MIT Sloan Admissions Essays for 2012-2013

MIT Sloan has released its admissions essays and deadlines for the Class of 2015. Sloan has made some tweaks this year, including dropping an essay, which continues a trend that we have seen among top MBA programs so far this year. However, the school’s famous cover letter returns. This cover letter is still unique among other top MBA programs’ application essays; apparently its still works well enough that the Sloan admissions committee wants to keep it around.

Here are Sloan’s application essays for the coming year, followed by our comments in italics:

MIT Sloan Cover Letter
Please prepare a cover letter (up to 500 words) seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA program. Your letter should describe your accomplishments, address any extenuating circumstances that may apply to your application, and conform to standard business correspondence. Your letter should be addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Senior Director of Admissions.

This isn’t an admissions essay in the traditional sense, but the cover letter is a rite of passage for MIT Sloan applicants every year. Over the years the prompt has evolved a bit, but at its core it remains the same: It serve as your all-in-one, cut-through-the-noise, “This is who I am, this is what I’ve done, and this is why I want to earn an MBA at MIT Sloan.” Whatever core themes you have decided to emphasize in your application, be sure that they are well represented here.

MIT Sloan Application Essays
We are interested in learning more about how you work, think, and act. For each essay, please provide a brief overview of the situation followed by a detailed description of your response. Please limit the experiences you discuss to those which have occurred in the past three years.

In each of the essays, please describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did.

1. Please describe a time when you had to convince a person or a group of your idea. (500 words)
   
   This question carries over from last year with just some very subtle tweaking. Last year, Sloan’s questions (including for its cover letter) put a great deal of emphasis on the traits that demonstrate leadership. Sloan has toned it down a bit this year, but you can be certain that Sloan admissions officers are still looking for leaders in the applicant pool. If you just read that last sentence and thought, “Uh oh, I’ve never managed anyone or been a team lead,” don’t despair. That’s not how Sloan (or any top MBA program) defines leadership. One practical definition of leadership is the ability to positively influence others, and Sloan directly asks for an example of that ability with this question. Even if your example feels fairly mundane (such as an engineer convincing other engineers to pursue a certain technical solution), you will be successful if you can show real skill maturity in HOW you go it done. That’s what MIT Sloan is looking for.
2. Please describe a time when you overcame a personal setback. (500 words)
   
   This question is new this year, and it also addresses some of the traits that admissions officers look for in emerging leaders: the ability to objectively take a challenge and setback and turn it into something positive, coming out better in the end. Many applicants see “setback” and think, “Oh no, a failure essay,” but you shouldn’t be afraid to write about a failure or shortcoming. (You also don’t need to write about one of these… a setback could also be something that happens to you, such as a devastating sports injury.) In fact, writing a response about overcoming a failure or weakness will usually more powerful than answering with “My biggest challenge was completing a marathon.” While that may sound impressive, it’s far less revealing than a story about a time when you had to make a more fundamental change to who you are as a person and as a leader.

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MIT Sloan Essays and Deadlines for 2009-2010

MIT Sloan just recently posted its application deadlines and admissions essays for the coming year. Our comments follow in italics:

MIT Sloan Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 27, 2009
Round 2: January 13, 2010

(As is normally the case for Sloan, the school has just two application rounds. These deadlines are virtually identical to last year’s. Sloan has bucked the trend of top business schools moving their Round 1 deadline to the beginning of October.)

MIT Sloan Admissions Essays

1. Prepare a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA Program. Describe your accomplishments and include an example of how you had an impact on a group or organization. Your letter should conform to standard business correspondence and be addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Director of MBA Admissions. (500 words)

   (While not a normal admissions essay, MIT Sloan’s cover letter is a consistent part of its application. Last year the question changed to place more emphasis on your “impact on an organization.” This year the question remains the same, so the Sloan admissions office must think that this phrasing helps them more effectively get at what they’re looking for in MBA applicants.)

2. Please describe a time when you went beyond what was defined, expected, established, or popular. (500 words)

   (This is a new question for Sloan this year, and, like last year’s change in the cover letter question, this change suggests that Sloan is really looking closely for evidence of how you have gone beyond your regular job description to make a positive impact on those around you. We consider this as one of the key ingredients of leadership, and we expect that Sloan wants to see more of it in its applicants.)

3. Please describe a time when you coached, trained, or mentored a person or group. (500 words)

   (This is also a new question for this year, and it also gets at another trait of leadership — putting aside one’s own problems and tasks to help someone else better themselves or overcome an obstacle. As is the case with similar questions, you should use the “Situation-Action-Result” format. Don’t just say what happened, but rather put a good deal of emphasis on what YOU specifically did to help the person who needed your mentorship.)

4. Please describe a time when you took responsibility for achieving an objective. (500 words)

   (This is another question that gets at signs of leadership. In this case, it’s a willingness to take on the burden of achieving a goal. Once again, the “SAR” technique will be critical to demonstrating not just what you accomplished, but also HOW you accomplished it, which is what the admissions committee really wants to see. They don’t want to simply hear about how you were handed a goal and you easily achieved it; discuss an instance when you took on an especially challenging goal, maybe when others avoided it or had failed in achieving it, and describe what exactly you did to make it happen.)

   LGO applicants only:

5. Why do you wish to pursue the LGO program? What are the goals that you hope to accomplish both as a student and as a graduate of the program? Be sure to include a description of your post-LGO career plans. (250 words or less, limited to one page) You are welcome to copy and paste text directly from your cover letter.
6. Why do you wish to pursue the engineering field and specialty area you have selected? (250 words or less, limited to one page) You are welcome to copy and paste text directly from your cover letter.

   (While MIT Sloan’s LFM program has evolved into the new Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program, the essays for the program remain pretty much the same vs. last year’s essays. Here the admissions office is looking for signs that you have what it takes to get more out of the LGO program than from the traditional two-year MBA program.)

For more information about getting into MIT Sloan, visit the Veritas Prep MIT Sloan information page.

MIT Sloan 2008-2009 Application Now Live

MIT Sloan applicants, get ready! The school’s online application is now live for the 2008-2009 admissions season. Last month we posted our analysis of MIT Sloan’s 20082-2009 admissions essays.

In other news, Sloan announced that it will roll out a new course in ethics, moving away from the case study approach in this area. While the topic of ethics isn’t as hot on business school campuses as it was a couple of years ago, it’s clear that top programs have no forgotten about the importance of ethics in a graduate business education.

Hopefully this will always be the case as other management education philosophies and fads come and go.

For advice on how to tackle your Sloan application, visit the Veritas Prep MIT Sloan information page. And for more information on deadlines, visit our business school admissions deadlines page.