We - a group of 10 or so prospective MIT-Sloan applicants - started our
Sloan campus visit today at around 9:30 a.m. . When we arrived at Sloan,
each of us received very neat individual folders with personal signed
letter from Rod Garcia, MIT-Sloan official booklet, another booklet
detailing the course offerings at Sloan (by the way, Sloan offers a lot
of courses despite its small class size) and a few other documents. We
chatted for 5-10 minutes with a second year Sloan student who by the way
told us that Sloan has truly rigorous academic program. In fact, she
said that during her first year, she had on average just 2 hours a day
when she didn't have to study or go to classes (or eat or sleep).
Then we went to a nice, relatively
small room, sat around a table and for about an hour had a conversation
with an Admission officer. She was super friendly and the whole
conversation was conducted in a relaxed, very comfortable and not formal
environment. She said that
1. Sloan had 3280-something
applicants last year, from which 800-something (I don't remember the
exact numbers) received interview invitations, from which around 500
were accepted and around 350 of them decided to matriculate.
2. In the last few years (and that
will probably be the case this year as well) Sloan accepted half of its
class in R1 and the other half in R2, but since a lot more people apply
in R2 than they do in R1, the chances of getting in are higher in R1 and
she advised us to apply in R1.
3. In cover letter, we have to show
why we need an MBA, why specifically we have applied to Sloan, that we
have done our research on Sloan (and coming to the Ambassador Program
might be part of it) and that we would contribute to and contribute from
Sloan environment.
4. She advised us to use the
additional essay because she said that "I don't think you would be able
to fully represent yourself in the essay questions that we've asked".
After that very nice conversation
with the Admission officer, we were divided into 3 groups and first year
students came and took us to their classes. I was in the group that went
to an accounting class (the other group went to an economics class and I
don't know what class the third group went to).
The accounting class was really
interesting (well, as interesting as an accounting class can be anyway).
The class was conducted in a form of lecture (and the professor was very
good), although it was a very interactive lecture and students asked
questions and made comments for a total of maybe about 20 times in an
hour and a half class. The students, judging from the questions that
they asked, seemed very well prepared. The class was about different
accounting terms and methods and the professor used MGM Mirage's
(hotel-casino management company) financial statements to teach those
topics. By the way, there was a heavy dose of ethics during that class
and professor said on a number of occasions "If you do that, you go to
jail". I also
learned two interesting facts during that class:
1. There was actually a .com
company, whose business model was this: you buy some items on their
website for a very high price (say a simple pen for $9), then they send
you some paperwork, then you fill that paperwork out and mail those
documents back to the company and the company would reimburse the total
amount that you paid ($9 for a pen). The business model was based on the
assumption that many people would forget (or wouldn't bother) to fill
out the paperwork for the reimbursements and the income from those
people would cover the expense of "free" pens that they had to send to
more detail-oriented customers. However, that business model probably
didn't work since the company is now in the bankruptcy court.
2. In Spain, if you don't pay your
debts, the debt collector will hire a person who will dress in black
suit and will have a black umbrella and would just follow you for days
wherever you go. And everyone around you would know that you haven't
paid your debts.
So after the class, we went and had
an MIT-paid lunch with current students. The students answered our
questions and told us about different things such as clubs they
participate in, classes that they take, employment opportunities and
many other issues. During the whole conversation I sensed that there is
a strong camaraderie among the Sloanies.
In summary, I came away with very
good impressions about Sloan and I would strongly recommend Ambassador
Program to all those prospective students who can come to Boston. You
would get a real feel of what Sloan is all about.
By the way, the 10 or so other
prospective applicants who also came to the Ambassador Program were
smart, bright and seemed very accomplished. If they are a representative
sample of Sloan's applicant pool, then it's going to be really tough to
get into Sloan.
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