A 7 min read

Known for its philosophy of ‘learning by doing’ MIT Sloan School of Management, the business school of MIT, offers a collaborative and creative environment that fosters personal and professional growth.

To get admission in MIT Sloan, applicants from around the world give their best shot during the admission season. MIT Sloan has a low acceptance rate of 11.6% and a considerably high yield rate of 60.3%. This means, one certainly needs to stand out in all aspects of one’s application to be able to secure a seat at MIT Sloan. That’s where the GMAT comes into the picture.

The first filtering criteria is, however, a GMAT score high enough to make your application appealing to MIT Sloan’s admissions committee. To understand the importance of GMAT you can read more about the weightage of GMAT scores in an application here.

So, how will we find out a good GMAT score for MIT Sloan?

By analysing past trends and applicant-data of the latest incoming class, we will narrow down a good GMAT score for MIT Sloan.

For those who are seriously considering applying to MIT, here’s a list of general requirements for applying to MIT Sloan.

Here’s what you will read next:

• 5-year GMAT score trend of MIT Sloan
  • Methodology
  • Observations
  • Inference
• What is a good GMAT score for MIT Sloan
• What is a good GMAT score for Indians applying to MIT Sloan

 

5-year GMAT score trend for MIT Sloan

A glance at the 5-year trend report of the average GMAT scores of any B-school is a quick way to approximate a good score to aim for.

Here’s a summary of the average GMAT scores of the incoming classes of MIT Sloan from 2014 to 2018.

Like all other top business schools, MIT Sloan too has witnessed a gradual rise in GMAT scores from 2014 to 2018. The class of 2018 had a relatively high average GMAT score of 728. As the competition intensifies to secure admission in one of the world’s most distinguished business schools, the expected GMAT score from an applicant to get through, also shoots up.

We have previously talked about an easy 5-step process to figure out a good score to be able to get a call from the top business schools.

As per the process, adding 20 points to the average GMAT score of the latest batch gives us an ideal score. From the above data, a score of approximately 750 or above seems a good score for MIT Sloan. However, for this article, we will be analysing some more data points to get a better estimate of an accurate target score for MIT Sloan for improving one’s chances of selection.

Those applying to other business schools might want to take a look at the 5-year GMAT score trend report of 50 top US and European business schools

This brings us to our next section- Methodology, where we will analyse available data from the latest pool of applicants and make some observations and inferences based on that.

Methodology

In order to determine a good GMAT score for MIT Sloan, we will refer to the  MIT Sloan decision tracker page to gain a better perspective of visible patterns which emerge from this data.  Candidates who have applied for the class of 2021, have updated their data on the page and in this article, we have analysed the same data.

Let’s now take a look at the scores of applicants, the interviewees and the candidates who received an admit letter from MIT Sloan.

 

 

Observations

• Maximum invites are for scores in the range of 720 to 770. Below 720, the number of interview invites drops significantly
• The invite rate for interviews lies in the range of 40% to 70% for a score between 720 and 770, with the highest interview rate being for a score of 750 (70.6%)
• The highest admission to application ratio is for GMAT scores of 740 and 760 (33.3% for both)
• The likelihood of getting an interview call increases above a score of 740.
• Scores of 780 and 790 are exceptional but there is a possibility that an applicant with this score preferred some other B-school which is why the admit rate for these scores are low. We cannot also rule out one’s performance during the interviews.
• No applicant with a score below 710 received an admit in MIT Sloan. Some of the applicants below this score received interview invites but couldn’t finally secure a seat at MIT Sloan.

 

Inference

As per our observations above, a score in the range of 720 to 770 is a good GMAT score for MIT Sloan with the interview rate being more than 40% for scores in this range.

Once you achieve a score in this range, the next step for you is to focus on your profile. As an applicant, if you want to stand out, you need to show how you will bring your own unique talent and skills to the table.

Here are 10 ways to boost your MBA profile

In this article, we also look at the scores of candidates who got waitlisted in the interview process.

As per the data available to us, a total of 19 candidates were waitlisted, with scores of 4 candidates not known to us. Unfortunately, none of these candidates could finally get off the waitlist. A candidate with an extraordinarily high score of 790 was also waitlisted and couldn’t make the final cut. This highlights the importance of other parameters in the whole application process for impressing the admissions committee.

We went a step further to analyse data from the incoming class of 2020 and found that only 3 applicants from the waitlist finally received an admit, and those applicants had a score of 710 and 720. Even when a number of other waitlisted applicants had higher scores, it seems MIT Sloan gave a lot of weightage to one’s profile, interview performance and overall application when it came to selecting from the waitlisted pool.

We have talked about some interesting ways to get off the MBA waitlist in one of our previous articles.

What is a good GMAT score for MIT Sloan

Our observation and inference show that a score of 740 or higher is a good GMAT score for MIT Sloan.

For applicants with a score of 740 or higher, it becomes crucial to leave no stone unturned in preparing for the next rounds of the application process.

One of e-GMAT’s students, Lieu Hai, scored a 740 and made it to the prestigious MIT Sloan School of Management. He improved by 110 points from a score of 630.

 

If you want to try out the e-GMAT course that helped Lieu Hai make the jump of 110 points from 630 to 740, sign up for our Free Trial. We can also help you with a personalized study plan and give you access to quality online content to prepare. Write to us at acethegmat@e-gmat.com. We are the most reviewed GMAT prep company on GMATClub with more than 1840 reviews (as on July 11, 2019). 

What is a good GMAT score for Indians applying to MIT Sloan School of Management

Those belonging to the over-represented candidate pool of Indian applicants can find it even more challenging to make the cut at any top B-school in the world.  And so, as a part of our analysis, we will also look at the scores of Indian candidates who applied to MIT Sloan for the incoming class of 2021.

• 16 Indians applied (GMAT Score of 1 candidate not accessible)
• 3 received an interview invite (GMAT scores of 750, 720, 720)
• None received admission at MIT Sloan

While this year’s data points look bleak for Indian applicants, we also looked at the scores of last year’s applicants for a better understanding. 5 Indians received an admit (GMAT scores 780, 760, 740, 710, 700). As is evident, getting admission in MIT Sloan is not a cakewalk, especially so for Indian candidates. Indians hence have to aim for a score considerably higher than the rest of the applicants for better chances of securing a seat at MIT Sloan.

The recommended GMAT score for Indians applying to MIT Sloan is hence 760 or higher.

*MIT logo used in the image is the property of MIT Sloan School of Management