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MIT Sloan Essay Questions 2010
Let’s roll.

First step in analysis… never speak when you can listen. Study their words:

“We are interested in learning more about you and how you work, think, and act. For each essay, please provide a brief overview of the situation followed by a detailed description of your response. Please limit the experiences you discuss to those which have occurred in the past three years. In each of the essays please describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did.”

The three years element is an important and fairly common one. Even if other schools don’t explicitly state their preferences, never a bad idea to show these guys you are on the rise. A story from seven years ago, might not tell that story.

What’s the most effective way to communicate “thought” and “feelings”?

It begins with understanding the power of CHOICE.

Remember that scene in the Matrix, when Morpheus holds the red and blue pill out for Neo to choose? If Neo takes the Blue Pill, he goes back to his old life. If Neo takes the Red Pill, he stays in Wonderland, and discovers just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

“Choice.” Now that we know the options, and where they lead… here’s the cool part. We can now learn something about Neo simply by what he chooses, now that we know about them. If Neo takes the Blue Pill, we’ve learned that he’s conservative, wants to play it safe, is content with living in a potentially counterfeit existence. If he takes the Red pill… we know he wants to chase “truth,” despite the dangers that lie ahead in that uncertain journey.

Imagine if Morpheus had said, you have one choice: take this pill, which is red in color. And then Neo chooses the Red Pill. Erm, not so exciting. We learn nothing, right?

Very often, applicants will walk us through a leadership scenario, or any type of story for that matter, and simply give the A led to B led to C structure. [This can be very helpful in certain essay situations, but not here.]

Here, we wanna get inside your mind to see how and why you CHOOSE certain courses of action. There are a few GREAT ways to do this:

1. What would someone ELSE have done in the same situation? Why did you choose YOUR choice? Lay it all out.

2. More typical—you actually had two or more options: you could either choose A, B, or C. Convey where each one would lead, and WHY you chose what you chose. Lay it all out.

The other crucial component that makes choice even RELEVANT is “destination.” Imagine for a second that all “land” on Earth disappears in a blink. 100% ocean. No land, period. And you’re in a motorboat. Well, if you tell me that you traveled straight, then took a left, and then a right… I’m bored. Who cares which direction you choose, do any of these decisions matter?

If, however, we’re back on our normal planet, and you get into your motorboard off the docks of San Francisco, and set sail for Japan… now I’m VERY interested in why you went left rather than right. Clearly, it was a choice—presumably to improve your chances of achieving “Japan.”

To understand this is to CRUSH half the battle with MIT’s essays (and honestly, all other bschool essays as well).

Establish the destination (the project’s objective, your objectives, team’s objective, etc.), and then walk us through the decisions of choosing “left” versus “right.” I chose left because the water to the right was filled with sharks. Or, I stayed to the right despite the sharks because I had three shark experts on my team who could take care of them; going left would have meant poorer fishing conditions and we were low on rations.

Establish the destination.

Lay out the choices.

Walk us through your “choosing” of your “choices.”

Jon Frank

houri

MIT Sloan Essays • Question 2 (2010)
Essay 2: Please describe a time when you convinced an individual or group to accept one of your ideas. (500 words or fewer, limited to one page)

Let’s look at the key assumption here. What does it mean to convince?

Imagine I said this: I have a proposition for you. I’ve arranged for you to spend the night with either Carmen Electra or George Clooney, your choice. And for your troubles, I also have a briefcase here that contains 1 Million dollars in cash.

Now, most people on our planet (of sane mind) would take that deal without much deliberation, yes? (please?) It would be inaccurate to say that I CONVINCED this person to accept the deal. The deal sold itself. I didn’t do anything to alter the other guy’s position.

But let’s say that the person I’m talking to was 53 years old, happily married, with three children, extremely pious, and very principled about monogamy and earning money him/herself. Now we’re gonna have some fun J

It’s a silly example because now all of sudden I’m the Devil incarnate, but play along so we can illustrate a very obvious point. The stage is NOW set for me to CONVINCE this man or woman to take this offer. Why?

Because this particular person enters the situation with a reason NOT to go along with my idea.

That is THEEEE premise of this question. There has to been a time when you had an idea about something. Further, there was either a person or group who had compelling reasons NOT to rally behind that idea. Now we have a story.

Now we can indentify and establish those aspects in the beginning of your essay:

1. What you wanted (the objective).

2. Why others would likely NOT buy into your idea (or perhaps they outright said NO initially). This is the key. This essay will only be as strong as the opposing force that required your “convincing” to begin with.

Then, we move into HOW you changed their minds. How you persuaded them. How you turned their no… into a yes. Without that shift in thought, it isn’t quite relevant. Show us the way you did it. Convince us the same way you convinced them. We need to see the convincing, not just the results of it.

[The other component that’s crucial here is that the idea belonged to YOU. We see it often that people were the AGENTS of persuasion, but that the idea didn’t necessarily generate from themselves. Meh, not quite the same thing.]

In order for this sucker to hum, present us with very compelling reasons why someone WOULDN’T buy your argument. Load up. Pour on the opposing argument. This is critical. Setting up the bowling pins, one by one. These things are now in your way. Now what?

Knock em down.

One by one. Show how you prepared an argument, a tactic, a course of action that systematically DISMANTLED all the pins in your path…

Jon Frank

秋天来了

好文，ding