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2019 MBA Essay Questions: Michigan Ross

 

Wow, Ross is showing themselves to be more selective now than they had been in the past. It’s a school on the upswing!

Did you apply? Here’s interviewing and team exercise info for Ross! The Ross app strategy guide also could be a resource to help you.

 

Want proof? the Class of 2020 Profile for the full-time Ross MBA 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 nearly a quarter of their class on GRE scores. And, as would be expected, those GRE averages are much lower than what we’re seeing at places like Harvard and Wharton.
 

EssaySnark's Strategies for the 2019 Michigan Ross MBA Application


 

2018 Michigan Ross Two-Year MBA Essay Questions:
Class of 2022

Ross Round 2 has now passed.

Can you break into Ross in their last round? Yeah maybe! Find out if this is a viable strategy through our quick-hit Late Seasons Target Review!


Ross has retained its prompts almost unchanged for this admissions season, which tells you that they think they are eliciting good responses! Our Ross MBA Application Guide will help you navigate through to a solid set of answers that presents who you are authentically, with detail and resonance.
 

How do you answer them?

Several short-answer questions with multiple options each, plus a standard career goals essay — and notably, they say, “The tight word count is intentional to force you to focus” — yup, that’s what you will have to do here!

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 right for you? (300 words)

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 begun to appreciate 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 was challenged when:

These questions will require extensive BRAINSTORMING and even more STRATEGY – and we lay out the dos and don’ts in our Michigan Ross MBA guide, 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. To get you started, Her post from two years ago explained the rationale behind their innovative short-answer prompts, and this one from last year explains some of those recent simplifications (here’s her 2019 announcement of questions which doesn’t actually share much of significance but is included for the sake of completeness).

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

We cover essential interviewing info for Michigan Ross below

How competitive is it?

Even though application volumes have gone done, they’re still at high levels compared to where Ross historically was, and that means the admissions team can afford to be selective. The average GMAT score for the Ross Class of 2020 went up again and now is at ***720*** (up from 712, which was up from 708 the prior year) though they’re also accepting a much larger number of applicants with GRE scores too (24% of students), which can skew the GMAT average higher. This is because only those who do well on the GMAT submit a GMAT score, so the set of scores that make up that class average is comprised of higher GMAT scores than it used to be, when the set was larger (does that make any sense??).

A lot of the increasing interest in Ross 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! Now updated for the Class of 2022 requirements.
 




See past essays and other discussion below.



Full-Time MBA 2019 App Deadlines for Michigan Ross

Michigan Ross MBA Application Deadlines

  • Round 1: September 30, 2019
    In the past, they have required any international Rd 1 applicants who want to participate in the Team Exercise to travel to Ann Arbor — but these days they’re more accommodating and have been traveling to places like India for the Team Based Exercise for Round 1 applicants. They travel more extensively in Round 2 so that may still be a better option for some international applicants.

    The trend for Ross in recent seasons is for interview invites to be issued towards the end of October on a single day, and for the Class of 2022, that’s happening on October 22. If you’re not invited, then there is still a possibility of being offered a spot on the waitlist when final decisions come out in December. This means that Ross does not release anybody in Round 1 midcycle, as happens at other schools.

  • Round 2: January 6, 2020 Thankfully they’ve kept the deadline after that first weekend of the New Year.
    Round 2 interviews went out on January 16 and January 23 — Ross don’t waste no time! If you do not get the interview invitation in the second wave, you’re either going to be waitlisted or denied one or two months later (two hits for that: around February 20, or March 18); they hang onto everyone while they make it through the next phase of evaluations and try to release early if they know it’s a “no.” The interviews / team exercises will happen on multiple dates starting January 31 in Ann Arbor and continuing there and elsewhere in worldwide locations in February For Round 2 they typically travel to places like Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Tokyo and Delhi, (fewer locations this year in Round 2!) or you have the option of interviewing locally with an alum, pretty much anywhere you are in the world. Even though you have options, EssaySnark always recommends that you attend one of these locations so you can participate in the Team Exercise.

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

1 Ross is using the second set of standardized recommender questions in 2019.

  • As in recent years, 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:
 

Michigan Ross Interviews and Team Based Exercise

A quick note on the confusing nature of the Ross Application Requirements on its website : It seems like they’re saying that everyone gets interviewed, and everyone has the option of doing the Team Based Exercise. That’s not at all how it works. 🙁 Interviews are by invitation only, and you must interview if you’re to get an offer. Everyone invited to interview also has the opportunity to participate in their Team Based Exercise if they choose to (and can pull off the travel to one of the locations where it’s held).

