Meet The MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2017

Jackie Vouthouris

 

MIT Sloan School of Management

Hometown: Denville, NJ

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Maryland-College Park, Major: Finance

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

From 2011 to 2013, I worked at an asset management firm called KSA MidOcean where I specialized in US equities research as an associate analyst.

Since 2014, I’ve been working at Executives Without Borders as the program director of their plastic recycling supply chain program in Haiti.

Recalling your own experience, what advice do you have for applicants who are preparing for either the GMAT or the GRE? The most helpful GMAT tip for me, and also the most challenging to accept, was letting go of the standard test-taking concept that you need to get every question right to score well. Most test-takers, even the high-scoring ones, only get about 60% of the questions correct. Personally, I found the GMAT to be much less about the rigor of academic concepts being tested and much more about the overall test-taking strategy and time management.

Based on your own selection process, what advice do you have for applicants who are trying to draw up a list of target schools to which to apply? I found it helpful to start by ranking a list of important factors, such as location, program features, class size, classroom and curriculum structure, recruiting opportunities, and culture. Once you know which factors are most important to you, it will be easier to research different programs and decide which ones best meet those criteria. Then, reach out to current students at different programs to get a true feel for what life would be like at that school.

What advice do you have for applicants in actually applying to a school, writing essays, doing admission interviews, and getting recommenders to write letters on your behalf? The best advice I ever received – and I highly recommend – is to make sure that your application tells a cohesive story with clear themes. Use each essay to show a different facet of yourself (i.e. professional, personal, etc.) and create a more comprehensive picture of you as an applicant.  Let the major themes you want to convey come across in everything you submit.

Your recommendation letters should also support what you are saying in the rest of your application. You’ll have a stronger application if you choose recommenders who know you best versus ones you think might look impressive because of their titles, but may not know you as well personally. Once you’ve selected recommenders, talk to them about the themes you’re trying to convey as well, so they can weave them into their letters if possible.

Most importantly, be authentic in your application. I can’t emphasize that enough. Once you’ve been invited to interview, do as much research as possible on the program to develop ideas on how you can contribute to it. Anyone can talk about what they would like to get from a particular program, but great applicants show what they will give back and how they will enhance that program for their classmates and future classes.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? I could easily say how much I love Boston, Sloan’s curriculum structure, or its collaborative start-up culture, but it really came down to the people for me. Everyone I’ve met at Sloan is willing to go out of their way to help make you successful, and that spoke volumes to me about the caliber of people I will be surrounded by. They’re all humbly brilliant and I am sincerely honored to be a part of Sloan’s Class of 2017 with some of the most incredible people I’ve ever met.

What would you ultimately like to achieve before you graduate? I would like to focus a lot of my time on gaining more experience with start-ups in developing economies, but the most important thing for me to achieve is enhancing my leadership skills. I want to learn how to be a great leader who inspires the teams I work with to do incredible things that benefit the world.