Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sloan School of Management

MIT Sloan is all about being innovative, collaborative community and becoming principled leaders. The MIT Sloan's two year MBA is all about concept based and real world experiences. They have various lab courses like Global Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, and Leadership etc. The school gives you freedom of selecting 75% of your electives. The Sloan Innovative Period is also an important feature of this B-School, where the students and faculty members join together for innovation and experimentation.

The diverse student body governs a wide range of clubs to develop and showcase their leadership skills. In a class size of 335, 45% are international applicants representing 60 countries and having multi lingual background. This diversity brings in strong feeling of community. At MIT Sloan, 85% of the students change their career. The students are given career guidance, summer internships and mentored by peers and the alumni. The school offers dual degree in healthcare known as Biomedical Enterprise program (BEP) in collaboration with HST and they also offer dual degree in collaboration with Harvard Kennedy School. The other highlights of the school include the following:

• Average work experience: 5 years
• Average GMAT: 724
• Application deadline: Sept 25, 2017 and Jan 17, 2018
• Top hiring industries after graduation: Consulting, Investment Banking/Brokerage, Software.

Getting admitted into MIT Sloan's is highly competitive. The school looks for individuals who are analytically strong, inspiring leaders, socially responsible with academic and professional success. Here every candidate is considered individually and admission decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. So, MIT Sloan is looking for applicants who are enthusiastic learners and can make positive impact on the world. As a part of their application process, MIT Sloan needs the following requirements to be fulfilled:

• No of Recommendations: Two
• No of Essays: Two mandatory essays including Cover Letter and Resume

Until you can show the School's required qualities in your essays and interviews, you don't stand a chance to be a part of the inspiring and innovative institution. So, the applicant should take pertinent suggestions from experienced professionals regarding their application essays and interviews. General Education being the group of thorough experienced professionals compounded with profound professional capabilities of guiding applicants to write impressive and successful B-School applications would believe that to happen with your collaboration with us. We help you in your journey towards your dream B-School

A bird's eye view of all two essays clearly reflects that different aspects of leadership - vision, ability to make others see your point, and ability to convert the vision into reality or to pursue a meaningful goal are being judged. This does require introspection for answering what you thought and what you felt and they also want proof from real life. So, list the events that highlight these qualities of your personality and project you as a balanced leader. Please strictly follow the instruction about being brief in describing the situation, and detailed in explaining your feelings, and your thoughts. Do not waste words in giving too many facts.

MIT Sloan Essays(for the class of 2017-18)

MIT Sloan have one required Cover letter and one Video Statement at the time of submission:

Cover Letter:

MIT Sloan seeks students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-academic. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the experience of other students. We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the world. We welcome people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative — true doers. We want people who can redefine solutions to conventional problems, and strive to preempt unconventional dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas. We demand integrity and respect passion.

Taking the above into consideration, please submit a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA Program. Your letter should conform to a standard business correspondence, include one or more examples that illustrate why you meet the desired criteria above, and be addressedto Mr. Rod Garcia, Senior Director ofAdmissions (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).

Video Statement:

Please introduce yourself to your future classmates via a brief video statement.

Youwillneed to use an internet-connected computer,with a webcam and microphone. As part of the application review, the Admission Committee will evaluate your response to see how you express yourselfand to assess fit with the MIT Sloan culture.The simple, open-endedquestion isdesigned to help us get to know you better.

MIT Sloan Essays(for the class of 2016-17)

MIT Sloan have one required essay at the time of submission:

Essay Question: Tell us about a recent success you had: How did you accomplish this? Who else was involved? What hurdles did you encounter? What type of impact did this have? (500 words or fewer).

MIT Sloan has over the last few years, in line with some of the other top B-Schools, has transitioned towards fewer essays (we have just 1 this year). Consequently, as an applicant, you have just one opportunity to bring forth your best story forward. But at the same time on a positive note, you can exclusively focus on just one essay than having to dabble your hands on multiple essays.

Sloan Adcom in its applications across years has constantly emphasized on how they believe that ‘past behavior is a reliable indicator of the future’ and this specific essay takes it one step forward explicitly asking you for a ‘recent’ success. An overview of Sloan’s AdCom’s interviews and panels over the past few years suggest that story has to be something in the 2-3 year range. Anything older than that would be atough sell.

Since there is onlyone essay as part of the application the story selection becomes critical. Considering Sloan’s AdCom’s emphasis on behavioral aspects as well as the end impact it would be best choose a story that best highlights struggle and obstacles than merely the success on an absolute scale. Additional emphasis should be paid to the follow-up pointers on the essay prompt:

Who else was involved?Which effectively rules at solo accomplishments

How did you accomplish this?This in line with Sloan’s mission to align with the broader MIT goal of ‘Mens et Manus’ or ‘Minds and Hands’ and as such the focus is a lot on what you did than being just a concert master.In essence at ideal story should involvecollaboration, clearly defined obstacles that you had to overcome and you should be in the heart of the action than being a spectator.

