RossInterview

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Below are interview reports from those who have interviewed with Michigan.

Further insight and strategic advice on the interview process at the Ross School of Business can be found in the Clear Admit Interview Guide.

More detailed information on Ross's academic resources, student culture, and social and professional opportunities can be found in the Clear Admit School Guide.

Please add your interview report directly above all other reports. Please also include the date you are publishing your report; the type of interview (adcom / alumni / student) and the admissions round for which you interviewed (R1 / R2 / R3).

It's free to sign up and contribute - just click here to create an account or you can e-mail your contribution to wiki@clearadmit.com.

24. Round 2 / Off-campus / Alumnus (Published March 11th, 2010)

My interviewer was very relaxed and friendly, and had loved his Ross experience. We met at a coffee shop for just under an hour.

List of interview questions:

  • Tell me about yourself.
  • Why Ross?
  • Have you visited the campus and seen the new building? (I had not, but emphasized my attendance of local events)
  • How do you feel about moving [from NYC] to the Midwest?
  • Can you tell me about a time when you dealt with a struggling team member?
  • Asked me to elaborate on two of the bullet points on my resume on my current position.
  • How do you hope to become involved on campus at Ross, aside from MAP?

After the Q&A, we talked about his MAP experience and chatted about Ross in general, the admissions process, etc. He was very happy to share his insights and encouraged me to contact him with any further questions.

Decision: Admitted!

23. Round 2 / Phone / Adcom (Published February 26th, 2010)

I just finished my phone interview (I am living in Asia) with an admissions committee representative. I called right on time and was transferred to a very nice lady. She was conversational but the interview still felt like an interview instead of a chat. She started by saying she may not have had access to my application (is that a yes or no?) so it's ok if I repeat the examples and information that I had used in my application. Also, I was calling with an internet phone and there was lag between responses. A few times I couldn't hear her clearly and she seemed to have the same problem. So although it may be expensive, my advice is to definitely play it safe and use a landline to call. Interview questions:

  1. Walk me through your resume.
  2. What are your goals and how does an MBA fit in the picture?
  3. Why Ross? I mentioned the usual action-based learning (MAP, RLI), flexibility of curriculum, various centers (William Davidson Institute, etc), largest alumni network of any business school in the world, I also mentioned the fact that all the UMich alums I've talked to, regardless of which school and how long ago they graduated from, show fierce pride in the school. She really warmed up to this comment and agreed that all students who graduate from the school are extremely loyal to it.
  4. You mentioned one of Ross' strengths was the focus on team work, can you give me an example of when you worked in a team, what was your role and how did you contribute?
  5. That was a very good example, I'm wondering if you can give me another example, or perhaps this happened in that first example you gave, of when you were in a team and you had a member that was not performing well? What did you do?
  6. I forgot the exact wording for this question, but it was one of those give me an example of when you took initiative and made a difference (preferably in a team).
  7. I understand you don't know what the other applicants are like, but how are you unique, what can you bring to the table that sets you apart from others?
  8. What do you do during your free time?
  9. Are there any questions that I haven't asked that you think I should? I think I really botched this one. I felt there was still so much of me that I wanted to share, but I couldn't come up with just one question that would allow me to give all these answers. So I told her "I can't think of a specific question but I can think of many answers that I wished to have given". Either she couldn't hear me well through the not-so-great connection, or she didn't like the answer, because she just laughed a bit and moved on to the next question. I felt I really lost a great opportunity to sell myself more.
  10. Any questions for me? I asked her two questions:

The first one was whether the jobs students take upon graduation are more centered in the Midwest. Her first response was for me to check the stats on the website (oops!), but then she went on to say a lot of students find jobs all over the country and abroad, and that although Ross is located in the Midwest, that doesn't mean your career opportunities are only limited to here. She did say a lot of students in Finance find jobs in Chicago while Marketing students go to Minneapolis.

My second question was what did she think was the biggest strength and weakness of the Ross program? In terms of weakness, she say previously it was the old building because it was not an environment that helped to foster team work and interaction, but now that is taken care of with the new building. The second weakness, which they are working on now, is not enough global representation. The school currently has plans to open Ross offices in India and China in 2011, where they will be able to recruit students, form partnerships with local companies, and find more career opportunities for graduates. For strengths, she talked again about the emphasis on teamwork, and not just teamwork among students, but also among faculty and other people involved in the program. She is quite proud of this distinction and advised that I should ask other schools about their teamwork to see if other programs also go so far in terms of collaboration. She said students openly help each other find jobs, even if they are competing for the same job. She also mentioned the fact that the new building is environmentally sustainable was because some students pitched the idea to the school, originally there were no such plans.

