MIT Sloan School of Management - Student Life

Student Life

The MIT Sloan culture is similar to, but also distinct from, overall MIT culture, and is influenced most strongly by its MBA program. The curriculum is focused on action learning, which requires that students apply concepts learned in the classroom to real-world business settings. Courses are taught using both the case method as well as through lectures and team projects. The academic level of coursework is considered extremely rigorous by business school standards, with a greater emphasis on analytical reasoning and quantitative analysis than most top programs. Courses are offered in accounting, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, industrial relations, information technology, leadership, marketing, operations management, organizational behavior, statistics, strategic management, supply chain management, and many other fields.

Academic rigor has a strong influence on the school's culture. The first semester, also known as the core, is the most difficult of all semesters by design. Students are required to take the following courses: Economic Analysis for Business Decisions, Financial Accounting, DMD (Data, Models and Decisions), Organizational Processes, and Communication for Managers. In addition, they may choose to take one of the following electives: Finance Theory, Intro to Operations, Introduction to Marketing or Strategy. In 2005, the students and faculty expressed solidarity against the core by wearing t-shirts that said "think outside the core." In 2006, the students placed their name-cards upside-down during the weeks where the workload was particularly demanding.

Courses are graded using letter grades and on the same five-point scale used throughout MIT. In its graduate programs, anything less than a 4.0 ("B") average will not allow the student to graduate. Unlike most other leading business schools, MIT Sloan is consistent with MIT and does not offer any academic honors at graduation. The philosophy behind this is that the honor is in being an MIT graduate. MIT Sloan graduates wear the famous MIT class ring, known as the Brass Rat. MIT Sloan students and alumni informally call themselves Sloanies.

A staple of MIT Sloan life is the weekly C-Function, which stands alternately for "cultural function" or "consumption function". The school sponsors food and drink for all members of the MIT Sloan graduate community to enjoy entertainment organized by specific campus cultural groups or clubs as well as parties with non-cultural themes. These functions are held on most Thursdays, often in the Walker Memorial building near the school. MIT Sloan alumni groups around the world also organize C-Functions for their club members, for social and networking activities.

MIT Sloan closely collaborates with MIT's engineering, science, and economics programs, all of which are regularly ranked #1 in the world. MIT and Harvard University also collaborate, and students at each institution frequently pursue simultaneous graduate degrees at the other. In addition, MIT Sloan students can freely cross-register for courses at Harvard Business School, and vice versa, the only pair of leading business schools to have such an agreement. Some joint degree programs have been formalized between MIT Sloan and Harvard, including a joint MBA/MPP program with the Harvard Kennedy School.