2021-2022 MIT Sloan Full-Time MBA Application – Class of 2024
MIT Round 2 is now in the past.
Here are the requirements for the Class of 2024 application to MIT Sloan (just in case you’re still going to go for it in the final round).
1. You must provide an org chart for your current company. Or, if you’re a consultant, for the client you’re working on for your primary project. This turned out to be not that difficult for most BSers to put together last year, though we did get some real doozies of spaghetti-mess undecipherable diagrams when we helped folks out with the Essay Decimator essay review process. There was a lack of clarity and too many assumptions made in some, and in others, too much detail. Those are the big things to watch for when you evaluate if the chart you’ve put together is communicating what it needs to.
The org chart can be quite valuable to the admissions committee, particularly in understanding lines of relationship to recommenders and references. Remember that you should always be submitting recommendations from those in a position of seniority to you. By identifying your recommenders on the org chart, you help the adcom instantly appreciate where you sit in the organization, versus where these other folks do, and the relationships between. This is a great asset in conjunction with the resume, and it helps them to evaluate candidates in context. Here’s the sample org chart that MIT includes as a reference within their online application. Model yours on that and you’ll be fine.
2. MIT has a video requirement too! And not an easy one, like answering some questions in front of your webcam, the way that Kellogg and Yale do it. You have this whole project of constructing a one-minute video.
3. You also need to designate two references that MIT may contact along with the standard recommender – just one recommender for the MBA application (choose your current direct supervisor if at all possible!). The extra references is a unique requirement though, which deserves some consideration.
4. And finally, MIT asks for a cover letter rather than a traditional essay.
Don’t worry, the ‘Snark’s got your back. Our MIT Essay Guide walks you through a framework for how to tackle the org chart, including what tools to use to build it, or whether you should try to lift the existing org chart your company has — which is okey-dokey by the adcom, and it’ll really depend on how it presents YOU and the level of complexity and company-specific nonsense that is already there, which won’t necessarily add value in this specific context. And yes, who should you tap for the formal written recommendation, and who should you nominate for the two separate references.
Here are instructions from the MIT application:
Org Chart
Our goal is to learn about you and your professional background. Your employer’s organizational chart will help us better understand the role you play within your organization, who you report to, and the impact you might have on your department or company.
Some important details:
- Give us as much detail as possible (names, titles, etc.) but it’s ok to redact names if you need to.
- Make sure we can easily identify where you are, to whom you report, and if applicable, who reports to you.
- If your recommender or references are on your organizational chart (they may not be, and that’s ok!), please highlight them for us.
- If you are a consultant, entrepreneur, or affiliated with the military review our FAQs for suggestions on how to approach the organizational chart.
Please upload an organizational chart that outlines the internal structure of your place of employment. Limit to two pages.
Bonus help! Here’s a sample org chart that MIT provided in the past. They apparently removed this as a resource for the 2021 application, because it likely caused all sorts of extra questions coming into the admissions office from applicants who wanted to use a different format and were nervous about not using the MIT one. You can model yours off this or use what your company already uses, or create your own. Another noteworthy change: They used to have a statement in the instructions that the employment data you enter into the app needed to match the org chart. That’s still a good check to use, to validate that your information will make sense to an outsider who’s reviewing it! Also: Ideally, at least one of your recommender or reference names will be on the org chart. As they say in the instructions, it’s not required, especially if you haven’t informed your company that you’re applying to bschool, but it can be a more cohesive application strategy when all the pieces are presented in these different assets of your application.
Video Statement
Introduce yourself to your future classmates. Here’s your chance to put a face with a name, let your personality shine through, be conversational, be yourself. We can’t wait to meet you!Videos should adhere to the following guidelines:
- No more than 1 minute (60 seconds) in length
- Single take (no editing)
- Speaking directly to the camera
- Do not include background music or subtitles
Note: While we ask you to introduce yourself to your future classmates in this video, the video will not be shared and is for use in the application process only.
Those instructions seem pretty clear, right? There’s still some strategy that goes into this, and obviously lots of planning, too – and you’ll probably do many, many takes before you get it down! The main advice we can offer? DO NOT READ FROM A SCRIPT and also don’t memorize. Again, our SnarkStrategies Guide for MIT Sloan walks through how to approach this!
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.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 PROFESSIONAL examples that illustrate why you meet the desired criteria above, and be addressed to the Admissions Committee (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).
Emphasis on PROFESSIONAL added by The ‘Snark! Because that qualifier it gives you direct guidance on what to focus on!
Also: Dang that first paragraph has some lofty language!!!!!! Yes, MIT is very, very selective in who they accept; that set of instructions is a tip-off to how choosy they are. The bar is set high, and this cover letter is one of the most important parts of your entire Sloan MBA application!
This is going to be a CHALLENGING application. There is almost nothing in this set of requirements that you can lift from any other school. Even the resume must be special-built for your MIT app — and we don’t suggest sending in that MIT version for the other schools you’re applying to.
Just like our advice for HBS due to its difficulty: We do not suggest doing MIT as your first application project. These requirements are just too hard! And the word count too short. You will struggle more than necessary if you do.
Our Accomplishments & Achievements App Accelerator might be a good place to begin. That’ll help you sort through your raw material and learn how best to present it to the schools, MIT especially.
You’ll need to take a holistic approach to all of these main components, with the exception of the org chart, since that’s just going to be a representation of reality and there’s limited strategizing you can do with that — not that other aspects of the app aren’t also “reality” but those are where you construct your messaging, and use your own understanding of your strengths and qualities to put a particular presentation of yourself into the adcom’s hands. The org chart is not a trivial task, but it also should not play a part in the whole ideation process of constructing your approach.