So overall, I didn't get any curveballs, but I don't think the interview went great. I has answers ready for all the questions, however I think they were pretty standard answers, not enough to differentiate myself and make myself sound unique. The fact that the connection wasn't that great was also a big minus. I was already talking pretty fast because I was nervous, and I think I sounded like I had all my answers memorized (which isn't a good thing), my answers were pretty long too. Oh well, now I just have to wait and keep my fingers crossed, hope this information is useful to someone!

22. Round 2 / Off-campus / Alumni (Published February 12th, 2010)

Interview was with alum Gautam Rao in Hyderabad. He’s a nice guy. The building you meet him in is pretty ‘humble’/’down to earth’ which makes a change from the generally corporate powerhouse setting I’ve had other interviews in.

It was supposed to be 30 mins but he said he would allocate 45-60 mins. It actually ran 65 mins. Questions were:

  • In six mins run through your CV
  • Tell me about what you did at all these jobs
  • How was it working for this firm and getting laid off
  • Tell me about your travelling
  • Tell me about your charitable experiences
  • Tell me about a professional failure
  • More in depth about what you do at your current firm
  • Why Ross?
  • Long term Short term goals
  • Why MBA?
  • Why now?
  • And a few mins for me to ask him a few questions

That’s about it really. Hope this helps.

21. Round 2 / Off-campus / Alumni (Published February 6th, 2010)

Only a thirty minute interview! It was practically over before it began.

The alumn with whom I interviewed was very nice. He asked all the basic questions - walk me through your resume, why Ross, why now, etc. He also asked the basic leadership questions, e.g. tell me about a leadership role, etc. We talked about the MAP program a bit, but that's probably because I mentioned it as a reason to go to Ross, and then most of my current work is international so we talked about the diversity of Ross (e.g. high proportion of international students). I explored his reasons for wanting to go to Ross and his opinion of the school. We talked about the new building and Ann Arbor and then I just asked him more about how Michigan fit into his career goals.

Hope this is helpful to other people interviewing! I apologize for not remembering more of the questions I was asked (it was a few weeks ago) but I hope the general impressions/flow of conversation will be somewhat useful. Good luck with interviews!

Update from 3/9/10 - I was just admitted to Ross. So excited - yay!

20. Round 2 / On-campus / Second year student (Published February 1st, 2010)

  • what should I know about you? (threw me a but off; took it as "walk me through your resume"
  • why an mba
  • what if you don't get in? (back up plan/try again/figure it out thru experience)
  • why ross
  • tell me a time that you failed
  • tell me about a time you were in a team that dealt with a lot of obstacles (be sure to include what you learned for next time!)
  • tell me about a time you showed initiative
  • how would you be involved outside of class?

there might have been others, but she said my initial review covered a lot of what she needed (had a checklist/form she was trying to make sure she had info for) 30 min total, 5 min for questions she said i did much more research on ross than she had! (maybe that's a good thing?) the admissions desk by phone had told me the person would have seen my app; but this felt like a pretty blind interview!

Other notes:

  • Stayed the night in Lamp Post Inn. On the older/simpler side, but cheapest best option. And find if you get in late and leave early! Free breakfast - basic bagels, coffee, jams/butter/cream cheese, quaker oat packets to make, break, english muffins, juice (starts at 6am)...owner is nice, retired, graduated from ross in '60's..... 5 min/ 9 buck (w/ tip) taxi from campus. Call blue cab or yellow cab the day before for a pick up.
  • was told by tour guide that tho they say it doesn't matter about doing interviews off campus, they really like it if you come to campus. they want to see you excited about the school
  • if you haven't been before, highly recommend "VIP" with q&a, tour, class & lunch (all with ambassadors) 8:30-1...My interview was at 2pm and that was fine; got me energized!
  • if you have luggage you can leave it in the office closet, and they're very casual; I wore jeans and boots and changed into suit before interview

