How Samir Got Into MIT Sloan, Part 1 - Exit Interview

by Beat The GMAT, Mar 23, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrponsBw-2E[/youtube]

I'm excited to announce a new series on Beat The GMAT: Exit Interviews! In this new series, I will sit down with actual Beat The GMAT members who have finished the entire MBA admissions process. I'll grill these MBA admits on all parts of their admissions journey, from GMAT prep to MBA acceptance.

To kick off the Beat The GMAT Exit Interview Series, today I'm sharing an interview I had with Samir Shah (recorded earlier this month). Samir, also known as canada_sms, is a Beat The GMAT community legend. His 760 GMAT debriefing is among the best I've ever read. Samir will be attending the MIT Sloan program as a full-time MBA student this Fall. On a side note, he's also a very cool guy.

Here are some notes from Part 1 of this exit interview:

(1:10) Who are you? Tell us about your background.

• Originally from Toronto, Canada
• Did a bachelors/masters in Electrical & Computer Engineering at CMU
• Worked as a microprocessor design engineer in Silicon Valley for about 3 years on a pretty significant piece of new technology
• Also co-founded my own mobile software company, Snapture Labs along the way
• In my spare time, I serve as the director of a local non-profit consulting firm in the Bay Area called Community Leaders at Service of Society

(2:10) Why did you decide to get an MBA?

• Ive always been extremely entrepreneurial. At this point in my life, Ive started 3 companies: 2 failures and 1 which I consider a success (my most recent venture)
• But even though Ive been successful, I still have a long way to go to reach my goal of founding and leading a technology-based company that is sustainable and can grow over time
• In order to get to that goal, I need to round out my skill set and grow as leader and I see an MBA as an opportunity to gain this

(3:05) What attracted you to Sloan?

• There were a number of things that attracted me to Sloan but I would say the big 3 reasons were:

  • Entrepreneurial ecosystem specific curriculum track focused on E&I and a large population of students who want to start businesses
  • Access to Technology MIT is a place of weak boundaries. Students in the business school engage with the best technical minds in the world and that collaboration can lead to the birth of new ventures
  • Context of the program mens et manus resonates with the way I learn; Experiential learning

(4:45) What were the best things you did during your GMAT prep?

• Building stamina by studying in uninterrupted blocks of 75 minutes
• Doing a ton of practice tests but even beyond that, working to mimic true test center conditions by wearing earplugs and taking several tests in public areas
• Maintaining statistics to hone in on weak areas and make fine-grained improvements

(6:30) What strategy did you have for your essays?

• For Sloan, you have to write a cover letter and 3 other essays
• The cover letter is like any letter you would write while applying for a job. The essays want specific examples of experiences
• My basic process was I created a list of all the most salient experiences in the last 3-4 years of my life
• After that, I bucketized those experiences based on qualities that they demonstrated (ie. leadership, teamwork, creativity, relationship building, critical thinking, etc)
• After I did that, I looked at the essay questions and figured out which experiences I could write about for each, while avoiding duplication
• In the end, I wrote one essay based on my experience as a microprocessor engineer, one essay based on the business I started ,and one based on my experience in the non-profit sector
• You really want to show them the kernel of who you are as a person and how you think through decisions. MIT even goes so far as to request that you mention what you thought, felt, said and did
• Also, I think its important to get friends to read your essays and provide feedback (both content and grammar). The caveat is that you want those reviewers to be people who have gone through the application process themselves

To watch Part 2 of this interview, click here.

If you are a recent MBA admit living in the San Francisco Bay Area and would like to participate in this Exit Interview series, send me a private message (my username: beatthegmat). For your time I'll buy you dinner. :)