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