Sloan 2013 (MIT) - Calling All Applicants

Me too!

Just received an e-mail from MIT Sloan Admissions Office "....interview invites will be going out starting this week, and will continue to do so for the next 4 weeks.."

So we all have a long wait ..

The Amount of Dings in Here is Too Damn High

Guys,

For essay #2(overcoming setback), I found the information in this link helpful. Not from a b-school, but has lot of relevant tips.

https://blogs.law.yale.edu/blogs/admissi ... art-i.aspx

First up, congrats on landing the interview!
Sloan is a huge proponent of the 'Behavioral Interview' - an interview style wherein the questions are not really about what you want to do in the future, but what you have already done. As they keep saying, 'Past experience is an excellent indicator of future performance'. So they take situations that you are likely to face in business school, and ask you not what you would do in that situation, but what you did when were faced with it. The distinction is subtle but clear - Sloan expects you to have experienced that situation already. A common example would be - 'Tell me about a time when someone in your team was not performing to his/her potential".
A common thread across all Behavioral Interview questions is the way the question is framed - its almost always "Tell me about a time when..." or "Describe a time when.." or "What did you do when...". This lends itself to a very clear answer structure called the STAR method - Situation, Task, Action, Result. What was the situation, what exactly did you need to do (Task), what did you do (Action), and what was the outcome (Result).
But I digress... To answer your question - Sloan usually asks for detailed leadership experiences, and does not worry about Why MBA and Why Sloan. However, you should be prepared with an answer in case they decide to surprise you with it . Better yet, you could weave it into one of your responses.
(FYI - There are multiple sites where current students have posted transcripts of their interviews. Check last year's thread - am pretty sure I saw some there)

All the best!
MBAWanderlust

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

At least they are nice enough to send the email after Christmas and before Jan- which is many other schools' R2 deadline .

I'll add my two cents about supplemental material and LinkedIn profiles. I neither did a video for the supplemental material nor added my LinkedIn profile in my application. And, of course, I'll add the caveat that this is based on one person's experience and is, by no means, the "correct" thing to do for everyone. It may seem like an obvious statement, but a lot of times, when applicants are looking to figure out how to get that interview, they can't see the forest through the trees. They will just think that because one person did it and was successful, it automatically means that they have to do it as well. I had to tear myself away from that urge too when I was applying - there's just no formula that is going to guarantee you an interview. I digress ....

I'll start with LinkedIn first - I didn't do it because 1) I really don't use LinkedIn that much and thus don't have much material on there, and 2) if I were to add more material on my LinkedIn profile, it would be much of the same stuff that I had on my resume. I didn't see there being anything extra that the Adcom could glean from me adding a LinkedIn profile, so I decided against it.

In terms of the supplemental material, I think it is necessary to always keep in mind that you're still trying to give the Adcom a more complete picture of you as a candidate/applicant. All the rules that you were fastidiously adhering to in your essays, your guidance to your recommenders, your interview preparations, etc., still apply. It is your chance to add something extra about yourself that can help them remember you as a unique candidate. So why some people find that 1) pandering to the Adcom, 2) reiterating something that was probably already iterated in their resumes/essays, 3) go way over the time limit, or 4) having typos or displaying generally poor execution is/are the way to go for their supplemental material is completely beyond me. It's still part of the overall package and speaks volumes about how self-aware you are. If it's poorly done, it's likely not going to reflect well on you.

Having lurked a bit in the Sloan forum while I was preparing my application, it just seemed like people were being (self-)intimidated into doing a video for their supplemental material. That's just one medium, and a few people do it very well, while many don't. If videos aren't your strength and/or if you don't have time to properly spend on the video, it would probably be best for you to stick to something that would make a better impression on the Adcom. The counter argument I'll get for this is that if everyone does videos, then I'd be at a disadvantage if I do an essay because videos make a lasting impression. Yes and no. If your video sucks, then you've hurt yourself a whole lot more than if you spend time on a stellar essay about something that the Adcom thinks is really unique.

And - at least for me - the supplemental material should NOT be a music video for the sake of music videos. It's important to step back and realize that the people on the Adcom look at thousands of these things. They know kitsch when they see kitsch, they know lack of substance when they see lack of substance. Just because you have a song in the background doesn't make it substantive. And by the way, a slideshow in video form is just that - a slideshow. AND, it is tougher for the viewer to control the rate at which they view each "slide" in your video, especially if you have text (and some videos I saw on YouTube had LOTS of it), do you really want it to skip by in a flash? These reviewers go through these things really quickly and, I'd think, often have to take the path of least resistance because there are so many applications.