We’ll offer you this from Twitter’s Professor Snarky (no relation):
Dear student: A job cover letter needs to say what they'll get out of hiring you, not what you'll get out of being hired.
— Professor Snarky (@ProfSnarky) September 16, 2017
But wait! There’s more! 🙂
If you get invited to interview then you’ll need to submit a separate essay in conjunction with the interview. The essence of this question is that they’re asking for a story where you’ve being successful in some capacity that demonstrates how you’re in sync with their mission — and the prompt is not easy to unpack!
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. We believe that a commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and well-being is a key component of both principled leadership and sound management practice. 250 words or less, please please (sic) describe a time when you contributed toward making a work environment or organization more welcoming, inclusive, and diverse.
As we have advised for years, we recommend that BSers write this essay when they write their cover letter. Our essay guide explains why, and how. One reason why? Because often BSers start with Story A in the CL and Story B in the Mission essay, and after tearing their hair out for a week or so, finally realize that the two stories should be swapped. Which is yet another reason why it’s so strategic to work on them together. Be open to totally juggling around your ideas as you go through this.
Full app requirements available at the MIT website and a full explanation of your best approach to those are found in our EssaySnark MIT MBA app guide.
There’s been a number of posts on the EssaySnark blahg about the MIT Sloan cover letter and resume – see the Snark Info on Sloan section below for some highlights.
We recommend getting up to Boston to experience Sloan for yourself, and if not, then be sure to get in front of the adcom in one of their traveling sessions if at all possible. This really will help you quite a bit.
For some additional insights into MIT Sloan, we live-tweeted an MIT admissions chat in late August 2015 that’s still very relevant
From @MITSloanAdcom: "Common mistake is people who don't follow instructions-seems like common sense but happens more often then you think."
— Essay Snark #BLM (@EssaySnark) August 26, 2015
From @MITSloanAdcom: "It can certainly be a challenge for intl student to work in the US but many of our intl grads work abroad for US cos."
— Essay Snark #BLM (@EssaySnark) August 26, 2015
Someone asked how recent is "recent" for essay: "the choice is yours but we typically recommend that the experience be w/in the last 3 yrs."
— Essay Snark #BLM (@EssaySnark) August 26, 2015
Here's a good Q: "Do you expect managerial experience from candidates or will demonstrated leadership experience in other roles suffice ?"
— Essay Snark #BLM (@EssaySnark) August 26, 2015
The @MITSloanAdcom's answer: "Leadership in other roles is perfectly fine. The average work experience is typically 5 years."
— Essay Snark #BLM (@EssaySnark) August 26, 2015
At least they're still consistent on this! "We would prefer a one page resume." All schools do BTW.
— Essay Snark #BLM (@EssaySnark) August 26, 2015
From @MITSloanAdcom: "The only advice I have for interview is to print your application and think of new examples to talk about!"
— Essay Snark #BLM (@EssaySnark) August 26, 2015
Confirming what we've been saying for years now: From @MITSloanAdcom: "I always encourage people to apply in round 1 if possible."
— Essay Snark #BLM (@EssaySnark) August 26, 2015
Pick up the 2019 MIT essay guide to learn how to approach the app! It’s going to give you a great head start, with everything you need to tackle the cover letter, plan your video submission, figure out your org chart upload, and plenty more.
Your approach for MIT must be different – as you can see, they evaluate your application based on criteria that are unique to them. If you want to understand even further how this works, please pick up the SnarkStrategies Guide for MIT – it will help you grasp WHY they ask for what they do, and what they do with it once they have it in front of them.
MIT 2021 Full-Time MBA Dates and Deadlines
You can see the details on the MIT MBA admissions info page .
- Regular MBA and LGO Round 1:
September 28, 2021– Thankfully, this later date means you will likely have had other apps under your belt and you’ll be in a better position to figure out how to handle these unique requirements (though burnout is a real risk; don’t push all the work out til the last minute, you need time for brainstorming and reflecting, so that new ideas get a chance to percolate). Also, please remember that while Rd 1 is always recommended, it is REALLY recommended at MIT based on how they manage their process. Rd 1 interview invitations are expected to start going out regularly through October, and then in early November, applicants they won’t be moving forward with will be released. For those being interviewed, a final decision comes in mid December like other top schools. - Regular MBA Round 2:
January 19, 2022– Perhaps the latest Round 2 deadline of all – huzzah, MIT Sloan! Round 2 interview invitations will likely go out in a few waves the last week of February through the first week of March, which those who won’t be moving forward will be released (exact dates to be announced separately by MIT). Interviews will be conducted by the adcom in international locations throughout March.
Side note: Please don’t get confused by MIT Sloan’s Early Admissions program — this is not any sort of early-submit application option, such as Early Decision offered by Columbia. Instead, Early Admission is Sloan’s flavor of deferred-start program offered to current college students who are applying for business school before they graduate.
There’s an additional option to apply to MIT LGO in December; check MIT’s LGO application info for details.
Please note that MIT had only two rounds for admission up through the 2015-2016 application cycle, so it’s possible that you could read posts from the ‘Snarchives that are outdated in how they talk about timing of an application strategy for this school. Always check to see that the information you’re consuming here and elsewhere is current and applicable to this year!
