea. I mean, I knew that you, you know, the school had been around for a while, but that's, that's a really big milestone. Now I want to ask you a question that our. This is one that our listeners always want us to ask, which is to sort of take us through the life of an application, because from the candidate, you know, they work really hard for many, many hours and they submit this thing and it goes into a system and then they have to wait. And I know you all tell them when they're going to hear, et cetera, but there always kind of is this curiosity around, like what's happening to my materials once I press submit. So would you be willing to walk us through behind the scenes, kind of how it's done?
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah, of course. Of course. I remember the anticipation when you're hitting that send button. So happy to try to shed some light. So first we prepare the applications for review. And so you can imagine from a systems perspective, we're working on that. And then we evaluate each application. So that's a lot of reading. And from there we decide which candidates will move forward to the next stage, which is the interview. And so what will happen from the candidate perspective then is you will receive an email with your invitation to interview, and then you will work to schedule that with your interviewer. And so the invitations go out over a period of weeks because we're carefully reading each application. And as you can imagine, that takes a lot of time. And so some applications we don't get to until perhaps a few weeks or later after the round deadline closes. And then the interviews themselves can be conducted either virtually or in person. And so after the interviews happen, we carefully read the interview notes from our interviewers and we use that information to make our final decisions. And so it's this time for us, where it's months after getting to know our applicants through their applications, through their interviews, it's exciting for us because we start to picture how the new class then is coming together.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess the other thing I wanted to ask you about is essays. Right. I mean, this is something that again, our listenership is always very keen to understand. So if you had to give folks one tip about application essays, what would that be?
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's almost a non answer.
Don't try to over engineer it. Don't waste your time trying to figure out what it is that you think that we want to hear. This genuinely is a space for you to be yourself and to share that with us. You don't have to pitch yourself to us. There's no one specific gsb right answer or archetype that we're looking for. You don't even have to try to, you know, quote, stand out. Instead, just really sit with an embrace of things that make you who you really are. And I appreciate that that is not helpful if candidates are looking for sort of one specific path forward. But I actually think that that's a part of the meaning of this essay as well. Is it is really down to you and what's true for you?
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I think it's good advice, just because it's hard to be passionate if you're not being authentic. And so if you're trying to, like you say, engineer the response, that's not really a great approach. I guess you went right. Next question, which was going to be about this iconic essay that you have, which is what matters most to you and why you probably had to write this essay. I'm guessing.
But tell me a little bit about, like, what do you like about that question and how do you find it to be helpful when you're assessing a candidacy?
[00:11:51] Speaker B: Yeah, so I did answer this question and I have to say, when I was considering MBAs, I didn't exactly know which one I would pursue when I started to apply. But I loved this question so much. It was the first time that anyone had ever asked me this deeper question around, you know, why am I here? What matters most? And so through the process of trying to answer it, it was actually a deeper journey for me in a way that was. Was pretty meaningful. And so it helped me be a more intentional person. And so I hope it's the same sort of gift, even though it's very challenging to answer, perhaps for other people as well. And so when it comes down to it, it's about assessment. And so it's a key insight to help us understand the human behind the accomplishments and the perspectives that you will bring to the gsb. It's not more than that. Right. The rest of the application gives us a lot of information and this is a space for us to get to know you a bit better.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Tell me a little bit more about interviewing at Stanford. I mean you mentioned earlier that it's, you're invited to interview, you get an email and then I presume you have to schedule. And you talked a little bit about the types of interview. But what, what do I, what should I expect if I'm walking into an interview for Stanford or virtually logging on for that.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: Yeah, this is the first year in a number of years that we've reintroduced in person interviews. So like you said, it's, it's virtual or in person. And so you might be walking into someone's office or meeting somewhere else. Our interviews are conducted by a small and trained subset of our alumni community that we work with very closely. So it's either conducted by a member of that highly trained alumni community or it's conducted by somebody on the internal MBA or MSX admissions team. And so they're between 45 and 60 minutes long and they're conducted in English. And so we structure the interview, it's a behavioral interview to get a deeper understanding of what you have done and how you have done it. And so we focus a lot on your past actions rather than on hypothetical situations. And we invite you to discuss, you know, meaningful professional, of course, but also community based or other leadership experiences that you've had in the past few years.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: Okay, so it's not, there are no kind of consulting style questions, you know, like how many golf balls could you fit into the, you know, the hull of a ship or you know that it's very much around the candidates past experiences and just offering more detail.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. We're looking for evidence to understand better who you are by virtue of what you've done.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Yeah, and I think it's terrific that it's 45 to 60 minutes long. I mean that's on average a little bit longer than some other schools. And I think it just from the candidate's perspective, I feel like you would have to feel that you're given a fair shake in that response just because you're going to have a lot of time to talk. And what does the interviewer know about the candidate when they sit down with them? Have they read the application? Application or just parts of it?
