Welcome to MIT Sloan!
MLT Rising leader (Career Prep 2009, MBA Prep 2015) and current MIT Sloan student, Octavio Sandoval welcomes the current class of MLT MBA Prep students to Sloan and shares how MBA Prep aided his professional development. Check out his list of must-do’s during the upcoming Pre-Application Seminar.
To my MLT family,
Welcome to MIT Sloan. My name is Octavio Sandoval and I am a second year “Sloanie”. I graduated from Cornell University in 2010 and spent five years working in various finance roles from capital markets analyst at JP Morgan to private banking at Wells Fargo. I wanted to attend business school to transition into impact investing.
I decided to attend MIT Sloan because of its mission, culture, and people.
MIT Sloan’s mission statement is “to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and to generate ideas that advance management practice.”
This vision aligns with mine. You will notice the mission statement appears throughout the campus to remind everyone of his/her purpose.
I visited MIT Sloan three times (the MBA Prep Pre-App Seminar, Diversity weekend, and my interview day), and those visits gave me a good sense of the culture and the people. At MIT Sloan, everyone is extremely smart but naturally humble and collaborative. Try not to let MIT’s reputation of being academically rigorous intimidate you. Two years ago, I was in your shoes and I was surprised to learn that I was more prepared than I initially thought.
This is a pivotal time in your MLT experience. Your hard work will come to fruition soon.
Here’s why.
Over the past months, you have been conducting due diligence on business schools. By now, you may already know your aspirational school. Now admission officers from top business schools will take time out of their busy schedules to help you succeed during the application process. Here are my five tips to ensure a successful MBA Pre-Application weekend:
- Execute on the game plan that your coach created for you. During my coach call leading up to the weekend, my coach specifically told me to focus on a select few schools. Because I spent the extra time getting to know those schools, I not only received acceptance letters from the schools but also earned substantial financial aid packages.
- Send thank you notes to the Admissions Officers within 24 hours after you have conversations or receive business cards from them. Be sure to include why you are interested in the respective business school and how you can add value. This ensures that the admission officers remember who you are.
- Be open to constructive criticism. In business school, it is the norm to provide constructive criticism to all of your colleagues. This weekend is an opportunity for you to give and receive feedback. Just remember to put things in perspective. Everyone wants you to succeed. Without the candid feedback, I would not have been as successful in the admissions process.
- Start asking about diversity days and plan to attend them. Admissions officers have been working hard to increase diversity at their respective schools. By asking about diversity days, you will show initiative and that will help you to stand out. FYI, MIT Sloan’s Diversity Days is September 29-30, and I am one of the student leaders spearheading it. I hope to see y’all there!
- Continue to build the rapport with your MLT family. Go out and socialize. Boston has some cool spots to explore. Some great locales that I would recommend are the Liberty Hotel and/or Savvor.
My MLT coach, Krista and my cohort helped me in so many ways. There were many times when I was extremely overwhelmed. I bet a lot of you can relate to the brutal GMAT process. Members of my cohort created an accountability team. Essentially, we had to check-in with each other on a frequent basis in regards to GMAT preparation and/or business school applications. It helped keep us all on track.
I am happy to be a resource for any of you. If you see me at MIT Sloan, please introduce yourself or just say hi. I am excited to get to meet you all.
Best,
Octavio