MIT (Sloan) MBA Program

MIT Sloan School of Management

MIT’s Sloan School of Management has combined the quantitative strengths of its parent school with a focus on entrepreneurship to establish itself as one of the most highly regarded MBA programs in the country. The school is also well-regarded on Wall Street, where Sloan grads are prized for their analytical skills.

As expected, the school’s curriculum emphasizes the quantitative side of business. Courses such as Data, Models, and Decisions and Economic Analysis for Business Decisions will test your quantitative abilities, but Sloan also encourages students to apply the skills that they learn in these classes to nearly all of their coursework. Graduates speak highly of the hard skills that they learned at Sloan, so make sure that this is what you want out of your MBA experience. Also be sure to demonstrate that you are comfortable being surrounded by numbers, through your GMAT score, previous coursework, or job experience.

Sloan’s curriculum provides a lot of flexibility and control for the individual student. After completing the standard first semester core courses, students are free to chart their own course for the rest of their time at Sloan. One especially unique aspect of the curriculum is the school’s Sloan Innovation Period, a break during each semester in which students can take week-long seminars and hands-on workshops in a variety of subject areas including leadership, management communications, achieving work-life balance, and entrepreneurship.

Speaking of entrepreneurship, it’s a big deal at Sloan, as characterized by students’ participation in MIT’s annual “$100K” entrepreneurship competition. The competition, which started as the “$10K” competition back in 1990, allows Sloan students the chance to develop a business plan and compete against students from other MIT programs for cash and startup business assistance. Many companies founded in the competition go on to be successful, and Sloan touts the fact that these companies now have a combined market capitalization of over $7 billion.

Sloan students who really want to focus their MBA education on entrepreneurship can enroll in the school’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation program (E&I), which was introduced in 2006. Students who are accepted into the E&I program are placed into their own cohort and take their core classes together, plus an additional class on technological entrepreneurship, concluding in a group trip to Silicon Valley after the first semester. They continue to take additional entrepreneurship-oriented electives, and finish their two years at Sloan with an MBA as well as an additional certificate in entrepreneurship & innovation. If you are serious about entrepreneurship, then consider applying to this program, which requires no more than checking a box on your Sloan application.

Another important program at MIT Sloan is its Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) program, a two-year joint degree program offered in conjunction with MIT’s School of Engineering. It offers students courses in engineering, change management, information technology, and operations management through a variety of in-class and on-the-job experiences. Students spend more than six months on-site as an intern with a sponsor company, culminating in a thesis. The best part of the program is that students receive 80% fellowships, thanks to sponsor companies including Cisco Systems, Dell, General Motors, Harley-Davidson, and Motorola. The bad news is that the program is very exclusive—just 45 to 50 students participate each year—but give it a look if you want to work in manufacturing after business school.

MIT Sloan says that its mission is “to develop principled innovative leaders who improve the world and to generate ideas that advance management practice.” Note the words “innovative” and “leaders”—the admissions office will look for both of these dimensions in your application. To that end, Sloan has recently introduced several new admissions essay questions that hit directly on these dimensions. The questions ask you to describe several specific situations in which you demonstrated examples of having an impact on a group, had to put an idea into action, and advocated a certain position. The school is clearly looking for dimensions beyond basic quantitative skills, and these essays are where they will look for them.

• Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
• Stanford University
• University of Chicago
• University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

1. Please tell us about a time when you had an impact on a group or organization. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did. (500 words or less.)


2. Please tell us about a challenging interaction you had with a person or group. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did. (500 words or less.)


3. Please tell us about a time when you defended your idea. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did. (500 words or less.)


4. Please tell us about a time when you executed a plan. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did. (500 words or less.)


5. (Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E&I) applicants only) Tell us about a time when you shared your talents or expertise with a group or organization. (500 words or less.)


6. (Supplemental Information) You may provide additional information about any of the following topics that you consider relevant. Please tell us anything that will round out our impression of you as a unique individual.
   
   
   1. List the leadership activities in which you have actively participated, including your responsibilities and positions held in the organization, and dates. Provide contact name(s) and contact information for each leadership activity.
   2. List your academic and/or professional awards, including the basis for your selection and the date(s) of the honor(s).
   3. List your hobbies, interests, and activities, including any significant accomplishments related to them.
   4. Special circumstances related to your academic program which you would like to mention (up to 500 words).
   5. Whatever else you would like the Admissions Committee to know (up to 500 words).

This and dozens of other top business schools are covered in detail in Your MBA Game Plan, the definitive guide on MBA admissions, now in its second edition.