MIT Sloan’s admissions interview is a Behavioral Event-Based Interview (BEI), and for the lucky ones who have already received an invitation to an MIT Sloan interview, we’d like to share some advice regarding this interview. While perhaps not as radically different from the traditional MBA admissions interview as Wharton’s Team-Based Discussion, MIT Sloan’s behavioral interview requires a healthy amount of respect and a unique style of preparation that goes beyond reflecting on why MBA programs are important for your professional trajectory.
Unlike most MBA admissions committees, MIT Sloan focuses its interview exclusively on a candidate’s past actions. As the admissions committee at MIT Sloan writes in its interview preparation guide, “Instead of asking how you would behave in a particular situation, the interviewer will ask you how you did behave.”
This means the interviewer will likely probe each one of your answers, asking several follow up questions or encouraging you to provide more details and specifics.
As a result, you’ll spend a lot longer answering every question at an MIT Sloan interview than you would during most MBA admissions interviews. Consider that MIT Sloan candidates are typically asked around 6-9 questions; in comparison, Harvard Business School candidates are usually asked at least 10-15 questions, and sometimes more.
This difference is important, and it should drive most of your preparation strategy for MIT Sloan’s behavioral interview.
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Perhaps one benefit of the behavioral focus of the MIT Sloan MBA interview is that it follows a seemingly predictable format. Although there’s no guarantee, it is likely that the MIT Sloan interview process will likely be structured along these lines:
This list gives you an idea of some of the interview questions to prepare for.
This is perhaps the most important advice any applicant can heed headed into a behavioral interview. As mentioned previously, behavioral interviews lend themselves to prolonged focus on a small handful of situations that you choose, and each situation will require you to elaborate at length and in detail. Therefore, your success during the MIT Sloan MBA interview hinges on your ability to pick topic areas for your answers that you can talk in detail about.
After the interviewer asks you a behavioral question, take a moment to consider how you want to answer it. Studies on human interaction have shown that pauses of between four and seven seconds are perfectly normal; any longer, and the break starts to become a bit uncomfortable. So, take the full four to seven seconds (which sounds shorter than it really is!) before launching into your answer to make sure its a topic you’re eager to talk about at length.
If that time isn’t enough, ask for more. This is a perfectly reasonable thing to do during an interview, and in fact it is a near-mandatory part of any interview for one of the major consulting firms (which obviously recruit heavily form MBA programs like MIT Sloan). Simply say, “That’s a really great question, and I haven’t thought about it before. Do you mind if I take a few seconds to consider it?” While the break may feel unnatural at the time, it demonstrates professionalism and poise; more importantly, it is far better than jumping into a question with a poorly thought out answer.
If you’re interested in prepping for your MBA interview with the Menlo Coaching team, reach out today! We offer mock interviews and school-specific training for HBS, Wharton, Sloan and more!
The STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) framework doesn’t work for everyone, but it is the gold standard for answering behavioral questions, and there is a reason for that. It’s worth practicing using the STAR framework during mock interviews so it becomes second nature during the real MIT Sloan MBA interview.
If you aren’t familiar with the STAR framework, this excerpt from Wikipedia is as good a place as any to start reading up on it, and there are dozens more resources out there that elaborate on it further:
As with any type of interview, practice is critical. To prepare for the MIT Sloan’s interview process in particular, make sure you practice with someone that is willing to (if not eager to) grill you. The more detail-oriented they are, the better. And, because it will prompt them to ask more clarifying questions about your resume and essays, it’s helpful if they don’t know you particularly well personally or professionally. (This is a service we provide to many candidates: Interview Prep).
Succeeding at MIT Sloan’s behavioral interview is not only about the questions you answer but also about the questions you ask. Admissions committees want to admit candidates that will say yes, and one really good barometer of a candidate’s intent to do so is the questions they ask at the end of the interview. (You’d be surprised how easy it is to separate out the candidates who aren’t really sold on a particular school or program; they often do little to no research, or they limit their research to reading a school’s website or watching online videos).
When preparing for the MIT Sloan MBA interview, make sure the questions you ask reflect your own personal application. That is, the questions should be ones that make sense for you in particular to ask. They shouldn’t be generic questions that any candidate could ask, and they shouldn’t be questions with answers easily accessible through MIT Sloan’s website or admissions material.
At the bottom of the preparation guide for the MIT Sloan MBA interview, the admissions committee clearly states that candidates “may send a thank-you through email or postal mail.” Don’t miss the opportunity!
…and it should go without saying, but in case you haven’t already: read MIT Sloan’s interview preparation guide.
You won’t have a chance to talk about all (or even most) of the stories or examples you prepare, but it’s worth having a handful of situations and stories that you can talk about in the behavioral interview, which means that the way you practice for interview questions will be slightly different than for other MBA programs. Use the STAR framework in preparing your stories.
We estimate that the post-interview admissions rate at MIT Sloan stands at around 60%, although precise numbers don’t exist. So taking the extra time to prepare for and practice your behavioral interview is critical to win admission to this top MBA program.
Prepare effectively for the Behavioral Event-Based Interview at MIT Sloan with guidance from our seasoned MBA admissions consultants, ensuring you showcase your candidacy with confidence.
