2018 MBA Essay Questions: Michigan Ross

Ross has some (fairly) straightforward essay questions this year! They want to know about career goals, and about you. And guess what? Average GMAT is now 720!!

It’s also awesome that Ross decided to move out their Round 2 deadline. You Round 1 BSers won’t care but those Round 2ers who are scrambling to put apps together right after the holidays will be very grateful. First we got Harvard ditching Round 3, then Ross making this change. EssaySnark is all smiles to see the policy shifts in admissions this year. 😀

2018 Michigan Ross Two-Year MBA Essay Questions: Class of 2021

Ross Round 1 is in 1 month, 1 week, 5 days (October 1).

First, you may want to check out the Class of 2020 Profile for the full-time Ross MBA , which is really quite strong. It looks similar to what Columbia’s did only a few years ago. Yes, Ross is on the upswing! Has been for awhile. It’s also notable that they accepted a full 25% of their class with GRE scores. Their GRE averages are much lower than what we’re seeing at places like Harvard and Wharton. We’ll see if that holds again this year.

The Ross Class of 2021 essays will make you THINK!! Our 2017 Ross MBA App Guide has not been updated yet but the questions are similar enough to last year’s that you can pick it up now to get started, and you’ll get access to the revised 2018 version for free when it’s published.

How do you answer them?

Several short-answer questions with multiple options each, plus a standard career goals essay:

Your main pitch is in the formal goals essay:

• Michigan Ross is a place where people from all backgrounds with different career goals can thrive. Please share your short-term career goal. Why is this career goal the right choice for you? (300 words)

Thankfully they’ve tightened the focus now: Short-term goal only!!! Singular! Simple! (Last year they wanted applicants to also discuss a long-term goal.) Only 300 words is still tight, but it’s doable since you have this more limited scope.

If you’re struggling to articulate your goals clearly and succinctly: EssaySnark’s Career Goals App Accelerator will help!

The potentially more interesting — and more challenging, if you haven’t yet grasped the importance of being authentic in your MBA essays — are the short-answer questions. You get choices here! You’ll be choosing one from each group of two prompts:

• Group 1
  • I want people to know that I:
  • I made a difference when I:
• Group 2
  • I was humbled when:
  • I am out of my comfort zone when:
• Group 3
  • I was aware that I was different when:
  • I find it challenging when people:

These questions will require extensive BRAINSTORMING and even more STRATEGY – and we lay out some dos and don’ts in our Michigan Ross MBA guide for 2017 (to be updated soon!), including how dated your stories can be, what topics maybe won’t serve you so well in these individual prompts, and other tips based on what we’ve seen from others who tackled these questions before you.

Ross’ Admissions Director Soojin Kwon has a great blog which you should be following! Her post from last year explained the rationale behind their innovative short-answer prompts, and this one from this year explains the most recent simplifications.

Ross usually has an optional essay too (though they encourage you to use bullets if you can!).

How competitive is it?

Ross has indeed been getting more competitive in recent years. The average GMAT score for the Ross Class of 2019 is ***716*** (up from 708) though they’re also accepting a large number of applicants with GRE scores too (20% of students), which may skew the GMAT average higher.

Part of these changes are simply because Ross is getting more popular! U Michigan Ross has seen year-over-year growth that’s more than perhaps any other program over the past several seasons. It doesn’t appear that apps reached yet another record in 2017 but before that, it was like, 30% increase one year and back-to-back records in app volumes in other seasons.

A lot of this interest has come from the international candidate pool, which we understand to be softening somewhat recently. Whether you’re a U.S. candidate or trying from a more congested pool like China or India, Ross will want to get an application from you! They are reapplicant-friendly and are looking for ways to make their process more transparent and less stressful, while also letting you share more of who you are through the requirements that they present. They remain more flexible on GRE vs GMAT and on accepting a range of scores.

Learn how to construct a strong app to this school with our Michigan Ross Essay Guide!
 

Full-Time MBA 2018 App Deadlines for Michigan Ross

Michigan Ross MBA Application Deadlines
Deadlines and the schedule are the same as they had last year.

• Round 1: October 1, 2018
  In the past, they have required any international Rd 1 applicants who want to participate in the Team Exercise to travel to Ann Arbor. Make plans to do so if you’re serious about this school (or, try in Round 2 instead).

  All Round 1 interview invitations went out on Monday, October 30. (In 2017, interview invites were issued towards the end of October, but if you weren’t interviewed, then there was still a possibility of being offered a spot on the waitlist when final decisions come out in December. Meaning, nobody was released in mid-cycle, as happens at other schools.)

• Round 2: January 7, 2019 WHOO-HOOO!! One of the later Round 2 deadlines!! THANK YOU, ROSS!! Apparently they have finally heard our plea!
  
