Hi, I recently was talking on other threads and found couple of folks (including me) who have been admitted to SDM (System Design and Management) program at MIT (sdm.mit.edu). I thought it will be good to start a separate thread to talk about a …
Hi,
I recently was talking on other threads and found couple of folks (including me) who have been admitted to SDM (System Design and Management) program at MIT (sdm.mit.edu). I thought it will be good to start a separate thread to talk about a program which falls on both MS and MBA areas. Program is more like a Tech-MBA (for lack of a better word) and is mostly for folks who want to be in their technical areas post Master's and continue to manage the technical functions. Here are some quick facts:
1) Degree awarded - MS in System Design and Management. Degree is awarded jointly by MIT Sloan and MIT School of engineering.
2) Program has three flavors - 13 month full time, 24 month commuter program for folks who are near Boston and can attend the classes in person, 24 month online option (synchronous) which means you attend the classes online (video conferencing) when they are taught to the commuter students.
3) They take about 65 students per year.
4) Tuition is 61k for 13th month Full time, 70K for Commuter program and 78K for online option.
5) There is mandatory JAN on campus requirement and also any one term (4 months) on-campus requirement.
6) Average work experience - 10 years (range 3-20+).
I was in the open house on 17th and met with some really wonderful people. Some were MBAs, couple PHDs , quite a few MS and mostly Bachelor's with good range of industry experience. We also had a 1 hour QnA session with the program director and so I'll be happy to answer some of the questions we got answered during our session.
I was also looking at MBA programs while applying for SDM. It is a difficult decision to choose for a program specially weighing against what is more accepted in industry and what suits Ur career flow/path more. Personally for me it is great because I wanted to be in managing technical functions and move up the production development area.
I see lot of IT folks on this forum and as some are looking for a Master's program which will give them the needed push to management ladder quite a few of us want to still be connected with technical side and probably climb up the technical side of management ladder, I think this program is perfect for that. Its costly at 70-78K for 24 month option but because it can be done part-time that brings down the cost.
Visiting MIT campus was an amazing experience. Looking forward to the JAN 2008 session.
DD.
Thanks for the gr8 review of the program.
Though I still have few Qs, for which your inputs would be appreciated:
1) Are the international SDM candidates eligible to apply for OPT after the course?
2) How is the job scene for internationals?
3) How this program is viewed by recruiters(IT biggies like MS, Google, Adobe etc.) vis-a-vis traditional MS / MBA program offered by MIT? How this program places itself with respect the other two programs?
4) I could not find the class-profile on the MIT's website. From where I can look into that. May be I need to dig more on the website.
thanks
Hi JB,
Here are answers to your questions:
1) Are the international SDM candidates eligible to apply for OPT after the course?
A. Good question I did not thought of it myself as I'm in the part-time option of the program. My guess would be that there will be a OPT for full-time students, I'll try sending couple of emails and see if I can get confirmation on that. In the meantime you can email [email protected].
2) How is the job scene for internationals?
A. 40% of the class is sponsored and so most of them if not all go back to their respective companies. 60% are non sponsored students.
Employment reports are here: SDM Program at MIT - EMPLOYMENT REPORT
I'm attaching this year's employment report with this thread.
7220
Titles held by MIT-SDM graduates include:
Senior product manager
Systems architect
Director of hardware engineering
Vice president of engineering and technology
More recently, SDM fellows have chosen to enter nonprofit, financial and consulting arenas. They hold such titles as:
Senior consultant
Manager of corporate strategic planning
Vice president of wealth and investment
Director of business strategy
3) How this program is viewed by recruiters(IT biggies like MS, Google, Adobe etc.) vis-a-vis traditional MS / MBA program offered by MIT? How this program places itself with respect the other two programs?
A. The whole program itself is steered by industry partners, they have yearly meetings to access the direction of the program and they change the curriculum accordingly, like in recent years there has been shift in curriculum towards IT . This was the first year Microsoft came in to recruit. The program has picked up nicely in last 3-4 years, before that it was not that much in lime-light as most of the class was company sponsored (Boeing, NASA, US Defense and others). In recent years number of self-sponsored candidates have surpassed the company sponsored ones.
4) I could not find the class-profile on the MIT's website. From where I can look into that. May be I need to dig more on the website.
A. The class profile is in the attached employment report. The impression I got from them was that they do not weigh very heavily on GRE/GMAT but a upper 600 will help. I had 710. They give close attention to the analytical score and AWA part in GMAT.
With all this said, mainly the program is great for technical leaders with some folks also getting out to other areas like finance, business strategy and planning but those opportunities are mostly through Alumni contacts. MIT-SDM is not too heavy on placements mostly because only in recent years it has got so many self-sponsored students that being said they give you direction, they get the right people in touch with you, they work with you on your resume, presentation skills, weaknesses, strengths. If you see the attached employment report 42% got their jobs from MIT recruitment office and Alumni's rest got it on their own or they went back to their sponsored companies.
