Experience during the program

As a first year, I have been surprised by the sheer amount of resources and opportunities that are available to all students, such as the incredible entrepreneurial ecosystem. If you are interested in something, there will be a way for you to do it - whether it's starting your own FinTech startup through FinTech Ventures, completing an internship with a company through PM Lab, or even taking a coding class within the MIT engineering community.
Please share about the school, career services, and student life. My favorite part of the program has to be the students and my classmates - people have such diverse backgrounds and interests and are incredibly collaborate and supportive of each other, whether it's your core team doing accounting homework together, or prepping for a case interview, people are always willing to help. When I was applying for my MBA, I wanted to be part of a program that was on the smaller side and where I could become close to my cohort. With ~400 students per year, it's been a great experience always having the opportunity to meet new people, but still know a large majority of people in the class.

My advice for prospective student is: Be sure to highlight past examples and stories of leadership in your cover letter and application. In addition, if you come to Sloan - be open-minded about experiences and opportunities, and embrace the discomfort. Whether it's taking a class you don't know anything about, grabbing coffee with someone you don't know, launching your own venture, or joining a rock band (a plug for Rolling Sloans), discomfort can mean a lot of amazing growth and learning!

About professors, classes and curriculum

The professors are incredibly well-respected and leaders in their field. It's inspiring to take classes with them and become close with them, which is very common at Sloan. In addition, there are a wide selection of courses within Sloan (and across MIT and Harvard, where you are welcome to take classes as well!). Even though Sloan is not officially a "non-grade-disclosure" program, it's very hard to get lower than a B if you put in some effort into the class. However, I find that the emphasis on in-person classes/lack of flexibility for students missing classes for recruiting to be a surprise and an area for improvement.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (4.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Alumni Network
Brand/Ranking
Culture & Student Support

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Tech
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Career opportunities provided by school
Admissions Team

Read More

Experience during the program

MIT Sloan has been an exceptional experience and exceeded my expectations in supporting my career change from Military to Consulting.

I initially dismissed MIT in my MBA applications as too "technical." However, as I spoke to more people, applied, and have spent the past year here I feel that MIT excels in all technical and analytics topics while not compromising on traditional management education.

Career/Recruiting
My goal entering MIT was to enter consulting in the short term and prepare for international management in Asia. To that end, I took a broad curriculum in all management basics, with a specialization in business analytics through Sloan's new Analytics certificate. For results, Sloan's Asian Business Conference led me to intern at an outstanding Japanese company as their first ever MBA intern, and earn a full-time offer at a Management Consulting firm. I have found that the formula of my military (interpreted as high soft skills) combined with cutting-edge analytics training at MIT (about as technical as it gets in business) generates immediate interest from most executives with whom I have interviewed.

Culture:
Hands-down, Sloan has the top 2-3 cultures among all MBA programs. Students and alumni are high-quality, close-knit, ultra-supportive, and excited about Sloan. When connecting with alumni in firms or industries of interest, I have close to a 100% response rate. Culture is definitely more casual at Sloan compared to other top programs; it's very much a t-shirt/button-down results-over-appearance culture.

About professors, classes and curriculum

Strengths:
1) Access to the ENTIRE MIT ecosystem for classes.
2) Anything Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science related.
3) System Dynamics (it was invented here)
4) Operations: Logistics, Supply Chain, etc...

Management staples: Finance, Accounting, Marketing etc..are universally high quality but I wouldn't say that they are ground-breaking or a special strength.

Weaknesses:
Leadership: Limited curriculum and less focus on the students future role as leaders of large companies. In general, Sloan seems not to be viewed as a general management program.

About job placement process

Outstanding placement in consulting and tech. Most people (80%+) that wanted a consulting offer seemed to get at least one of their top 5 firms. That being said, MBB is still very tough here and I estimate no more than 40% of people who recruited for consulting got an MBB offer.

Tech: Amazon is the strongest tech firm on campus (around 10-20 people headed there I believe). To some degree Google (around 5 full-time offers I believe), while Facebook doesn't really come up very often. Tesla has also recently started recruiting here and will take some full-time folks.

Entrepreneurship: If you want to do a start-up or join one, the sky's the limit here. Extremely strong alumni network into startups and the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship with Bill Aulet is an outstanding starting point for getting into startups.