  Expect Round 2 interviews to go out in two waves starting in late January or the first of February, with the interviews / team exercise happening in February (if you do not get the interview invitation in the second wave, you’re either going to be waitlisted or denied. For Round 2 last season, the Ross admissions team will be traveling to Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo to conduct interviews and the Team Exercise (the prior year it was in Delhi, Shanghai, and Tokyo) — and you can do it in Ann Arbor too, of course, or you have the option of interviewing locally with an alum, pretty much anywhere you are in the world. However, we suggest that you plan to attend one of these four locations so that you can participate in the Team Exercise (HIGHLY recommended) .

  They are likely to release all no-go Rd 2 candidates towards the end of February

See the useful decision tree they posted on their blog in February 2015 to better understand how the admissions cycle works.

Michigan Ross MBA Recommendations

• As in 2017, just one recommendation (which as we said in 2014 we don’t think is the best thing for applicants, but they’re sticking with it). This rec must be from current direct supervisor, or you need to explain why not in the optional essay.
• Three main questions for your recommender to answer

Lots of resources for choosing your recommender available here on the blahg; if you want more help, our Letters of Recommendation App Accelerator walks through the specifics and lets you submit your recommenders’ strategy for feedback from EssaySnark.

Also:

EXCELLENT examples of accmplshmts that show distinction. Thank you Soojin @MichiganRoss & congrats on amazing class! https://t.co/qqvNqDpMHa

— Essay Snark (@EssaySnark) December 24, 2015

Michigan Ross Interviews and Team Based Exercise

Starting halfway through the 2012 admissions cycle, Ross piloted a team interview format which they standardized upon in 2013. There is (almost) no way to prepare for this; it’s very impromptu, by design. If you’re a decent person with some manners who treats others well, not too shy and not too pushy, you should do just fine.

It’s still important to go through the standard interview prep process, of course, so that you’re fluid and comfortable in talking about your interest in the MBA – especially since Ross does not have a question about career goals in its current essays. You need to be prepared to discuss those.

You can see more information about the Team Exercise on Soojin Kwon’s blog post from October 2013 , and be sure to also check out this one from January 2015 that emphasizes the importance of this opportunity .

Michigan Ross General Info

official school pages

• Ross Admissions Director’s Blog
• “Don’t Fear the Group Interview” blog post from Ross Admissions Director in August 2013
• Great post and video about how they evaluate candidates (March 2015)

EssaySnark stuff

Some blahg posts about Ross

• Schools are discouraging use of the optional essay (May 2016)
• We’re certain that Michigan Ross is not trying to mess with your head (September 2015)
• What was Ross thinking? On letters of recommendation (August 2014)
• From our “adcoms that we love” series: Michigan Ross (December 2012) and “adcoms that we trust” (December 2010)
• A blahg discussion of multi-year app volume trends centering on Michigan Ross (February 2013)

This guide is new for this year’s short-answer groups of questions and the short-term/long-term/skills and strengths and Ross essay!

For reference: Past Season Ross Essays

The reason we include these past-year questions is so you get a better sense of the school. Studying what they’ve asked before helps you understand more of what they value. When they keep questions consistent, then you know they’re important; when they make changes, the deltas can give you additional perspective.

Ross’ Admissions Director Soojin Kwon announced the new essays on her blog recently and here’s what you’ll be working with if you’re applying to Michigan (which BTW is one of our favorite schools!):

Several short-answer questions with multiple options each, plus a standard career goals essay:

Your main pitch is in the formal goals essay:

• Please share your short-term and long-term career goals. What skills/strengths do you have that will be relevant to your career goals? How will Ross prepare you for your goals? (300 words)

Hmmm… EssaySnark likes the clarity they’ve given here, with the separate questions — but covering FOUR SPECIFIC ANSWERS in only 300 words???? That’s a tall order. We wish they’d been more permissive on the essay length on this one.

Anyway, a solid answer to all aspects of this question is EXACTLY what you’ll end up with if you do EssaySnark’s Career Goals App Accelerator!

The potentially more interesting — and more challenging, if you haven’t yet grasped the importance of being authentic in your MBA essays — are the short-answer questions. You get choices here! You’ll be choosing one from each group of prompts:

• Group 1
  • I want people to know that I:
  • I turned an idea into action when I:
  • I made a difference when I:
• Group 2
  • I showed my resilience when I:
  • I was humbled when:
  • I am out of my comfort zone when:
• Group 3
  • I was aware that I am different when:
  • I find it challenging when people:
  • A valuable thing I have taught someone:

These questions will require extensive BRAINSTORMING and even more STRATEGY – and we lay out some dos and don’ts in our Michigan Ross MBA guide for 2017, including which pairs of questions should not be answered together, how dated your stories can be, and what other topics maybe won’t serve you so well in these individual prompts, based on what we’ve seen from others before you.

Ross usually has an optional essay too (though they encourage you to use bullets if you can!).


[end discussion of 2017 questions.]