The total Class size of Ross MBA class of 2025 is 379 which despite being less than that of the top 3 MBAs, is the highest among peer schools – NYU Stern and Haas. This can be the result of a lower average GMAT score of 719, 21 points less than that of top MBA programs. Average GRE also remains on the lower side with 162 Quant and 160 verbal.
Ross MBA Group 1 and Group 2 prompts are designed with two major themes. Group 1 talks about experiences from your professional and personal life that lack context in your resume or can’t even be completely captured with other application questions because of the limited space.
Group 2 is about your Emotional Intelligence and Resilience.
Atul Jose (Admissions Consultant, F1GMAT): Sustainability has so many contexts. Once you understand how a sustainability framework applies across post-MBA industries and functions, you will be in a better position to shortlist top MBA programs.
In the global marketplace, Operations Management personnel are the backbone of a company's operations, determining costs, quality, and delivery of products and services. They are involved in all processes, right from choosing the right raw materials to selecting suppliers and providing a strong customer experience. They ensure that a company's strategy is implemented on the ground, whether in the factory or in the marketplace. As a result, Operations Management has become a critical function, especially when it comes to e-commerce or technology products, where suppliers, as well as customers, are spread across the world. The latter expects no compromise on the quality of the products or services. Optimal operations is the key to competitive edge, and the long-term success of a company lies.
Although the school didn’t publish the total application, 380 students were enrolled for the Ross Full-time MBA Class of 2024. The international representation of the class was 36%, and the percentage of women was 42%.
At 10 points below M7 schools, the average GMAT score of the class was 720, a 2-point decrease from the school’s 2023 class. The Verbal and Quantitative averages on the GRE remained at 160. Although the GMAT/GRE score were a touch below the top 7 schools, Ross MBA maintained a 3.6 undergraduate GPA for the class.
Ross MBA Essay Part 2: Pick one thing from your resume and tell us more. (100 words)
The event organization narrative is an overused theme in MBA applications. With COVID-19, the theme found a new resurgence. Over the past two years, the narrative fell outside the purview of the college experience and seeped into creating a strong bond in organizations when Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Skype meetings were the only way to keep in touch among teammates.
The traditional entrepreneurial applicant is unlikely to take a break from their pursuit to find product-market fit, scaling or exit, with an MBA program. However, most entrepreneurial applicants targeting Business Schools had some success or failure to scale before pivoting to a corporate job.
When an applicant is in a functional role, the opportunity to be in a client-facing role driving the company’s strategic direction is low. That doesn’t diminish the opportunities the applicant receives in interdepartmental and supplier negotiations.
If you have a typical volunteering experience, expand the resume entry for the essay. One common narrative we have read is the Consulting for Small Businesses during COVID. You must offer context on the drastic change in demand and how you managed to assist the business.
Ross MBA requires that applicants include a 1-page MBA resume. The resume should follow a chronological order of your educational, professional work experience, community service, and hobbies/interest.
Ross School of Business has strategically chosen to reduce the word count to 100-word short questions and a 200-word post-MBA Goal Essay. The intentional limiting of words will force the applicant to capture only the pivotal moments in their life and create narratives that capture the core of the experience. Writing open-ended and short questions are both tough. To help you ace the Ross MBA Application essays, here are 10 tips:
Approach: Pre-MBA career transition influencing post-MBA Goals
Prompt 2: I am out of my comfort zone when
Before you articulate how you came out of the comfort zone, understand what the term means. If you are working on a project where the tasks have become routine, with low to no pressure and there are few incentives to take the risk, then you are in your comfort zone.
Two traits define comfort zone: anxiety and skills.
Example 1: Losing a Client
Ross values volunteering and extra-curricular activities. If you have more than two active volunteering experience, use this question for highlighting both or offering context on the challenges, setbacks, and change that you brought about with one active volunteering.
The applicant in the example addresses the complexity of sanitation and enabling behavioral changes. With the emphasis on infrastructure, funding, and marketing, the essay concludes with the impact the applicant had on the slums in Mumbai.
Prompt 2: I made a difference when I
The admission team wants to know the triggers that encourage you to make a difference. Is it intrinsic (responsibilities & challenges) or extrinsic motivation (compensation & titles)?
Another personality trait they want to measure is your ability to take initiatives.
Are you aware of your role in a team?
Do you value excellence?
What is the guiding principle that is pushing you to act?
Example #1: Consulting for a Pharma Giant
The 24-month General Management MBA program offered at Haas School of Business is built on leadership as the foundational skills. The school is also among the few top Business Schools with defining guiding principles – Student Always, Confidence without Attitude, Question the Status Quo and Beyond Yourself.
On the other end, Ross 2-year Full-time MBA program at University of Michigan's Ross School of Business is among the few schools that believe in hands-on learning over traditional lectures and case study.
Ross MBA Essay Tips: The admission team wants to know whether you are a sensing or an intuitive candidate. The personality traits were popularized by the Myers-Briggs Personality tests.
A sensing personality uses their five senses to gather information and looks at the facts before making any decisions. They are logically driven. Experience with a similar problem in the past often acts as a roadmap for future decisions. Managing resources and people require a sensing personality.
This revelation question should surprise the admission team. Ideally, include an aspect of your personality that is an antithesis to your profession traits or nationality or gender.
Ross Full-time MBA Essay Questions for Fall 2016 Entering Class has been released. The word count has remained the same at 400 words. The question covers both aspects of your personality - professional and personal.
Find out More