The MIT Sloan Required MBA Pre-Interview Essay Questions 2025-2026

If you’re invited to interview with MIT Sloan, there’s an extra step you need to complete before you actually sit down with AdCom: 1 essay questions that you’ll need to submit at least  24 hours before your scheduled interview time. 

If you've been invited to interview, MIT already likes you (that’s why they’ve invited you to interview!), but this extra step helps them understand your critical thinking process and analytical decision-making skills.

Here are MIT Sloan’s required pre-MBA interview essay questions for 2025-2026, with example answers.

Required Question

We are interested in learning more about how you use data to make decisions and analyze results. Please select one of the following prompts to respond to:

Option A: Please select an existing data visualization and, in 250 words or less, explain why it matters to you. The data visualization should be uploaded as a PDF. Examples may come from current events, a business analysis, or personal research.

Option B: In 250 words or less, please describe a recent data-driven decision you had to make, and include one slide presenting your analysis. The slide may include a data visualization example and should present data used in a professional context. Your slide must be uploaded as a PDF.

Let’s analyze each of these options.

In our experience, Option A is typically preferred by applicants who are in roles where they don’t work with data analysis or data-driven decision making. That’s because they can choose a relevant data visualization that is closely aligned with their target industry or goals – which leads nicely into why it matters to them. Ideally, this will be your career “mission”.

So even if you don’t come from a data background, Sloan wants to see if you can still understand and interpret basic data and connect it to your own work. You may use a data visualization from current events, a business analysis, or personal research.

In Option B, Sloan wants to see how you can make informed business decisions using a structured, data-driven thought process. Data-driven decision making isn’t necessarily only for people who work in highly analytical roles; any business decision, like a new product, partnership, or resource, is made considering different factors like calculated risk, budgets, and even qualitative factors like industry perspectives and client insights. This is all data! With this question, Sloan wants to see if you can analyze how data factored into your decision-making process and if you can organize it clearly for the viewer. 

Ultimately, the prompt is less about the data itself; it’s more about how you used it effectively, and how you can communicate that impact visually through a structured presentation. Your visualization should clearly tell the reader why you made that decision. 

While writing your answer, use the SCAR format. Your challenge is the decision you have to make, and your action is your thought process behind the decision where you carefully analyzed all factors involved. 

Note that you are not expected to share any confidential or sensitive information. 

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Jon

Zack

Alex

Malvika

Rowan

Nanako

Mario

Here’s an example of the Sloan Required Interview Essay 2, Option B:

In 2021, Dunhill changed the front page of its website. Initially, this dramatically reduced the number of leads generated through our site. Within weeks, the company’s Google rank dropped dramatically. Having invested a lot of time and money in the website revamp, management was displeased with the data and argued that we should return to the reliable, if old, website design. 

Something didn’t seem right to me. So I used analytics tools including WebSite Auditor, Ahrefs, and Google Analytics to run different visualizations. I found that the Bounce Rate (essentially where someone clicks on to the website but then hits the Back button), was higher than before but still not dramatically so. 

I worked through different permutations of the data until I finally used the visualization provided, which filed the Bounce Rate by country. The numbers for the UK, where the company is based, were as expected. However, numbers for the rest of the world, including substantial markets such as India and the US, had increased sharply.  

This led me to investigate the front page of the site. We inferred that the changes to the site and its lead generation copy gave preference to the UK over other markets, apparently even leading clients to think that our services were UK-specific. Further research with new leads confirmed as much, and we summarily changed the copy. 

Within several weeks, our ranking improved and our lead generation was back to pre-change levels plus about ten percent.

For our full list of the MIT Sloan AdCom interview questions, head over to our MIT Sloan MBA Interview Questions blog.

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