We REALLY do not recommend a Round 3 application to this school. It will be MUCH HARDER to figure out your reapplicant strategy for Round 1 in Fall 2022 if you don’t make it in the first time, and there are very low chances of an admit at that last stage of the admissions cycle at this school especially. If you opt for it anyway, then you should definitely pick up our MIT application guide to assist (and we’d also suggest the full Essay Decimator too).
For interviewing: EssaySnark’s got your back! MIT Interview support is available through our Interview Express Essay Review for your “mission” essay!
The 2020 MIT Application Guide is ready to go to help you with your application requirements to Sloan! We recommend starting early with MIT especially (though probably shouldn’t try to do this as your first application!). Take advantage of these detailed discussions of what to do and how to maximize your chances at this competitive school.
One Recommendation and Contact Info for Two References
1 MIT only wants ONE formal written recommendation. They use standardized recommender questions for that — the same version of the questions as Stanford. But you also need to provide contact info for two more people who will serve as references!So, three people total, two of whom they may or may not be contacting at some undefined time…. Hmmm.
Here are the actual instructions on the two contact names:
Additional References
MBA Applicants must provide contact information for two additional references. We request the names and contact information (phone and email) for each additional reference as well as where they work and their relationship to you. Similar to the role of a Recommender, these additional reference contacts should be able to speak to your professional and/or academic background. A member of the Admissions Committee may reach out to these references at any time during the evaluation process, should we have additional questions about your background and/or experiences.
Will they actually contact your references?
It’s possible…. However the applicants we worked with so far have reported that their references were not contacted. Maybe if your pitch is comprehensive enough, and covers all the bases, and is logical and consistent and congruent, they don’t have need for such extra follow-up?
So who do you choose?
For the written recommendation: If at all possible, we really suggest getting your current supervisor to write for you. There are always exceptions that would make that person not ideal — and you should optimize the decision based on how much they will go to bat for you! Not their title. This really is about tapping your relationships. No matter what, it needs to be someone senior to you, ideally in your current company. Again, there are exceptions to the “current company” but not the “senior to you” part. This should be treated the same as recommendations to your other schools.
For the two additional contacts: These should be people who know you well!!! The most important part is, if this person is called up out of the blue from someone at MIT, that they’ll be able to speak fluently about your qualifications, character, contributions, and even your personality or interpersonal skills. This person needs to know you!! They also need to speak English. And, they need to be someone you trust, who you know to be a supporter, who will have your back if the adcom picks up the phone.
If you need help figuring out your strategy for these tricky questions, and who to use for these parts of the Sloan app and who to tap for other schools too, our Letters of Recommendation App Accelerator is designed exactly for this!
MIT Links, Important App Info, and Some Snark
official school pages:
EssaySnark’s posts on MIT:
- The MIT Sloan resume requirements including how to redact your personal information (August 2018) Luckily, this may not be necessary anymore! For the 2021 admissions cycle they removed the redacted-name requirement.
- The resume and the Sloan cover letter (September 2017)
- essay critique! The MIT Sloan cover letter (August 2017)
- EssaySnark’s 2016 Radcom Award (January 2017)
- No, you don’t have to do it that way. That’s an MIT-ism. (January 2016)
- ($) If scholarship money is important to you, don’t apply to MIT. (May 2014)
- Sorry, Sloan, you need to get it together (October 2013 – and unfortunately we’re still seeing evidence of disorganization from the adcom – as of May 2014, in different locations on their site, they say both that their new app will be available in August, and in June)
- Bschool admissions policy idiosyncrasies (September 2013)
- one-year MBA options (April 2012)
- “What about the Stanford (and MIT) Sloan Master’s?” – though the Stanford program is no longer under the “Sloan” umbrella
- Why apply Round 1?
We go into great detail in the Sloan essay guide on how to handle the questions that this school asks. Start there. Then, if you want an MIT essay reviewed – for free! – on the blahg, try sending it over! If you’re looking for personalized and private help, then our standard Essay Decimator is ideal (we suggest writing BOTH ESSAYS together at once; that way, you can get your entire pitch critiqued, and you’ll be ahead of the game when it’s time for that interview invite to come along!).
For Reference: MIT’s Past-Season Questions
Included in case anyone wants to see what Sloan asked before — especially on the cover letter!
Click to view 2020 questions
2020 MIT Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis
Whoa – MIT has gone test-optional?!??
The MIT Sloan requirements are unique unto them! There is a lot that needs to go into your application to MIT.
1. You must provide an org chart for your current company. Or, if you’re a consultant, for the client you’re working on for your primary project. This turned out to be not that difficult for most BSers to put together last year, though we did get some real doozies of spaghetti-mess undecipherable diagrams when we helped folks out with the Essay Decimator essay review process. There was a lack of clarity and too many assumptions made in some, and in others, too much detail. Those are the big things to watch for when you evaluate if the chart you’ve put together is communicating what it needs to.
The org chart can be quite valuable to the admissions committee, particularly in understanding lines of relationship to recommenders and references. Remember that you should always be submitting recommendations from those in a position of seniority to you. By identifying your recommenders on the org chart, you help the adcom instantly appreciate where you sit in the organization, versus where these other folks do, and the relationships between. This is a great asset in conjunction with the resume, and it helps them to evaluate candidates in context. Here’s the sample org chart that MIT includes as a reference within their online application. Model yours on that and you’ll be fine.
