How to Apply to the MBA Program

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 be addressed to the Admissions Committee (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).

Please submit a one-page resume. This will help us easily track your academic and career path. Try to focus on your work results, not just your title or job description.

Here are some pointers on formatting: 

• One page limit
• Times New Roman font
• Size 10 font
• Word or PDF formats only

Provide the following information in reverse chronological order:

• Education: Please include relevant awards, scholarships and professional societies

• Work Experience: Please include company name, title, results-oriented bullets that demonstrate your skill set, and dates

• Additional information: Please include extracurricular activities/community service, technical skills/certifications, and special skills/interests, and languages spoken (if applicable)

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!

Videos should adhere to the following guidelines:

• No more than 1 minute (60 second) 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.

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?

A detailed recommendation can tell us a lot about you. Make sure you select an individual qualified to speak about your results as a professional and your potential as a leader.

Some important details:

• MBA applicants must submit one letter of recommendation.
• A recommendation from a professional contact is preferred, ideally a manager or supervisor.
• We do not accept recommendations from family members.
• Your letter of recommendation must be received by the deadline date for the round you are applying (see above for our deadlines.) It is your responsibility to remind your recommender to make sure it is submitted on time.

You will be instructed to add your recommender's contact information and they will be sent instructions on how to submit their letter. You should choose a recommender who can answer the following questions:

• 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.
• Please tell us anything else you think we should know about this applicant.
• Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant's response.

We want to make sure we give you the best chance to show us your strengths, so please provide us with contact information for two additional professional references. If we still have questions after reading your application, we might reach out to one or both of these references. Similar to your recommender, these additional references should be able to speak to your professional and/or academic background. These two individuals should be different from your recommender.

To help us better understand your current role and the impact that you have on your team and department, please submit an organizational chart. We should be able to clearly understand the internal structure of your organization, where you sit in your organization, and your line of reporting.

Organizational charts should not be more than two pages and keep the following in mind:

• Give us as much detail as possible (names, titles, etc.) but it’s ok to redact names if you need to.
• Please circle your role in red so that your position is easily identifiable.
• Make sure we can easily identify where you are, to whom you report, and if applicable, who reports to you.
• If your recommender or references are on your organizational chart (they may not be, and that’s ok!), please highlight them for us.
• If you are a consultant, entrepreneur, or affiliated with the military review our FAQs for suggestions on how to approach the organizational chart.

Click here to view a sample organizational chart.

Please scan and upload your transcript(s) from all colleges and universities you attended or are currently attending. If you are currently earning a degree, please upload your most up-to-date transcript. We review transcripts carefully, please double check that what you have uploaded is legible; if you can’t read it, neither can we!

Some important details:

• All applicants to the program must hold a four-year undergraduate degree or three-year equivalent undergraduate degree from outside of the U.S, by time of matriculation.
• Do not mail any hard copies of official academic records or transcripts.  
• If you received an undergraduate degree as part of a Master's program, please include an undergraduate entry in addition to your Master's degree.
• If your transcripts are not in English, please scan and upload both the original and the certified translation.
• We cannot accept “digitally signed” or encrypted transcripts. If you’re having difficulty uploading your document, this may be the reason. Print out your transcript, scan it, and upload the PDF.
• We do not accept transfer credits. Any MIT classes taken pre-matriculation cannot be counted toward your degree at MIT Sloan

Once admitted to the program you will be required to provide an official signed and sealed transcript from all schools attended. Any discrepancies between the scanned transcripts and official transcripts may result in a candidate’s rejection or a withdrawal of our offer of admission.

Standardized tests, specifically the GMAT (Focus Edition and 10^th Edition) and GRE, are a critical component of the application process and play an important role in our holistic evaluation process. The MIT Sloan Admissions Committee expects that you will submit a GMAT (Focus Edition and 10^th Edition) or GRE score to be reviewed as part of your application. Both the remote and in-person versions of these exams are accepted with no preference. If your current situation prevents you from being able to submit a test score, you may request a test waiver explaining the situation; the Admissions Committee will take your request under advisement and let you know if the waiver has been approved. If the waiver is approved, and you are later admitted, the Admissions Committee reserves the right to offer conditional admission, such as, but not limited to, receiving a certain score on the GMAT or GR,E or taking a supplemental class. The test waiver request form is not intended to be a Statement of Academic Readiness and should focus only on the circumstances surrounding your inability to take a GMAT or GRE. To request a test waiver, please start your application and navigate to the Test Scores section; you can submit your request there. Once submitted, you will receive a response by email as soon as possible.

The Admissions Committee is also interested in assessing the writing abilities of anyone who is admitted to MIT Sloan’s MBA program. For anyone who submits a GMAT (Focus Edition) or is granted a test waiver, the Admissions Committee may require that you take the GMAC Business Writing Assessment. If you took the GMAT (10^th Edition) or the GRE and have a valid AWA score, that will satisfy this requirement. If the Admissions Committee requires you to take the GMAT Business Writing Assessment, we will contact you after interview invitations are sent.

We will accept self-reported test scores by the application deadline and welcome either the traditional or online version of exams. Test scores must be valid by the application deadline. Official scores should also be sent using the following school codes:

• To share your GMAT (Focus Edition and 10^th Edition) score, please enter Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - MIT Sloan School of Management
• GRE School Code: 3791

For the 2024-25 admission cycle, we will accept all versions of the GMAT (Focus Edition and 10^th Edition) or GRE, including remote or in-person.