19. Round 1 / Off-campus / Alumna (Published January 21st, 2010)

My interview was with an alum who is actually working in the field I'd like to be in after graduation (automotive marketing). I expected it to be pretty informal (she pretty much told me to dress casually – not business-casual, just…casual, so I showed up wearing nice jeans and a sweatshirt), but it seemed like she's had quite a bit of experience with these and had a list of prepared questions (and a manila envelope with them) which were mostly HR-type stuff: resume walk-through, strengths, weaknesses, tough situations at work, leadership experience, extracurricular activities, why Ross, why marketing. She threw me for a loop when she asked me if I had considered any other program at Ross other than the Full-time and why not. The strength question was in a form of "if you had to describe yourself to your future classmates, what three words would you use?" We talked for about half an hour, after which she said that the official part was concluded and opened it up for a Q&A. She told me quite a bit about the school and even though the "on the record" part was done, I didn't really let my guard down and exhibited a pretty decent knowledge of the school even when asking questions.

All in all, it was pretty dry, but certainly friendly and she warmed up after we discovered a common ground. I thought it went pretty well considering my more than mild distaste for HR-type interviews.

Result – denied. Not even waitlisted. Considering the fact that my stats were very decent (720 GMAT/3.4 GPA/5+ years work experience, etc), I was quite upset. My thought process now is that the interview probably did me no favors.

18. Round 1 / Phone interview / Second year student (Published January 21st, 2010)

Phone Interview, however have visited before for a recruitment weekend; Beautiful, new building and they really do a great job of selling the school to prospectives.

  • Tell me about yourself.
  • Tell me about your role on a team.
  • Tell me about a time when you had a professional failure and what did you learn from it.
  • Tell me about a time when you received negative feedback from a supervisor and how did you respond.
  • Tell me how you dealt with a team member who was under-performing.
  • What 3 adjectives would your friends use to describe you and why.

The interview seemed pretty straight forward. There were no tricks although it wasn't articulated to me how long the interview was so I only had the chance to ask 1 or 2 questions before being cut off at the end. Must have been an OK interview because I did get admitted last week. Prepare before hand and have really good reasons why you want to go to Ross.

17. Round 1 / Off-campus / Alumnus (Published November 19th, 2009 courtesy of Indian86)

I had an [blind] alum interview for Ross in India this November'09. He was very cool person, and he told how the interview would proceed. About 50 minutes for the interview, and 10 minutes for me to ask him questions

List of interview questions

  • Walk me through your resume in about 6 minutes? (Had some cross questions such as why I left company X, why I joined Y. Why left X only in 1 year)
  • International exposure - working with counterparts in country X? What did I learn from them? Their charachterstics, etc
  • Other cross questions from resume such as how I reached this 20% productivity in my org, how I quantified it? How I measured this figure?
  • Some hypothetical questions about my interest in a sport - such as Even with 1 billion people, why India is lagging in this sport? What would I do if I become sports secretary for this sport so as to make sure India triumps in this sport?
  • Questions on long term goal, short term goal, why ross, why mba?
  • Which clubs I will join?
  • What I have done to connect with Ross?
  • What does Leadership means to me?
  • Failure at Work?
  • Challenging time in Life?

The interview was much interactive, with time given to think for response, cross-questions, probing, etc. I was surprised by hypothetical questions, and too much probing. Overall it was a nice Experience. Alum was very friendly, and he treated me well.

16. Round 2 / On-campus / Second-year Student (Published February 26th, 2009)

I interviewed on campus with a current student. The interview lasted 30 minutes. It was very conversational and the following topics were covered:

  • Tell me about yourself.
  • How did you choose your current employer?
  • Tell me about a leadership experience.
  • What about Ross made you apply?
  • Why do you want to get an MBA? What are your goals?
  • What do you hope to get out of an MBA?
  • Have you heard about the Wolverine Fund (this was in response to a discussion about venture capital).
  • What is your dream job coming out of school? In 10 years?
  • What do you do outside of work?

From there we had a conversation about college football, Ann Arbor, and his opinion of my recent admits. Like I said, it was very conversational and quite enjoyable.

15.Round 1 / Alumni / Off-campus / Original Post at rickysgmatprep.blogspot.com (Published December 18th, 2008)

Hiii folks...

So its done... my first b-school interview... at the prestigious Ross School of Business... If there was ever an epitome of a good interviewer or a person who did represnt truly Ross's team-oriented, collaborative and easy going attitude..it would be my interviewer... I mean.. never once in the interview I realized that I was being interviewed.. the guy made me feel so comfortable... I really dont remember the questions he asked me because there was never really a question answer session.... but more of a conversation.. with obviously me doing more of the talking...so here's how it went...

