Feb 27, 2014

I was very impressed with how Ross conducted their interview day. I highly recommend doing an on-campus interview if you get the opportunity. Ross blocked out a bunch of rooms at a nearby hotel and driving around Ann Arbor is fairly easy. Rental car prices in the area are also very reasonable. I know some applicants decided to cab around, but cabs in Ann Arbor are not readily available. Parking on campus was about $9-$10 for the whole day and the parking garage is fairly close to the business school.

When interviewees arrive, you are given a brochure, agenda, and a very nice leather notebook from Ross. You are taken into a room (with light breakfast refreshments), where interviewees are broken out into two groups. One group will interview first. After the interview you will head over to a restaurant, the Pizza House to do your group interview. From there you are taken to do a Q&A with current students, tour the business school (very nice building), and then do a class visit that you sign up for in the morning.

Below are details about the interview:
Personal Interview-
* Tell me about yourself
* Why MBA?
* Why Ross?
* How will you contribute to Ross?
* What will you do if you are not accepted to Ross?
* My interviewer and I talked about my promotions and he asked what it is about me that I think helped me get promoted
* My interviewer also asked me how successful I am at signing on new clients
* He asked about my outside interests that were listed on my resume

Everything you have heard about the group interview is true. DO NOT PREPARE FOR IT! You will be in a group with 6 other applicants and two 2nd-year students who will evaluate you. You will first introduce yourself to everyone and tell everyone something interesting about you. Then you will be given 3 VERY random words, such as bone, cheese, bag in which you will have to use those 3 words to tell a personal or ficticious story. You are given 5 minutes to prepare for the story and 1 minute to present it. You will then have to pull a new word with your team members and use your random words to make a pitch to a client. It was actually fun and I had a great time interacting with the other applicants. Afterwards they will feed you some pretty decent pizza. You will also get a chance to chat with 2nd year students during lunch.

Overall, great experience. The whole day was very organized, you are well fed, and everyone at Ross is super friendly and approachable. If you happen to be there in the cold brutal winter, bring a pair of snow boots. You can change in and out of your winter shoes. There is an area to hang and store all your winter gear.

Feb 4, 2014

I felt like my Ross interview went pretty well because it felt like a conversation, though my interviewer did follow the typical MBA interview format (i.e. professional history, short/long-term goals, why MBA, why Ross/now, etc.). The only differences I found was that I was asked  to sell my university to a college applicant and share anything else I’d like the adcom to know about me. Other than that, it was pretty straightforward.

Jan 30, 2014

A blind interview with a second year student, who was really friendly and was really excited about Ross. He had an artistic and creative personality, which really clicked with me.

1. Walk me through your resume
2. Why an MBA and why now?
3. What kind of consulting are you looking to get into? (Follow-up question for short term goals.)
4. Describe an experience in a team and what you can offer to Ross as a team player
5. What criteria did you use to define your school search?
6. Which social clubs do you want to be a part of?
7. My first question: What has been your experience with [specific club name]?
8. My second question: What advice would you give a first year student?

Lasted exactly 30 mins. Got me really excited about being at Ross.

Jan 30, 2014

The interview was very casual and friendly. No surprising questions.

1) Explain your work history
2) Long term goal
3) Why Ross
4) Interests outside of work
5) Questions for the interviewer – this actually got cut rather short

After the formal interview we all went to the second part of the interview which was a group exercise. We broke into groups of 6 and picked cards from a bag. Each card had either a place or a thing written on it. We then developed a case problem and solution using some of the cards we had picked. Overall it was a fun experience and not something people should worry about.

Nov 19, 2013

The interview was held in a coffee shop in the alumni’s area. It lasted about 60 minutes and was straight and to the point, without much introduction or simple chat in between. I hoped for a casual conversation but was informed beforehand by a friend that this interviewer is a bit tough.

The normal questions appeared – Why MBA, why now, why Ross. I wasn’t asked explicitly for my career goals (ST and LT) but inserted on my own through the other answers. When my answers weren’t clear enough, he pressed harder (but the atmosphere was business-like and did not became too stressful).

More questions:
- Describe a team situation where you had a dispute with your team members. How did you solve it? What did you say/do?
- What will you bring to the school that other people can’t?
- How are you planning on becoming a true part of the community?
- Describe a time that you made a mistake and understood it when it was already late (I think that the real emphasis here was on the lesson learned rather that the error itself or its consequences).
- Questions for him

Nov 11, 2013

My interviewer was in a hurry from the time we started. He started by saying that he was looking for a 15-20 minute interview and it lasted for 20 minutes only.

He wanted the answers to not last more than 1 -1.5 minutes.

He asked the following questions:
1. Tell me about yourself (he wanted only top line and interrupted when I was getting into details. After that I just gave him a brief idea)
2. Why MBA
3. What do you want to gain from an MBA to get into consulting.
4. Why Ross
5. What Clubs at Ross
6. How will you contribute to the class at Ross
7. Tell me about a team experience and what did you learn about yourself from the experience.
8. Tell me something about you not on the resume. Something other than professional stuff
9. Then he asked me if I had any questions – I told him that I have already spoken to other Alums but want to know what led to him making the choice to join Ross.