So what is the Team Based Exercise?

Ross has been using this innovative interview experience since the 2012 admissions season, and you’ll actually find it’s quite fun! (probably) 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.

Here’s the Ross Admissions Director explaining this in September 2018 — she is very transparent about exactly what to expect, including a full description of the exercise itself:

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 and career goals. You need to be prepared to discuss those.

You can see more information about the Team Exercise on Soojin Kwon’s blog post from September 2018 , 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

EssaySnark stuff

We live-tweeted a Ross admissions webinar on in 2014 which still has some useful nuggets to offer:


Some blahg posts about Ross

EssaySnark's Strategies for the 2019 Michigan Ross MBA Application This guide covers this year’s short-answer groups of questions and the short-term goal 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.
Click to view 2018 questions



2018 MBA Essays for Ross

As a first step in considering your approach for Ross, 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 2018 Ross MBA App Guide will help you out with all these challenges.
 

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:

 

The mean GMAT at Michigan Ross went up to 716 for the Class of 2019, which was a really impressive average for this school. 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.



[end discussion of 2018 questions.]


Click to view 2017 questions


2017 MBA Essays for Ross

The Ross Class of 2020 essays are innovative and great — and our Ross MBA App Guide is here to help! 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.
 
 
 
Ross has seen year-over-year growth that’s more than perhaps any other program over the past three cycles. We’re talking 30% more apps one year, and successive record-setting volumes in back-to-back rounds. A lot of this interest is coming from the international candidate pool; Ross has traditionally been international-friendly and they are also somewhat more flexible on GMAT scores (somewhat). Learn how to construct a strong app to this school with our Michigan Ross Essay Guide!
 

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.]


Click to view 2016 questions


2016 MBA Essays for Ross
They’ve clarified what they’re looking for with these individual questions. Thank you, Ross!

Two questions plus an optional essay:

  1. What are you most proud of outside of your professional life? How does it shape who you are today? 400 words (emphasis added)
  2. What is your desired career path and why? 400 250 words (ouch!)

The first essay question is near-identical to what they had last year except that they’re being specific: They don’t want professional stuff here! That bolded text is new.

The second question is identical – except, dang, only 250 words now? That means you’re going to answer the question succinctly, right? Right!

The career goals should be a natural outgrowth of what you’ve done to date. That doesn’t mean that your goals must be only a continuation of your current career. You can certainly pursue something very new and different through the advantage of the Ross MBA. But it should be fairly obvious how you’re qualified and capable to go do this new thing, based on your background – and Essay 2 is where to make the case for that. Your short-term goal in particular shouldn’t be such a radical departure from everything you’ve ever done before that your reader becomes skeptical in seeing how you’ll pull it off. The way you tie these pieces together will be important. (Wanna know how to do that? We go into lots and lots of details in the Ross app guide!)

This July 2016 post from Ross explains these changes .

Plus, here’s the May 2015 announcement from the Ross adcom on these questions – again that’s from last year – with perhaps the best essay-writing advice we’ve ever heard from an adcom: “You can even start with, “I am most proud of….'” (hint: one of the worst and also most common mistakes is not answering the question – yes it happens all the time). Starting your essay with a direct statement like that, that incorporates the question in it, is a wise move indeed.

Ross got 30% more apps in two years’ ago Round 2 and we heard that 2016’s Round 2 was also high for them – as was this past Round 1 in Fall 2016. For Round 2 2017, the admissions team will be traveling around to conduct interviews and the Team Exercise 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) . Expect Round 2 interviews to go out in two waves in January 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; this year in Round 2 they are officially releasing all no-go candidates on February 17th, though there’s still a chance that you get an offer then to stick around on the waitlist even if they’re not asking you to interview yet).


[end discussion of 2016 questions.]


Click to view 2015 questions


2015 MBA Essays for Ross
Guess what?

After we sent them that today (8/28/15), Ross updated their website Essay section to reflect the same version of their question as they have in the app, as noted below. Honestly, the “why” should be pretty obvious through the way you answer the question, so our advice is to consider the prompt unchanged!

Two questions plus an optional essay:

  1. What are you most proud of and why? How does it shape who you are today? (400 words)
  2. What is your desired career path and why? (400 words)

Woo-hoo! A school resurrects a career goals question after having ditched it in past years!