Finance: Full Disclosure: Didn't participate in finance recruiting myself. Some of the main banks come here but finance is less popular at Sloan as a rule. For some people, this is an advantage as there is less competition for slots but there are also a few top banks that don't come here because of the smaller student body and reduced level of interest. Still, academically, there is a strong history of finance learning at Sloan and my finance oriented classmates are very satisfied with their learning.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Brand/Ranking
Culture & Student Support

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Tech
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Facilities
Specialization in a particular area (e.g. Finance, Consulting, Healthcare, etc)
Leadership

Read More

Experience during the program

So far it has been an amazing ride! It is like Disney World for adults. Sloan admissions staff are very picky, but they do an amazing job of getting humble, down to Earth individuals with simply amazing/impressive backgrounds. Honestly the students here are so amazing. The ocean system (cohorts) are awesome I love my ocean!!

What I love about Sloan is that there is sooo much to do. Constant innovation in every activity, class, project. But the SOCIAL LIFE has been unbeatable. Sloanies love to travel, go out and get to know each other. BHP bar every Wednesday, C-Functions (Beer Consumption Functions) on Thursdays, Treks to all over the world (with more than half the class going on these treks), Pre-Function (Trip before Orientation - I got to go to Prague) ski trip, balls, Oktoberfest, Clubs, retreats, the list goes on and on.

I can't say enough about my classmates. I feel like I am studying with the next set of billionaires. Definitely a big entrepreneurial culture (even if you are not an entrepreneur like me). The access to the rest of MIT is amazing, having the MIT email alone has given me incredible power to network not just with alumni, but CEOs and entrepreneurs.

I came from NY with a Finance background, the finance professors are top notch (already met a handful of MIT finance Nobel Laureates) and being taught by one at the moment. I am so happy that I chose Sloan, I want to stay in Finance, so it was not an easy decision (I was also accepted at 2 other Finance Heavy M7 schools). But I definitely made the right one!!

About professors, classes and curriculum

Sloan has only one core semester which you take with your "ocean". It is lots of fun, and VERY flexible after Core. School makes sure to pack the core with top notch professors.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Student body, diversity
Alumni Network
Career opportunities provided by school

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Investment Banking
Tech
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Brand/Ranking

Read More

Experience during the program

The first semester at MIT Sloan School of Management exceeded my initial expectations. What I valued the most of these first 6 months is the people I met. Everyone is extremely collaborative and supportive. If applying to consulting, there is a great community of both first and second years that will dedicate a lot of time to helping others. Another thing I loved is the innovative and technology driven culture. There is always something new going on around campus and most things are free for every student to access. One suggestion I would make to future applicants is to talk to many people from the schools you are applying. It is better to find your perfect fit than to drive your applications by the rankings.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (4.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Brand/Ranking
Culture & Student Support

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Tech
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Career opportunities provided by school
Facilities
Specialization in a particular area (e.g. Finance, Consulting, Healthcare, etc)

Read More

Experience during the program

Having researched the school and interacted with plenty of classmates before school, I came into Sloan with high expectations. But I have to say that the school has exceeded them all. Two things have especially stood out for me: the opportunities and the people. I knew that attending MIT would open a lot of doors, but I am amazed on a daily basis how many doors have been opened for me and how much companies and people value and respect the MIT brand. Additionally, the variety and breadth of classes that a student can take is outstanding.
But it's the people that make Sloan what it is. Everyone is super friendly and accessible - always willing to help with classwork, networking, or advice and support for personal issues. I knew coming in that I would be involved in the community, but the energy is infectious and you end up doing four or five times the activities and events you thought you would.
I cannot say enough good things about the school, best decision I have ever made.

About professors, classes and curriculum

Tons of variety and opportunities. The professors are super engaging and interesting, and the short core curriculum gives you the freedom to explore a variety of fields and interests.

About job placement process

Sloan has a quiet period for the first month of core where companies cannot contact students, allowing the students to get their bearings with school and social life before diving into the recruiting process. Once that starts, you are wined and dined by top companies on a daily basis, and there are more opportunities than students.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Student body, diversity
Location
Brand/Ranking

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Marketing
Investment Banking
Tech
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Student body, diversity

Read More

Experience during the program

The classmates are very humble and friendly. You will work with a core team of 7 members in the first semester.

The school has a ton of resources if you want to start your own company. For the recruiting, it has a very structured process for IBD, consulting and technology. Sloan is the target school for all major consulting firms and investment banks. The competition for IBD jobs is significantly less intense than peer schools as there are less applicants.

