MIT MBA Essays for 2014-15 has an interesting twist. The second essay asks you to pretend as a recommender, and write your recommendation letter. The word count for Essay 2 has increased to 750 words from 500, a reversal of trends, compared to top MBA programs. Essay Number 1 has remained the same.
Essay 1: The mission of the MIT Sloan School of Management is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and generate ideas that advance management practice. Discuss how you will contribute toward advancing the mission based on examples of past work and activities. (500 words or fewer, limited to one page)
Essay 2: Write a professional letter of recommendation on behalf of yourself. Answer the following questions as if you were your most recent supervisor recommending yourself for admission to the MIT Sloan MBA Program: (750 words or fewer)
How long and in what capacity have you known the applicant?
How does the applicant stand out from others in a similar capacity?
Please give an example of the applicant's impact on a person, group, or organization.
Please give a representative example of how the applicant interacts with other people.
Which of the applicant's personal or professional characteristics would you change?
Please tell us anything else you think we should know about this applicant.
Optional Question
The Admissions Committee invites you to share anything else you would like us to know about you, in any format.
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