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What is a Legatum Fellowship?

Legatum Fellowships – Amount, Number of Awards and Criteria

Legatum Fellowships are targeted for students interested in starting a venture in an Emerging market. Since the establishment of the Fellowship, 300 MIT Fellows have benefited from it.   

Apart from the financial grant, fellows are also eligible for mentorship through an Entrepreneur-in-Residence program.

The fellowship covers travel expenses to emerging markets during winter and summer breaks. The expenses cover research, building professional relations, or prototyping.

The Legatum Fellowship program officially starts at the beginning of the Fall semester and ends with the Spring semester

Award: Up to $25,000

Number of Awards: 20-25 students are awarded this fellowship each year

Eligibility: Eligibility for the Legatum Fellowship Program:

  • Current students enrolled for year-long duration or Prospective students enrolled for the upcoming academic year
  • Principled and innovative leaders with an aptitude for experimentation, continuous learning, and personal growth

Requirements

  • One MIT Course on Entrepreneurial leadership development
  • Motivation to find entrepreneurial opportunities in a developing economy post-graduation

Essay Questions

  • What does it mean, to you, to be a principled entrepreneurial leader? Please provide specific examples of how you have demonstrated or pursued this vision on entrepreneurial ventures or teams that you have led. (1000 characters)
  • How certain are you that you want to be an entrepreneur in emerging markets post-graduation and why? (It is okay to be on the fence.) (500 Characters)
  • How passionate are you about the problem you are trying to solve with your venture? How have your experiences (educational, leadership, professional, etc.) prepared you to pursue the venture? (1000 Characters)
  • Have you lived in or visited the country in which you intend to launch or scale your venture? If so, for how long and in what capacity (e.g., resident of the country, studied there, worked there, etc.)? How has this experience been relevant to your venture? (1000 Characters)
  • How do you plan to use this fellowship to grow as an entrepreneurial leader and prepare you to work full-time as an emerging market entrepreneur after graduation? (1000 Characters)

Note: Students are also required to submit 3-4 professional References

Related Download: F1GMAT's MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide

Legatum Fellowship

 

MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide

Cover Letter Question: Please submit a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA program. Your letter should conform to 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).

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. (250 words or less.)

Video Questions

Question 1: Introduce yourself to your future classmates. Here’s your chance to put a face with a name, let your personality shine through, be conversational, be yourself. We can’t wait to meet you!

Question 2: 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?

Download F1GMAT's MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide