Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants : MBA Archive

Shawshank

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

21 Dec 2012, 03:12

MBAWanderlust wrote:

For all of you who are fretting over whether or not you made the right call with your Supplemental essay (Did not submit, submitted PPT instead of video, submitted video instead of PPT, submitted a love letter instead of a ring, etc), here's something to (hopefully) help cheer you up:

MIT Sloan AdCom have a very (and I mean VERY) scientific way of grading applications based on certain attributes. Obviously, only AdCom know the full set of attributes, but the commonly quoted ones seem to be 'Intellectual Skills', 'Work Success', and 'Influencing'. This has been their tried-and-tested formula for years, and though they do make certain intuitive calls, those are more the exception than the rule. Once they grade every application, they invite the top 20% for interviews, and admit around 50% from that pool.

Now, the question on everyone's mind is - 'How are AdCom going to grade the supplemental essay, especially when it is format-independent?"
The answer is, they're not. Plain and simple. Check out the following excerpt from mbaMission's interview with Rod Garcia -

"mbaMission: MIT Sloan has introduced a multimedia option into the application. Can you tell us more about that?

RG: Yes, this was a response to this generation. It will give us a new opportunity to see something an applicant has done. Still, it is not scoreable. It might be interesting to see, and it might influence our gut, but it is not a factor in our metrics."

So there. You may have the most killer Supplemental essay, but that will only help swing their gut feel about you, and not influence your metric score in any way. Similarly, you may not have submitted a supplemental essay at all, but you may still feature in the top 20% of applicants. The bottom line is, the supplemental essay does not 'scoreably' influence your application. Of course, once you land the interview, it may influence whether or not you get the call - but that panic and mania is for another day.

Sit back, relax, spend time with family, and enjoy the holidays. Or if you're like me, shut yourself into a closet and cram out essays like there's no tomorrow. Wait, today IS the 21st of December.

Cheers,
MBAWanderlust

Thanks for this. It's super helpful.

My understanding though was that for round 1, Sloan interviews around 25% but for round 2, it's only 12-13%. That's because unlike other schools, Sloan interviews a FIXED number of applicants per round, and round 2 gets twice as many applicants.

pascalchristian

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

21 Dec 2012, 03:13

For those in Asia..

I just got an email today for an interview in Hongkong
Healthcare industry/based in Indonesia

geogman

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

21 Dec 2012, 05:06

COngratz!!! I m based in southern china, and my interview hub shud be hong kong... Guess i dun have a chance then

Posted from my mobile device

lb2015

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

21 Dec 2012, 06:46

summerbreeze118 wrote:

lb2015 wrote:

To give some credence to the comment about the rolling review for US applicants: my presentation was finally viewed this week according to the hosting site's stats. And it was reviewed twice, once this weekend and again in the middle of the week. Unless it was one of you guys, I think that means Sloan adcom just got to my app!

Crossing my fingers that an interview invite will follow. Btw I'm based in Boston.

Thx lb2015! But hold on, I was in the same boat last week-2 reviews from MA, until I figured out that they were from YouTube search and google search.. How about your traffic source? How can we be sure its from adcom?

Well of course we can't be absolutely sure that the views were adcom. However, I didn't use Youtube since I had a powerpoint, and the site I uploaded to is a little obscure. The only other time I had any views was the first day I put it up, so that's why the latest activity seems suspect.

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

21 Dec 2012, 11:46

For those wondering, there are two open SF interview spots out of 39 total.

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

21 Dec 2012, 13:46

haxx19 wrote:

For those wondering, there are two open SF interview spots out of 39 total.

@haxx19 Thanks for the info. Can you also let us know which dates are the SF interviews?

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

21 Dec 2012, 13:55

capmgmat wrote:

haxx19 wrote:

For those wondering, there are two open SF interview spots out of 39 total.

@haxx19 Thanks for the info. Can you also let us know which dates are the SF interviews?

1/14 thru 1/18

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

21 Dec 2012, 14:12

haxx19 wrote:

For those wondering, there are two open SF interview spots out of 39 total.

hi haxx19，do you also see the slot in Europe？ just to kill my hope for good..thx!

