What Reviewers Look For in the MBA — MIT Sloan Cover Letter

This rubric evaluates whether your letter makes a direct case for admission in standard business-letter form and uses professional experience as evidence. It also looks at whether you explain what you did, what followed, and how that evidence connects to MIT Sloan and your potential contribution.

What We Check

Mistakes We Flag

Using letter formatting without making an admissions case

A date and salutation are not enough if the body never clearly seeks admission or explains why your experience supports your application.

Taking full credit for a team outcome

Reviewers need to understand your specific decision, analysis, communication, or deliverable while recognizing the team and other conditions involved.

Relying on job titles or traits

A title, employer name, or words such as collaborative or innovative do not show what you actually did or why it mattered.

Listing MIT Sloan qualities or praising the school

Connect the characteristic you choose to a professional example and to the contribution you intend to make, rather than using labels or general praise.

Letting setup crowd out evidence

Repeated background, resume history, and broad future claims can take space away from the professional example and interpretation the letter needs.

How this rubric reads your essay

• Built from published reader guidance — the sources are listed below.
• Scored per section against defined criteria, not general impressions.
• Calibrated for consistent scoring, so a better draft shows up in the score.

References

Frequently Asked Questions