scleraxis wrote:
Funny how this process works, flat ding at MIT. Not like I care though.
And, for the record, it really does not matter if you recommenders have an MBA or what school they went to. The most important thing, by far, is that they can advocate for you with specific examples of why you would be a good business leader. They must know you well.
I do think that this might be particularly pronounced at MIT, though (the fact that they don't care if you're recommenders were alums/if you have relationships to the school). All of the other schools I applied to asked where my parents went to school, and if I had other relatives/relations that were alums, but MIT didn't ask about parents and only had a brief optional line on the last page to ask if you knew anyone in the Sloan community. I know legacy status for b-school isn't the same as for undergrad at most places, but it seems like for MIT it really is a non-issue.
My recommender was also a Sloan alum, and it clearly made no difference.
I don't know if this is relevant for anyone else, but I found an article on legacy admissions at MIT (albeit this applies to undergrad admissions). It almost sounds like mentioning a connection--be it a parent, employer, etc--in your application could come back to bite you, so it might be an area to tread lightly:
"And I can tell you, from having sat on countless committees, that we simply don't care if your parents (or aunt, or grandfather, or third cousin) went to MIT. In fact, one of the things most likely to elicit a gigantic facepalm is when a student namedrops some incredibly attenuated connection because they think it is going to help them get into MIT."
https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/ju ... -do-legacy