The MBA Exchange is featuring a series of articles showcasing graduate management programs that our 2,000 clients have found most rewarding.  Our content is compiled from a number of credible sources and articles and expanded with our own observations based on nearly two decades of advising applicants.

The major buzz is all about MIT Sloan’s long-anticipated, new home – dubbed numerically, in somewhat typical MIT style, as “Building E62” – the LEED-certified, 215,000-square-foot facility focused on innovation, sustainability, and community a.  Such inspiration is central to this program, which seeks students who are “visionary pragmatists” who are “determined to change the world.”

As is often the case with top-tier business schools, MIT Sloan is miscast by many applicants as being all about technology and quantitative analysis.  Not true. If you’re looking for a school that offers a truly global brand, and are not intimidated by academic rigor, then this could be your best choice.

The MIT Sloan curriculum – and culture – encourages freedom of choice and experimentation as well as real-world learning in a program comprised of hands-on lab work, case studies, collaborative projects, and interaction with industry leaders, through vehicles such as The Dean’s Innovative Leader Series – talks given by some of the world’s finest leaders who visit campus each year.

Offering the best of both worlds, MIT Sloan courses balance innovation and theoretical exploration with real-world application. Sloanies encounter teaching methods that include lecture, case study, team projects, writings, problem sets, presentations, company visits, guest speakers, and other theoretical and applied teaching methods. Following the first semester core requirements (core classes have approximately 60 students and smaller, more intimate discussion sections) students are able to follow a highly personalized course of study. While traditional academics at MIT Sloan are demanding, there’s also a focus on actual business problems and students are presented with opportunities to practice leadership.

One offering that is unique to MIT Sloan, and that attracts many of our clients to attend, is the Global Entrepreneurship (G-Lab), which links teams of Sloan MBA students with entrepreneurs in emerging nations – a knowledge-sharing exchange with extraordinary benefit and gratification. The students contribute their knowledge and research while gaining intensive training in challenging global environments. Another program, the collaborative, interdisciplinary Sustainability Lab (S-Lab), jointly taught by seven top MIT faculty members, enables students to work with a variety of companies as they confront environmental and social business challenges.

Beyond the powerful and transformative academic experiences to be had at MIT Sloan, student life is enriching in other ways, too. The urban campus is surrounded by an array of artistic, intellectual, and commercial opportunities in surrounding Cambridge or just a “T” ride away on Boston’s famed transit system. Sloanies discover nearly unlimited ways to relax, explore, and experience new interests in the company of peers who will surely become lifelong friends. This is a place where “just hanging out” has emerged as an art form!

Extracurricular activities on campus are in abundance here, with some 70 student organizations and clubs. And, if the organization you’re interested in doesn’t exist, then you’re encouraged to start it, as some of our clients have. There are also intramural sports teams that compete within the MIT intramural system and against other MBA programs in the northeast and across the nation.

Attracting students from every conceivable background and area of expertise, the community of learners at MIT Sloan is one of the most creative, inspiring and supportive in the world. Also worthy of mention is Significant Others of Sloan (SOS), the program for MBA students’ families that provides a supportive social network.

For more information, visit the MIT Sloan Student Journals web site.

If this is an MBA program that appeals to you, please visit our website for a free evaluation of your candidacy.  If you’ve decided to pursue admission, then contact The MBA Exchange for a dialogue with one of our admissions consultants – including former admissions officers and MBA grads — who can help you develop a strategy and tactics to maximize your chances for admission at this and other top-tier b-schools.