Ross Admissions Director Blog

Round 1 Update

As I stated in an earlier blog post, we extend our interview invitations in two batches. The first batch went out on October 24 and the second batch went out on November 14. If you have not received an interview invitation (be sure to double-check your spam folders!), you should not automatically assume that you will be “rejected” at the end of this round; you may be waitlisted and invited to interview at a later date.

All Round 1 admissions decisions will be posted on January 13th. You will receive an email from our office about a week prior to that date with instructions on how to access your decision.

Ross Admissions wishes you a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday. Our students got an early start on holiday festivities - take a look at the Ross Ambassador blog to see some pictures from the Section 6 Thanksgiving Potluck!

Early Reviews from our Readers

Early last week I touched base with our application evaluation team to get their sense of the quality of the Round 1 apps. There was consensus that this year's apps are better than last year's (don't tell last year's Round 1 admits). They said the essays really came to life and left them eager to meet the applicants they were getting to know through their apps. I'll have a chance to "meet" applicants a little later in the process.  

Last Friday, I welcomed a group of prospective students to another on-campus Preview Day. One of the things I shared with the group is how I review apps. By the time an application gets to me, several AdCom members have already weighed in on an applicant's admissibility and fit. They are not given an allotment of admit/waitlist/deny decisions that they can make. Rather, they thoroughly review each application and make decisions on their individual merits. When the decisions come to me, I focus on building the class and giving each student 499 peer-teachers who have diverse experiences and points of view. I view Admissions' role not as that of "gatekeepers," but rather "community builders." We could fill the class several times over with students who could do well academically and have prior work experience that would make them attractive to recruiters. But we're doing something more than screening for smarts and potential placement success. We're using the limited information we have about you to make educated bets on who will help sustain and build on the extremely positive energy we have in our community.

Yesterday, I received an email from one of our MBA2s whose Marcel Gani internship at a VC firm in 2009 resulted in a 2-year contract with one of the portfolio companies. He wrote, "I keep in touch with a good number of my section mates from the Class of 2010, but it has been great getting to know some of the members of the Class of 2012. I just wanted to drop you a line to tell you I'm back and to congratulate you and the rest of your team on an excellent job - the caliber of the current class at Ross really blows me away." That's what the AdCom strives for - to bring you into a community that will inspire you and pave the way for new, and perhaps, unimagined opportunities.

Demystifying the Interview Invitation Process

In case you didn't read the comments to my last blog post, a reader ("Ross Hopeful") decried our interview process because of the 3-week wait between invitations going out. S/he commented that this wait "take(s) a toll not only on our psyche, but also on our work and to some extent our family."

I completely understand that feeling. I've been through many an application process myself, and that was back in the day when applicants were given no clue as to when an interview invitation would come, if at all. And the only other communication applicants received from the school was either a thick envelope or a thin envelope, depending on the admissions decision. So for months (not just 3 weeks), I lived in limbo until I got the interview invitations. It was tough, but I did my best to focus on the present and try to manage my anxiety. It's a useful skill to develop as you'll need to leverage it for so many other things in life.

As I explained in my response, one of the main goals for our interview process (which is in its second year running), was to minimize the anxiety by targeting two dates on which to release invitations. Previously, our process was similar that of some other schools whereby we released invitations on a rolling basis starting a couple weeks after the app deadline right up until the decision notification date in mid-January. So applicants had an extended period of stress and waiting - over two months, in some cases. We thought that this new process would be less stressful, and, allow us to make better decisions on whom to invite. We received very positive feedback from applicants on this process last year. They were glad to know that they didn't have to check their emails every day to see if an invitation would come through.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, when you submitted your application has no bearing on when you might get an interview invite. Similarly, your GMAT score is not a driver of when you might get an invite, nor is your location.

Waiting is never easy, whether it's for admission to b-school, a job offer, funding for a new venture, or the results of a health exam. Many things take time, so the people on the other end make well-informed decisions. It is very important to us not to rush through your applications. We know that you've poured a lot of your heart and soul into them and we want to handle them with care.