2. On the resume: Unfortunately this is a part that we’re not keen on. MIT asks that you format the resume per their template and specific requirements, which are not what you can submit to other schools. The best practices that apply universally for an MBA resume unfortunately don’t work for the Sloan app. 🙁 We offered some Pro Tips on the MIT Sloan resume requirements in this post which you’ll want to check out.
3. And look, more work: MIT has a video requirement too! And not an easy one, like answering some questions in front of your webcam, the way that Kellogg and Yale do it. You have this whole project of constructing a one-minute video.
4. But this contact-details-for-2-references thing? Hooboy this is gonna put some BSers’ knickers in a twist!!
Here are instructions from the MIT application:
Organizational Structure Please upload an organizational chart which outlines the internal structure of your department and company. Limit to two pages. Note: You may choose to create your own document or redact individuals’ names. However, please provide as much information as possible. We should be able to see your line of reporting to the top of your organization, and to easily find you, your peers, your supervisor, their peers, and your direct reports, as well as any other recommenders from your current organization. Sample org chart from MIT here
Video Statement Applicants are required to upload a 1 minute (60 second) video as part of their application. In your video, you should introduce yourself to your future classmates, tell us about your past experiences, and touch on why MIT Sloan is the best place for you to pursue your degree.
Cover Letter [long preamble omitted – be sure to study it!] 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 PROFESSIONAL examples that illustrate why you meet the desired criteria above, and be addressed to the Admissions Committee (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation). [emphasis on PROFESSIONAL added by The ‘Snark! because this is qualifier is new in the instructions this year, and it gives you direct guidance on what to focus on!]
Resume Please submit a one-page resume that includes your employment history and academic record in reverse chronological order. Other information appropriate to a business resume is welcomed and encouraged, including extracurricular activities, awards, and achievements. [Additional very specific instructions omitted; review those, too!]
This is going to be a CHALLENGING application. There is almost nothing in this set of requirements that you can lift from any other school. Even the resume must be special-built for your MIT app — and we don’t suggest sending in that MIT version for the other schools you’re applying to.
Just like our advice for HBS due to its difficulty: We do not suggest doing MIT as your first application project. These requirements are just too hard! And the word count too short. You will struggle more than necessary if you do.
[end discussion of MIT’s 2020 questions]
Click to view 2019 questions
2019 MIT Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis
Congratulations to Dawna Levenson for her promotion! (Not that she reads this blahg but…)
And, to commend her and Rod Garcia for continuing to innovate, and for not being afraid to do things differently. That’s basically been the hallmark of admissions at MIT Sloan for some time now, and it’s clear that the popularity that MIT has seen among MBA candidates has empowered the Sloan adcom to continue to do admissions their way. They have no loyalty to status quo, nor do they care what their peers are doing. (Note: Some schools that have seen a downturn in apps tend to adopt a more conservative approach to the mandates they put out for their applicants. MIT has seen so much interest, due to their strength in entrepreneurship and tech, that they are liberated to act as they see fit.)
Starting in 2018, and in effect with the 2019 app: You have to submit an ORG CHART for your company as part of your MIT application!! Yup, they really want you to construct a unique presentation just for them. There will be very little opportunity for reuse of your components between the MIT application and the other schools’ apps that you are constructing.
Finally: It appears that with the 2019 app for the Class of 2022, MIT has no more “additional information” or optional essay of any sort. Which is odd, and unfortunate. There’s nowhere to explain, for example, your choice of recommenders or anything else going on with your profile. We know that many applicants abuse the optional essay and use it for blathering ditherypoop but to remove it entirely? The MIT app does not have questions that cover every single circumstance or outlier situation. Hmmm. Not cool, Sloan.
MIT earned our Radcom Award again for 2018 — that’s the third time in a row!
Though honestly, we’re not quite certain if they’ll qualify for this honor this year — they keep making it harder for candidates to put together their apps! And especially, the new policy on getting contact info for references is gonna stress some applicants out. We totally get why they’re doing it but it’s not going to make for a fun application process for everyone. We discuss this in detail in our 2019 version of the SnarkStrategies Guide for MIT — available now!
[end discussion of MIT’s 2019 questions]
Click to view 2018 questions
2018 MIT Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis
MIT tends to issue lots of interview invitations and they have placed many folks on the Rd 1 waitlist. Rd 2 was still competitive at Sloan even though some schools were a bit softer!
The big change this year is that MIT wants you to provide an org chart for your current company.
Wow! An org chart?!
We have many theories on the motivation behind this — one of which being a very direct way to quash issues or confusion with recommendations that come in from peers when they should be from supervisors.
It also, even more importantly, gives the adcom instant visibility into where you sit. This will be just as meaningful for them as the resume, and it helps them to evaluate candidates in context.
It’s fairly brilliant, if you ask us! MIT is putting their money where their mouth is in the context of innovation. They are NOT afraid to upend tradition or rock the status quo.
They also require a resume, as every other school does, but they’ve elevated it to higher prominence so you appreciate its importance in their evaluation. They even want it formatted specific to them — so you’ll need to take the time to redo the version you were planning on submitting to other schools, since the best practices that apply universally for an MBA resume unfortunately don’t work for the Sloan app. 🙁 We give some Pro Tips on the MIT Sloan resume requirements in this post.
MIT has also maintained the requirement for a video submission, so to a large degree the application requirements this year are stable and consistent to what they’ve had in their recent past.
But this org chart thing? Hooboy this is gonna put some BSers’ knickers in a twist!!
