MIT Sloan’s application looks nothing like the standard “Career Goals + Why This School?” set. There is no goals essay and no “Why Sloan?” prompt. Instead, the admissions committee asks you to argue your own case in a 300-word cover letter, reveal your formative background in a 250-word essay, and present yourself live in two video components—one you prepare, one you cannot.
Add the organizational chart and additional references, and Sloan is clearly screening for evidence over polish: who you actually are, what you’ve actually done, and how you come across without a script. This guide walks through the current prompts and discusses how to approach each.
The written (or filmed) components of the Sloan application, not including recommendation letters, are:
The written work here is unusually compact: a 300-word letter and a 250-word essay carry most of the weight. That makes Sloan a precision exercise. The pieces are read together as one portrait, and the fastest way to weaken your application is to repeat yourself—the same story in the cover letter and the background essay, or using a video question to talk through the same anecdote you already wrote down. Plan the set as a whole before you draft any single piece.
MIT Sloan seeks students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-academic. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the experience of other students. We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the world. We welcome people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative—true doers. We want people who can redefine solutions to conventional problems, and strive to preempt unconventional dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas. We demand integrity and respect passion.
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 be addressed to the Admissions Committee (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).
This is Sloan’s flagship essay, and it is deliberately unusual: a literal business cover letter rather than a reflective personal statement. Sloan wants a direct, evidence-based case for your admission—the same way you’d argue for a role you’re qualified for—and the prompt tells you exactly how it will be evaluated. Reread the paragraph of criteria (“thoughtful leaders,” “independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative—true doers,” “redefine solutions to conventional problems,” “integrity,” “passion”) and treat it as a rubric.
The decisive instruction is one or more professional examples. Vague claims of leadership are to be avoided; focus on specific actions. Pick one or two professional episodes where you solved a problem others had given up on, took a stand that cost you something, built or fixed something concrete, and show the results.
Don’t try to hit all of Sloan’s adjectives—it inevitably comes across as forced and inauthentic. Choose the two or three your evidence genuinely supports and prove those. The strongest cover letters read as confident, concrete arguments, not checklists.
Note the constraints precisely. The word count covers the body only—the address block and salutation don’t count against your 300. Keep the form of standard business correspondence (date, “Dear Members of the Admissions Committee,” a signed close), so that the letter strikes the tone that’s being asked for.
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The most-shared sample letters online are precisely what you should not imitate. Sloan reads thousands of these; a structure or phrasing that’s circulating in example essays raises a red flag, and the professional accomplishments that make a letter work cannot be templated; they have to be yours. Use examples to understand the form, but fill it with evidence only you can supply.
The World That Shaped You: The Admissions Committee is excited to learn more about you. In 250 words, please respond to the following short-answer question:
How has the world you come from shaped who you are today? Please use this opportunity to share more about your background. (Text box, 250 words maximum)
This is Sloan’s personal essay, and where the cover letter argues your professional case, this 250-word piece is for the person behind it. The framing—the world you come from—prompts you to talk about your origins and how they’ve shaped you: the family, place, culture, or community that was formative for you. The committee already has your accomplishments elsewhere; here, they want the context that explains your values and perspective.
With 250 words to spend, depth beats breadth. One specific context, rendered concretely, will always be better than a tour through your family, hometown, and three communities. Choose a single narrative and ground it in real detail—a particular tradition, a constraint you grew up inside, a value that was modeled rather than stated—then connect it to who you are now. The move that separates a strong answer from a competent one is the link from background to present: don’t just describe where you come from; show how it shaped a way of thinking or acting that the admissions committee would see in you today.
Authenticity matters more than impressiveness here. This is not a hardship contest, and a manufactured adversity narrative reads as exactly that. A genuine, specific account of an ordinary world that genuinely shaped you is far stronger than a dramatic story that isn’t really yours.
Introduce yourself to your future classmates. Here’s your chance to put a face to your name, let your personality shine through, be conversational, and be yourself. We can’t wait to meet you!
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.
(Upload file, 1 minute video)
This is the video you control completely. You write it, you record as many takes as you need, and you upload the one you like—so there’s no excuse for a weak one. The framing is “introduce yourself to your future classmates,” not to the admissions committee, which is a cue for tone: warm, conversational, human. They want to picture you in a study group, not watch you recite a second cover letter.
Sixty seconds is roughly 130–150 spoken words, so pick one or two things you actually want classmates to know—an interest, a side of you that doesn’t show up in the application, what really drives you—and deliver them naturally. Use the format rules as creative guardrails: single take and no editing means natural delivery is the goal.
