Ross Admissions Director Blog

End of year info

Judging from the spikes in pageviews of my blog today, I'm guessing that Round 1 applicants are wondering whether I'll be sharing when the admit calls will go out. I spent the morning debating this with my team. We landed on continuing the tradition of making the calls. We love doing it and it's in keeping with our recruiting philosophy - making it personal and human. We recognize that there's a lot of anxiety in the wait. In an effort to minimize the anxiety, we'll be compressing the calls into two days. US calls will begin on Wednesday, December 19, and international calls will go out on Thursday, December 20 prior to noon EST, when decisions will officially be released. Not getting a call doesn't necessarily mean that you won't be admitted; it could mean that we've placed you on our waitlist for reconsideration in Round 2.

For Round 2 applicants, just a reminder that the app deadline is Thursday, January 3. I also wanted to get a couple dates on your radar. For those invited to interview, there will be an option to attend special preview days hosted in collaboration with two of our student groups. The first will be co-hosted with the Michigan Business  Women (MBW) club on Saturday, February 2. The day's agenda will focus on the Ross MBA experience from the perspective of our women students. We will have student panels and networking sessions with MBW members. The second preview day will be co-hosted with our Consortium students and is open to students who apply to Ross through the Consortium. That event will be held on Friday, February 15, and will coincide with our Black Business Students Association Conference, which interview invitees are encouraged to attend. Both events will be by invitation only. We hope to get those invitations out in mid-January. 

The Admissions Office will be closed the week of December 24 and will reopen on January 2, 2013. The team and I are looking forward to recharging our batteries before diving into Round 2. I hope that you, too, will have a chance to relax, reflect and recharge. Happy holidays and best wishes for a terrific 2013! 

In the home stretch

We're two weeks away from releasing Round 1 decisions and the Associate Directors (ADs) have seen more of their computer monitors than anything else these last couple weeks. They are in the throes of selection angst as they agonize over recommendations on whom to admit. What makes it so tough is that applicants put a lot of time into preparing compelling applications. I remind the ADs that their job is to make decisions on individual applicants: Can they do the work? Will they bring something to the table? Will they be a good fit? Then, Jon Fuller (the Senior Associate Director) and I will do the work of shaping the class and re-reviewing decisions over which the ADs struggled. Our part begins next week, and concludes with the Associate Dean reviewing the decisions before they're released on December 20. It's a multi-layered process designed to get to a class about which our faculty will say to me, "They're great students!" and about which our students will say, "I love my classmates! I can learn so much from them!" 

In addition to app reviews, the team and I spent last weekend welcoming a large and diverse group of prospective students. Candidates were here for three preview events:

• Women in Leadership Conference and Preview Day, with alumnae speakers Marlo Scott, who worked in media and entertainment before launching Sweet Revenge, a cupcake and wine bar in NYC, and Carmen Oviedo, a VP at Fannie Mae who shared insights on turning small opportunities into career-making ones and integrating work and life. 

• Military Veterans Preview Day, which was a half day workshop with Professor Noel Tichy focused on how military experience translates into the MBA classroom and beyond. Candidates had a chance to talk one-on-one with current military students and hear from executives from P&G and Ford about career opportunities for veterans with an MBA. 

• Super Interview Saturday, which brought together a diverse group of Round 1 applicants to meet our students and each other. 

For Round 2 applicants, you're also in the home stretch. If you've done the proper preparation and pacing, you've probably got your essays drafted, rec letter requests out, and resume outlined. (If you're not at this point, better get cracking!)

Here are some tips for the four weeks remaining until you hit the "submit" button (because we know that the vast majority of you will wait until the deadline date!):

• I've said it before, I'll say it again - don't sweat the essays. We're not looking for Pulitzer Prize winning writing. We're not looking for stories about the monumental impact you had on something or the epiphany you had through some life-changing experience. We've read those stories before. They're probably being sold by some online admissions consultant. What we're looking for is a real picture of you. As much as business schools would like to tout that all of their students have cured cancer or saved the planet, that's not the reality of the student body at any b-school. Impact comes in all shapes, sizes and contexts. Potential can be demonstrated in a thousand different ways. Don't feel compelled to tell us a story that "sounds good." That's not what it's about.
• Recommendations - touch base with your recommenders to make sure they successfully submitted their comments online. We can't review your app till we have both rec letters. 
• Resumes - one page, clear, understandable. The majority of the page should be about your full-time work experience. Summer internships during college need not be included. Activities and interests should. We want to know who you are on a personal level, not just professional. 

I hope you found the application process to be helpful in taking stock of where you are now and defining what your desired future looks like. Unless you're very disciplined, there are very few times in your life when you'll devote this much time to an introspection process. We look forward to learning what you've learned about yourself.