This makes EssaySnark very happy – particularly when Ross had to communicate to candidates last year, after they had no essay asking about goals, that they really do care about goals after all and to please be prepared to discuss them in your interview. That was a little confusing.

The first essay question is near-identical to what they had last year except that they’re just asking it once (last year they had the same question twice, once asknig for a professional thing, and one asking for a personal thing). (ETA: Thanks to a sharp-eyed BSer for pointing out that the second question of Essay #1 is actually worded differently this year. Last year the subquestion was, “What did you learn from that experience?” which is similar to, but different from, this year’s version. It’s now been corrected!)

Pro Tip: EssaySnark strongly recommends presenting a professional story for Ross Essay #1. Obviously it will have to be an important professional experience if you’re going to be able to offer a compelling answer to the second part of the question. [For 2016 obviously this is not the case!! -ES]

Here’s the announcement from the Ross adcom on these new questions , from May 2015 – with perhaps the best essay-writing advice we’ve ever heard from an adcom: “You can even start with, “I am most proud of….'” (hint: one of the worst and also most common mistakes is not answering the question – yes it happens all the time). Starting your essay with a direct statement like that, that incorporates the question in it, is a wise move indeed.

This “5 Things to Know Before You Submit” post from Soojin Kwon in late September 2015 is also helpful – except for that darned inconsistency on what’s important with Essay 1.

We’ve updated the Ross SnarkStrategies Guide – and these essays questions are perfect to tackle as your first MBA application writing project.



[end discussion of 2015 questions.]



Click to view 2014 questions


2014 MBA Essays for Ross
Two questions plus an optional essay:

  1. What are you most proud of professionally and why? What did you learn from that experience? (400 words)
  2. What are you most proud of personally and why? How does it shape who you are today? (400 words)

They’ve gone in a different direction this year! Two simple, straightforward questions, designed to force you to reflect on what’s important and who you are, and communicate that concisely. A total of 800 words for what will essentially be two stories. Great stuff.

[end discussion of 2014 questions.]



Click to view 2013 questions
2013 MBA Essays for Ross
Not much changed in 2013 from previous year. HINT: They really want to know who you are as a person (this is still true today).

  1. Introduce yourself to your future Ross classmates in 100 words or less.
  2. Multi-part question:
    • What about your professional experiences has led you to determine that business school is the right next step? (150 words)
    • As you have research MBA programs, what actions have you taken to learn more about Ross and what has led you to believe that Ross is the right MBA program for you? (150 words)
    • What career do you plan to pursue after business school and why? (150 words)
  3. Describe a time in your career when you were frustrated or disappointed. What advice would you give a colleague who was dealing with a similar situation? (400 word maximum)

[end discussion of 2013 questions.]



Click to view 2012 questions
2012 MBA Essays for Ross
Here’s the full set of questions from 2012, in case you want to see where they were coming from before. Note: These questions were not easy! Especially #3.

  1. Introduce yourself to your future Ross classmates in 100 words or less.
  2. Describe your career goals. How will an MBA from Ross help you to achieve those goals?
  3. Describe a time in your career when you were frustrated or disappointed. What advice would you give to a colleague who was dealing with a similar situation?
  4. What are you most passionate about and why? How will this passion positively impact Ross?

[end discussion of 2012 questions.]




 

The essays are very important at Michigan.

EssaySnark has reviewed a fair number of Ross essays over the years. Here’s a couple from past seasons for you to check out along with Ross-specific essay commentary.

Ross is very open about their use of plagiarism detection software. We know you’d never be tempted to stoop to such low levels, but consider yourself warned: don’t copy essays, for here or for elsewhere.

We found a BSer’s 2013 school visit report that’s worth sharing:

  • Go Blue! from Boots to Suits applicant blog April 2013

The 2019 Ross guide will help you figure out the best topics to cover, including some tips to keep in mind for a holistic strategy across essays and short-answer questions, resume, and the single recommendation. We cover the group interview format that Ross adopted several years ago too, and advice on whether or not to use the optional essay for this school.

 

Success Stories!

There’s actually A LOT of former Brave Supplicants wandering the halls in Ann Arbor every year. We are always careful to protect confidentiality, but one great guy outed himself in his guest post on the blahg. If you end up at Ross, we can tell you for sure that you’ll be surrounded by some truly amazing students.

And just to end things on a note of cuteness:

Red Pandas

[Index of essay questions by business school]