Applying to LGO/MBA and a simple checklist

     Sven Eriksson once said, "The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure," and I believe this is one of the single most deterrents for many would-be LGO/MBAs. The fear to apply, put yourself on paper, and then be at the mercy of the admission committee, can overwhelm and undermine the ability for many to reach their goals. I have been there; in some sense we all have. But don’t take my word for it. Here are some quotes from current LGO students answering what were their biggest hurdles:

·      “psychologically getting over the fear of going back to school and debt”

·      “workload for the entire program; would I have time for my family”

·      “getting over the fear that I might not get in to MIT after I got dinged first round at another university. Also, deciding to pursue the MBA in the first place put me in a defensive position with my technical peers who did not understand the value proposition. They labeled me a sellout. I was going for pure MBA until I came across LGO and considered it a godsend.”

·      “Either overcoming procrastination or convincing myself that getting an MBA would actually be worth the time and money (looking past NPV)”

If you read nothing else from this blog today, decide for yourself to jump and don't look back, the rest of your life is waiting. 

     I have to preface this blog post with the following disclosure:

1. The current LGO students have absolutely no say in the admission process. The admission committees (adcom) completely own this process. 
2. To be an LGO student, you have to be "admitted" 3 times. Once by Sloan, once by LGO program office, and once by the engineering department. They are very thorough.
3. The contents of this blog do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the LGO Program nor the MIT Sloan MBA Program, its employees, officers, or students

For the rest of this post, I am assuming you are applying and want to know how to put your best foot forward. Here is a simple checklist that I used when applying:

My Checklist

1.     Did I write my essays and give an authentic representation of myself, genuine reflections on my experiences, shared failures and what I learned from them, and simply, “Does my story make sense?” (Don’t for the love of god use find and replace. That is a great way for you to waste 250 bucks and the time it took to put the application together; the adcoms know other school’s essays and can sniff this out like a bloodhound)

2.     Are “most” of my metrics in the middle 80% of the class statistics? http://lgo.mit.edu/apply/qualifications/

3.     Did I get letters of recommendation from “good” writers whom are going to spotlight my technical ability, leadership qualities, and are going to offer a genuine perspective on my accomplishments and failures?

4.     Do I adequately and authentically answer why I choose the [Systems, Electrical, Bio, etc] engineering department?

5.     Did I strategically use the additional “supplemental information” essay to say anything else to the adcom?

6.     Did I make sure that my application is free of simple grammatical mistakes and highlights and supplements my story? Did I read the essays out loud to a third party?

7.     Did I spotlight my professional goals, interests, and how MIT supports these interests?

8.     Did I adequately answer why LGO, why operations, and why MIT? (Hard)

9.     Lastly, did I send everything in and make sure my application is complete? Simple but this blocks quite a few people?

Finally a few pictures from "Movember" and LGO life

Half of my core team at the Fall Ball, with my beautiful wife Tiff

The "LGOs" of Movember minus a few

Spencer is so handsome (at Fall Ball)

Negotiation talk with the 14's at Walker Memorial 

My Ambassador Day Experience

     A couple of years prior, when I was still contemplating which schools I wanted to apply to, I decided to attend the LGO program's Ambassador Day. I didn't particularly know what to expect and found myself reading up on the program, some of the faculty, and which people were in the program office. I still remember wrestling over the shirt I was going to wear with my suit (which I still had from my undergrad interviews 5 years prior), and which tie: red shows passion and intensity, blue demonstrates depth and stability, etc. I choose red.
    The day arrived and I suited up and jumped on the T to show up 15 minutes early as you never know with this Boston subway system. I was surprised by the number of other people attending Ambassador Day and promptly began introducing myself. Everyone was very friendly and I still remember shaking the hand of this one guy who later offered to help me better my sentence correction ability on the GMAT. After everyone arrived I remember getting matched with this other LGO who was going to take us to a Sloan class. I was very nervous as I was the odd man out, and thought about what happens if the prof cold calls me. Surely they won't do that right? I was too embarrassed to ask and chalked it up to a delusion of self-importance and walked in to my first Sloan classroom.
     After coming from the University of Texas, where some classes can be up to 400 students, I realized that this was a rather cozy 40-ish students; pretty awesome if you ask me. On the flipside, I was thinking, "now the professor really could ask me something I don't know." But that didn't happen and I was worried for nothing. The class was taught by Professor Joseph Doyle, and the course was Economics for Business Decisions 15.010. I remember thinking that he led a particularly interesting lecture and only cold called a couple folks during the lecture. Most of the students seemed down to earth and even talked to me about what I was doing and why I should apply. First impression was pretty awesome.
     After my first Sloan class we went to an information session where current LGO students gave invaluable, and candid, information about the program and what they love about MIT. I felt like I could relate to every person on the panel and noticed how different they seemed to be from all the "across the river" business school students I met the week prior. I gained insight into what tracks people were doing and why, and started to understand what the program timeline meant for most typical LGOs.
     Following the information session, I had lunch with a current student and she was very instrumental in helping shape my opinion on the program. If you have the chance to talk to a current LGO student, take it, as you will get first hand knowledge on the program. I can't stress this point enough.
     After, the information session it gets a little fuzzy in my memory (3 years ago). However I remember   getting to meet the program director, multiple sloan affiliated program office people, and a ton of other LGOs. Everyone was very personable and intent on making sure that I was having a good day and that all my questions and concerns were being answered. I was rather impressed with MIT's ability to give me a single day LGO experience.

     In closing, if you are still on the fence about whether or not to come to Ambassador's day, know that this day was the single most important thing I could have done for myself in meeting the LGO program office, determining how I fit in with the school, and what LGO student life was all about. Your time and money will be well spent if you decide to visit. Plus lunch is included.

As I feel like a picture is warranted Here is one from our joint SDM/LGO halloween party. Yes we had fun.