We welcome applicants from many types of academic backgrounds and do not have any academic prerequisites. That being said, we want to understand what relevant coursework you have already completed in order to assess how prepared you are for our core MBA courses.

In the application, we ask you to tell us which courses (if any) in the following subject areas you have taken. We’ll also ask what grade you received in each course.

• Calculus
• Communications
• Linear Algebra
• Microeconomics
• Organizational Behavior
• Probability
• Statistics

Additionally, if you earned special certifications or took professional development courses in your spare time, please tell us about them! Feel free to submit academic evidence not already on your transcripts, such as: professional certifications CFA, CPA, ACCA, among others; non-degree coursework such as MITx MicroMasters, CORe, edX, MBA Math, or any other non-degree coursework you completed.

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, community, all help to shape aspects of your life experiences and perspective. Please use this opportunity to share more about your background.

The non-refundable application fee of $250.00 USD must be paid online prior to submitting your application.

In addition to the list below, attendees of some recruitment events and conferences where MIT Sloan is present may qualify for an application fee waiver. If you are in attendance at one of these events, you will be notified at the conclusion of the event and the payment section of your application will reflect the waiver automatically.

Please note that we cannot grant retroactive fee waivers if the application fee has already been paid online. If you are submitting a request, please wait to hear back from us.

You may be eligible for a fee waiver if any of the following apply:

• Current Peace Corps Members
• Current Teach for America Members or Alumni
• Forte MBA Launch Participants
• Veteran or Active Duty U.S. Military Personnel
• Paying the application fee will result in insurmountable financial hardship

Participants from the following list of programs, conferences, and fellowships are also eligible for an application fee waiver:

MIT Sponsored Programs

• MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP General)
• MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP Biology/BCS/CBMM)
• On-Campus MIT ACCESS Program
• MIT Media Lab Open House Travel Grant Recipients
• MIT OME Laureates and Leaders
• MIT OME The Standard
• MIT Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS)
• Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) Summer Institute

Fellowship Programs

• APSA Diversity Fellowship Program (APSA DFP)
• Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems Research Experience for Undergraduates (EBICS REU)
• Gates Millenium Scholars Program
• Leadership Alliance Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP)
• Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP)
• Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC)
• McNair Scholars Program
• Mellon Mays Minority Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUF)
• Morehouse College Dr. John H. Hopps Jr. Defense Research Scholars Program Hopps (HOPPS)
• National Association of African American Honors Programs (NAAAHP)
• Questbridge
• Ralph Bunche Summer Institute (RBSI)
• Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement Program (RISE)
• The National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM)
• University of Baltimore Maryland County Meyerhoff Scholars Program
• Woods Hole Partnership Education Program

Events and Conferences

• ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing
• American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)
• Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS)
• California Forum for Diversity in Graduate Education
• Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM (ERN)
• FIU McNair Scholars Research Conference
• Grace Hopper Celebration Conference
• Howard University Research Month
• Institute on Teaching and Mentoring (SREB)
• Ivy Plus Puerto Rico
• MC-STEMP Graduating Engineering Minorities (GEM) GRADLab
• National Association of African American Honors Programs (NAAAHP)
• National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE)
• National Organization of Minority Architects
• National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
• National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP)
• Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)
• Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)
• Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
• Spelman College Research Day
• The National GEM Consortium

The LGO program at MIT Sloan allows you to pursue two degrees from the MIT School of Engineering (SoE) and the MBA program at the MIT Sloan School of Management. To learn more about the LGO program and read about the application requirements please visit the LGO website.

LGO Applicants are automatically considered for LGO and MBA. You may not submit separate applications to LGO and MBA. If you are unsuccessful in gaining admission to LGO, you will still be considered for the MBA program.

The MIT Sloan MBA program and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (HKS) offer a dual-degree program that can be completed in three years:

• One year in residence at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government
• A second year in residence at the MIT Sloan School of Management
• A third year with one semester at each school

Applicants who wish to pursue the dual degree option must receive:

• Concurrent admission to the MIT Sloan MBA program and the Harvard Kennedy School; and
• Permission from MIT Sloan to pursue the dual degree option in three years

Applicants intending to pursue the dual degree option with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (HKS) should follow the MBA applicant instructions above. All applicants intending to apply for the dual degree program must be applying concurrently to HKS and MIT Sloan and submit their application to MIT Sloan in Round 2.

Concurrent applicants to MIT Sloan and HKS must notify MIT Sloan immediately if accepted into HKS so that we can review and approve you to pursue the dual degree program.

This program allows students to pursue an MBA and a Master in City Planning (MCP) in three academic years.

Applicants who wish to pursue the dual degree option must receive:

• Concurrent admission to the MIT Sloan MBA program and DUSP; and
• Permission from MIT Sloan to pursue the dual degree option in three years

All applicants intending to apply for the dual degree program must be applying concurrently to DUSP and MIT Sloan and submit their application to MIT Sloan in Round 2.

For applicants who applied for entry in a previous year, we require that you complete and submit a new and complete application. We strongly encourage you to submit new application materials and emphasize what has changed since you last applied. Reapplicants may submit their applications in any round, and will have an opportunity to highlight changes since their previous application in a short-answer question. LGO reapplicants must submit their applications by the LGO deadline. You can find more information in our FAQs.