Overall, I felt that I could not get my complete stories across since he was in a hurry with all the questions. But it also seemed that he got to know what he wanted to.

Mar 4, 2013

My interview was on 26th January 2013. I applied to FT MBA in second round and was invited on 10th Jan. I had to submit my resume in scheduling system and that was all the alumnus had except the interview form to fill in. We met in a local coffee shop, and the interview was 30+15 minutes. Overall was very conversational, even though my interviewer was not that chit-chat.

Here were the questions I was asked:
- Started with introducing herself with how thing would be proceeded.
- Run me through your resume. She asked a question about my current position before I could finish my run.
- Why MBA now?
- What can you deliver to class at Ross?
- What do you interest in Ross activity? (Cannot remember exact word, but intention is same)
- Specific question about my work. (Seemed to be only curiosity of interviewer – as she barely took note here)
- I asked her about her impressive experience during her time in Ross. She was so excited telling me.

I thought it was so-so. I understood that she did not quite understand my answer about how I could deliver to Ross, so she let me use another example to illustrate again.

Feb 27, 2013

There were I think 5 questions she said she had to ask and then the rest was just conversation back and forth about my questions, etc.

The “required”/behavioral questions (not asked in the same order below) were:
- Describe a team situation — either tell me about a difficult team OR a time you led an exceptional team
- How will you contribute to Ross outside of class
- Tell me 3 things on your bucket list
- What are you most proud of personally or professionally
- Why MBA/why now/why Ross
- Walk me through your resume

Overall it was exactly what I was expecting. My interviewer had candidates right before and right after me and there were people coming by the door with time warnings so they will most definitely keep to the 45 minute limit since it seems to be focus on turnover

Feb 26, 2013

It was a blind interview with a second year student over skype. I was asked the following questions:

1. Tell me about yourself?
2. Tell me when you worked on a cross-functional team and things did not go right?
3. Why MBA and why now?
4. Why Ross?
5. What will you bring to Ross both inside and outside the classroom in clubs?
6. What other schools have you applied to?
7. What has been your biggest professional accomplishment?
8. Tell me when others have mentored you?
9. Tell me how you have applied your improvement recently?
10. If you could be one character from some movie or TV show, which one would you be?

At the end, I asked her two questions.
Question number 8,10 took me off guard. I was also surprised the ‘short term/long term’ goals question.

Feb 6, 2013

I interviewed with a recent Ross alumnus in Manhattan. We met at a coffee shop and chatted for about 45 minutes. The interview was very casual. He instructed me to dress as casually as I felt comfortable – I wore a tie, blazer, sweater vest, dark jeans, and black oxfords.

Questions included:

1. Why an MBA? (I used the opportunity to talk about my background and tell my story of how I made the decision to apply)
2. Why Ross? (I spoke about the various factors contributing to my decision and worked in my experiences visiting the school and spending time in Ann Arbor.
3. Short and long term goals?
4. If you opened the newspaper 20 years from now and saw an article about yourself, what would you want it to say, what section would it be in, etc..
5. What ways would you want to get involved in the Ross community?
6. open up for questions.

He was very pleasant and relaxed, and very excited about Ross. And that excitement definitely rubbed off on me. I think I would be very happy there.

Jan 24, 2013

Hello everyone,
I am a R2 applicant and interviewed with an alum in Mumbai yesterday. Overall, the interview was quite formal. I met him at his office around 4pm.

Here are some of the questions from the interview:

Interview duration: 25-30 minutes

1) Walk me through your resume in 2 minutes
2) Tell me about your current role and organization. I work with a nonprofit working to expand education opportunity in India.
3) Why MBA? What do you hope to get out of MBA?
4) Why now?
5) What are your short-term and long-term goals?
6) Why Ross?
7) What is your most significant Leadership experience? Why?
8) Tell me about a professional failure.
9) Why do you want to stay in the Education Industry? What motivates you? Discuss personal experiences that have influenced who you are today. Why did you switch from Technology Services to Development sector?
10) Questions for the interviewer

I don’t really know when the admissions committee will get back to me. I just need to patiently wait it out.

Wish you all the best!

Jan 15, 2013

I interviewed with a Ross alum in Bangalore on Nov 28 2012. Before I scheduled the interview, I checked my interviewers linkedin profile and was happy to find out that his career progression is similar to what I intend to do.

The interview was short and my interviewer looked at my resume beforehand. The interview was very informal and conversational.
1. Tell me about yourself
2. How does MBA fit into your career ( I started with my career goals and then proceeded to answer why I need a MBA to achieve them)
3. Why Ross

Later I spoke about my visit to Ross and he added his experiences at Ross and shared his e-mail id for further questions.