Don’t worry, the ‘Snark’s got you covered. Our MIT Essay Guide walks you through a framework for how to tackle the org chart, including what tools to use to build it, or whether you should try to lift the existing org chart your company has (which is okey-dokey by the adcom, and it’ll really depend on how it presents YOU and the level of complexity and company-specific nonsense that is already there, which won’t necessarily add value in this specific context).
Here are the actual assignments you’ll be completing for your MIT application (they’re not exactly essays are they??):
Organizational Structure Please upload an organizational chart which outlines the internal structure of your department and company. Limit to two pages. Note: You may choose to create your own document or redact individuals’ names. However, please provide as much information as possible. We should be able to see your line of reporting to the top of your organization, and to easily find you, your peers, your supervisor, their peers, and your direct reports, as well as any other recommenders from your current organization. Sample org chart from MIT here
Video Statement Please introduce yourself to your future classmates via a brief 60 second video statement. (This video will be used for application purposes only and will not be shared.) Videos should be a single take (no editing) lasting no more than one minute and consisting of you speaking directly to the camera. We recommend using an application such as QuickTime or iMovie to record yourself.
Cover Letter [long preamble omitted – be sure to study it!] 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 addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Assistant Dean of Admissions (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).
Resume Please submit a one-page resume (Times New Roman 10 point font preferred) that includes your employment history and academic record in reverse chronological order. Other information appropriate to a business resume is welcomed and encouraged, including extracurricular activities, awards, and achievements. [Additional very specific instructions omitted; review those, too!]
This is going to be a CHALLENGING application. There is almost nothing in this set of requirements that you can lift from any other school. Even the resume must be special-built for your MIT app — and we don’t suggest sending in that MIT version for the other schools you’re applying to.
We do not suggest doing MIT as your first application.
You’ll need to take a holistic approach to all of these main components, with the exception of the org chart, since that’s just going to be a representation of reality. You don’t need to worry about that one at all in terms of what it needs to be; you just need to find a good way to present it clearly (not a trivial task, but also not going to be a big strategic undertaking).
But wait! There’s more! 🙂
MIT has a unique element to their process: If you get invited to interview then you’ll need to submit a separate essay before you interview. The essence of this question is that they’re asking for a story where you’ve being successful in some capacity that demonstrates how you’re in sync with their mission — and the prompt is not easy to unpack!
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. We believe that a commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and well-being is a key component of both principled leadership and sound management practice. In 250 words or less, please describe how you, as a member of the MIT Sloan community, would work to create a campus that is welcoming, inclusive and increasingly diverse.
This is in line with many other schools that are not just focusing on their own culture but also on how each applicant will actually contribute to it in a civil way, to productively foster growth and change (in contrast with the polarized politics a lot of people are fostering in the “real world” right now). This is not an easy question! There’s a lot to parse here and you could go in many different directions with it — which is both a grand opportunity and also a very big challenge. Most people don’t do so well in articulating how they feel they’re a fit through this (it is NOT asking you for the standard info of “I want to take this course or be in this club” stuff that so many applicants use in other essays). This one needs to be part of your full strategy. We actually suggest you write it when you write your cover letter. Our essay guide explains why, and how). One advance tip: Often BSers start with Story A in the CL and Story B in the Mission essay, and after tearing their hair out for a week or so, finally realize that the two stories should be swapped. Which is yet another reason why it’s so strategic to work on them together. Be open to totally juggling around your ideas as you go through this.
MIT Interview support is available — specifically with the new Interview Express Essay Review for your “mission” essay!
Oh yeah: MIT also moved their Round 2 deadline to even further into January! Theirs was already one of the later ones, and we’d been gushing over how much we appreciated that on behalf of BSers everywhere, and they up and did it again. Thanks MIT!
There’s been a number of posts on the EssaySnark blahg about the MIT Sloan cover letter and resume – see the Snark Info on Sloan section below for some highlights.
We recommend getting up to Boston to experience Sloan for yourself, and if not, then be sure to get in front of the adcom in one of their traveling sessions if at all possible. This really will help you quite a bit.
[end discussion of MIT’s 2018 questions]
Click to view 2017 questions
2017 MIT Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis
As expected, MIT retained their cover letter for the 2017 MBA application — and they also added a video component! It has a prescribed question and they’re calling it a “video statement” — you have to record your video and upload it to the app like another essay, as part of the submission. The question is deceivingly simple:
Video Statement
Please introduce yourself to your future classmates via a brief video statement.
This one is going to require some introspection and self-examination in order to answer well! You’ll want to treat this more like a second essay – not to the extent that you’ll literally write out your answer, since that would seriously backfire on you if you were to sit there and read it while you were being filmed. Instead, you’ll outline and prepare your content for both the video statement, and the cover letter, and the optional essay if you need it. Then, you’ll write the cover letter (and write it again – the revision process is critical) and review and adjust your ideas for the video statement. After the cover letter and resume (and optional essay) are all done, when you submit the app, then you’ll also record your video statement too. You need to know how you’re going to handle it before you send it all in! This requires a concentrated approach.
For the cover letter, which is another assignment that Brave Supplicants have found challenging, they’ve thankfully given you BSers a break this year by expanding the max length of that cover letter by 50 words. You may not think that 50 words is very much but believe the ‘Snark, 300 words is WAY more than 250. This is still going to be an exceedingly challenging essay to write (mostly because it’s really not an essay) however you won’t have quite as tough a time as last year’s crop of applicants did.
Here are the full instructions for the written components – these also have been greatly expanded and further explained so you know what you’re getting int. They are helping you significantly here!
