Calling all MIT-Sloan Applicants(2015 Intake) -Class of 2017

it is not necessary to bring anything, I think they mentioned it on an email.

Not necessary. I went empty handed, and it was fine. A few people had brought their resume/transcripts/etc. but weren't asked for them.

Thank you all for your answers! I´ll tell how it goes today.

All the best mate...

FROM Sloan Admissions Blog: Action Learning at the Boston Capital Market Series | MIT Sloan School of Management.

As part of MIT Sloan’sInnovation Period, a group of Master of Finance students participated in the Boston Capital Markets Series (BCMS). An intensive action learning experience, BCMS allowed students to put capital market theory into practice in the real world. Over three days, students visited a variety of leading financial institutions; participated in intimate chats with high ranking, experienced professionals; and toured trading floors and technology resource centers. I wanted to let you know about this exciting feature of MIT Sloan’s curriculum, because it exemplifies a key aspect of our programs: learning by doing. A student who attended wrote that the series “ultimately shed light on where all of my coursework fits within the real world. As we pass the halfway mark of the program, any exposure to the professional sphere becomes extremely valuable.” Learn more about MIT Sloan’s innovative action learning programs. And as always, we’d love to have you visit us on campus! -Dawna Levenson, Director of Admissions, MIT Sloan

Hi, anyone going to campus on Oct 24th?

Just want to make some friends and help each other prepare for the interview.

do you mean Nov 24th? I'll be there. PM me

Just arrived from my interview. Great experience, very conversational, the AdCom was really engaging. I felt comforable during all the conversation. I think I did a very good job. Let´s see!

did they ask specific questions-behavior questions-why MIT questions as one of the admission video said?

Actually I thought it would all the interview like that and it was only one or two behavioural questions.

ok, so all the interviews compose of those three types of questions?

Thank you very much for sharing

So how did the interviews go for the people who were scheduled for the 24th? Who else is going to be going to the lunch event on Dec 1st?

Round 2 applicant here. For those who got interviews (and I guess anyone else can chime in), how did you approach MIT's application. From the little research I have done, I know that Sloan does not care about your goals whatsoever. The other applications I have done have heavily emphasized my goals and volunteer experiences, but here it seems to be the opposite. Just wanted some advice to see how to approach and what worked for everyone else. Thanks!

I researched the personal qualities they're looking for and tried to highlight those that I had in the essay. I found that humility is big for Sloan which makes the personal letter of rec essay a lot tougher than it seemed. I made sure the tone wasn't arrogant and I only compared myself to others when they specifically asked ("how does the applicant stand out from others") - otherwise comparing myself to my past self. The tone of the essays shouldn't be "I'M THE BEST AND DID ALL THESE AMAZING THINGS" but more like "this is how I make everyone around me excellent, oh and by the way you can also see that I'm super amazing but I don't talk about it much" Whereas the tone for my HBS essay was closer to the former on the spectrum. Sloan students describe themselves as much less competitive (than HBS students). The resume would probably tell them that you're amazing anyways. If it doesn't I'd rework until it did. A killer resume and a personable essay is a good combo.

As for content, just focus on the past. Sloan relies heavily on the past to predict future performance in both essays and interview. You're right about the goals. My interviewer literally said "so do you know what you might want to do post MBA?" in a tone that implied he didn't care if I was very undecided. They just want intelligent, hardworking people that will push the entire class to succeed as a whole. I did add two sentences at the end of essay 1 that said my goals. Oh additionally, I wouldn't worry if you can't get every little story into essay #1. During the interview they don't want to hear stuff that was in your essay so just pick your top stories (I did 2, one volunteer & one work) and save the rest for the interview. I did feel like Sloan wouldn't care about volunteering as much...idk why I thought that. But I put it in there anyways because it happened to show bravery (& innovation requires bravery).

But I'm not a Sloan expert by any means nor could I ever know if they liked my essay or just interviewed me on stats and hated the essays so there's that. Good luck!

In my case, all my ECs/volunteer work was only a passing mention in my resume. My essays were absolutely to-the-point specific example based write ups on what the question had asked. As for the goals, I mentioned them in a line or two with the flow near the end of my first essay on 'principled, innovative leaders'. A lot of people had put the goals/ECs in the optional essay, but I refrained from doing so since I felt I'm not adding a new dimension to my personality through that and didn't want to make it seem forced.

I must also mention though that my interviewer did ask me about my goals during my interview, so maybe that's an avenue for them to get to know it. But as you said, they don't put a lot of thought to it. For them past success and personality which you can show through examples is more important than something which may even change in the future.

Hope I could help.

FROM Sloan Admissions Blog: Happy Thanksgiving

We are nearing the end of our MBA Round I interviews, and as Thanksgiving approaches, I would like to thank all of the interviewees who have prepared and travelled to meet with us. We have met many accomplished and interesting people, and I am thankful to get the chance to get to know our applicants better. Meanwhile, one of our favorite MIT Sloan traditions took place last week. Every year, we host a Thanksgiving meal for each class; you can read about one of our students’ experiences here. In celebration of the holiday, our offices will be closed from 3pm EST Wednesday, November 26th, through Friday, November 28th. We’ll be back to our regular office hours on Monday, December 1st. On behalf of our entire staff, I want to wish everyone who is celebrating Thanksgiving a very happy holiday.

After reviewing other peoples' advice, my essays certainly had a lot of mistakes - I talked too much about my goals, treated the first essay as a "why MIT", etc. - but I think what got me the interview was the sincerity with which I wrote. I was very frank about my faults and very forthcoming about what unique experiences / perspectives I could add to the class.