This year’s MBA application prompts have been released, so it’s time to start brainstorming what your topics will be. Wondering where to start, what to write? No worries, we have all the tips you need to get a nice start on writing a quality essay for MIT Sloan.
Sloan emphasizes impact – how their students and school community as a whole can impact the world. This is accomplished through research and global, innovative ideas brought forth by both students and faculty. Through the story you relate in your essay, the admissions council is looking to see if you reflect the same values that the school does. MIT Sloan is looking for students who are problem-solvers, practical, and excited to engage with the world. The best way to represent that you possess those qualities is through the type of essay you choose to write.
It’s crucial to pick the right experience to discuss in your essay, and the different types of prompts help narrow that down for you. Keep reading for a closer look at the different types of essays, and how best to utilize them in order to write a stand-out essay for MIT Sloan.
At Menlo Coaching, we noticed that most MBA essays will fall into one of a number of categories: personal essays, career goals essays, and behavioral essays etc. Read ahead for our expert guide on approaching these essays for MIT Sloan.
Some important details:
-Give us as much detail as possible (names, titles, etc.) but it’s ok to redact names if you need to.
-Please circle your role in red so that your position is easily identifiable.
-Make sure we can easily identify where you are, to whom you report, and if applicable, who reports to you.
-If your recommender or references are on your organizational chart (they may not be, and that’s ok!), please highlight them for us.
-If you are a consultant, entrepreneur, or affiliated with the military review our FAQs for suggestions on how to approach the organizational chart.
-Please upload an organizational chart that outlines the internal structure of your place of employment. Limit to two pages.
Click here to view a sample organizational chart.
Taking the above into consideration, please submit a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA program. Your letter should conform to a standard business correspondence, include one or more professional examples that illustrate why you meet the desired criteria above, and can be addressed to:
Admissions Committee
50 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02142
Your cover letter should be 300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation. If you have any additional questions, please visit our FAQ page.
Upload a Word or PDF document.
Videos should adhere to the following guidelines:
-No more than 1 minute (60 seconds) in length
-Single take (no editing)
-Speaking directly to the camera
-Do not include background music or subtitles
Note: While we ask you to introduce yourself to your future classmates in this video, the video will not be shared beyond the admissions committee and is for use in the application process only.
How has the world you come from shaped who you are today? For example, your family, culture, community, all help to shape aspects of your identity. Please use this opportunity if you would like to share more about your background.
Please do not include any links in your response. (250 words or fewer)
Another of Sloan’s unusual admissions requirements is its organizational chart. From this chart, the AdCom wants to understand visually what your current role is in your organization or company, as well as where you sit in the hierarchy and chain of command. The admissions committee also wants to understand the role and position of your recommenders, so it’s important to be detailed, thorough, and accurate in your organizational chart.
Click here to view a sample organizational chart.
To make it simple: the behavioral essay is meant to show MIT Sloan that you have developed some sort of leadership skills, what your values are as a leader, and how you are going to most benefit from their development programs.
The admissions committee is looking for applicants that are self-reflective. Whether it’s through a setback you’ve experienced, or how you dealt with situations that have gone awry, the school is looking for students who are resilient and able to learn from their mistakes.
Do not overexaggerate (or underexaggerate!) the situations you decide to write about. Be honest about what happened; MIT Sloan is looking for genuine people to join their campus community, and they are less likely to admit an applicant who has overinflated their prior experiences.
Last but not least, make sure to describe what you learned and how you implemented this in a subsequent situation. This is an expected element of the behavioral essay, even if it’s not directly written in the prompt. The Admissions Team is looking for MBA essays that show you are a considerate leader who will make the best of their time in the program. The school “demand[s] integrity and respect[s] passion.” Prompts that deal with these topics can be daunting, especially when they require you to write about a weakness you have or a failure you’ve experienced.
Like we touched on earlier, schools are looking for the right fit for their campus community, just as you are searching for the school that aligns best with your goals. In the personal essay, this is your chance to show MIT Sloan the values that drive you both as a person and as a student. These values tell the admissions council what you prioritize, the moral code you live by, and, most importantly, who you are as a person.
In these essays, you can talk about almost anything; typically, applicants will write about relationships in their lives, or times when there was a hardship they had to overcome. Be warned, though: there are some topics to avoid, and we have outlined a few things to watch out for in this article.
When it comes to video essays specifically, we have some advice:
Once you’ve completed your application, the optional Sloan essay gives you an additional opportunity to provide the AdCom with any additional information or clarity that you feel would enhance your application.
One trap that MBA applicants fall into is using the additional space provided by this essay to write on a whole new topic. However, this is not always the best idea.
You should only make use of this essay if you what you write will provide context to an element of your application to improve your candidacy—you don’t want to jeopardize your chances by adding unnecessary noise to your application.
For reapplicants, Sloan requires a specific essay in which you can address how your application has improved since your last application.
In this essay, you can address any improvements to your test scores, promotions at work, additional volunteer or community work, or any significant professional development that you have undertaken since you last applied to the program.
Timing is key for reapplicants, and when you’re applying for an MBA program a second time around, you want to be sure that you are a more qualified and desirable client than you were in the past—even if your application was stellar the first time.
Writing strong, coherent, genuine stories is an essential part of your MBA application. These essays are meant to help you stand out among many other applicants, so it is worth your time to do the work and write about situations unique to your life and that you truly learned from. Visit our process page to understand how Menlo Coaching can help you with your MBA essays for MIT Sloan.