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 addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Senior Director of Admissions (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).
Resume
Please submit a resume that includes your employment history and academic record in reverse chronological order. Other information appropriate to a business resume is welcomed and encouraged. (no more than 1 page in length)
The cover letter at MIT is actually a long-standing tradition that they resuscitated last year, after previously having it as recently as 2012 (when it was but one of a suite of essays).
Well offer you this from Twitter’s Professor Snarky (no relation):
Dear student: A job cover letter needs to say what they'll get out of hiring you, not what you'll get out of being hired.
— Professor Snarky (@ProfSnarky) September 16, 2017
Because of the video question, which is pretty open-ended, then the Additional Information submission for MIT has moved back to text only; it can now be up to 200 words, which means you should use it as you would any other school’s optional essay (meaning, only if specifically needed to explain something that you can’t otherwise explain elsewhere in the application, like low GPA, gaps in employment, etc.). Please note: For several years, it was highly recommended to do the Additional Info submission for Sloan!! That has now changed!!!! You will need to evaluate your circumstances very carefully and see what you’re conveying with the cover letter + resume + video statement! Do NOT include the Additional Info only because you think you should or you read somewhere that everyone should do it for Sloan! That advice is now outdated. If you’re researching posts here on the blahg about your app strategy for MIT, please pay careful attention to the date; anything that does not say 2017 is not likely to be accurate with this year’s application instructions.
But wait! There’s more! 🙂
MIT has a unique element to their process: If you get invited to interview then you’ll need to submit a separate essay as part of that process. The essence of this question is that they’re asking for a story where you’ve being successful in some capacity in your career that demonstrates how you’re in sync with their mission (note that as of 7/31/17 we’ve been informed by a sharp-eyed BSer that it’s a change to the actual prompt from what they had before):
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. We believe that a commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and well-being is a key component of both principled leadership and sound management practice. In 250 words or less, please describe how you, as a member of the MIT Sloan community, would work to create a campus that is welcoming, inclusive and increasingly diverse.
This is now in line with many other schools that are not just focusing on their own culture but also on how each applicant will actually contribute to it in a civil way, to foster growth and change productively (in contrast with the polarized politics a lot of people are fostering in the “real world” right now). This is not an easy question! There’s a lot to parse here and you could go in many different directions with it — which is both a grand opportunity and also a very big challenge. Most people don’t do so well in articulating how they feel they’re a fit through this (it is NOT asking you for the standard info of “I want to take this course or be in this club” stuff that so many applicants use in other essays). This one needs to be part of your full strategy. We actually suggest you write it when you write your cover letter. Our essay guide explains why, and how). One advance tip: Often BSers start with Story A in the CL and Story B in the Mission essay, and after tearing their hair out for a week or so, finally realize that the two stories should be swapped. Which is yet another reason why it’s so strategic to work on them together. Be open to totally juggling around your ideas as you go through this.
Full app requirements available at the MIT website and a full explanation of your best approach to those is in our MIT MBA app guide for 2017!
Dang, lots of changes again this year, Sloan! The recommenders’ requirements also have been changed! And they shifted their Round 1 deadline out till later in September, which takes the pressure off when you’re scrambling to get other top schools done earlier in the month. And – yes there’s more! – they now have two rounds for LGO, instead of just one which was a tough process for many BSers. These are all awesome improvements; they’re streamlining, clarifying, and otherwise changing for the better. Yet Sloan is still Sloan! You will not be able to reuse anything you’ve done for any other school (except for the parts that capture YOU; those parts won’t need to be changed!). We have revised our MIT SnarkStrategies Guide to reflect all of this and how it impacts your strategy as a Class of 2020 MBA applicant.
We do NOT suggest applying to MIT in Round 3 (particularly not this year where we’ve seen so much interest in this school). If you do decide to go for it then may we suggest the MIT Sloan MBA Application guide which discusses all of these important aspects of timing and strategy, and has all the details you need on the cover letter, the new video submission and their ‘mission’ essay too.
[end discussion of MIT’s 2017 questions]
Click to view 2016 questions
2016 MIT Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis
They are officially going retro! MIT has restored their classic “cover letter” question, which was the very first form of an “introduce yourself” type essay that any school ever instituted. Good news: We’ve got lots of experience in helping successful applicants work through this important deliverable!
Cover Letter and Resume
Cover Letter: Please submit a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA Program. Your letter should conform to a standard business correspondence and be addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Senior Director of Admissions. (250 words or fewer for the body of the letter)
Resume: Please submit a resume that includes your employment history and academic record in reverse chronological order. Other information appropriate to a business resume is welcomed and encouraged. (no more than 1 page in length)
Thankfully they’ve clarified now that the 250 words is the body of the cover letter only!
On each of these EssaySnark school essay question and info pages, we always retain our commentary from past seasons’ app requirements at the bottom – and in the case of MIT Sloan, we’re going to recommend you actually go through and read all of that. The info on last year’s app can give some context into the changes that the adcom has been making. Also, to fill you in, the cover letter requirement was a staple of the MIT app through 2012 when it was but one of a suite of essays. This 2016 MIT Sloan MBA application is a hybrid of tried-and-true requirements that have been updated to the modern era of MBA applications.
As an example of the modern era, they’ve again kept their “Additional Information” optional submission, which we actually say is not optional – this is one of the very few schools where you really do want to submit something for this:
Optional Question: The Admissions Committee invites you to share additional information about yourself, in any format. If you choose a multimedia format, please host the information on a website and provide us with the URL.