Anyhow, when I thought about my strategy for the supplemental material, I realized that I really didn't have the time to properly put together a strong video, plus, the stuff that I wanted to get across would've likely required more than a minute's worth of video. So I ended up sending a PDF instead - it was something that I knew I could put together well *and* it would get my point across.

So yes, that's my two (or twenty) cents. Take from it what you like. Good luck to you Round 2 applicants!

good luck everyone over these next two nerve-racking days! Just wanted to share the announcement timing from last year (which you probably already know from stalking last year's thread)

I received a phone call from a 1Y congratulating me at around 6:30pm ET. Yes, I was suffering through the whole day refreshing my mailbox every 10 secs! The official email came out, I believe, around 7:30pm ET.

Not everyone gets phone calls (dunno why) so don't freak out.

An older classmate told me that her email came around 6pm ET the year she applied.

In other words, Sloan is notoriously late in the day...at least historically.

Probably not the best day to ask this question as everyone's in the middle of R1 results

Posted from my mobile device

I am in!! Got the call an hour ago, but was stuck in a meeting, so I couldn't post earlier.

WL [BTW, even a waitlist by MIT, especially for engineers like me, is an honor in itself]

Not sure if they post chat scripts, but the main thing that came out of it was that interview invitations will start mid-to-end February and stop about a week before the notification deadline.

Hello!

I also was dinged on 25th... ouch!!
I'm a R2 Applicant from Latin America

I'm copying my rejection letter to all those who are asking about this year's admission rate:


"The Admissions Committee of the MIT Sloan MBA Program has considered your application and has regretfully concluded that we cannot offer you a place in the incoming class.

As you no doubt realize, the MIT Sloan School is comparatively small, with approximately 350 MBA students entering each year. While our size offers advantages to both our students and faculty, it also creates an extremely difficult selection process––this year, over 4,600 candidates will compete for the 350 places in the class. I think it is no exaggeration to say that the majority of our applicants would be good students for our program. Since we have so few spaces to offer, the problem is not only choosing academically and professionally qualified applicants, but also choosing the very strongest candidates from a field of extraordinarily talented individuals.

We realize this news comes as a disappointment. I do hope, however, that you will accept our best wishes for your success.

Sincerely,


Rod Garcia
Senior Director of MBA Admissions
P.S. Unfortunately we cannot conduct post-evaluative interviews with candidates we could not admit. As you can imagine, with over 4,600 applicants that procedure would consume almost the full-time attention of two employees. We are simply not staffed to be able to provide that service."

Funny (and also cruel) that Sloan's rejects me and keeps bombing me with e-mails selling the huge benefits of the program... ha ha

For all of you guys that were invited to interview... my best wishes and the best of luck!!! In words of Rod Garcia, you are among the "very strongest candidates from a field of extraordinarily talented individuals"

Every candidate has a unique experience in the interview. And here is why: Based on your application, MIT assigns you scores on specific attributes they want to see in you. The top 20% scorers are invited to interview. Then, your interviewer probes for evidence of the attributes they could not find evidence of in your application (this is where most behavioral questions come in) and/or validates the scores already assigned to you (this is where they try to clarify things you said in your application). In some cases, a lot of time could be spent with the interviewer clarifying something you said in your application, and asking follow-up questions. In other situations, it could be a minute or two on the application, and then the rest is behavioral. In my situation, I was asked a couple of questions about something I had said in my application. My interview was behavioral for the rest of the time. I met other people interviewing on the same day by the same interviewer, and they had very different experiences. However, none of us felt like we got any trick questions. The behavioral questions were straightforward, because they were a version of "Tell me about a time when...". You should sense that they are trying to figure out some attribute based on your response.

We don't know what the attributes are exactly, but you can get a vague idea to prepare for your interview. Read some of the interviews Rod Garcia gave to Poets and Quants or ClearAdmit (I can't remember which). My recommendation is to know your application inside out, and then have a few other stories from your background in mind, stories that you couldn't fit in to the application but would like the adcom to know about. Bring these up in your interview. All the best!

likely between 2 and 5 EDT.

If anyone's in Boston/Cambridge tonight, please stay safe indoors. There was a shooting at 10:48pm et near Building 32 (the Stata Center) tonight. Things are still under investigation, but MIT students have been told to stay inside.