First of all.. a blunder.. i lost my way... the stupid GPS.. stopped giving me directions once I was really close the location.. jst kept saying.. destination on the right.. and then I couldnt find a parking spot... almost wasted 15 mins going round and round and looking for the place.. then i decided to park at a place and walk around to look for the place.. When I saw the time.. I called up the alum and told him the situation.. he immediately put me at ease.. saying it was ok.. and I was really close to the location.. so I arrived exactly 7 mins late.... then we started talking while looking for a place to sit... here is a list of questions that I was asked during this conversation..

  • He told me about his background and asked about mine...
  • my short term and long term career goals and why was I pusuing an MBA...
  • my role at IBM.. and my experience of leading a team on my current project...
  • how do I handle the communications with the clients and going about customer satisfaction..... then we talked more about my role and whether I was involved on the business side of things.. (for those who dont knw.. I have a technical background..) he discussed about his role as a consultant and shared his experiences...
  • how I had managed a situation when a team member or my peer was not perfoming well..
  • A time when I had faced a setback in my workplace or my undergraduation..
  • we talked about Why Ross.. and what appealed to me about Ross..
  • What would I add to Ross...
  • What extra-curriculars.. communities I would like to get invovled at Ross..

There might have been a few more questions.. I dont exactly remember them now.. Then he asked me if I wanted to add something.. where I added some stuff which I like about Ross and had not been able to discuss... Atlast, he asked if i had any questions.. I asked him to share his MAP experience.. which he happily did and I must say I was more than impressed with the project.. doing market assesment and analysis in Europe and US for a new Isreali bio-medical product is something I would definitely like to do in my first year...

I think I covered most of the things I had to share from my workex to leadership experiences at IBM to undergraduation..i think it went well...... I had not done any real interview prep.. bt I think if you have been involved in this application process for sometime and believe in your goals and your choice for b-school... you should be ready for the interview...

Ritesh's verdict - Good interview... (shd not get a ding on the basis of interview.. ) Ross's Verdict - Awaited... (and I mst say.. eagerly awaited.. )

14.Round 1 / Alumni / Off-campus / Original Post at raghuformba.wordpress.com (Published December 5th, 2008)

I got out early from my place (Bangalore traffic you see…) and ended up at the interviewers office half an hour early. I wandered around the interviewer’s office for sometime and then finally decided to barge in.

I apologized for being early (that would be a first) and he completely understood - “I always take Bangalore traffic into account and looks like you did too” is what he said. I waited while he wrapped up his other engagements and he called me into his office, 15 minutes before the time. [14:00]

Having met before at the Ross Information Session and talked at length we had a friendly chat before the interview started. He asked about the lay-offs and how it was affecting me, the team and the company. He started by saying that the next 40 mins was the time for him to know me and me to know the school through him…

The rest of the interview was like ahembeea’s, but less questions (I talk a lot). The major questions were:

  • Walk me through your resume
  • Why MBA?
  • Why Ross?
  • How do you think you can contribute to Ross Community?
  • Any regrets in life?

As I said before, I fear that I talked a wee bit in detail (hope this didn’t undermine my interview). The he asked me if I wanted to ask him anything. I asked him a question relating his job and his MBA experience. He was very nostalgic and detailed in answering that question. I could see his passion for Ross and for his job. Considering that the role that he holds now is similar to what I am vying for, post-MBA; it felt great to see that. The interview ended in about 45 minutes.

A neat little thing happened as I finished my interview and stepped out. The interviewer wished me good luck and said he had more interviews lined up today. As he went back, I saw next interviewee in line, waiting. She smiled at me and we started chatting. It turned out that we had met at the Tuck Reception.

She thanked me for my blog and said she had greatly benefited for it (result!). Just then my interviewer came back and saw us both and queried how we knew each other. She repeated what she said and he had an acknowledging smile on his face. A great ending to an exciting one hour. [15:00]

I hope my interviewer got a clear idea of why I want to do my MBA at Ross and why I think I would fit in at Ross.Now that my part is done, I will sit back and await the school’s decision (and pray of course ).

Thanks to Nisa, Harish and Barbie for keeping me sane during these days of layoff turmoil and helping me to stay focused. Now, a one day break and I start my UCLA app, the next on my list. Signing off for now…"

13. Round 1 / Alumni / Off-campus / Original Post by Hakuna Matata (Published November 26th, 2008)

Just back from an interview/conversation/informal chat with a Ross alumni at a coffee shop and inspite of trying to analyse it, I still don't know what to make of it!