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

21 Dec 2012, 14:13

lb2015 wrote:

summerbreeze118 wrote:

lb2015 wrote:

To give some credence to the comment about the rolling review for US applicants: my presentation was finally viewed this week according to the hosting site's stats. And it was reviewed twice, once this weekend and again in the middle of the week. Unless it was one of you guys, I think that means Sloan adcom just got to my app!

Crossing my fingers that an interview invite will follow. Btw I'm based in Boston.

Thx lb2015! But hold on, I was in the same boat last week-2 reviews from MA, until I figured out that they were from YouTube search and google search.. How about your traffic source? How can we be sure its from adcom?

Well of course we can't be absolutely sure that the views were adcom. However, I didn't use Youtube since I had a powerpoint, and the site I uploaded to is a little obscure. The only other time I had any views was the first day I put it up, so that's why the latest activity seems suspect.

I see, then that's different story

good luck!!

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

22 Dec 2012, 20:26

2

Kudos

Shawshank wrote:

Thanks for this. It's super helpful.

My understanding though was that for round 1, Sloan interviews around 25% but for round 2, it's only 12-13%. That's because unlike other schools, Sloan interviews a FIXED number of applicants per round, and round 2 gets twice as many applicants.

That's true, although from the Adcom's point of view, I think the logic is the other way around. They definitely fill 50% of the class (or at least, make 50% of the offers they intend to make overall) at the end of Round 1. The rest are made at the end of Round 2. Of course, there may be cases where the odd exceptional candidate or two will sneak in, but on the whole, this seems to be Adcom's approach.

Now, here lies the rub - its an open secret. While MIT Sloan has been following this strategy for the past God-knows-how-many years, the applicant pool has definitely smartened up to it recently. Hence - almost everyone knows that Sloan gets heavier app volumes in Round 2, with the Adcom themselves admitting to that fact on some chat. (For all you (actually, us) Quantum Physics buffs out there, this is like Schrodinger's Cat - knowledge of the current state will change the outcome.)

The point I'm trying to make is that I sincerely doubt whether the app volume in Round 2 is double that of Round 1 - applicants know that Round 1 is the leaner round, that 50% will get admitted in that round, and Sloan's R1 deadline is much later than that of other schools'. All of this adds up to the conclusion that "Round 1 is the round with better chances" - an arbitrage opportunity that most applicants would surely not pass up. This in turn, should lead to greater Round 1 volumes than previous years, somewhat balancing the skew between application rounds. So while I agree that Round 2 will definitely have more applications that Round 1, I don't think that number has been twice as many for the past two years or so.

All this logic amounts to nothing if everyone is already aware of this, and has decided to game the economics system by still submitting in Round 2.

Cheers,
MBAWanderlust

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

23 Dec 2012, 03:14

1

Kudos

MBAWanderlust wrote:

Shawshank wrote:

Thanks for this. It's super helpful.

My understanding though was that for round 1, Sloan interviews around 25% but for round 2, it's only 12-13%. That's because unlike other schools, Sloan interviews a FIXED number of applicants per round, and round 2 gets twice as many applicants.

That's true, although from the Adcom's point of view, I think the logic is the other way around. They definitely fill 50% of the class (or at least, make 50% of the offers they intend to make overall) at the end of Round 1. The rest are made at the end of Round 2. Of course, there may be cases where the odd exceptional candidate or two will sneak in, but on the whole, this seems to be Adcom's approach.

Now, here lies the rub - its an open secret. While MIT Sloan has been following this strategy for the past God-knows-how-many years, the applicant pool has definitely smartened up to it recently. Hence - almost everyone knows that Sloan gets heavier app volumes in Round 2, with the Adcom themselves admitting to that fact on some chat. (For all you (actually, us) Quantum Physics buffs out there, this is like Schrodinger's Cat - knowledge of the current state will change the outcome.)

The point I'm trying to make is that I sincerely doubt whether the app volume in Round 2 is double that of Round 1 - applicants know that Round 1 is the leaner round, that 50% will get admitted in that round, and Sloan's R1 deadline is much later than that of other schools'. All of this adds up to the conclusion that "Round 1 is the round with better chances" - an arbitrage opportunity that most applicants would surely not pass up. This in turn, should lead to greater Round 1 volumes than previous years, somewhat balancing the skew between application rounds. So while I agree that Round 2 will definitely have more applications that Round 1, I don't think that number has been twice as many for the past two years or so.

