MIT Sloan - Admissions & Profile

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Admissions

Quick Facts

  • Applicants: 3,500 - 4,000
  • Acceptance Rate: 13.1%
  • Class Size: 360-400
  • Contact: mitsloan.mit.edu

Successful Applicant Profile

Although MIT Sloan accepts students from numerous countries and backgrounds, patterns in the school's admissions decisions make clear that a certain profile of student is more likely to gain admission than other profiles. A disproportionately large number of students have an undergraduate degree in engineering and past work experience in consulting. Further, the average GPA of a successful applicant (around 3.6) is higher than that at many other top MBA programs. With the high number of Sloan graduates who accept jobs at consulting firms (especially McKinsey, Bain, or BCG), students who demonstrate the ability to pursue and succeed in these fields may have an advantage.

  • GMAT Score: 700+
  • Work Experience: 4-6 years
  • Undergraduate Education: Tier 1 University
  • Future Career Path: Consulting (most common path), Finance, or Technology

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Reputation & Job Prospects

See the rankings page for the school's rank in various publications.

In keeping with the general reputation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT Sloan is widely known for its emphasis on quantitative and analytical skills. For years, Sloan was one of a very small number of schools that asked applicants to disclose their AP Calculus and Statistics scores as part of the application. Further, the school integrated mathematics more than a number of other business schools. Sloan's reputation for analytical and quantitative abilities among its students has translated into recruiters for firms that emphasize academic ability, analytical insight, and quantitative capacity seeking Sloan graduates. Consulting firms (most notably McKinsey, which is also located in the Boston area), investment banks, and technology companies eagerly hire Sloan graduates. Given Sloan's stellar reputation and excellent ranking, it is not surprising that the median base salary of Sloan graduates is well over $100,000 per year and most students are able to find a job quickly after graduation.

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Notable Faculty

As an institution that prides itself on mathematics, MIT Sloan has been the home to many of the nation's best professors of economics and finance.

  • Robert C. Merton - Taught finance and won a Nobel Prize in 1997 in economics for his work developing the Black-Scholes options pricing model. Merton (along with Myron S. Scholes) served on the board of the legendary hedge fund Long Term Capital Management, which imploded in 1998.
  • Franco Modigliani - Taught economics and won a Nobel Prize in 1985 in Economics for his work developing the Modigliani-Miller theorem. Modigliani helped show that, given certain circumstances, the value of a firm does not change with adjustments to the capital structure.
  • Robert Solow - Taught economics and won a Nobel Prize in economics in 1998. He developed the Solow-Swan neo-classical growth model, which helped show the pivotal role technological advances play in economic growth.
  • Stanley Fischer - Taught economics after receiving his PhD at MIT and went on to author two well-respected textbooks on the topic: Macroeconomics and Lectures in Macroeconomics. Dr. Fischer was an advisor for the thesis of Dr. Ben Bernanke and Dr. Fischer later served as a governor of the Bank of Israel.

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School History

The history of the Sloan School of Management dates back to 1914 when MIT launched Course XV (Engineering Administration) in an attempt to help engineers better address the many business problems they faced in the workplace. In 1925, after Course XV grew considerably in popularity, MIT instituted a program that led to a Masters degree in management. By this point, MIT had expended its business offerings to include undergraduate courses in economics, accounting, finance, and marketing.

In 1930, after 15 years of growth in the popularity of Course XV, MIT established Course XV as a separate department called the Department of Business and Engineering Administration. One year later, MIT launched a program that would be a forerunner for large-scale executive education. In 1938, with the financial support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this executive education program expanded and became known as the MIT Sloan Fellowship Program for Executive Development. However, the worldwide war that engulfed the United States and demanded the full-time attention of many Americans temporarily dampened interest in business education. Yet by 1953 when the war had ended and the American economy began expanding quickly, MIT launched an additional executive education program.

In 1964, in honor of the generous support of MIT alum and former General Motors President and Chairman Alfred P. Sloan, the School was renamed the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management--a name it still holds today. Throughout the 1970s, the school significantly expanded its emphasis on scholarship and research. In 1984, MIT officially launched a management science program at its undergraduate school of business. Today, the undergraduate business school, whose roots trace back to Course XV in 1914, is widely considered one of the best in the world (along with Wharton's undergraduate program).

In the closing years of the 1980s and the beginning years of the 1990s, Sloan increased its emphasis on globalization and technology in an attempt to stay relevant and train leaders for future business trends. During the 1990s, the school also ramped up its scholarly focus. Today, with the widely-respected quarterly research journal The MIT Sloan Management Review and with countless academic centers, MIT remains at the academic forefront of business education. Further, its reputation for producing students with strong quantitative and analytical capacities is exceptional.

Source: MIT Sloan School of Management, Interviews, Dewey Library

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Alumni

The list of accomplished individuals who graduated from MIT Sloan is impressive, especially when considering Sloan's smaller class size relative to that of Harvard or Wharton.

Business

  • Ackerman, F. Duane - served as chairman and CEO of BellSouth
  • Carp, Daniel - served as Chairman & CEO of Eastman Kodak Company
  • Chandler, Colby - served as Chairman & CEO of Eastman Kodak
  • Condit, Philip M. - served as Chairman & CEO of The Boeing Company
  • Fiorina, Carly - served as president & CEO of Hewlett-Packard
  • Ford, William Clay Jr. - served as Chairman & CEO of Ford
  • Foster, James C. - served as Chairman & CEO of Charles River Laboratories
  • Gartner, Gideon - served as CEO of Gartner
  • Hesse, Dan - served as President and CEO of Sprint Nextel
  • Jaschke, Justin - served as CEO of Verio
  • Lewent, Judy - served as CFO of Merck
  • Loveman, Gary - served as CEO of Harrah
  • Moynihan, Jonathan - PA Consulting Group Chairman & CEO
  • Mulally, Alan - served as President & CEO of Ford Motor Company
  • Nacchio, Joseph - served as Chairman & CEO of Qwest
  • Porter, William A. - founded E-Trade
  • Reed, John S. - served as Chairman & CEO of Citigroup
  • Schulmeyer, Gerhard - served as CEO of Siemens
  • Tachikawa, Keiji - served as president & CEO of NTT Mobile Comm
  • Thompson, John - served as president & CEO of Symantec
  • Wilson, Thornton - served as Chairman & CEO of Boeing

Other

  • Allen, Vice Admiral Thad - served as commander of the United States Coast Guard
  • Annan, Kofi - served as U.N. Secretary-General
  • Gordon, Bruce - served as President of the NAACP
  • Johnson, Clay III - Deputy Director White House Office of Management and Budget
  • Kohrt, Carl - Battelle Memorial Institute President and CEO
  • Netanyahu, Benjamin - served as Prime Minister of Israel
  • Porter, William - served as Chairman & Co-Founder of E*Trade

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