EssaySnark

2017 MBA Essay Questions: Michigan Ross

 

Ross has announced Class of 2020 essays and they look great!

 

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).

 

2017 Michigan Ross Two-Year MBA Essay Questions: Class of 2020

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 – but don’t worry, we plan to cover a precise approach for how to tackle them in our Michigan Ross MBA guide for 2017, which will be updated soon!

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



See past essays and other discussion below.
 

Full-Time MBA App Deadlines for Michigan Ross

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

  • Round 1: October 2, 2017
    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).

    In 2016, interview invites were issued the week of October 24th 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 this round, as happens at other schools.

  • Round 2: January 2, 2018 Harumph. Ross is inflicting the same pain on this year’s BSers as they did last time. Apparently they didn’t hear our plea from January! This deadline is IMMEDIATELY after the holiday. Very very difficult.

    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. For Round 2, the Ross admissions team typically travels to conduct interviews and the Team Exercise (last 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) .

    Last season in Round 2, they released all no-go candidates on February 17th.

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

Ross is part of a pilot that’s rolling out standardized recommender questions in 2016 (note that other schools claiming to be “standard” really aren’t!).

  • Again in 2016, 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.
  • Two 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

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

EssaySnark stuff

We live-tweeted the Ross admissions webinar on 12/16/14:


Some blahg posts about Ross

EssaySnark's Strategies for LAST YEAR'S Michigan Ross MBA Application This guide will be updated for 2017 soon!

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 2016 questions


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


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


Here’s what we said when last year’s question came out… remember this analysis is from *last year*.
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

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

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 2016 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, 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]