In the past, MIT Sloan used to explicitly state that a candidate should‘what you thought, felt, said, and did‘ and this can be effectively used a benchmark for the level of detail that MIT Sloan expects. The focus should be on the entire behavioral chain for each action, each twist and each inflection point in the story. The AdCom should be able to visualize you in action and consequently all the details around what you felt and said also matter than just the strategic thinking and/or the execution. The felt and said aspects also help the AdCom judge the sense of ethic and empathy that an individual has (which are a critical part of Sloan’s mission statement).

In terms, of essay structure and layout, most AdCom consultants advocate the STAR method for MIT Sloan but I suggest the PARADE method.

Problem–>Anticipated Consequence –>Role –>Action –>Decision-Making Rationale –>End-Result

This helps a candidate get intoadditional,and a more granular layer of thought even during the essay outlining phase and helps to gauge the quality of the content acting as a filter and meets the level of behavioral richness than Sloan specifically demands. In terms of content distribution, going by Sloan’s strong emphasis on behavioral attributes, the major focus should be in the Action, Decision-Making Rationale and End-Result buckets. Strong emphasis should be laid on giving vivid and detailed descriptions of interpersonal interactions,trouble-shooting(and not fire-fighting) followed by the eventual outcome.

Many applicants have a tendency to link the story with one’s long-term career objectives and goals but that might not be the best strategy in case of MIT Sloan. Over the past decade, MIT Sloan has consistently stayed away from asking about specific career goals in their applications and they do not expect candidates to outline the same in their essays. Unless the story smoothly transitions into your career goals and objectives it would be better advised to stay away and instead use that space to give the essay more color.

Essay: Tell us about a recent success you had: How did you accomplish this? Who else was involved? What hurdles did you encounter? What type of impact did this have? (500 words or fewer).

Essay Analysis:This is a behavioural essay question and the admissions committee is interested in knowing how you think and act in various situations. It is an opportunity to demonstrate some of the key traits valued by the committee (global outlook, competitive mindset, unique approach, teamwork and leadership) by reflecting on a recent experience. A good approach would be to tell a story using the STAR framework (Situation, Task, Action and Results). A critical component is the impact portion and the more quantifiable it is chances are it will resonate better with the committee.

A second, short-answer question will be asked only of those invited to interview:

Essay: The mission of the MIT Sloan School of Management is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and to generate ideas that advance management practice. Please share with us something about your past that aligns with this mission. (250 words or fewer).

Essay Analysis:At MIT, a huge focus is placed on innovation and principled leadership as is evident from the mission statement. This is an opportunity for you to reflect on past experiences both inside and outside workplace and share insights into your commitment for the betterment of the world as well as into any innovative endeavour you are a part of. For example, pioneering work is going on at MIT in the area of sustainability and if you have worked in this area even as a volunteer it might strike a chord with the committee.

Optional Question

The Admissions Committee invites you to share additional information about yourself, in any format. Essay: If you choose a multimedia format, please host the information on a website and provide us with the URL.

Essay Analysis:This is a great opportunity to differentiate yourself and share interesting facts about your personal journey. Here the Committee expects you to be creative and bring out the side in you not fully represented in other parts of the application. For example depending on your background, you can make a short video of the traveller in you with stories and footage from different countries and diverse cultures; you can make a presentation with collage of pictures from different phases of your life, etc. In summary, it has to be creative and at the same time speak of who you really are.

Note:The essays are only one part of the Application and you need to be mindful of its alignment with the other parts to make it a holistic and coherent story.

MIT SloanSchool of Management Application Essays

MIT Sloan Essay 1:

The mission of the MIT Sloan School of Management is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and to generate ideas that advance management practice. Discuss how you will contribute toward advancing the mission based on examples of past work and activities. (500 words or fewer)

MIT Sloan Essay 2:

Writea professional letter ofrecommendationon behalf of yourself.Answerthefollowing questionsas if you were your most recent supervisorrecommending yourselffor admission totheMIT SloanMBA Program:(750 words or fewer)

• How long and in what capacity have you known the applicant?
• How does the applicant stand out from others in a similar capacity?
• Please give an example of the applicant’s impact on a person, group, or organization.
• Please give a representative example of how the applicant interacts with other people.
• Which of the applicant’s personal or professional characteristics would you change?
• Please tell us anything else you think we should know about this applicant.

Optional Essay Question

The Admissions Committee invites you to share anything else you would like us to know about you, in any format. If you choose to use a multimedia format, please host the information on a website and provide us the URL.

If you need help with Essay Writing or Interview Process, please fill upQuick Inquiry form(on right).

MIT Sloan Essays 2015-16

One required essay at the time of submission:

Essay: Tell us about a recent success you had: How did you accomplish this? Who else was involved? What hurdles did you encounter? What type of impact did this have? (500 words or fewer).

A second, short-answer question will be asked only of those invited to interview:

Essay: The mission of the MIT Sloan School of Management is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and to generate ideas that advance management practice. Please share with us something about your past that aligns with this mission. (250 words or fewer).