Let me be brutally honest, because I think this gives you a clear POV on this. I think if you would have invested the time you put into this website and the surveys into some good cause or a smart idea that produces only a(nother?) single line in the newspaper, you would send a much stronger signal than what you have now. Especially MIT is a place that asks for people who do things, not those who do use the megaphone (mens to manus). I believe you might be a smart person and have ambitious goals but the approach might just not fit to the institution you aspire.
The main questions that remain unanswered to me are:
1. What does the website serve for?
2. What has he achieved so far? (entrepreneurship record, projects etc.)
3. Where has he been a decision maker?
4. What professional recommendations does the person have? (And how biased are they?)
5. Social impact?
6. REASON WHY? (Being at MIT to be at MIT?)
Whatever I missed in the first five points, you really need to fix #6. It is the far most important.
Among the answers by your friends, there is nothing really tangible. So far, it is just a collection of adjectives. It reads like you are a nice person but the special something is missing. Imagine you just had an interview at Sloan and there were likely around 30 others like you. How do you make sure to get reminded by the interviewers and how?
"The guy with the friend survey", "the data-driven decision maker" or "the one with the family" is not likely to give you a signature move.
I'd say give yourself some time and start something else; develop yourself. Don't expect MIT to polish a raw diamond. Also, don't forget that business experience, professional recommendations etc play a much more important role as any friend-recommendation. Further, I have worked with many MIT people and institutions in the past and what I can say is that it might be one of the places where many people who have bright ideas and great backgrounds are still interested to stay low and humble. They don't necessarily search for attention. I might be corrected by MIT people that this perspective is totally wrong, but that was my experience in about 8 years.
@auctiontheory. "It's pretty clear that the two best B-schools to get you ahead in life are HBS and Stanford GSB.". The more I think about this sentence, the more arguments come to my mind why this is complete nonsense :)
The main questions that remain unanswered to me are: 1. What does the website serve for? 2. What has he achieved so far? (entrepreneurship record, projects etc.) 3. Where has he been a decision maker? 4. What professional recommendations does the person have? (And how biased are they?) 5. Social impact? 6. REASON WHY? (Being at MIT to be at MIT?)
Whatever I missed in the first five points, you really need to fix #6. It is the far most important.
Among the answers by your friends, there is nothing really tangible. So far, it is just a collection of adjectives. It reads like you are a nice person but the special something is missing. Imagine you just had an interview at Sloan and there were likely around 30 others like you. How do you make sure to get reminded by the interviewers and how?
"The guy with the friend survey", "the data-driven decision maker" or "the one with the family" is not likely to give you a signature move.
I'd say give yourself some time and start something else; develop yourself. Don't expect MIT to polish a raw diamond. Also, don't forget that business experience, professional recommendations etc play a much more important role as any friend-recommendation. Further, I have worked with many MIT people and institutions in the past and what I can say is that it might be one of the places where many people who have bright ideas and great backgrounds are still interested to stay low and humble. They don't necessarily search for attention. I might be corrected by MIT people that this perspective is totally wrong, but that was my experience in about 8 years.
@auctiontheory. "It's pretty clear that the two best B-schools to get you ahead in life are HBS and Stanford GSB.". The more I think about this sentence, the more arguments come to my mind why this is complete nonsense :)