MBA Essay Guidance 2025-26: MIT Sloan School of Management

The MIT Sloan School of Management’s full-time MBA program is a rigorous, two-year journey designed to develop innovative leaders equipped to tackle the world’s most complex challenges. The program begins with a core semester, where students are organized into diverse cohorts named after bodies of water, fostering strong bonds and collaborative learning. The curriculum combines foundational management courses with a wide range of electives, allowing students to tailor their academic experience to their unique goals. MIT Sloan emphasizes experiential learning through its renowned Action Learning Labs, where students apply classroom theories to real-world business problems across sectors like technology, analytics, and entrepreneurship. The program is STEM-designated, offering international students extended post-graduation work opportunities, and boasts a highly diverse student body – with 49% women and 40% international students in the latest class – reflecting its commitment to inclusion and global perspectives.

As you consider applying to MIT Sloan, the next step is to engage thoughtfully with the school’s distinctive essay questions. The application process centers around a unique cover letter, not a traditional MBA essay, where you must succinctly convey your fit with Sloan’s values and culture. Our guidance will help you craft a compelling narrative that highlights your achievements, leadership qualities, and the specific ways you will contribute to the MIT Sloan community.

COVER LETTER

MIT Sloan seeks students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-academic. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the experience of other students. We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the world. We welcome people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative — true doers. We want people who can redefine solutions to conventional problems, and strive to preempt unconventional dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas. We demand integrity and respect passion.

Taking the above into consideration, please submit a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA program. Your letter should conform to a standard business correspondence, include one or more professional examples that illustrate why you meet the desired criteria above, and can be addressed to the Admissions Committee (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).

Admitify Guidance

MIT wants the cover letter to consist of (a) “one or more examples that illustrate why you meet the desired criteria” (described in their instructions) and (b) “seeking a place in the … MBA program.” So for (a) 80+% of the letter can consist of very concise versions of 2-3 core stories, each of which illustrates one or more of their values (illustrating all of the values listed in their prompt is probably not realistic in 300 words), and each example ideally but not necessarily showing different sides of your profile/impact. The rest of the letter (15-20%) should show your knowledge of relevant Sloan resources (with perhaps a one-sentence statement of your post-MBA goals). Keep in mind that Sloan admissions is evidence-based: they want data and demonstrated past performance, not grandiose visionary goals. So if your goals are mentioned at all in the letter, keep it very brief. Close the letter by requesting an opportunity to interview.

Video 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! (60 seconds)

Videos should adhere to the following guidelines:

• No more than 1 minute (60 seconds) in length
• Single take (no editing) 
• Speaking directly to the camera
• Do not include background music or subtitles

Note: While we ask you to introduce yourself to your future classmates in this video, the video will not be shared beyond the admissions committee and is for use in the application process only. 

Admitify Guidance

For the 1-minute video, this must be a single-take/unedited video directly addressing the camera but that doesn’t mean you must be dully sitting at a desk with a bare wall behind you (though that would be fine). You could set a monitor behind you that shows images from your life that are keyed to your words or you could have props (objects, photos, etc.) at hand that you could pick up and ‘show’ at appropriate points. You could also do a live-action selfie video of you standing in front of or perhaps walking through a location that is significant to your life or career, while you narrate its significance. Don’t worry if your cover letter and video involve the same general topic or experience. But keep the cover letter focused on the impact, leadership, and outcomes (treat it as an accomplishment), while the video can be more the ‘why’ than the ‘what’ – why the accomplishment is significant to you or is revealing of who you are. The video is not meant to be an accomplishment at all but rather a personal ‘back story’ (what matters to me) story or general self-introduction. Don’t worry if your video goes over by 10 seconds or so.

Video 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 Essay 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?

The World That Shaped You

The Admissions Committee is excited to learn more about you and your background. In 250 words, please respond to the following short answer question:

How has the world you come from shaped who you are today? For example, your family, culture, and community all help to shape aspects of your life experiences and perspective. Please use this opportunity to share more about your background.

Admitify Guidance

This is a ‘diversity’ essay but diversity very broadly defined. Think of the influences that have shaped your life and worldview. Sloan’s terms “family, culture, community” hint that you need not focus on a narrow ‘diverse’ sense of yourself: for example, that of a non-US or US underrepresented minority. A unique perspective or background can stem from any of the following (to paraphrase Stanford’s language for a similar essay): your work and life experiences, education, skills, interests, culture, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, where/how you grew up, and/or other factors.” Note that given the Supreme Court’s 2023 affirmative action decision, schools are deliberately not asking about racial or ethnic identity, and you would try to discuss these (if you do) in the context of “family, culture, community” rather than in narrow ‘identity’ or demographic terms. Though Sloan’s wording suggests they want some autobiographical retrospection, be sure to connect your identity or background with the present: don’t just say X, Y, and Z shaped me; show how they did and what behaviors, actions or commitments in your current life reflect those influences.

Not sure how to tackle Sloan’s unique application? 

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