I was interviewing with an alum and her 'dress casual' comment in one of the mails we exchanged had given me the hint that this is going to be a conversational interview but it turned out to be more of a chat... lasting almost 1-1/2 hours!! Frankly I don't think she even asked me any specific MBA interview questions other than the 'why MBA? why now? why Ross?' One thing just led to another...

In hindsight, I do realize now that I did talk about my motivations, my background, my international experience, my present company and its MBA-related policies, my recommenders and what they thought about me... pretty much everything but I don't really remember any standard questions being asked of me! I am beginning to think she really is very good at interviewing :)

What was also exciting was that she was willing to share as much of her experiences as she wanted to know about me... and with more than 25 years of experience she sure had many interesting anecdotes to share - about her Ross experience, life after Ross, the other interviews she had conducted, the firms she had built and even a little about her personal life! It was truly a very constructive conversation...

But it wasn't supposed to be just a conversation now, was it? It was my interview... the interview that can push me off the fence into the admit pool (or otherwise)!! And with an experience like this one, it is sooo hard to judge how I did! Did I answer well? Did I impress enough? How is she to judge me compared to other applicants when what we spoke about was so specific to me?? What is the common denominator going to be??? Frankly, I don't know whether to be happy or not with today's 'interview' as I really don't know how I did! Why can't we just go back to the days where questions had one right answer and you either got it right or not?!!

I know this process is not about right/wrong, it never was and will never be... and I can do nothing but hope I displayed what she was looking for and the adcomm is convinced that I have what it takes to 'go blue'!! But if only.... ohh! this process is nerve-wracking....

12. Round 1 / Alumni / Off-campus (Published November 12th, 2008)

I had a pleasant and informal 30 minute (25 minutes of questions for me, 5 minutes of questions for the interviewer) interview for Ross yesterday. We met at a local coffee shop after work. Here are the questions she asked:

  • Walk me through your resume and why youʼre pursuing an MBA
  • Why Ross?
  • Tell me about your most significant leadership experience
  • Tell me about a time you worked in a tough group setting
  • What will you add to the Ross student body?
  • What extra-curricular activities would you join at Ross?

11. Round 2 / Adcom / Off-campus / Originally shared at Life is so Beautiful (Published March 23rd, 2008)

After submitting my Ross application, I knew I had submitted my best essays so far, the essays which took more than eight weeks of my dedicated efforts! I knew,the admissions committee would like to hear me after reading them.

As expected, the invite came in mid-February. So prepared for Ross I was that I scheduled the interview just after two days.

Preparation Material: My application, Ross' website, Accepted and Clear Admit Interview databases, Clear Admit School Guide - Ross, notes of discussions with Ross students and How to interview like a top MBA.

Interview Experience: Apart from a surprise, the interview was very smooth. I anticipated a second year to pick up the phone. To my surprise, a very senior member of the admissions committee answered the phone. He introduced himself, informed me that the interview will continue about 20 minutes during which he'll ask me few questions, and then he'll give me a chance to ask one or two questions.

The questions were -

  • Walk me through your resume starting from the time you completed under graduation. Also tell me what you want to do post MBA. ( 3 minutes)
  • How does an MBA fits in there? (2 minutes)
  • Why do you want to attend Ross? ( 6 minutes)
  • What are your unique aspects that would add to our class (5 minutes)

That's it! After this, I asked him two questions. He commented "that's a great question," then answered me with interest and enthusiasm.

Total Time: ~ 23 minutes.

Five minutes after the interview, I sent an email thanking him on Ross general email id. He replied twice within next two minutes, first from the general id , and then from his personal id. I knew I had done well.

It was Friday 10:00 pm in India. I quickly ran out to catch the 10:35 pm show at nearby PVR.

Result: Admitted and Matriculating!

10. Round 2 / Telephonic / Second-year Student / Blind (Published February 29th, 2008)

List of interview questions:

  • Tell me about yourself
  • Why ross
  • Why MBA
  • Tell me three words that describe your personality
  • Tell me about a leadership experience
  • What do you like to do outside of work?
  • You only have two years of work experience--the average at Ross is 5. Why not wait for a couple years?
  • Tell me your greatest strength and biggest weakness

I thought the interview went really well. The interviewer was very personable and down-to-earth. I was caught off-guard by the personality question, stumbled a bit but I eventually was able to describe my personality truthfully. The interview was supposed to last thirty minutes but the interviewer said it is hard to get to know someone in that amount of time. The interview lasted almost an hour which was fine with me. Other than that, the interview was straight forward. I was impressed with the interviewer and the experience in general.

