Meet The MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2017

Ameer Jumabhoy

MIT Sloan School of Management

Hometown: Singapore

Undergraduate School and Major: Rice University, B.A. in Political Science

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: The Scotts Group (2013-2015)

Recalling your own experience, what advice do you have for applicants who are preparing for either the GMAT or the GRE? I’ll be honest in saying that I’m not the best standardized test-taker in the world and I found that investment into large, group-style classes for the GMAT did not really help because the GMAT essentially is a test in the ability to think in a certain way. It is really about unlocking the thought process that works solely for the exam. By just doing a handful of one-on-one sessions, I was able to tread a personalized path which helped me achieve that thought process a lot more quickly. The investment in these few classes (2-3 sessions) was definitely worth it.

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? Having spoken to many MIT students, there seems to be a lot of overlap between the type of schools that people attend. I was at an MIT get -together recently for new MBAs from Singapore and a number of students had been accepted into both Sloan and Wharton. What that told me was that successful applicants seemed to have honed application skills to schools which had some similarities in terms of the persona of the schools (in this case, a strong finance offering and the differentiator between the students selecting Sloan over Wharton and vice-versa was the level of innovation and Entrepreneurship they wanted to immerse themselves in). Apply to schools that cater to your palette and taste.

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? Your essays are your real estate, where you have one chance to build an impression of yourself which needs to then be imprinted in the minds of the admissions officers. Don’t cookie-cut your essays – each one needs to be strategically crafted to demonstrate through mere words why you would be a good fit for the school(s) you’re applying to. Once that’s done, don’t take it for granted that the admissions officers will forget you – they seem to have almost eidetic memory and will remember some major details in your essays which will frame much of the conversation at your interview. Be candid, funny and real. My MIT interview was in Hong Kong. The day before, I had a pretty nasty sports accident. As I limped into the interview room an hour after touching down, the Head of MIT MBA Admissions looked at me and said, “You definitely got into a pretty nasty sports injury.” I replied, “Yeah, I was pretty badly concussed so please don’t take me too seriously today!” That was a great ice-breaker for the interview, which then went well (and is the main reason why I think I got in). However, what stuck with me was that the officer remembered one of the smaller details on my application.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? Sloan leads in terms of Entrepreneurship & Innovation. The school is hugely committed to student ventures and supporting the development of student-led companies – providing mentorship by professors who themselves tend to be successful entrepreneurs and a mature ecosystem where students can collaborate and bring initiatives to life. I see Sloan as a crucible for ideas and as an environment that offers a plethora of ammunition for students to start on their warpath to building the next Apple or Google (or ZipCar which was started by a Sloanie!).

The Entrepreneurship & Innovation track (sort of like a major as part of the MBA program) also gives Sloanies the chance to participate in the prestigious MIT $100K Competition for startups on campus as well as meet with the movers-and-shakers in that mythical place called Silicon Valley as part of a compulsory trek. Boston is also close to the global capital mecca, NYC, and is developing quickly as the East Coast answer to Silicon Valley. In addition, because my focus is in Financial Technology or FinTech and mobile payment innovation, the geography of Boston worked well for me.

As an aside – here’s a big shout-out to my fellow Sloanies. You guys are one of the big reasons why I chose MIT over any other school. We may have not all met in person yet. but the strength of our community and class thus far is amazing to see on the social media networks, in addition to learning about the amazing work many of you have done so far and will continue to do at Sloan.

What would you ultimately like to achieve before you graduate? This is likely to be my terminal degree and MIT will thus be my final opportunity to learn in an academic setting (learning is definitely a life-long activity!). The honest truth is that pre-MIT has been a sensorial overload, with so many great opportunities and initiatives being introduced to the new class as we start making our way to Cambridge. I really want to get to the U.S. and just explore everything Sloan has to offer for myself. Who knows where the next two years will lead me? I may start a new company with some Sloanies or seek advice from professors about continuing to develop dimensions of the business I started prior to Sloan as we begin our multi-country rollout or do innovative research in my areas of interest (and sometimes study I suppose!). Right now, I just want to get ready for what I’m sure will be two of the most incredible years of my life.