All this logic amounts to nothing if everyone is already aware of this, and has decided to game the economics system by still submitting in Round 2.

Cheers,
MBAWanderlust

Kudos for a very good analysis. The real question is this: has knowledge about MIT's admissions preferences made its way out the masses enough to significantly change applicants' behaviors? I hope not, but then again, I'm a R1 applicant. :lol:

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

23 Dec 2012, 03:36

kingfalcon wrote:

Kudos for a very good analysis. The real question is this: has knowledge about MIT's admissions preferences made its way out the masses enough to significantly change applicants' behaviors? I hope not, but then again, I'm a R1 applicant. :lol:

True. In this day and age however, where we're all so tightly connected to the internet through our countless devices, I think its only a matter of time before knowledge percolates down to every applicant. There are a number of Admission Consultants who publish interview and chat transcripts from wherein these nuggets can be extracted, and then distributed through channels like the GC and BTG forums - and mind you, this has been happening for a few years now, so there has been time enough for a significant shift to occur. I think a large number of potential R2 applicants have jumped ship to R1 to ride the 'round-with-less-applicants' wave, while some might try to out-game the system by submitting in R2 instead of R1, to compensate for the new surge in R1 apps.

Ultimately, I think its like a see-saw that will eventually come to rest when in balance - until then, we can only analyze, conjecture, hope that we make it to the top x% of whichever round we're applying in, land an interview, and dazzle AdCom with our incredible awesomeness

For the record, I'm applying Round 2

.

Cheers,
MBAWanderlust

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

23 Dec 2012, 08:37

I heard today that a male entrepreneurial background applicant in Shanghai got interview invitation. Hope it's just a start in mainland China. Keep my finger crossed!

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

23 Dec 2012, 20:26

Not sure if I'm the only one with this issue, but when I upload my resume to the Sloan site and then look at the PDF version, the alignments and spacing are totally messed up. So my resume in word is 10 point arial and one page, but on the PDF it spills out onto the second page. I had to spend like 30 minutes making adjustments to make sure that the PDF version looks right. Presumably, the PDF version is what adcom looks at.

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

23 Dec 2012, 20:41

Shawshank wrote:

Not sure if I'm the only one with this issue, but when I upload my resume to the Sloan site and then look at the PDF version, the alignments and spacing are totally messed up. So my resume in word is 10 point arial and one page, but on the PDF it spills out onto the second page. I had to spend like 30 minutes making adjustments to make sure that the PDF version looks right. Presumably, the PDF version is what adcom looks at.

I faced this issue once - I think this happens randomly when you upload a word document and let the app manager convert it to a PDF. My solution was to download a free PDF writer tool (I got CutePDF), convert my resume (and all my essays) to PDF on my laptop first, and then upload it to the app manager. That way, I have been able to avoid any nasty surprises.

Cheers,
MBAWanderlust

Shawshank

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

23 Dec 2012, 21:02

MBAWanderlust wrote:

Shawshank wrote:

Not sure if I'm the only one with this issue, but when I upload my resume to the Sloan site and then look at the PDF version, the alignments and spacing are totally messed up. So my resume in word is 10 point arial and one page, but on the PDF it spills out onto the second page. I had to spend like 30 minutes making adjustments to make sure that the PDF version looks right. Presumably, the PDF version is what adcom looks at.

I faced this issue once - I think this happens randomly when you upload a word document and let the app manager convert it to a PDF. My solution was to download a free PDF writer tool (I got CutePDF), convert my resume (and all my essays) to PDF on my laptop first, and then upload it to the app manager. That way, I have been able to avoid any nasty surprises.

Cheers,
MBAWanderlust

Thanks for the tip. My essays convert fine to pdf, but i guess with the resume it can get messed up.

Shawshank

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Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

23 Dec 2012, 22:06

For the transcripts, i assume we could upload the unofficial copies of our transcripts?

gmatclubot

Re: Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]

23 Dec 2012, 22:06