Sloan (MIT) Class of 2016 Calling all applicants

Personally, I have a very positive opinion of this years application. What has really impressed me is the laser focused structure of the overall application, and its brevity. But one thing I noticed that is lacking (for my needs) is that the online application doesn't have any avenue to mention/list community involvement. Fitting those into my resume or essays will not work for me. hmm..

Two responses, randomwalk:

1. This is by design. Extracurriculars are not nearly as important as applicants believe them to be. MIT not asking for them is clear evidence of this. Extracurriculars are often fabricated and embellished anyway, so many schools discount them even when they still allow you to enter them.
2. Even so, extracurriculars should always be on the resume. This is especially true in hiring, and for schools that do blind interviews (not MIT). Having such activities on the resume often can offer instant connection to an interviewer; they're a way for you to make yourself into a real person on the page.

EssaySnark
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To add on to #1 from the above post, I think they don't care about your fifth extra curricular that you've spent one hour on in the past three years, but still put on the list. If you have a VALUABLE community experience, for example, then the essays provide an excellent place to discuss that. I am using #1 to do that.

My thoughts are that if your extras are strong enough to wish that they put them in the application, they should be also be strong enough to merit mention in an essay. Both essay questions lend themselves to those. Moreover, the optional essay about whatever you want certainly does the same.

Totally agree bpeyster - had spaced out completely on the Optional Info bit for MIT, thanks for the reminder. That's an ideal place for this, and also fully endorse your statement about EC #5 vs. something significant enough that it can go into an essay. Yes to all.
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Thank you for the inputs bpyester and essaysnark. I agree on your points around significant community activities. But in my case my work accomplishments are far and wide much better, credible and more easily verified than my accomplishments within community. I feel that a community involvement list is still worth asking for in an MBA application because it will help me to show them that I do care about the society and am not a monotonous worker bee.
I also agree on the Essay 3. That will be a natural choice to fit.

Certainly understand that, but do you really think that the 300 characters you get to use in the other apps will sell it that much more than the ~200 characters you use in your resume?

Again, this is just my opinion, but it's either meaningful, but not critical (merits a line or two out of the 50 available resume lines), or it is critical, and you write about it. Looking at my own essays, there's no reason why an work experience and extras are mutually exclusive. I start one of my Sloan essays off with two paragraphs about a community leadership experience that was important to me and displayed leadership, and then related that to an example from work.

I'm with you overall because I think I'm quite strong in extras, both in college and after (varsity athlete, non-profit board, etc.), but I think that these will both jump out in my resume and get mention in my essays.

Guys,

Could anyone please confirm if the MIT Sloan resume should be 50 lines (max) including blank lines?
In the template attached in the online application, all lines including blank lines from top to bottom came out as 50.

Thank you for your insights bpeyster. I can certainly see what you mean. All of these avenues to mention my true standing with respect to community are my considerations. I will see what works best for my needs. Good luck with your applications.

rahulrg my opinion is that, I don't think the number of lines matters unless it is mentioned explicitly my MIT. I don't recall reading anything like that. At best, I would probably try to use a similar font and font size used in the template and will fit the resume in one page, how many ever lines it may come to.

Hi randomwalk,

Not sure how much weight should be attached to it, but the application mentions so:

Please prepare a business résumé that includes your employment history in reverse chronological order, with titles, dates, and whether you worked part-time or full-time. Your educational record should also be in reverse chronological order and should indicate dates of attendance and degree(s) earned. Other information appropriate to a business résumé is welcomed and encouraged. The résumé should not be more than one page in length (up to 50 lines). Please follow this template. <template containing 50 lines including blank lines is attached>

Am not sure if 50 is just indicative or restrictive.

The "50 lines resume" thing is intended so people don't use tiny margins and a miniscule font to cram more crap in. They won't literally count how many lines the resume is. It's also not mandatory to use the template they provide (EssaySnark finds it lacking in certain ways, it's meant for post-MBA recruiting, it's not an ideal template for a bschool application resume).

What you need is a clean, professional, one-page resume that's balanced and not crowded. If you got that, you're good.

Don't forget that the resume content needs to be overhauled too - it's not just a matter of formatting. What most people have on hand before starting this process is not optimized to their apps.

EssaySnark
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Thanks essaysnark for your help.

Let me trouble you with a query on the optional essay - Is the essay meant to present an interesting / fun side about the applicant to the AdCom?

In my case, I have two options to either mention about my part-time entrepreneurship on my resume and elaborate on my extra-currics in the optional essay OR drop the part-time entrepreneurship from my resume altogether and detail it out entirely in my optional essay.

