Cover Letter Essay
Ingrid T. (Admitted by MIT Sloan)
In Great Application Essays for Business School, which will be released in December 2005 by McGraw-Hill, publisher of BusinessWeek, author Paul Bodine provides an inside look at successful application essays. Bodine offers suggestions throughout each of the essays to give readers an idea of what admissions committees consider a well-thought-out and insightful response to their essay questions. The following is one of four essays from the book that is being made available on BusinessWeek Online:
Essay prompt: The cover letter serves as a sort of executive summary for your application. It is also the written equivalent of the first impression which you make when meeting someone for the first time. As such, it should reflect a great deal of time, thought, and energy. Ideally, we will finish reading your cover letter eagerly anticipating reading the rest of the application. (500-800 words).
Dear Admissions Committee Members:
It is with the single-minded determination to become a new product development manager in the supercomputing industry that I am applying for a seat in the MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2003. [This lead would be too stolid for an essay, but because of MIT's business-letter format it works here] Pursuing an MBA at this time fits perfectly with my career goals and eventual desire to start my own venture.
Ambition, achievement, and acceleration are common themes in my academic and professional experiences. I chose the Hamburg Technische Institute (HTI) for undergraduate studies not for its top-ranked Advanced Computing program, but for its unparalleled emphasis on developing well-rounded leaders and managers who can take charge in tough situations, readily address any audience on any topic, and provide effective and efficient solutions for challenging problems. No other college in the world offers its students such extensive practical summer training; by the time I graduated, I had been a contributing member of a hot-air balloon team, a Baltic resort design group, a Berlin art museum renovation technology team, and a DM400 million government supercomputer project. [Responds to MIT's instructions for a "summary" by telegraphing several key projects that intrigue reader in her other essays]
I was one of only a select few engineering students to pursue a minor in Arabic, and was among only 4% of my classmates admitted to an early-entrance fast-track graduate program in my third year at HTI. Now, in considering graduate business programs, I am seeking a rigorous academic curriculum with parallel opportunities to put theory into practice. In this regard Sloan stands out among the top MBA programs, setting the standard with programs like the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition and by providing MBA students with special access to the world-renowned Media Lab.
The leadership and service experiences I had as an HTI honors student and government consultant have had a tremendous impact on my interests outside of work. Whenever possible, I have committed my time and energy to my local community whether co-directing an orphanage in Ethiopia, helping the children of Turkish Gastarbeiter seek job opportunities, or raising funds for the reconstruction of the Marienkirche in Dresden by participating in cross-country skiing events.
I feel very fortunate to be able to share my most substantial accomplishments with you: [Use of bullets provides visual relief and allows Ingrid to cover wide-ranging material without seeming to ramble]
- Graduating first in the HTI Supercomputing Department's Scientists Training Program, and later ranking 1st among 35 peer HTI undergraduate researchers assigned to the Bundes Wirtschaftliche Agentur (BWA); being personally selected to serve on the BWA Director's East German Integration Team
- Leading, managing, and motivating 106 scientific and business personnel in four different organizations responsible for computer design, marketing, commercialization, and supercomputing project evaluations
- Earning the designation Zeugnis f Supercomputing Systeme Bauweise Fachmann (ZSSBF), earned by fewer than 4,900 high-speed computing professionals and equivalent in the industry to the CPA and CFA certifications
- Achieving success as a commercial project and account manager for China's largest chemical products distributor and the world's largest robotics manufacturing company, delivering over DM$15M in scientific consulting services[Ingrid offsets her letter's somewhat formal tone with several truly impressive mini-accomplishments]
My past scientific and commercial experiences involved immersing myself in the management issues of high-tech organizations, honing my leadership and organizational skills, and allowing me to develop extensive expertise in supercomputing. I now wish to apply these experiences and knowledge towards improving existing private-sector computing applications by employing advanced computing designs, as I am certain that the next few years will witness a surge in the efforts of businesses to exploit the data-mining and modeling benefits supercomputers permit.
Considering my rapidly building career momentum and interests, now is the most appropriate time for me to pursue an MBA and grow my new technology product development skills. Sloan's MBA curriculum will supplement my engineering background with a solid understanding of marketing, finance, and technology management. A new product development manager must interface effectively with different business functions, identify and manage the best design strategies, and quickly make sound decisions on the basis of often limited information. The New Product and Venture Development track's focus on innovation will help me to become an adaptive and strategic-minded new product development manager. The chance for hands-on experience through MIT's Entrepreneurship Lab will enhance my grasp of the management tools and techniques successfully applied by rapidly growing ventures. Immediately following my MBA, I intend to assume a position as a technology design manager at a high-intensity startup where I can lead teams in building innovative, useful, high-quality, and profitable supercomputers, such as those now offered by Siemens, Cray, and IBM.
Reflecting on the strong relationships I have maintained with my Hamburg Technische Institute classmates, I welcome the chance to build equally strong bonds with my Sloan classmates, enriching my classroom experiences by interacting with them on both social and professional levels. Looking five to 10 years into the future, I would like to start my own venture involving supercomputing technologies. Being able to tap into the extensive experience of Sloan School alumni and the greater MIT alumni communities will be a powerful catalyst for my efforts to create a viable business plan, secure funding, and successfully build a profitable company.
My direct and very recent experience as an early employee of a startup reveals that the road of an entrepreneur is freshly paved with calculated risks and varying uncertainty. Since experiencing the German government's rejection of my application for research funding earlier this month, I am undeterred in my resolve to improve myself as a leader, manager, and supercomputing professional, and am eagerly awaiting my next opportunity for growth and success. [Takes risk by mentioning a setback so near end of essay, but preceding paragraphs have shown Ingrid's successes, goals, and knowledge of MIT's resources to be so strong that her admission only enhances her credibility]
I look forward to the opportunity for a personal interview and would be pleased to answer any questions you may have regarding my candidacy.
With warm regards,
