Like most leading business schools, MIT Sloan looks for applicants who demonstrate intellectual curiosity and a collaborative spirit, and who continue to refine their abilities in leadership and innovation. Sloan also places an emphasis on action. The admissions office wants “do-ers,” particularly those who eschew the status quo, welcome challenges, and approach obstacles with an inventive mindset.
The Sloan application allows you the opportunity to demonstrate these qualities through your resume, a video essay, an optional short answer response, and a cover letter. While your resume will provide an overview of your life from the start of college, your video, short answer response, and cover letter will be your most meaningful opportunities to give the reader a view into the person and professional behind your most meaningful experiences and accomplishments.
Optional Short Answer Question: Applicants are invited to expand on their background by responding to the following optional 250-word short answer question: 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.
While this question is optional, we recommend that you respond because it gives you the chance to add personal context to your application. Begin your brainstorm by thinking through the many influences in your life—your family, culture(s) including those resulting from your heritage, religion, city where you grew up, etc., and/or important relationships from within or outside your community. Within this context, consider meaningful experiences that prompted significant evolutions in your perspective—you know, those “ah-ha!” moments without which you would be a different student, professional, and/or person today. For some, these are treasured memories. For others they are moments of growth spurred by discomfort, resilience, or trauma.
Because your space is limited, it is best to choose one experience you believe will show the reader who you are. What did you feel…say… think… do? Use tactical descriptors to pull the reader in. After you engage the reader in a compelling anecdote, spend the remainder of your word count on self-reflection. How did this experience influence your path? What did you learn and how have you incorporated this perspective into your life?
Cover Letter: 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).
Anchor this cover letter in experiences from your full-time post-baccalaureate professional life, because what you’ve already done, learned, and achieved is far more important than what you haven’t—what you say you want to do in the future. Select a max of two experiences that you can discuss in depth. These experiences should each demonstrate more than one of the qualifications listed in the prompt (e.g., creativity, leadership, innovation, teamwork, and/or ability to grow and learn from failure). Show the reader how specific projects, interactions, and/or challenges influenced you and the formation of your goals.
Then, transition into what you have yet to learn, and why a Sloan MBA is your next step. Prove to them that their program is the perfect intersection between where you’ve been and where you want to go. Which courses, professors, experiential learning opportunities, etc. are most interesting to you? Choose two or three that differentiate Sloan from other business schools you’re considering and explain why you’re so eager to engage and participate. Once the reader has taken the trip to your past and better understands you as a professional, your proposed path forward as part of the Sloan community will resonate more deeply.
Related:
Your MBA Application. Acing the Video Essay
How to Approach the Harvard Business School Essay