9. Telephone Interview, R1 Class of 2010, w/ 2nd yr student. (Published January 31, 2008)

I was originally scheduled for an off-campus alumni interview, but due to high demand, was switched to a phone interview without my consent. Student was friendly and engaging, he set good expectations for the call.

  • Walk through resume
  • Why MBA, why now (I also addressed why Ross in this question)
  • Most challenging criticism I received
  • Challenging teamwork situation; what would I do differently
  • Besides a couple extracurriculars on my resume, what else would I want to get involved with
  • How would I balance b/w academics, recruiting and extracurriculars

I had time to ask about the MAP's and about the student culture. We went about 35 minutes.

8. Telephonic Interview, Round 2. AGirlsMBA (Published February 26, 2007)

This was a phone interview so I had emailed my resume in when I scheduled the iview. I called up the number provided and my interviewer answered the phone directly. We made some small talk about the weather and then dove right in. The standard tell-me-your-story question was next. So I talked through my background, professional history and career change. Then, why MBA/why now. Then, why do you think Ross will fit into your plans? I talked a lot about the MAP program and their focus on collaborative learning. The hardest question was "So it seems like you've been effective at leading a number of organizations throughout your career. What do you think has made you such an effective leader?". I stumbles for the first 5 seconds but then finished strong. At the end I asked a few Ross questions: Why my interviewer picked Ross (fit, teamwork), what he liked best about the school, what he thought could improve (Career Services for smaller companies), and what he thought about the transitional period until the new building (ok since they are in the EMBA building). Overall a decent interview, but as my first, of course, my answers weren't as well developed as they could be. I also found a phone interview to be awkward so if you have the option to do an on-campus I would recommend that. The total time was about 30 minutes.

7. Telephonic Interview with Adcom, R2 Class of 2009 - (Published February 21, 2007 - anon78)

I had a telephonic interview setup with the Adcom where I had to call in. The interview was very conversational and the adcom member was very friendly and relaxed. She asked me conversation starters such as where I was calling from and where I usually holiday etc. and definitely made me feel comfy. She also described the interview process before diving into the questions. The whole interview lasted about 35 mins.

Questions asked as part of the conversation:

  • Could you give me a recent example of a contribution you made to your work or team?
  • When you presented your idea did you get any pushback from the management?
  • How did you get the resources/data you needed for the project you proposed?
  • Why do you want to do an MBA now?
  • What are the things at ROSS that interest you?
  • What’s your community involvement outside of work?
  • Technical questions about my sporting activity
  • Which are the clubs that interest you at ROSS?
  • Any thoughts about doing courses outside the MBA framework at ROSS?
  • How do you handle a situation where a team-member of yours is not performing upto the expected level?
  • Did you face such an incident recently?
  • Do you have any questions for me?

I asked only one question knowing that the person interviewing me was from the adcom and running short of time. Also I already had a pretty good idea of ROSS given my Alumni contacts.


What did you think of the interview?

I think the interview went decent. She mentioned good answer a few times.

What surprised you?

That the interview was so conversational and that the adcom member was really friendly.

Best

6. Off-Campus Alumni Interview, R1 Class of 2009. (Published January 7, 2007)

Had some trouble with the logistics because of weather and construction. Arrived early to calm the nerves and prepare. Setting was a typical corporate environment (the alumnus's work location). Started very informal as we walked to a conference room (chatted about the weather and my commute). When we got comfortable in the conference room the alumnus then launched into the standard questions. After about 30 minutes, when it came time for me to ask questions, it became much more conversational.


Alumnus Questions posed:

  • Tell me a little about yourself?
  • Tell me a little about the positions you've worked in?
  • Why MBA? Why now? Why Ross?
  • There are a lot of clubs and activities @ Ross, what do I bring to the table, how will I contribute?
  • What are my goals after school?
  • Tell me about a time where you lead a group, what was the outcome, what did you learn?
  • Anything else?
  • Any questions for me (alumnus)?

I asked a lot of questions about the alumnus's experience and I tried to be an active listener (using the alumnus's comments to ask more questions).