[00:14:54] Speaker B: No, they haven't. So they have the cv. That's how the Europeans call it. They have your resume, and then that's all.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Okay, got it. Excellent. Do you have any specific advice for deferred enrollment candidates? So these would be undergrads applying now to sort of secure a seat in a future MBA class. And any thoughts on who that's for? Is it sort of anybody that's at undergrad, or are there certain people that you think it makes a lot of sense for?
[00:15:22] Speaker B: We love our undergrad, our deferred enrollment candidates. Absolutely. And so my advice would be to just apply. It's open to students from all different academic backgrounds who want to pursue a wide range of career opportunities. And so it's not specifically for one kind of student over another. To your question, one of the benefits of applying for deferred enrollment is that you get to take the standardized test, so the GMAT or the GRE while you're still in study mode. And so even if you ultimately decide not to apply for deferred enrollment, you can keep those test scores valid for the next five years. And if you decide to apply later, you'll be glad to do it. You know, when you had time to prepare as a student versus when you're, you know, working full time, it can actually be very hard to carve that out of your schedule. And then the other benefit is that knowing that you have a future seat at Stanford gsb, you can be really intentional about how you spend your time before enrolling in the mba and so you can explore your career interests, develop new skills, and maybe even challenge yourself. Our deferred enrolled admits, once they do join the class, do very well here, and are a wonderful part of our community. We enjoy celebrating their successes.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I. Absolutely. I say this whenever we do a deferred enrollment webinar, because we do a number of those events over the course of a year. And I always talk about how I wished that this had existed, but when I was kind of applying to business school, because I'm sensing from what you were saying earlier that you had the. That experience of having to take the GMAT or GRE while you were working, which is what happened to me. And I just remember thinking, wow, this would have been a lot easier when I was still in kind of academic mode and in school. And so, yeah, it seems like a great opportunity.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Right. Especially because, you know, probably throughout our careers, but particularly early career, it can be a pretty intense time for people. And so, yeah, I hear you on that.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
Last kind of serious question, and then we'll do our customary lightning round questions, which we love to do with admissions directors. What are some of the advantages of attending an MBA program that's located on the west coast of the United States? Because, you know, there are a lot of programs on the east coast and there are fewer out on the West Coast. So what would you say are some of the advantages?
[00:17:35] Speaker B: I also feel, Graham, that this is a bit of a leading question, so let me head off a few of these at the pass. I think that everyone is expecting sort of the cliched answer here where, you know, something to do with the sun. And yes, it's absolutely true. The weather is very nice here. We're very happy about that. But for me, I think it's secondary to what matters. I think another answer that gets pointed to, which I think has some merit, is around Stanford's proximity to Silicon Valley. We do share that common ethos around innovation and orientation towards the future and a mission or a motto around change, that's in the air we breathe here. Which is. Which is fun. But I have to say, I think the truth is this was true for me when I was applying, and I would imagine it's true for a lot of people who join our program. This isn't about geography. This isn't about east coast or west coast as much as it's about, you know, this is just where Stanford is. And so this is a global school with alumni from around the world, and people come here for the transformational experience and for that community that I love to talk about that's so meaningful to me. You know, we get to take that with us wherever we go for the rest of our lives.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's a really powerful statement, and I do. Yeah, you were absolutely right. It was a bit of a leading question. Everyone always thinks about, you know, those attributes you mentioned, sunshine, et cetera. But I think, yeah, you guys have a really unique MBA offering and that it could be anywhere and it would still be incredibly unique and a place that people would flock to. So I wanted to just ask you some of these kind of fun questions and the reason behind this. I don't know if I mentioned this to you when we were kind of talking about doing this, but the reason we do this is because our view is that applicants to business school are really nervous about who's the gatekeeper at each school and this idea that. So our goal with these fun questions is just to make sure that everyone tuning in knows that you're just A regular person and that you have fun things you like doing, et cetera. So if you'll indulge me, we'll just kind of dive in and go rapid fire. So the first question is, coffee or tea?