Suggested guidelines:
Please keep all videos and media limited to 2:00 minutes total in length.
Please keep all written essays to 500 words or less.
If hosting your submission on a website, please ensure you provide an unprotected link (no password required).
Instead of this being a traditional “optional essay” which we typically suggest you DON’T submit unless you have to in order to explain something, in this case, for MIT, we suggest you DO come up with something to include here – particularly this year when there’s only the single essay for the app. Our MIT essay guide goes into all the strategy behind this suggestion.
We have revised our comprehensive MIT SnarkStrategies Guide to reflect all of this and how it impacts your strategy as a Class of 2019 MBA applicant. We do NOT recommend buying any previous season version of this school’s guide; it will NOT help you with the core application and the details involved with this year’s strategy.
They’ve also kept their post-interview-invite essay where they want you to tell a story about being successful in the context of their mission – a classic “culture” type question:
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).
Only those who are lucky enough to get invited to the interview stage will need to do this additional essay (we actually suggest you write it when you write your cover letter though! our essay guide explains why, and how).
Recommendations
MIT has their own recommendation requirements – not standardized recommender questions- 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?
- If you are an academic/technical recommender, please tell us how well the applicant mastered the subject you taught or supervised and in what ways did the applicant demonstrate this mastery. (LGO only?)
- Please tell us anything else you think we should know about this applicant.
Our Recommender’s Instruction Sets can be especially useful for this school!
[end discussion of MIT’s 2016 questions]
Click to view 2015 questions
2015 MIT Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis
Update 3/9/16: MIT says that 5% of the class will be admitted in Round 3, but they’re discouraging international applicants due to potential visa timing issues.
MIT WAS PICKY IN ROUND 1!!! They’re clearly going for an improvement to their rankings based on a strengthening of the class profile. We expect average GMAT score to go up even further at MIT for the Class of 2018, based on the outcomes we’re seeing from them so far this season. (We did predict that, back in May…)
In the “it’s ever more competitive” department: Average GMAT score at MIT is now 716 (up from 713). Wow.
Thankfully (!!!) MIT has modified its application this year. Their essay questions the past two cycles were straight-up awful for BSers to deal with. This year they’ve gone down to ONE main question – which normally we’d be rather unhappy about, except that they’re also introducing a system sort of similar to HBS, where you submit a second essay if you’re invited to interview. (Harvard’s Post-Interview Reflection is not the same, but it’s the same idea: get another submission from the applicant at the interview stage.) AND while on first glance it appeared that MIT retained the worst of the worst of its essay prompts from last year (see below), actually they changed that too! All around positives.
The other big change? They’re EXPANDING their admissions cycle to three rounds. For a very long time, MIT has had just two rounds – yet for several years running, we’ve heard that they accepted “late” applications after their January Round 2 date was past. So they sort of kind of let you apply after their final deadline anyway. They’re now standardizing to do what every other top school does. Three Rounds. September, January, April. Cool.
We’ve written about our impressions on this change on the blahg: “Three rounds at MIT: Does it matter?” (May 11, 2015)
The main application essay question is what we’re most pleased about. Here it is:
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).
This is such a classic “significant achievement” question that we’re practically rejoicing here in Snarkville. Such questions let applicants communicate in ways that are revealing – at least, provided the applicant does a good job with the question! The question itself is absolutely awesome: It has subparts that guide you on what to focus on, it’s a reasonable length to convey what’s needed, and it’s unambiguous. Thank you, Sloan!
We have a category for posts here on the blahg called “essay types – ‘achievement’ essays” which you may want to investigate if you’re researching how to approach this. Our – wait for it – Accomplishments & Achievements App Accelerator may also be useful in hashing through your possible topics and figuring out which “recent success” is going to be most effective for you to present.
What other goodness is coming from the MIT announcement?
Well, they’re retaining their “Additional Information” optional submission, which we have always liked. Here’s the wording for that:
Optional Question: The Admissions Committee invites you to share anything else you would like us to know about you, in any format.
Good stuff already coming @MITSloanAdcom chat: "It is highly recommended you also submit optional essay" (tho it's schoolspecific advice!)
— Essay Snark #BLM (@EssaySnark) August 26, 2015
They’re also introducing a post-interview-invite essay requirement which looks remarkably similar to what they asked as a main essay prompt for the past two years, except that they fixed the awkwardness of it and now they’re just asking you to tell another story about being successful somehow:
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).
MIT had a near-identical question as its Essay 1 for two years and almost entirely because of that, had been recognized here in Snarkville as having the worst essay questions. This new version of the prompt is much better – though 250 words is very short. If you are in the lucky position of being invited to interview at MIT, you definitely will want to avail yourself of the benefits in our Sloan essay strategy guide — though hopefully you will get the guide right away so that you can benefit from the entire strategy we lay forth!
To get this new app info straight from the horse’s mouth: Here’s the early May 2015 blog post from MIT Admissions announcing these changes .
As of that early May 2015 announcement of the new essay questions, their app requirements page had NOT been fully edited and updated (once again, MIT exhibits sloppiness – as of this writing on 5/10/15, they have the new essay questions listed at the top but then the discussion of Letters of Recommendation talks about an “essay #2” which is a leftover comment from last year’s app). We’re not saying that we never have errors on our site – but on a school’s app requirements page? Proofread, Sloan Adcom, proofread.
