Common questions from prospective students

We had a number of prospective students (future 11’s) in last week and I spent all day Friday (literally I was with prospectives from 8:30 AM to midnight) and most of Monday meeting prospective students and answering their questions about LFM. In this post I’m trying to cover the most common questions so that anyone interested could get my perspective on these issues (although I talked to so many of you I don’t know how many prospective students haven’t heard my opinion).

What is the Grading/Workload like at MIT? So this is NOT official Sloan or MIT policy, but I truly feel that you have to try (and I mean go out of your way) to get a C or lower in a non-core class. This has been my experience with Sloan classes and engineering classes. Now this does NOT apply to core (your first fall) classes at Sloan. In core, 40 % get As, 50% get Bs, and 10% get Cs. After that, it seems like everyone gets an A or a B. Please don’t let my statements make you think MIT or LFM is easy. It just boils down to the fact that to have been accepted to this school (and the LFM program) you probably have a different perspective of what a full-day is and what the minimum expectation level is…and that is saying something because you are competing against other people who did engineering for their undergraduate degree.



So what does it take to get a C here? You have to skip more than a couple of classes (some teachers don’t take attendance/class participation…it just depends) and not turn in a majority of your assignments. If you show up to every class, talk once in a while (I rarely speak in class), and turn in all of the assignments (even if you do a sub-par job) you will get a B. This has been my experience with Engineering classes as well. Now I am sure you can go out and find incredibly hard classes where half the class fails, but in general that is just not the case. MIT is incredibly open that way. Most teachers understand that sometimes you are just in a class because the subject is interesting and you might want to know more and sometimes you are completely engrossed by a topic and you want to spend 5 hours a day reading about it. The workload can be whatever you make of it. If you just want to breeze through a class, do a little light reading, and turn in a paper or two you can do that and get a B. If you want to deep-dive into something and spend hours with the TA perfecting your homework, you can do that as well and you’ll probably get an A. The level of commitment is up to you (understanding that the minimum is attending class and turning in every assignment which is maybe a couple hours per week per class).

Describe the interaction with LFM 09s, Sloan students, and Engineering students. This follows the MIT model of being whatever you make of it. Personally, I don’t know half of the names of the Sloan students from my fall ocean (an ocean is a group of 60 MBA who you share core classes with). I also don’t know any of the engineering students (aside from group members) in my engineering classes. But it does not have to be this way. I know a number of students who are heavily involved in Sloan activities (for example, participating on the Student Senate) and are good friends with a number of Sloan students. I also know a few LFMs who are fully engrossed with engineering and are taking many more classes than are required. The choice is up to you. The great part of LFM is that you have the option of choosing your commitment level to each degree and the networks from each school.

What are the living expenses like? Depending on where you are coming from, Boston can seem quite expensive. To me (coming from the middle of nowhere Florida) it is VERY expensive.



This is the first site that came up when I typed “cost of living Boston” in Google. You can type in your current salary to get an idea of how much more expensive Boston is compared to where you currently live. If you are coming from New York city or somewhere in California, you might find Boston’s prices to be quite pleasant. The no-nonsense answer is that Boston is an expensive place to live while you are living off of student loans. The good part is, the payback is awesome. This is a link to Forbe’s MBA payback calculator. Instead of MIT’s $76,694 tuition and expenses figure, enter your LFM tuition and expenses figure of $45,000. For you post-MBA salary enter $110,000. This is pretty close to the average LFM exit salary. All these numbers are not exact, but it is close enough to get an idea.
What is the best part of LFM? - The best part about LFM is (in this order)

1) The summer with your LFM class and the relationships you build. When you start LFM you are pretty much the only students on campus (sure the doctoral students never leave, but they are always doing research…and the only other students on campus are the Sloan fellows and they are as busy as you, so you will never see them). You spend all day in the classroom with the same group of students (the same room actually, you stay and the teachers swap) and in the evening, you hang out with the same LFM students. This happens because you don’t know anyone else in Boston. The whole group is new to the city and dying to have fun together. For more on this, please read my blog about the transition from summer fun to Sloan fall.

2) The breakout/lounge area. The LFM and SDM departments share a large office space in E40 and within this area is a kitchen, individual desks, lockers, breakout rooms (this is key!), and a lounge area with a couple of couches and tables. This may not sound like anything special, but it is awesome. This area is shared by 100 LFM students (50 from each year) and a handful of SDM students (my wife is trying to get me a better number). The other 700 Sloan students (350 from each year) have to share a hallway and some random offices.

