A quick glance at Stanford Graduate School of Business: It currently ties in first place (with Harvard Business School) as the best business school, according to US News & World Report (March 2012). It is ranked #6 for finance).
Stanford GSB Class of 2014 Class Profile: Finance
6716 people applied to Stanford GSB in 2012; 398 matriculated as new students this fall.
Students admitted this year have an average of 4.2 years of work experience. The average GMAT score for the class of 2014 is 729.
Previous industry experience related to finance: 12% entered Stanford with industry experience in financial services; and 17% reported private equity/venture capital work experience.
Stanford Academics Related to Financial Services
The Stanford GSB curriculum, which is based on the noble calling of management, is individually tailored according to work experience, background, and career goals. During the first year students choose from a menu of required courses (see detailed first year curriculum here) and during the second year students build their own curriculum of electives (see details on the second year curriculum here).
The finance-related required courses are:
- Financial Accounting
- Corporate Finance
- Managerial Finance
Other finance courses include:
- FINANCE201. Managerial Finance. 4 Units.
- FINANCE204. Managerial Finance – Accelerated. 4 Units.
- FINANCE211. Corporate Finance: Applications, Techniques, and Models. 3 Units.
- FINANCE214. Accelerated Corporate Finance: Applications, Techniques, and Models. 3 Units.
- FINANCE310. Managerial Finance – Advanced. 4 Units.
- FINANCE319. Private Equity Investing Seminar. 4 Units.
- FINANCE320. Debt Markets. 4 Units.
- FINANCE321. Investment Management and Entrepreneurial Finance. 3 Units.
- FINANCE322. Financial Intermediaries and Capital Markets. 4 Units.
- FINANCE324. Practical Corporate Finance. 4 Units.
- FINANCE326. Derivative Securities. 4 Units.
- FINANCE327. Financial Markets. 4 Units.
- FINANCE329. Investment Seminar. 4 Units.
- FINANCE330. Investment Management: Asset Allocation and Asset/Manager Selection. 4 Units.
- FINANCE331. Practical Corporate Finance. 4 Units.
- FINANCE335. Corporate Valuation, Governance and Behavior. 4 Units.
- FINANCE341. Modeling for Investment Management. 3 Units.
- FINANCE345. History of Financial Crises. 4 Units.
- FINANCE346. Institutional Money Management. 4 Units.
- FINANCE350. Corporate Financial Modeling. 4 Units.
- FINANCE351. Advanced Corporate Financial Modeling. 4 Units.
- FINANCE361. Behavioral Finance. 4 Units.
- FINANCE373. Entrepreneurial Finance. 4 Units.
- FINANCE381. Private Equity in Frontier Markets: Creating a New Investible Asset Class. 4 Units.
- FINANCE385. Angel and Venture Capital Financing and Decision Making. 3 Units.
- FINANCE562. Financial Trading Strategies. 2 Units.
- FINANCE587. Private Equity – Understanding the Deal. 2 Units.
- FINANCE620. Financial Markets I. 3 Units.
- FINANCE621. Financial Markets II. 4 Units.
- FINANCE622. Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory. 4 Units.
- FINANCE624. Corporate Finance Theory. 4 Units.
- FINANCE625. Empirical Asset Pricing. 3 Units.
- FINANCE626. Advanced Corporate Finance. 3 Units.
- FINANCE628. Finance Pre-Seminar Reading Course. 1 Unit.
- FINANCE630. Empirical Corporate Finance. 3 Units.
- FINANCE632. Empirical Dynamic Asset Pricing. 4 Units.
- FINANCE633. Advanced Empirical Corporate Finance. 4 Units.
Finance Research Centers at Stanford
Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance
Clubs for Stanford Marketing Students
Private Equity Club (PE)
Venture Capital Club (VC)
Finance Hiring Stats at Stanford GSB
36% of the class of 2011 graduates secured jobs in the finance industry. See details below.
| Industry | Percent | Median Base Salary ($) | Median Signing Bonus ($) |
| Private Equity/LBO | 14 | 150,000 | 25,000 |
| Venture Capital | 7 | 150,000 | N/A |
| Hedge Funds | 6 | 150,000 | 25,000 |
| Investment Management | 5 | 114,500 | 40,000 |
| Investment Banking | 4 | 100,000 | 40,000 |
| Finance Other | 2 | 107,500 | 40,000 |
38% of graduates received full-time jobs with a finance function:
| Function | Percent | Median Base Salary ($) | Median Signing Bonus ($) |
| Private Equity/Analyst | 13 | 160,000 | 25,000 |
| Analyst | 6 | 125,000 | 25,000 |
| Venture Capital | 6 | 150,000 | N/A |
| Investment/Portfolio Management | 6 | 139,800 | 30,000 |
| Investment Banker | 4 | 100,000 | 40,000 |
| Finance Other | 4 | 100,000 | 40,000 |
For internships, 32% of class of 2012 students obtained positions in the finance industry. Details are as follows:
| Industry | Percent | Median Monthly Base Salary ($) |
| Private Equity/LBO | 8 | 8,000 |
| Hedge Funds | 6 | 10,000 |
| Venture Capital | 6 | 6,000 |
| Investment Banking | 5 | 8,333 |
| Investment Management | 5 | 9,000 |
| Finance Other | 2 | 5,600 |
34% of students reported summer internships with finance job functions.
| Function | Percent | Median Monthly Base Salary ($) |
| Private Equity/Analyst | 8 | 8,000 |
| Analyst | 7 | 9,000 |
| Investment/Portfolio Management | 7 | 9,000 |
| Investment Banker | 5 | 8,333 |
| Venture Capitalist | 4 | 5,598 |
| Finance Other | 3 | 6,000 |
To see the broad array of companies recruiting at Stanford, please see Recruiting Organizations 2011-2012.
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