The biggest trap is over-preparation. A word-for-word memorized script reads as stiff and staged on camera. Practice the beats until you’re comfortable, but don’t lock in exact sentences. A useful trick: If you keep falling into the same canned speech, change your opening line—it knocks you off the script and restores a natural cadence. And mind the setting: good lighting, a clean and professional background, clear audio. (No empty tequila bottles in the shot.)
All MBA applicants will be prompted to respond to a randomly generated, open-ended question. The question is designed to help us get to know you better; to see how you express yourself and to assess fit with the MIT Sloan culture. It does not require prior preparation.
Video Question 2 is part of your required application materials and will appear as a page within the application, once the other parts of your application are completed. Applicants are given 10 seconds to prepare for a 60-second response.
The following are examples of questions that may be asked in the Video Question 2:
- What achievement are you most proud of and why?
- Tell us about a time a classmate or colleague wasn’t contributing to a group project. What did you do?
(Record in the application portal, 10 seconds to prepare for a 60-second video)
This is the one component you cannot rehearse and cannot redo. The question is randomized, it appears inside the portal after the rest of your application is complete, and you get 10 seconds to think and 60 seconds to answer—one take, no second chances. Sloan wants to see how you think and speak on your feet, not how well you can polish a prepared answer. That’s also why they explicitly advise against reading your response—a delivery that looks scripted defeats the entire point of the exercise.
You can’t prepare the answer, but you can absolutely prepare the skill. The example questions are simple and open-ended. Rehearse the format: pull a list of common behavioral and “get-to-know-you” questions, give yourself 10 seconds and a 60-second timer, and practice answering out loud on camera until structuring a quick response feels natural. A simple mental template—one clear point, one specific example, a brief takeaway—keeps you from rambling when the clock starts.
Handle the logistics in advance so they don’t sink you. Use a wired internet connection, a current version of Chrome or Firefox, and a working webcam and microphone, and grant browser permissions before you start. Sit somewhere quiet and well lit. Because it’s one take, the goal isn’t a perfect answer—it’s a calm, clear, genuine one. A composed 80% beats a flustered scramble for perfection every time.
To help us better understand your current role and the impact that you have on your team and department, please submit an organizational chart. We should be able to clearly understand the internal structure of your organization, where you sit in your organization, and your line of reporting.
Organizational charts should not be more than two pages and keep the following in mind:
- 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.
(Upload file. 2 pages are the limit; Sloan’s sample chart is 1 page.)
The organizational chart is one of Sloan’s signature requirements, and it’s easy to underrate as a formality. It isn’t. The committee uses it to understand visually where you sit in your organization—your level, your span of control, your chain of command—and to see the real scope behind a job title that might otherwise be ambiguous. It also lets them place your recommenders and references in context, which is why the prompt asks you to highlight them if they appear.
Make it instantly legible. Circle your own role in red as instructed, show clearly who you report to and who reports to you, and include enough titles that a reader can grasp your level at a glance—redacting names if confidentiality requires, but keeping titles and structure intact. The goal is for an admissions reader to understand your position in five seconds, so favor clarity over completeness; a sprawling, unreadable corporate tree helps no one.
If your situation doesn’t fit a standard hierarchy, use the special-considerations guidance rather than forcing it. Consultants should chart a representative recent engagement team, not the whole firm. Entrepreneurs should put themselves at the center with branches to clients, suppliers, investors, and board. Military applicants with subsequent civilian roles may submit two charts. In every case, the chart should make your job’s actual scope and impact obvious.
Two more required pieces sit alongside the essays and videos. Treat them with the same care, even though neither is a writing prompt in the usual sense:
MIT Sloan’s application rewards evidence and self-awareness over polish. With no goals essay to hide behind, your case is made through a 300-word cover letter that argues from real accomplishments, a 250-word essay that reveals the world that shaped you, and two videos that show whether you’re the same person on camera as on paper. The components are read together, so the worst outcome is repetition—the same story arguing your professional case and explaining your background, or a spoken answer that’s just what you already wrote. Plan the set as a whole: the cover letter proves what you’ve done, the background essay shows who you are, and the videos bring both to life.
Elevate your Sloan MBA application with strategic MBA coaching and insider insights from experienced consultants.
Lainie Blum Cogan
Sr. Consultant & Director
Education: BA, MA
Since 2008, Lainie has worked with a wide variety of MBA applicants, including dual-degree candidates, nonprofit entrepreneurs, PE professionals, and more. A published author, Lainie draws on her writing and storytelling abilities to help applicants target top programs, and her track record includes acceptances from every M7 program—plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarship awards.
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