The following Michigan / Ross MBA interview questions & report were submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them!
I met the interviewer at a coffee shop at one of Ross’ “Off-Campus Hubs.” Ross does a typical blind interview where the interviewer has only your résumé. My interviewer came on time and was able to immediately identify me (I was surprised by this as the coffee shop was full of people in business suits all around the same age). After we sat down I handed him a paper copy of my résumé and the interview began.
Questions were pretty straightforward. He started with a typical “walk me through your résumé” question, with the notable difference that he wanted me to bring me all the way up to my reasons for deciding to do an MBA. He stopped me at a few points to gain a better understanding so it was important to remember to where I left off. Thankfully the interviewer and I had a very similar background so my career moves and reasons for an MBA all made sense to him and he let me know that he knew where I was coming from.
Quickly we progressed into the “Why Ross” and “How do I plan to contribute at Ross” questions. Since I had researched the school very thoroughly, I was prepared for these questions. I chose to highlight a few things that made Ross very different and since my interviewer participated in these activities I began asking him questions about his experiences. When we got back to interviewing there was a situational question about working with diverse individuals, but that was all. The rest of the time I continued to ask him questions about his experience and he provided me with not only information about Ross, but also general MBA tips.
I was fortunate to have been interviewed by a number of schools in a number of settings, alumnus, 2nd year, and adcom. By far this was the most conversational, but also the one where I felt it was to my benefit to know Ross very thoroughly. Since I did an off-campus interview I was concerned I would be penalized for not being able to participate in the on-campus team based event or that my interview experience would somehow be “lesser-than” those who interview on-campus. I did not feel that this was the case at all and one of my biggest pieces of advice for future applicants would be to not worry about the quality of alumni interviewers from Ross. My interviewer was truly top notch and probably the best one I had during my application cycle.
My biggest takeaways from this interview for future applicants doing an off-campus interview with a Ross alumnus:
- Know the school inside and out. It isn’t sufficient to hope that you will get a lot of “situational” questions. Most of my conversation revolved around the school after we got through the typical resume – why MBA – why Ross — what do you hope to contribute questions.
- Do dig deep on the questions to your interviewer if he or she participated in any of the activities you want to participate in at Ross. I found that by doing so it not only helped build a rapport with the interviewer, but it also answered a lot of questions I had about the school.
- Do keep it conversational. My interviewer mentioned several times at the beginning that this was meant to be a “conversation”. I think one way to fail this interview is to be too formal. There should be a back and forth.
- Be prepared for it to go long. My interview lasted well over an hour. Don’t schedule your interview assuming it will last 30-40 minutes with a flight leaving shortly thereafter.
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