As promised in yesterday’s post announcing MIT’s essay topics for the coming admissions season, we wanted to take some time today to comment on what the school might be looking for and offer a bit of guidance on how applicants might tackle this set of questions.
While the cover letter and first essay are unchanged, three of the school’s four required situational essays are new for this season. Whereas several of last year’s inquiries focused on overcoming difficulties, with questions about a trying interaction with a teammate and a challenge the applicant circumvented, this year’s set is just as directed in terms of topic but features prompts that are framed in ways that are open to a broader range of potential examples. Another thing to keep in mind when approaching MIT’s questions is that it’s very important to address each of the subjects of “what you thought, felt, said and did.” As also evident in the school’s unique behavioral interview process, the Sloan believes that past actions and experience are the best predictors of future performance, and that gathering as much information as possible about the applicant’s internal state to supplement the remarks about external results is a good approach to understanding whether he or she will be successful in similar situations in the future.
Cover Letter: Prepare a cover letter (up to 500 words) seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA Program. Please comment on your career goals and those factors which influenced you to pursue an MBA education at MIT Sloan. The cover letter provides a chance for you to discuss your passions, values, and interests. Through what you write we hope to discover whether you will thrive at MIT Sloan and how you will contribute to our diverse community. Address your cover letter to Mr. Rod Garcia, Director of MBA Admissions.
For years, Rod Garcia has likened the MBA application process to the recruiting process; MBA aspirants, just like job applicants, need to demonstrate that they know how to market themselves. This is why the school requires a cover letter as part of their application.
As you approach this assignment, keep in mind that many of the standard cover letter themes need to be discussed – your attributes and skills, why you are interested in joining the ‘company’ (MIT/Sloan), and what you feel you could contribute. These certainly intersect with the ideas covered by other schools’ “career goals” essays, so much so that it may be tempting to simply tack a greeting onto the beginning of a career goals essay you’ve prepared for another program. MIT’s request for these ideas in cover letter format, however, actually makes it very easy to spot recycled material, so it’s important that you tailor your response to the school’s unique process. A potential outline for this essay might open with a ‘greeting’ to the committee followed by a statement of your interest in MIT and what you would bring to the school, then a short statement of your career goals with a summary of the ways in which your experience to date has prepared you, then a “why MIT” section explaining why it is the best place for you in terms of what you need from an MBA and your fit with the school, concluding with a thank you.
Essay 1: Please tell us about a time when you had an impact on a person, group, or organization. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did (500 words or less).
This has been a standard question for this program for several years running, indicating an enduring focus on an applicant’s ability to affect positive change on a small or large scale. In sharing this story, keep in mind that in addition to providing a clear discussion of the specific steps you took to achieve the end result, it will also be important to quantify or at least concretely describe the impact you made on the person, group or organization and explain why it was important or significant to you all parties.
Essay 2: Please describe a time when your team had to arrive at a compromise. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did (500 words or less).
This question is new for this year. While potentially touching on issues similar to last year’s question about a difficult interaction with a person or group, this prompt is also open to completely amicable team dynamics and seems more focused on building consensus and positive sentiment than simply navigating a less than ideal situation. This essay topic poses a great chance to showcase your maturity and ability to remain objective in setting aside personal opinions and preferences to arrive at the course of action that was best for the group as a whole. Because it’s best to select examples in which you played a very active role, it would be ideal to arrive at a story in which you took the lead in facilitating this compromise.
Essay 3: Please tell us a time when you advocated for a position. What alternatives did you consider? Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did (500 words or less).
Another new one for this season, this question seems geared toward understanding the applicant’s ability to evaluate multiple sides of a situation, pick a stance, and explain its merits to others in a convincing manner. The element of what you said will be of particular importance to this essay, as the adcom is clearly interested in learning about a candidate’s communication skills and interpersonal abilities. Additionally, you’ll want to discuss your reasoning and ultimate actions as you respond to this question, as well as the final outcome of the situation.
Essay 4: Please tell us about a time when you put an idea into action. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did (500 words or less).
Yet another new question, this topic covers ground that is very similar to the “impact” essay, as one would hopefully have translated idea into action toward some positive end. The key difference, then, might be discussing some idea or theory that you applied in a novel way or a situation in which you came up with an innovative approach; that is, this inquiry focuses a bit more heavily on the front end of the story. You’ll also want to spend a fair amount of time explaining the steps you took to set your plan into motion, but keep in mind that this response might be a bit less focused on the end result.
As a final note, we’d like to point out the following phrase from the MIT Sloan essay instructions: Please select experiences or events from the past one to two years. This phrase is important, because it underlines the admissions team’s focus on the candidate’s recent past. While there are some exceptions (the committee has told us that candidates need not apply a rigid barrier if they had a great experience that took place 2.5 years ago, for example), it’s still a good idea to try to keep the focus of your MIT Sloan materials within this timeframe.