7/16/15 Good news! MIT continues to introduce applicant-friendly changes. We’ve now discovered that they ditched the ridiculous suggestion that applicants submit a resume in Sloan’s own resume format, and that the resume could be only “50 lines.” These restrictions were just silly, and created undue stress for candidates. You still should only be submitting a one-page resume (that’s true for any school) but now you don’t have to worry about a particular format for a particular school (especially when that format did not even demonstrate best practices for MBA applicants). Thank you, Sloan Adcom, for coming around!!
MIT 2015 Dates and Deadlines
MIT now has three rounds!
MIT Full-Time MBA Application Deadlines announced
That means: Be careful about any posts you read here on the blahg about “two rounds” and MIT. We have discussed the implications of this change to three rounds in the 2015 MIT Application Guide but we have not gone back over our historical posts here on this site to offer warnings or corrections – what we may have said in the past about application strategy at MIT may not apply to this new world of a standardized admissions cycle.
- Round 1:
September 17, 2015– almost a week earlier than Rd 1 was last year. Traditionally this has been the most advantageous at MIT but we don’t know if that will hold true quite in the same way this year (Rd 1 is always recommended but it used to be REALLY recommended at MIT based on how they managed their two-round cycle; Rd 1 will still be an advantage, but it’s a TBD on how big of an advantage it will be going forward at this school).
Based on a 10/7/15 announcement on the MIT blog , interview invitations this year will work the same as they did last year in Round 1: They’ll start going out in mid-October, through the “week of November 9th” (not sure why they can’t name the actual day?). That’s when the Round 1 “release from consideration” happens, which is a nice way to say “no” to you if they’re not interested. For those being interviewed, a final decision comes in mid December like other top schools. - Round 2:
January 14, 2016. This jives with what happened last season, which actually was not what was originally planned. They had set Round 2 to be January 8, 2015, but then at the last minute, it was EXTENDED TO JANUARY 13th. Round 2 is always viable at MIT. Round 2 interview invitations will going out the week of February 15th (same as last year), with Round 2 release to happen somewhere around March 1st. - Round 3 – THIS IS NEW: April 11, 2016. We don’t generally post Round 3 deadlines here on the blahg because it’s typically near-impossible to get in then. HOWEVER: Since Round 3 is NEW at MIT, then we can only expect that they have modified their internal admissions processes to leave spots open for candidates at that stage. We still believe it will be difficult to get in on a Round 3 app but in this case, it may not be quite so difficult as it would be elsewhere. YMMV.
Whew! That’s a lot of change!
If you want to understand how this works, please pick up the SnarkStrategies Guide for MIT (2015 version) – it will help you grasp what’s so very unique about this school’s admissions criteria, compared to other top MBA programs. And of course, you get a full discussion of the impact of the changes with the addition of Round 3 and everything else. The 2015 guide was totally overhauled from 2014; this is not an edit or refresh, it’s a completely new book!
[end discussion of MIT’s 2015 questions]
Click to view 2014 questions
2014 MIT Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis
Here’s what we said when the 2014 questions came out… remember this analysis is from a previous year.
Two “essays” (if you can call them that):
- 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)
- Write a professional letter of recommendation on behalf of yourself. Answer the following questions as if you were your most recent supervisor recommending yourself for admission to the MIT Sloan MBA Program: (750 words or fewer)
- How long and in what capacity have you known the applicant? Really, MIT? REALLY?!?
- 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.
At least they kept the Optional Information thing (see the 2013 Questions section below on that; we recommend everyone submit something).
They also kept essentially the same deadlines as they had in 2013.
MIT Full-Time 2014 MBA Application Deadlines announced
[end discussion of MIT’s 2014 questions]
Click to view 2013 questions
2013 Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis
Here’s what we said when the 2013 questions came out.
Wow! No cover letter?!??? [They had this cover-letter thing as part of their app for YEARS. Decades, maybe. They ditched it in 2013.] They really switched things up! Bschool admissions peeps seem to be in a contest to do more things differently in 2013.
Here’s the Sloan 2013 essay questions:
Two essays:
- The mission of the MIT Sloan School of Management is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and 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/one page max)
- Describe a time [within the last three years] when you pushed yourself beyond your comfort zone. (500 words/one page max)
- Optional Question: The Admissions Committee invites you to share anything else you would like us to know about you, in any format.
First note: ESSAY 1 IS HARD!!!!!!
Second note: While most every school allows an “optional essay”, in most cases, we advise to only write it when you have something important to explain that you can’t cover elsewhere in the app (typically a gap in employment, not getting a rec from a current supervisor, what happened during college and that low GPA, etc.). For MIT, we recommend that EVERYONE submit the “Optional Question” and in particular that you do so using a non-written format if possible – e.g., video or something snappy. Note though: They don’t allow uploads. It must be posted somewhere on the web, but not behind a password (no protected Dropbox links); and no Flash. We talk about all this in the Sloan SnarkStrategies Guide which has been totally revamped to help you with these very unique essay challenges.
[end discussion of 2013 questions]
Click to view 2012 questions
2012 questions – these are REALLY OLD BUT, UPDATE JUNE 2016, NOW RELEVANT AGAIN! -ES
A cover letter and two essays:
- Please prepare a cover letter (up to 500 words) seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA program. Your letter should describe your accomplishments, address any extenuating circumstances that may apply to your application, and conform to standard business correspondence. Your letter should be addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Senior Director of Admissions.
- Essay 1: Please describe a time when you had to convince a person or a group of your idea.
- Essay 2: Please describe a time when you overcame a personal setback.
[end discussion of 2012 questions]