Ross Admissions Director Blog

Tips for the interview (and essays)

For those of you who submitted your apps this past week, you're probably thinking ahead to the next part in the process - the interview. I've just finished updating our interviewer training materials (which I do each year based on learnings from the prior year). Our on-campus interviewers (MBA2s) will undergo training today and tomorrow. Here are the key things I will tell them:

• Ask the "why" question, and not just the "what." We want to understand what matters to you, how you think, what your key drivers are - stuff that is better gleaned through a conversation than a resume.
• Look for self-awareness. We want to know that you've taken the time to reflect on your experiences and learned something from them. The entire application process is an opportunity for self-reflection - from deciding to pursue an MBA to the topics you write about in your essays, and soon, the interview.
• Look for fit with our program and our culture. A lot of smart people apply to business school, but schools aren't just looking for smart, we're looking for fit. Each school defines fit slightly differently, which explains why some applicants get into some schools and not others. We're looking for fit between your goals and what we offer, as well as fit between your personality and ours. If you want to be successful in the Ross admissions process, do your homework on our program and our culture.

As for other tips - be prepared to talk about your career path, your goals, and how an MBA and Ross fit into your plans. The interview is intended to be a conversation to get to know you better and see if there's a mutual fit. As with the essays, don't strive for uniqueness. The uniqueness comes when you answer questions using your own experiences and your own points of view developed through your unique way of processing experiences. That's what makes getting to talk to MBA aspirants so fun.

36 Hours in Ann Arbor, Mich.

I love to travel. I love to experience new cultures, new people, new food (anyone who knows me knows that I run so that I can eat!). Fortunately, my work provides me with opportunities to travel around the United States and the world to meet with Ross alumni and prospective students AND to have many new experiences. That said, I’m always happy to come home to what is familiar, especially because of where home is – Ann Arbor.

The New York Times Travel section has a “36 Hours” column where they highlight things to do in a city over a – you guessed it – 36 hour period. Recently, they’ve covered Krakow, Poland, Perugia, Italy, and Quito, Switzerland. I was pleased to see that this week they focused on Ann Arbor!

I encourage you to take a look at the column to learn more about why the University of Michigan’s students, faculty, and staff love to call Ann Arbor home. Hopefully when you come visit us, you can check out my favorite local restaurant, Pacific Rim, mentioned in the 7 p.m. spot. Safe travels!

Ross apps strong in 2011, and looking forward to 2012

There have been several articles and posts recently about MBA applications being down this past year. We were, thankfully, one of the few schools that experienced an increase in applications (+7.6%), not just for Fall 2011, but the prior year as well. We saw increases from nearly all regions of the world, including the U.S. One of the factors that we attribute the increase to is the incredible engagement of our alumni and students. Across the U.S. and around the world, our alumni constantly offer to support our efforts to recruit great students. They offer to come back to campus to participate in recruiting events here. As a recent example, one of our investment banking alums emailed me early last week because he had heard that our diversity weekend was taking place that weekend. He offered to come out for it knowing that it would be helpful for us, and helpful for the prospective students. He's not an outlier. I have the good fortune to be part of a community where alumni say to me, "Tell me how I can help." I hear the same thing from our students as well. In the past week alone, three of our new MBA students emailed me wanting to ask how they could help with recruiting beyond volunteering to serve as Student Ambassadors. There's a deep passion for the school, and students and alumni want to pay it forward.

Getting down to business, next week is our Round 1 deadline (October 10, to be exact). We will be extending interview invitations in batches. The first batch will go out around October 24 and the second batch will go out around November 14. The batch in which you're invited is not an indication of how you stack up in the pool. We simply can't review all applications by October 24 to extend all interview invitations at once. 

If you're planning to apply in Round 2 and haven't yet come for a campus visit, I encourage you to join us for our "Ross Empowering Women" on October 21 for perspectives about the Ross experience from our MBA women (it's open to women and men), or our next general preview day on November 4. If you can't make it to either of those events, please join us for our daily Visit in Person program (except on Fridays, since we don't have classes).

I wish all the Round 1 applicants the best as you put the finishing touches on your application. We're looking forward to getting to know all of you over the coming months.