What did you think of the interview?

I enjoyed the conversation and experience, although I think I did horribly in the interview (lack of eye contact, I rambled on the team question, entire interview I didn't focus the conversation and I felt I went on too many tangents, etc...).

What surprised you?

I was admitted! Despite, I think, a poor interview.

What didn’t surprise you?

Standard questions, nothing I didn't really anticipate.

What might you conclude about the school based on this experience?

Wonderful, and forgiving, alumni (the interviewing alumnus was very articulate and a good listener). Don't worry too much if you think you screwed up the interview.

5. Off-campus alumni interview. (Published January 2006)

It started very formal, with the interviewer reading a description from an official packet, then launched into a series of standard questions. After about 5-10 minutes, it became much more conversational and fun, less formal. Interview portion lasted about ~25 minutes with 10 minutes of me asking questions.

Her questions:

  • Tell me about yourself, walk me through your resume
  • Specific questions about my resume (she had asked

for it before and was prepared with detailed questions)

  • Why MBA?
  • What hope to achieve during MBA, what specifically

at Ross?

  • What do I bring to the table, what one thing will I

add?

  • What do I want to do after school?
  • Describe time you executed an idea from start to

finish, what was impact (basically, essay #1)?

  • What other schools applying? How does Ross compare

to those schools (I hate this question).

  • Anything else she should know.
  • Questions for her

4. On campus, adcom, September. (Published September 2005)

The textbook 30 minute, blind admissions interview. After some small talk, the interviewer went right into questions, skipping any sort of resume rundown. It was clear that the interviewer was following a script for the most part. Some of the questions, to the best of my recollection, were:

  • Why MBA?
  • Why Ross?
  • Why now?
  • Has there ever been a time when you had to coach someone who wasn't performing well at work?
  • Which clubs and activities are you interested in at Ross?
  • Any questions for me?

The interviewer was quite pleasant and friendly and took copious notes. There was no branching out into other subjects, so if you're looking to get some other information in, you may want to find a way to shoehorn it into one of the questions above. In my case, I used the "clubs and activities" question to touch upon one of my hobbies.

In short, if you have the basics down, you shouldn't have too much trouble with the Michigan adcom interview.

3. Alumni. (Published Dec 31, 2005)

The interview was with Alumni Gautam Rao in Hyderabad at his office. He was pretty cool person. The Interview was basically a walk through of resume.

  • Tell me about urself
  • Why ROSS?? Why MBA??
  • Issue of Ganguly in Indian cricket as I am interested in Cricket
  • About my venture and what went wrong with it? How could I do differently given a chance now?
  • About the award I received from President of India
  • About the Debate community that I started in my organisation

It was pretty much it. It went fine and the interview was very professional

All the best to prospective students

2. Telephonic Interview, Second Year Int'l Student. (Published October 2005)

Interviewed over the phone with a second year international student at Ross in early October.

It was a 30 minute long interview with similar questions as discussed above. Since I interviewed before I submitted my application I tried to weave in a few questions into my spiel. The information proved to be useful for my essays. The student was very polite and made me feel comfortable. She also helped me get some information from the adcom as a follow up to the interview.

ForrestGump?'s interview experience:

Questions asked:

  • Why MBA ?
  • Why Now ?
  • Why Ross ?
  • Interests outside work ?
  • Describe a situation where you translated theory into action.
  • Describe a situation where you met with resistance from your team member, and what did you do about it
  • What will you bring to the Ross community , and what will you take back from the community (besides the good education) ?
  • some questions to clarify career goals?

The interview was pretty standard, and can be aced through thorough preparation.

1. Interviewed with an Alumni in late Oct 2005 for round 1. (Published october 2005)

It was a 30-40 mins interview and I met my interviewer in a local Starbucks. The alumnae graduated from Ross in 2003. She was very helpful, down to earth and the interview was very casual, though she took lots of notes. The interview questions were:

  • Why MBA? Why now?
  • Why Ross?
  • Walk thr the resume?
  • Describe your leadership experience at your work place?
  • Describe a situation where you had to make a tough decision?
  • Describe a situation where some one in your grp was against the decison you made? How did you solve this difficult situation? And what did you learn?
  • What do you do outside of work?
  • How do you plan to contribute to the student body at Ross?

Overall, the interview was pretty standard. She gave me 10 mins to ask questions and any concerns I had.

MGalBlue?

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