Ross Admissions Director Blog

Touching Base on Round 1

We will be wrapping up Round 1 interviews this week. As a reminder, if you didn't get an invitation to interview in this round, it is possible that you may be invited to interview in Round 2.

Following completion of the interviews, AdCom members will be reviewing files in concert with interview reports and making preliminary decisions. Each region will be reviewed by the region manager to make decisions on candidates from their region. At this stage, class composition isn't the focus, but rather, identifying the best candidates from every part of the world. Next, I will review all of the decisions with an eye towards crafting a class with a robust mix of achievements, experiences, perspectives, talents, and career goals. My goal is to assemble the best mix of 500 students for next year's class. I will then send the decision recommendations to the Dean's Office for review and approval over the holidays, and decisions will go out in mid-January. Please note that the Admissions Office will be closed for the holidays beginning the afternoon of December 23 through Monday, January 2.

We wish everyone a happy holiday!

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.

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.

Recs from students and alums

Surprise! Two blog posts in one week! This is a quick one. I received a great question from one of the attendees of our Preview Day last week. He mentioned that he had gotten to know and build relationships with many of our ambassadors and wondered whether he should ask them for a rec letter. While we encourage prospective students to connect with our students and alums to get to know what we're about, we don't recommend asking them to send us a note of endorsement after a few emails, phone conversations, or a chat in the Wintergarden.

The recommendation letters that are most helpful to us are the ones we ask for in the application (generally, from your supervisors) since they will have a perspective on you formed over a longer period of time through a variety of interactions.

You'll have an opportunity to demonstrate your fit through the interview. Our interviews are conducted by MBA2s and alumni who understand and love the culture of our school. The interview is the best point in the process to get the student/alumni endorsement you hoped to get.

2012 Ross Essay Tips

As promised in my tweet (#MichRossAD), I wanted to share some tips and advice for writing your Ross essays. Hopefully this will take some of the mystery out of what the AdComm is "looking for."

Essay 1: "Introduce yourself to your future Ross classmates in 100 words or less."

Last year we saw many different good approaches to this essay. Here's what set the successful ones apart:

1. They didn't give us the highlights of their resume.
2. They didn't fill it with adjectives like "collaborative" and "achievement-oriented" that could describe hundreds of other applicants. 
3. They made it personal, distinguishable. Their families would probably be able to pick their essay out from a stack of other essays.

Essay 2: Career goals, why Ross and your unique contribution to Ross.

Here, we're looking for clarity of your goals and whether an MBA makes sense for what you want to do. We're also looking to see whether you understand what Ross is about and can articulate why we're a good fit for you. 

The most common mistake I see with this essay is that applicants regurgitate what's on our website. We're not looking for you to tell us about us, the essays are your chance to tell us about you. We know we have a MAP program, we know we're a student-driven community. We want to know why you think that these and other aspects of our program resonate with you.

Essay 3: "Describe a time in your career when you were frustrated or disappointed. What did you learn from that experience."

I underlined "career" because we have a separate optional question about a personal challenge or obstacle. What we're looking for in this essay, and really all of the essays, is self-awareness. We're most interested in your reflections on an experience, not on the play-by-play of the experience.

Essay 4: Select one of the following questions: What are you most passionate about? Or, describe a personal challenge or obstacle and why you view it as such.

We want to understand who you are as a person and not just as a professional. Again, we're looking for self-awareness and fit by getting a sense of what has had, or has, an impact on your life. 

Essay 5: OPTIONAL - Is there anything else you think the Admissions Committee should know about you to evaluate your candidacy?

I put it "optional" in all caps because it truly is optional. It is not code for "We say it's optional, but if you don't do it, we won't think you're serious about us." Use this essay only if: (1) there's something in your application that may cause us to wonder about (e.g., gap in employment, anomaly in your academic record) and wasn't addressed elsewhere in your application; or, (2) if there's something you think we should know about you that is material to our evaluation. Telling us that you're really interested in Ross (again) is not material.

Our Round 1 deadline is October 10. I'll be meeting with the AdComm that week to do a refresh of their evaluation training before they begin to read your files. The tips I've shared above are the same as the guidance I'll be sharing with the evaluators. So now you've got the inside scoop on how we look at essays. Good luck to you!

Dumb questions

The AdComm knows that applicants want to put their best foot forward and as a result, many resist asking us questions that they think may detract from their candidacy. Instead, they ask questions that are clearly best answered by the Admissions Committee to our students, our alumni, admissions consultants or even other applicants. I was at an info session recently where one of the attendees said, "I have a question for one of the alumni: what is the admissions committee looking for in the interviews?" I was standing up there alongside ten alumni and couldn't resist interjecting that I might be able to provide a good perspective on that.

Similarly, I've seen candidates pose questions on online forums about our essays or our process, and fellow forum participants, none of whom are Admissions Committee members, weigh in on what they think the answer might be. We've also seen admissions consultants try to give guidance on answering our essay questions based on their interpretation of what we're looking for.

To all those seeking an answer to what they're afraid might be seen as a "dumb question," I encourage you to email us directly (RossMBA@umich.edu) to get answers straight from the makers of the questions and the process. We try our best to answer every question, and if there is a question that seems to be asked frequently, I will post the question and a response here or in our newsletter (if it requires a lengthier, more detailed response).

So here's a paraphrased question from a participant in the online chat we did with accepted.com yesterday (the transcript will be available next week): "I've heard that Ross weights a GPA more heavily than the GMAT. Is that true and what if my GPA is low?" Answer: Not true. Don't fret about your GPA; it's too late to remedy that. BUT, there are ways you can demonstrate your academic ability in general, and your quantitative skills in particular (e.g., you work(ed) in a quantitative field, you took a post-undergraduate course in a quantitative subject, you scored very well on the GMAT, especially the quant section, etc.) Bottom line is that a lower than average GPA will not eliminate you from consideration.

Feel free to send your questions our way! We hope to make the process as transparent and stress-free as an application process can be.