Editor's Note: BusinessWeek collected graduate comments in 2000 during its ranking of full-time MBA programs. The next ranking is scheduled for fall, 2002.
MIT Sloan School of Management is a great place to be! This survey is not able to capture the whole experience in a small program, where the economies of scale of bigger programs are consciously dropped to favor research and leading edge cross learning between faculty and students, where each student can pursue his/her own objectives (from finance to entrepreneurship to high tech) with the maximum exposure to professionals and opportunities. --Venture Capital/Private Equity
Sloan's international trips are amazing. They are student organized are really formative for many people's impressions of very distant countries. I had a team project in EVERY SINGLE ONE of my classes last semester, and I learned the most BY FAR in these team projects. Truly a great experience working with my teams to apply what we were learning in class. Sloan's association with MIT makes it an incredibly stimulating place to be during the Internet generation. People are really on the cutting edge here. --Entrepreneurship
I feel that my Sloan MBA experience was wonderful in many aspects. I would not hesitate to attend the program again if I were able to revisit the decision to attend Sloan. I believe that the social network I established at Sloan will provide me with invaluable professional contacts later in my career. The only area in which I was disappointed was the support functions at Sloan, such as graduate housing, vending machines, and lack of enough group study space. I believe that the poor quality of all three of these areas is a direct result of MIT's control of the Sloan program. If Sloan was more independent, as in the case of HBS, I believe Sloan could improve all three of these areas. However, Sloan has taken very few steps to improve these areas during my time at the school. --Consulting
Two things make Sloan an incredible place. One is the amazing professors - many have written THE textbooks in economics, finance, technology strategy and so on - and a number of them are Nobel laureates or almost certain future Nobel laureates. Second, the entrepreneurial environment here is second to none. The 50k competition is the premier business plan competition and the interaction with other MIT departments (Media Lab, Lab for Computer Sciences and so on) is incredible. I'm amazed at the number of businesses that have been started in the two years that I've been here, and I expect to see many more soon. If you are thinking about doing something entrepreneurial this is the place to be. --Marketing
My wife and I both entered MIT's Sloan school at the same time and are graduating this year. We have had a fantastic time being in school together. We have been able to go on an international trip to Japan and Taiwan together, did internships in Silicon Valley together, and have found high tech jobs in Boston together for after graduation. I am in the Leaders for Manufacturing program where I also receive a Masters in Engineering from MIT in addition to my Sloan School MBA. Having MIT as a backdrop for our business education is a fantastic opportunity to see and participate in emerging technology. I am most impressed with both Sloan and MIT engineering professors for being closely tied in to real industry in both their research and their teaching. --Operations
My two years at Sloan were the best two years in my life. I met a number of incredible people with who I will share the rest of my time. The quality of the people at Sloan was truly amazing. I also learned a great deal about business administration. I had some great great teachers for whom I have the highest respect. The learning experience at Sloan was just outstanding. Finally, Sloan truly boosted my career. I landed my dream job at a top firm (McKinsey). I look forward to using the Sloan alumni network to do well in my career. To conclude, the only area of improvement for Sloan are the facilities. Students need more rooms for social functions. The school is aware of that issue and a new building is in the plan. --Consulting
I applied to Sloan's program because of its strength in finance and technology. I was interested in leaving a high paying trading job on Wall Street so I could expand my career options and work in a corporate finance position. The Sloan degree has given me leverage beyond my expectations. The education I received as well as the quality of my classmates have been exceptional. I would strongly recommend Sloan to any student with an international bent and even a slight interest in technology. I believe it has to be one of the most diverse institutions around and that really enhances the learning experience. I plan to work overseas in a couple years and feel my experiences here will serve me well. --Finance
Although I have not made a big jump with respect to the salary, I am so glad that I have decided to go to a business school. During the past two years at MIT Sloan, especially during the last three months or so, I was able to give a serious thought on my career aspiration and interests. I was also able to make many wonderful friends at Sloan. I am not talking about networking but making good friends who would be there for you throughout your life. I could not have asked for a better MBA program than the one from MIT Sloan School of Management. I know it is not a perfect program, but I am positive it is one of the best programs in the world. I feel truly privileged to have been a part of this great community of MIT Sloan School. --Marketing
For a student such as myself who is interested in technology-based entrepreneurship, the MIT Sloan program is pretty hard to beat. In addition to having an amazing management experience, I had the opportunity to work with students from other parts of MIT. I learned a tremendous amount from students and professors in other departments at MIT. These people are arguably some of the best technologists in the world working on tomorrow's bleeding-edge technologies. This is a unique aspect of MIT. Also, the program size is small (350 students per class) which creates an intimate camaraderie between classmates. Yet the student body has a large number of women and international students that really add to the diversity of the experience. I remember Sloan as not only a place where I got a great education and built a strong professional network, but also as a place where I made some lifelong friendships. --Entrepreneurship
Sloan has a lot of work to do on integrating its courses and building its community. The culture of Sloan has elements similar to the rest of the Institute: individual excellence is valued and rewarded, there's not much institutionalized process around building community. The BEST thing about Sloan is the people -- they're brilliant and (by and large) very helpful and inclusive. It's unfortunate that the workload prevents more interaction and community building. There's GREAT opportunity for student run activities and leadership. The administration is unbelievably ponderous and difficult to deal with when trying to get something done. I chose Sloan because of it's IT management track (like a major), yet halfway through my first year, they cancelled the track unilaterally without student involvement in the decision and instituted a new e-commerce and marketing track. The administration felt the IT track participants could join the e-commerce track. It took an enormous effort from us to educate the administration that IT is viewed as a core competency of the school and something that should be capitalized on and invested in, not cancelled.
I also was involved in a committee for the redesign of the core curriculum. After a certain point, student representation on the committee was reduced to one. After almost a year the "new" curriculum looks almost the same as the old one. Still too much work, still not enough soft skills stuff. Non-quant skills and subjects aren't highly valued and are always in danger of being minimized. However, despite its internal shortcomings, Sloan was a great education. If you work at it, you can get a well-rounded education AND a specialty. Mine was IT, and I had great subjects and professors in that area. I loved the people, too. Admissions is always under pressure to admit people with higher quant abilities and test scores because the faculty want "smarter" people. However, the student body is great. Plus the MIT brand is a great one to have associated with your name. --Consulting
Dean Schmalensee has not been very visible to students, but the administration as a whole has really accepted a push by the students to become more involved in managing the school. Traditionally the exclusive domain of the faculty, the school is becoming much more open and responsive. The process for revising the core curriculum is an excellent example of this and something that should have tremendous payoff for the school. Sloan is an incredible place (although it desperately needs the planned new building). The environment is incredibly cooperative and productive and there is none of the pretentiousness that I have seen elsewhere. Unfortunately, many at Sloan have an inferiority complex with regard to HBS, but I think Stanford is the only school that is at the same level as Sloan. --Consulting
Many of my classmates started active interviewing in November, if they wanted to work in consulting or banking. Those interested in industry started later of course. If someone looks for one month before getting an offer they are satisfied with, that tells us something as compared to someone who didn't find anything acceptable for five months. Since I am looking in nonprofit, I started my search in March. The fact that I have not chosen a job by mid-May has a very different meaning than someone who is desperate and stressed out because she wanted consulting and still don't have anything. I am very pleased at this point with the progress of my job search. My original target was to find a position by the end of May. I am still on the right track for that goal. While nonprofit is not a statistically significant job option at my school, many people I know are in the process of starting their own company or choosing among start-ups and they are on similar timelines. --Nonprofit
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