Stanford May Expand MSx Program For Execs

The current class of Stanford's MSx Fellows

The current class of Stanford’s MSx Fellows

Stanford Graduate School of Business expects to increase the size of its MSX program for executives, formerly known as the Sloan program.

Madhav V. Rajan, senior associate dean of academic affairs, told Poets&Quants that that if the applicant pool holds up the school could annually enroll a class that is about 11% larger than its current 90 student intake.

If that occurs, it would amount to ten more people in each class on a program that has already seen substantial growth. “We purposely grew the program, increasing the number of students from 50 to 90 in two sections,” says Rajan. “We felt that if we marketed the program well, we could get really good applications. So we will grow it as long as we see sufficient quality coming in.”

‘IF THE QUALITY HOLDS UP, WE MIGHT PUSH IT UP TO TWO SECTIONS OF 50 FELLOWS’

Rajan said continued growth is contingent on the applicant pool. “If the quality holds up, we might push it up to two sections of 50,” he says. “It will never be a huge program for us but I can see a little bit more growth. We get 300 applications now, which is up quite a bit. It used to be a program largely for company-sponsored executives and that is still 25% to 30% of them. But now we are getting more of this self-sponsored bunch. We also are trying to get the MBA admissions people out to have them also talk about the program.”

In May of this year, Stanford renamed its Sloan Master’s Program to the Stanford Master of Science in Management for Experienced Leaders (Stanford MSx) as part of a series of key changes to the program’s structure and curriculum. Stanford’s program had been one of only three Sloan Fellows tracks in the world.  The MIT Sloan School of Management and the London Business School also offer the highly selective fellowship for elite mid-career managers and entrepreneurs.

The programs grew out of a series of grants from legendary General Motors Chairman Alfred P. Sloan and his foundation.  The foundation’s support for Stanford’s program ended in the 1960s, and each of the three schools’ Sloan Fellows offerings have followed slightly different trajectories. Noting the new direction of the program, Stanford dropped the Sloan name.

THE TUITION OF $116,500 PUSHES THE TOTAL COST OF THE PROGRAM TO $165,456 & UP

Unlike an Executive MBA program that may offer classes on alternating weekends, Stanford’s MSx fellows sign up for a full immersion, on-campus experience that lasts 12 months, up from the 10-month program it had been. MSx typically attracts students with an average of 12 years of work experience and it’s not cheap: The program’s tuition is now $116,500. The school estimates the full cost, including living expenses, of the program at $165,456 for a single person on campus to $191,952 for a married couple on campus.  and

Stanford, Rajan noted, has lengthened the program so that it now starts in July and goes until June. “That has been a huge help, especially for international students who can settle in before everyone else shows up on campus. It’s a nice quiet time. They also get to do all their core classes in the summer so once the fall beings, they can do the electives with the full-time MBA students.”

The just-enrolled MSx class numbers 89 students, with 61% hailing from outside the U.S. One in four of the MSx fellows is sponsored by their employer. Some 17% of the class is female, and the median GMAT score is 690. The work experience of the current class ranges from a low of eight years to 23 years.

DON’T MISS: SLOAN FELLOWS: A BREED APART AT MIT, STANFORD & LONDON or STANFORD DROPS NAME OF PRESTIGIOUS FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

 

 

 

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