Given that my long term goal is entrepreneurship, I am more inclined towards the second option. Just worried that it will be an overkill of serious information in all three essays. Might make me look like all work and no play. Am not sure what the optional essay is meant for.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

@rahulrg, it's really hard to answer this without seeing the entirety of your pitch - this is really a holistic application strategy question. What we can say is this:

1. The Optional Question for MIT can literally be handled in ANY WAY - there are no rules, that's the beauty of it, and every person can (maybe we should say "should" there) do it differently, based on the realities of their individual profile. It isn't "meant" to cover interesting/fun stuff, though that's often a great way to deploy it. There's no right vs. wrong as a general statement; there's only optimal vs. less strategic for YOU. We wouldn't worry about the work/play angle; that's not the criteria to be solving for.
2. MIT doesn't care about goals. They really don't. The approach you use for other schools needs to be changed; it's not the same thing and MIT is a unique beast in this respect. (Shameless self-promotion: People are saying that our MIT essay guide is very helpful because of this.)
3. That being said: Entrepreneurship experience is valuable for ANY school and we agree that you need to be featuring it prominently. This is where we can't offer any more guidance without digging into your exact circumstances - maybe it goes in the Optional Answer, but we'd assume it's important enough to be covered in one of the main essays. No matter what, that part-time entrepreneurship thing MUST be on your resume, we can't imagine any circumstances whereby it should be deleted; doesn't matter if it's covered in essays or not. Anything in the essays should be on the resume (though the inverse is not true).

Hope this helps at least somewhat!
EssaySnark
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My resume exceeded 50 lines, but it was close (~60 lines or so).

Anyone have experience with class visits and the Ambassadors program (https://mitsloan.mit.edu/mba/admissions/admission-events/ambassadors-program)? I'm visiting this fall, and my two priorities are talking to students and sitting in on a class. The Ambassadors program sounds perfect for facilitating this, but it sounds like they only run it on Mondays and Thursdays. Unfortunately, I plan to stop by on a Tuesday or Wednesday due to work committments -- is the Ambassadors program something special that's worth changing my schedule for, or is it just a convenient way to lump multiple events together (class, lunch, info session) that I could recreate on a Tuesday/Wednesday?

According to here: (https://mitsloan.mit.edu/mba/admissions/admission-events/visit-mit-sloan/) , you can drop in a class any time as long as you follow proper etiquette.

The program runs 'through' Monday to Thursday. So you should be fine.

I know their website states class visits are only offered on Monday 'and' Thursday. That is, I think, different from the Ambassador's program. You can always call and check with the adcom for your intended date of travel. Also, the registration for Ambassador's program will start soon (pretty certain about that), so alternatively, you can wait for an email.

You can also check this post or this post

Hi,

Last year I attended the Ambassadors program at MIT Sloan twice. I can tell you from my personal experience that it is worth it. Here is what to expect:
- The event starts with an information session with an admissions member. That was nice, but nothing you can't find online or on previous chat transcripts. Still, it may be a good opportunity to leave a good impression and get information by asking about something to which the answer cannot be found online.
- Then students come in, introduce themselves and share launch with the attendees. The students are incredibly helpful and friendly. It was a great opportunity to hear their stories, and find students with similar backgrounds or goals. On my first visit to Sloan, I did not register to the ambassadors program (I was not aware of it,) and so while I could hop in to the information session and have lunch with students, I could not join a class. One of the students was very kind and offered me to join him to a class. I kept in touch with him and he was really helpful with my application later on.
- After lunch, the students take you with them to the class you registered. I am not sure if I was lucky, but both times the lectures were pretty amazing. The first was by Professor Andrew Lo. I am not very much into finance, but this superstar lecturer made me feel as if this is the most interesting subject there is. Any more words from me would just ruin the experience. I Highly recommend attending. The second time I attended a guest lecture at a Digital Evolution course. The lecture was given by an MIT Sloan alumnus. It was highly relevant to my experience and goals.

If you can't visit the ambassadors program, I recommend reaching out to students well before. That is what I did the second time around, and they took the time to meet with me, see relevant places, and introduce me to other students.

Hope I helped, best of luck!

Seeking advice:

In the 2nd essay, "Describe a time when you pushed yourself beyond your comfort zone", is it better to decribe a professional situation than a personal example? I have a strong personal example but I'm concerned whether the AdCom will think "Everyone faces issues in the family or personal life. Being pushed in a personal side is common in everyone's life but a professional example will give insight onto how I handle things in the workplace"

Posted from my mobile device

jumsumtak and dab, thanks for the answers!



All things being equal, I'd go with the personal example if it's stronger. The key to this is "when you pushed yourself" -- it's better to write about an uncomfortable situation that you got yourself into, rather than something that simply happened to you. If your personal situation was just a reaction to something that's fairly common, I'd go with the other example. Hard to tell without knowing more details, but I hope that answered your question.