This picture describes what it feels like when you are trying to find a place to meet with a Sloan group just after class gets out

This is why MIT is building a new building (E62)…and while MIT claims that they will not increase the size of the incoming classes, my bet is that they will not be able to resist the money…and will increase the number of students until they are over utilizing the classroom and breakout room capacity. Back to what we have at LFM…those breakout rooms and the lounge area are awesome, and this is evident by how we are always having to kick Sloanies out of our rooms. Not that we mind sharing with the area with them when they are working with an LFM student, but the partner companies pay for that space and it is not right for them to use it without us.

3) The access to both the Sloan and Engineering network, facilities, teachers, etc. This is more or less discussed earlier in my blog post.

What are the negatives of going to LFM over Sloan? The two negatives about attending LFM rather than just attending Sloan are (in this order)

1) Having to move to Boston so quickly. This is tough. You find out that you get into LFM sometime in early March and you have to be setup (enough to get dressed and do homework) and living in Boston before the first of June. That is not very much time to find an apartment/house to rent. All I can say is that when you get into LFM, we (the students of the class before you) have an open house session where we do our best to help facilitate the move. We were there just a year before so we usually have good advice and sometimes we are looking for sub-letter or just someone to take over a house that is often in the LFM family.

2) Missing the fall semester. There are a number of classes that are only offered during the fall semester. Your one and only fall semester (assuming you are on-cycle) is your core semester. During core, you are taking a number of classes with the Sloanies. As an LFM, you are allowed to take additional classes (something 1st year Sloanies cannot do) but you only have room in your schedule for a couple of classes. You may choose to load up on Sloan classes but it is usually a good idea to get some of your engineering out of the way. Engineering classes tend to be tougher (or at least more work intensive) than Sloan classes. You really need to balance out your engineering classes because you’ll be writing a thesis during your last semester at school.

Balance is KEY!

All I can say is that if you really want to take certain classes that are only offered in the fall (or you just have to be on campus for fall recruiting when you look for a real job) go after an off-cycle internship (internship spring-summer instead of summer-fall).

How collaborative is the MIT/Sloan environment? Extremely. I don’t know what else to say. Don’t get me wrong, we have our fair share of assholes…everyone had at least one (two if you go to Harvard)…but the jerks are a minority. Almost everyone here wants you to be successful and is willing to help you. Fellow students are always willing to explain a problem to you or help you with your homework even though this could potentially inflate the average and hurt the helping person’s grades. Some of this may come from the laid back attitude on grades I mentioned earlier, but I don’t think that matters very much. Students going into consulting are very concerned with their grades (some consulting companies ask for your grades all the way back to high school…your high school grade in pre-calculus is how to separate the good consultants from the bad ones), and you still find those students willing to help anyone. Most Sloanies even practice interviewing with each other, even though they are going for the same internships.

How easy is it for my spouse/Significant Other (SO) to find work? I believe all of the LFM 10’s spouses/SOs that wanted to work are currently employed. Having said that, the economy is tough right now. I would just say that it is feasible for your spouse/SO to either stay at your current residence until they can find a job or move to Boston with you to look for a job. I know people who successfully did both. I even know of some people whose spouse/SO stayed at their current residence for the full two years. Tough, but it can be done.



How flexible is Sloan/MIT with classes? In general I would say that both degrees are very flexible. The first semester (LFM summer) is decided for you…you have no flexibility. This is done on purpose so that the entire class is together all summer, and so you can complete your two degrees in two years. Also, there are no other students on campus, so what else would you take besides the LFM classes? The next semester is your fall core. As I described earlier, you have the option of adding a few classes (completely your choice of which classes). After that, there are more or less no rules. Some of the engineering disciplines (especially ESD) are more strict that others, but in general you can take whatever you want. I know someone taking supply chain classes and getting credit toward their chemical engineering degree. MIT takes the opinion that you are an adult, you know what you are interested in and what you want to get out of school, and you will take the classes that best help you achieve your school goals.

How do you picking an engineering degree/do I need this degree (pre-req) to get a SM in X? In general I would say don’t worry about this. When it is all said and done, you really choose about four of your engineering classes (you can always take more, but most people don’t)…and like I said in my flexibility paragraph you can mix-and-match from just about any discipline. As far as prereqs go, this is really case by case. One of our ChemEs was an EE in undergrad. He had to write a 1/2 page paper about why he wanted to switch and they said ok. Overall, just don’t worry about which engineering discipline. You can take whatever you want.

Don't sweat it