Sloan optional essay

[gmataspirant123]

Hi All,
MIT sloan has an optional essay: "You may use this section to address whatever else you want the Admissions Committee to know."

Is it Ok to talk about my significant leadership experiences ( i was leading a team of 100 members) in the last 1 year and the kind of steps that I took to foster collaboration in the team? The experiences are general in nature and there are many such experiences I want to talk about (I can do it in 250 words).

I couldn't do the above in the other 3 essays (excluding the cover letter) as the 3 essays are asking for specific anecdotes in which I have to highlight what i thought, felt, said and did. That's why I am thinking the optional essay might be a good place to dedicate my experiences as a leader of the team.

Is this the right question to do it?

[throughmba]

There will be mixed opinions over this and there will be no right or wrong answer.

First the generic information to attempt this or not :
The advantage of doing it is you get more space to make your claim;

The disadvantage is that the criterion of relevance and interest is far higher. If you ask them for more time, and you waste that, you're in trouble.

Make it crystal clear what the relevance of the extra information is and how it relates to
the rest of your candidacy.

Now answering the specifics, definitely go for this essay if its factual and mentions a thing which will be different from at least 50 applicants(according to you).

Keep up to the word limit and revise to make it smaller.

Best of Luck

[Jon@Admissionado]

Absolutely! Leading 100 people! Do you know how rare this is?? Amazing! You gotta find a way to put this story in every single application. And try and emphasize the RESULTS you got by leading them.

[gmataspirant123]

Thanks Jon and througmba for the replies!!

The fact that I was leading a group of 100 members is something is my major selling point and I am writing about this in all the applications.

What I am confused about is that whether I should be doing this in the optional essay (which will give me dedicated 250 words) to write about it
OR
Should I weave it in the Sloan cover letter. My research between yesterday and today is tilting me towards the cover letter as this is the place in which I have to sell myself and my most important accomplishment (of leading 100 people and one specific impact I had) has to come here.

For the optional essay, will it be ok to talk about a "Conflict resolution" scenario I managed and how I increased collaboration (major focus area for Sloan) among the 100 member team, which was actually going into a mode of competition instead of collaboration when I had joined. And how I brought about a change in the organization and increased the health scores of the group. Will this anecdote be Ok to talk about in the optional essay?

Thanks a lot guys for your support!! Truly appreciate it.

[throughmba]

For the optional essay, will it be ok to talk about a "Conflict resolution" scenario I managed and how I increased collaboration (major focus area for Sloan) among the 100 member team, which was actually going into a mode of competition instead of collaboration when I had joined. And how I brought about a change in the organization and increased the health scores of the group. Will this anecdote be Ok to talk about in the optional essay?

Go for it, it seems very factual. Describe how you did it, that should be the meat.

Close with some questions, as if you wanted to explore more.

[Jon@Admissionado]

To be honest, the question of where to put what is hard to answer without knowing ALL of the content of ALL of your essays. Because it's not necessarily true that putting something in essay 1 or the optional essay will change things. Buuut often, shuffling things around DOES allow you to get more out of your application.

Another third option for you: Mention the main result in ONE line in the cover letter, and develop the full story in the optional essay. If it's that amazing, it may deserve a full essay,