End of the day least a Master's from MIT will get you is an interview call and then it all depends how you perform in it. I've met some Alumnus and they say they have grown as much personally as academically with this program. As with any other good program a great deal of learning is from peers and Profs.
Thanks for the gr8 review of the program.
Though I still have few Qs, for which your inputs would be appreciated:
1) Are the international SDM candidates eligible to apply for OPT after the course?
2) How is the job scene for internationals?
3) How this program is viewed by recruiters(IT biggies like MS, Google, Adobe etc.) vis-a-vis traditional MS / MBA program offered by MIT? How this program places itself with respect the other two programs?
4) I could not find the class-profile on the MIT's website. From where I can look into that. May be I need to dig more on the website.
thanks
Hi JB,
Here are answers to your questions:
1) Are the international SDM candidates eligible to apply for OPT after the course?
A. Good question I did not thought of it myself as I'm in the part-time option of the program. My guess would be that there will be a OPT for full-time students, I'll try sending couple of emails and see if I can get confirmation on that. In the meantime you can email [email protected].
2) How is the job scene for internationals?
A. 40% of the class is sponsored and so most of them if not all go back to their respective companies. 60% are non sponsored students.
Employment reports are here: SDM Program at MIT - EMPLOYMENT REPORT
I'm attaching this year's employment report with this thread.
7220
Titles held by MIT-SDM graduates include:
Senior product manager
Systems architect
Director of hardware engineering
Vice president of engineering and technology
More recently, SDM fellows have chosen to enter nonprofit, financial and consulting arenas. They hold such titles as:
Senior consultant
Manager of corporate strategic planning
Vice president of wealth and investment
Director of business strategy
3) How this program is viewed by recruiters(IT biggies like MS, Google, Adobe etc.) vis-a-vis traditional MS / MBA program offered by MIT? How this program places itself with respect the other two programs?
A. The whole program itself is steered by industry partners, they have yearly meetings to access the direction of the program and they change the curriculum accordingly, like in recent years there has been shift in curriculum towards IT . This was the first year Microsoft came in to recruit. The program has picked up nicely in last 3-4 years, before that it was not that much in lime-light as most of the class was company sponsored (Boeing, NASA, US Defense and others). In recent years number of self-sponsored candidates have surpassed the company sponsored ones.
4) I could not find the class-profile on the MIT's website. From where I can look into that. May be I need to dig more on the website.
A. The class profile is in the attached employment report. The impression I got from them was that they do not weigh very heavily on GRE/GMAT but a upper 600 will help. I had 710. They give close attention to the analytical score and AWA part in GMAT.
With all this said, mainly the program is great for technical leaders with some folks also getting out to other areas like finance, business strategy and planning but those opportunities are mostly through Alumni contacts. MIT-SDM is not too heavy on placements mostly because only in recent years it has got so many self-sponsored students that being said they give you direction, they get the right people in touch with you, they work with you on your resume, presentation skills, weaknesses, strengths. If you see the attached employment report 42% got their jobs from MIT recruitment office and Alumni's rest got it on their own or they went back to their sponsored companies.
End of the day least a Master's from MIT will get you is an interview call and then it all depends how you perform in it. I've met some Alumnus and they say they have grown as much personally as academically with this program. As with any other good program a great deal of learning is from peers and Profs.
Hi,
Thanks for your response. This program certainly looks a good option.
regards
Hi Folks,
I'll be starting my program in JAN and will try to document most of it here:
MIT-SDM Diary
If you have any specific questions post them here or visit/comment my blog from time to time please.
All the best in your decision about your next career move,
DD.
Thanks for the gr8 review of the program. Though I still have few Qs, for which your inputs would be appreciated:1) Are the international SDM candidates eligible to apply for OPT after the course?2) How is the job scene for internationals? 3) How this program is viewed by recruiters(IT biggies like MS, Google, Adobe etc.) vis-a-vis traditional MS / MBA program offered by MIT? How this program places itself with respect the other two programs?4) I could not find the class-profile on the MIT's website. From where I can look into that. May be I need to dig more on the website. thanks
1) Are the international SDM candidates eligible to apply for OPT after the course?
-My take it that one shouldn't be thinking about OPT after this program. This is for mid to senior level engineers with some leadership experience. If you are thinking about OPT then this is probably not the program you want.
2) How is the job scene for internationals?
-I think this depends on the job market in your home country.
3) How this program is viewed by recruiters(IT biggies like MS, Google, Adobe etc.) vis-a-vis traditional MS / MBA program offered by MIT? How this program places itself with respect the other two programs?
-This is not a substitute for an MBA. If job requisite requires an MBA degree then SDM is not going to help. If someone who is making a decision values an MBA and recruiter is tasked to screen MBAs then you won't make the cut.
SDM does not use MIT Sloan's Career Development Office and it make sense as companies will expect an MBA if they are recruiting SLOAN graduates.
4) I could not find the class-profile on the MIT's website. From where I can look into that. May be I need to dig more on the website.
-You can find few blog posts.