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Coffee. I like it black. I like it fresh ground.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: Okay.
Beach or mountains?
[00:19:46] Speaker B: Mountains.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: Okay. I thought that might be an unfair question to ask a Californian because you kind of have both at your disposal, but. All right. What about. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
[00:19:55] Speaker B: I'm a morning person. I have a routine that I stick to every single morning.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: Okay, good. That's why we've decided to record this in the morning, I guess. What about. Is there. Is there a pet peeve that you have something that just bugs you?
[00:20:06] Speaker B: I really struggle to answer this one. I guess I don't like pessimists very much. I don't know if that's a pet peeve or something bigger than that, but I always feel like there's possibility. I always feel like there's hope.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: Excellent.
What about a guilty pleasure?
[00:20:20] Speaker B: I have been binge watching the Great British Baking show, or I think in the UK it's called the Great British Bake off, ever since it popped onto my Netflix having moved back to the U.S. yeah, excellent.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: What about a favorite virtue in others? Would that be optimism, if we're going the other. Or what's a favorite virtue?
[00:20:41] Speaker B: I like optimism. I think it's close cousin. I actually like enthusiasm because there's something very earnest and even a little vulnerable about really loving something and going for it. And so Stanford University likes to joke that it's the nerd nation, and I think that ethos of enthusiasm fits.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Okay, excellent. How about a happy place, somewhere that you love to be?
[00:21:03] Speaker B: I love Copenhagen, actually.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: It's a place that I've been able to spend a few weeks in my life, and I absolutely love it. Yeah.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a great city, and I've been there once. And there's also that really famous restaurant whose name is escaping me now that's, like, supposed to be the best restaurant in the entire world.
But anyway. Yeah, so a really great city. What about a comfort food Mac and cheese? Okay.
A proudest moment.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: Oh, gosh.
Oh, there have been many. They're different. I'm not sure how I want to answer that one. Maybe I was pretty proud opening the wine bar, to be honest, in Barcelona, just because I was so outside of my comfort zone when I moved there. Didn't know the language, didn't have any kind of network, and So I was really proud to have pieced that together, have learned Spanish, have made the connections I needed to actually bring that to life.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: Awesome. I'm glad that you talked about that because we alluded to that at the beginning of the show. And so we get a little bit of detail there. What if you could have one superpower?
[00:22:10] Speaker B: I would fly. I dream about that all the time.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's classic. Especially, I think, in this work. There have been several admissions officers who mentioned they'd love to be able to fly so they could just get somewhere really fast to do an event, et cetera.
Which part of the Stanford admissions process would you most like to skip if you were applying today?
[00:22:31] Speaker B: For me, it would be the Wade, sort of that nervous anticipation. Am I getting an interview? And then later on, am I getting in? So I see you, all the applicants right now that are listening.
I appreciate where you are, and I promise that we're doing the best that we can.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a lot. I think this is something that sometimes applicants lose sight of a little bit, is because I used to work in admissions as well. And it's like, you know, it takes a long time to read everyone's file and to do so in a way that I think is deserving, you know, that the candidate deserves. Right. But it just takes time. So it's not one click and the package is on your doorstep the next. The next morning kind of thing. What about the best thing that you have read, watched or listened to recently?
[00:23:13] Speaker B: Yeah, so I recently finished reading Pachinko, which was on the New York Times Best 100 Books list recently, which is how it caught my attention. But it's historical fiction and it's about generations of a Korean family that immigrated to Japan in the 1900s. And so it. It's a beautifully written, very character driven story, and I just couldn't put it down. It's great. It's a TV show now that I haven't started watching yet because I'm afraid it's going to ruin the book for me. But I loved it. If anyone's looking for a good long read.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: All right. I'm noting this down because I've not heard of that, but I totally agree with you that often when the TV series comes out, it's never. If you've read the book, it's sort of almost always disappointing. It's really challenging.
So those are the lightning round questions. I want to thank you so much, Erin. I know that you're in the middle, middle of round one, and in your first kind of term, as you know, admissions director. So appreciate you making time to chat about all this stuff. I know our listeners will really enjoy hearing your take on all these questions. But yeah, thanks so much for joining us.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you, Graham. I appreciate your thoughtful questions. It was nice to chat.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Absolutely. Happy to do it. All right, everyone, stay tuned. We have more episodes coming up every Monday. You can tune into the Clear Admit MBA Admissions podcast and please remember to rate or review the show wherever you listen.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: Sun.
