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Calling all Sloan MIT Applicants (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!
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12 Oct 2015, 06:56
stevkang8 wrote:
LOL I did not do one, did not have a clue on what they were looking for to be honest.
"We want to get to know you!" ugh okay, so a one minute video allows you to get to know me? Hummmm.....
I hope it doesn't ruin my chance of getting and interview lol
Yea and IMHO you did the right thing if you were clueless what to write. It has to be something compelling and that will come out naturally. If someone is wondering what to write or thinking hard, he/she shouldn't probably attempt it as it won't be compelling enough.
And of course one cannot get to know you in a 1 min video Maybe a specific achievement or story which reflects upon a specific aspect of your personality will be appropriate, rather than touching upon multiple things superficially. I guess 1 to 1.5 mins is good enough for one great story to have an impact on the adcom. Multiple stories will either increase the time or dilute the impact.
Re: Calling all Sloan MIT Applicants (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!
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12 Oct 2015, 08:50
I agree with what anubhavmax said. Everything there jives with what I learned from Sloan AdComms as well.
Keep in mind it doesn't have to be a video essay! I did a powerpoint that I think turned out quite well. Interestingly, I have 6 views on it last I checked, so not sure if someone is looking at it multiple times or it's being passed around.
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13 Oct 2015, 13:13
jwang27 wrote:
I agree with what anubhavmax said. Everything there jives with what I learned from Sloan AdComms as well.
Keep in mind it doesn't have to be a video essay! I did a powerpoint that I think turned out quite well. Interestingly, I have 6 views on it last I checked, so not sure if someone is looking at it multiple times or it's being passed around.
How did you check the views on a powerpoint? I wrote a traditional essay and threw it on a PDF host site. Is there a tool I can use to check views/hits?
Re: Calling all Sloan MIT Applicants (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!
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13 Oct 2015, 17:08
Am I the only one who wrote a traditional essay for the optional? It's specifically about an extra curricular and a story to do with that activity which has helped shape my career goals.
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13 Oct 2015, 17:13
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Allday028 wrote:
Am I the only one who wrote a traditional essay for the optional? It's specifically about an extra curricular and a story to do with that activity which has helped shape my career goals.
Personally I really don't think what format matters...not trying to be rude or anything, but as long as you think you had a good story that's all it matters. Trying to come up with logical explanations or convince yourself (or the people here) prolly won't help much since they are not the audience....
I've been doing the same too but after I got dinged from HBS I start thinking no matter how convinced you are, it doesn't matter since there's always people who have a more compelling stories, so I stop caring I just hope they will at least watch the video
Re: Calling all Sloan MIT Applicants (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!
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13 Oct 2015, 17:29
Allday028 wrote:
Am I the only one who wrote a traditional essay for the optional? It's specifically about an extra curricular and a story to do with that activity which has helped shape my career goals.
I wrote a traditional essay too. It was essentially about overcoming a health issue, and how it motivates my goals and ambitions. With a School like Sloan I thought basically tried to add additional evidence that I can successfully overcome challenges and succeed.
Honestly I think that might actually stick out more than a generic Powerpoint/video of pictures showing all the world travel people have done or pictures of them doing volunteer work.
Realistically speaking I think there are very few cases where the optional essay will change an applicants fate. There's a reason its "optional".
Re: Calling all Sloan MIT Applicants (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!
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13 Oct 2015, 17:58
Malluce wrote:
Allday028 wrote:
Am I the only one who wrote a traditional essay for the optional? It's specifically about an extra curricular and a story to do with that activity which has helped shape my career goals.
Personally I really don't think what format matters...not trying to be rude or anything, but as long as you think you had a good story that's all it matters. Trying to come up with logical explanations or convince yourself (or the people here) prolly won't help much since they are not the audience....
I've been doing the same too but after I got dinged from HBS I start thinking no matter how convinced you are, it doesn't matter since there's always people who have a more compelling stories, so I stop caring I just hope they will at least watch the video
Haha that's fair. I wrote a traditional essay for Booth too and an invite so I'm not too worried.
Re: Calling all Sloan MIT Applicants (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!
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13 Oct 2015, 18:47
stephenhingston wrote:
Allday028 wrote:
Am I the only one who wrote a traditional essay for the optional? It's specifically about an extra curricular and a story to do with that activity which has helped shape my career goals.
I wrote a traditional essay too. It was essentially about overcoming a health issue, and how it motivates my goals and ambitions. With a School like Sloan I thought basically tried to add additional evidence that I can successfully overcome challenges and succeed.
Honestly I think that might actually stick out more than a generic Powerpoint/video of pictures showing all the world travel people have done or pictures of them doing volunteer work.
Realistically speaking I think there are very few cases where the optional essay will change an applicants fate. There's a reason its "optional".
I respectfully disagree. In an application such as the MIT that you barely write anything about yourself, anything you put in your optional will probably have a great weight in your application.
Honestly, I wonder about their process. The application is pretty much a short essay, a CV and the optional stuff. They have clearly stated that they prefer videos and that it shouldn’t be more than a minute long.
I don’t think they have enough material to thoroughly evaluate all candidates.
I did the video, but I think the greatest weight is going to be on the CV and Gmat.
The raw access logs on my website show a request for "/optional-essay.pdf%20(backup link in case:..." -- which is a 404 page not found error obviously... The worst thing is that I've set up the 404 on my website to redirect to the front page (no error prompt is given).
No further requests for the correct link (ending in .pdf) were given... not sure if they ever tried the Dropbox link instead, or if they just saw my personal website and were like: "that's nice... moving on now"
Re: Calling all Sloan MIT Applicants (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!
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14 Oct 2015, 10:47
MV23 wrote:
When do you guys think the invites would start rolling in? Mid October is kind of vague and the wait is killing me
I don't know but I hope it is soon. I went through last year's thread and it seems like Monday the 19th would about line up with how long it took last year, but since they added an extra round this year who really knows. I wish more schools would throw a date on the wall like H or W so I don't have to stress constantly and wake up to check my email 5 times a night
Re: Calling all Sloan MIT Applicants (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!
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14 Oct 2015, 10:50
GeeMcGee wrote:
MV23 wrote:
When do you guys think the invites would start rolling in? Mid October is kind of vague and the wait is killing me
I don't know but I hope it is soon. I went through last year's thread and it seems like Monday the 19th would about line up with how long it took last year, but since they added an extra round this year who really knows. I wish more schools would throw a date on the wall like H or W so I don't have to stress constantly and wake up to check my email 5 times a night
I'm simply using my video view count as an indicator if they reviewed my app or not...but maybe they decided it's not worth it to view it Has anyone tried calling the admission to follow up regarding optional essay?
Re: Calling all Sloan MIT Applicants (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!
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14 Oct 2015, 10:57
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No one knows for sure...if you really cannot wait, just give the admission office a call and pretend you're someone else so you don't leave a bad impression there.
gmatclubot
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14 Oct 2015, 10:57
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