In terms of the academic, you can choose up to 3 courses in either Harvard or other departments from MIT. And the one-semester core really helps me to customize my MBA experience.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (4.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Student body, diversity
Brand/Ranking
Culture & Student Support

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Tech
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Alumni Network
Facilities

Read More

Experience during the program

MIT Sloan is the business school for people who have hesitations about joining an environment of Type A, hyper-competitive students -- something business schools have unfortunately become known for. This is supported by three driving forces:

1) Admissions intentionally selects to create a down-to-earth culture
2) No strong requirement (but introspection still required!) to know your career path post-MBA
3) Sloan is always humbled by the engineering presence in the entire context of MIT

Starting with the culture, the famous Rod Garcia, who has led the MIT Sloan admissions team for longer than almost any other business school, is known and highly respected for his ability to pick the right candidates to fill the seats at MIT Sloan. The result is a cohort of humble (instead of proud), collaborative (instead of competitive) and accomplished (although you wouldn't know it if you met them at a party) students. This means, despite lack of non-grade disclosure, the cohort is more than willing to share with everyone else, maximizing learning and development opportunities for everyone. The cohort is encouraged to be proud of being the best "team" material, based on the thesis that teams, not individuals, are what drive business and action in the real world.

In an environment that does not start with a facetious post MBA goal, everyone is encouraged to take risks, with no baggage or excuses, further contributing to the shared struggle and culture described above.

In a way, this culture is necessary, in an environment such as MIT that is so dominated by the engineering schools, who will always remain skeptical of the business school students. The culture goes a long way in connecting these faculties, and can claim to have one of most well integrated entrepreneurship centers, reaching across Sloan and engineering rather than in individual silos.

However, this culture does not come without its opportunity costs. While the focus is internal, and maximises the enrichment of the student cohort, it does not perform as strong at representing and boasting its advantages to the public. As a result, Sloan probably ranks 1-3 spots below where it belongs on most business school rankings, if that matters to you. But it doesn't seem to matter to the students who apply and are ultimately accepted into Sloan's collaborative culture.

About professors, classes and curriculum

The one-semester Core is a great common bonding experience for the whole class, and is brief enough to provide space for 3 semesters of electives. However, the challenge of staffing the core subjects with enough high quality lecturers diminishes the experience of Core subjects. This is in stark contrast to my experience with elective subjects, which have a very high quality. Part of this challenge could be mitigated by streaming students or allowing waivers from certain subjects -- for example, all students need to take economics, accounting or statistics even if they have majored in it.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (4.0)
Classmates rating (4.0)

Strengths of the program:

Culture & Student Support
Admissions Team

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Tech
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Brand/Ranking

Read More

Experience during the program

Two things have made my experience at Sloan great: 1) the fantastic culture embodied by the student community and 2) the variety of interests and expertise available at MIT.

Students here take their learning seriously but don't take themselves too seriously. You will find that there are few if any "hidden agendas" when it comes to collaboration and group work. People are genuinely interested in your personal experiences and look to learn from their peers.

Additionally, there's a lot of cool stuff happening at MIT. I don't think this needs much explanation. What's even better is that there's a constant push to commercialize all this cool shit, so the entrepreneurship environment is hopping and there's a lot of seed money to be spent with very low hurdles for grants.

About professors, classes and curriculum

1-term core, which will be repetitive for those who have a business undergraduate but overall, a necessary step to get everyone equipped with the same basic toolkit. I can't imagine having to go through a 1-year core when the entire program is only 2 years.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (4.0)
Classmates rating (4.0)

Strengths of the program:

Student body, diversity
Culture & Student Support
Specialization in a particular area (e.g. Finance, Consulting, Healthcare, etc)

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Brand/Ranking
Specialization in a particular area (e.g. Finance, Consulting, Healthcare, etc)

Read More

Experience during the program

I chose MIT Management Sloan School based on my interest and the school's strength in tech management. I am enrolled in the Enterprise Management Track, which I have found useful in gaining experience tackling real business problems by incorporating what we've learned in class and leveraging our diverse experiences.

The program has met my needs, goals, and expectations as I was able to land an internship with a big tech company through MIT Sloan's on-campus recruiting process. Furthermore, the classes I have enrolled in have helped me develop a well-rounded perspective on management, particularly as it relates to technology and innovations in the tech space.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Alumni Network
Career opportunities provided by school
Brand/Ranking

Best fit at this program:

Tech
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Brand/Ranking
Culture & Student Support
Facilities

Read More

Experience during the program

There is literally so many things to do, I barely sleep. I am currently working on couple of school project with REAL companies internationally as well as working with different clubs and conferences.
People are super humble and smart, a little bit nerdy!
We al dream to become entrepreneurs and think about long-term future.
We are excited about technology and new trends.
We partner closely with other schools and take classes there. Cambridge/Boston is a great location!

As you come to Sloan make sure you get involved in as many activities as you possibly can. Meet new people and be open to new ideas. You never know where will Sloan take you. Try to get executive positions in school clubs, organize conferences and take part in case competitions.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Brand/Ranking
Culture & Student Support

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Tech
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Alumni Network
Specialization in a particular area (e.g. Finance, Consulting, Healthcare, etc)

Read More