I flew in to Detroit and then drove to Ann Arbor a day before the interview and stayed with a friend. In the evening prior to the interview, I took a tour of the U of M campuses and was really impressed by the college-town concept. The central campus, where Ross is located, seems like a great place to spend 2 years of my life. The downtown and the campus flow seamlessly into one another and were pretty vibrant. Parking seemed to be an issue because the nearest parking deck is like 3-4 blocks away. There is plenty of street parking around the building, but remember to carry plenty of quarters with you.
The environment at the school was pretty friendly and welcoming. I reached about 30 mins prior to my interview and sat in a study area/cafe close to the admissions office (a floor below the office).
I was interviewed by a second year student who had landed a consulting job. It was pretty conversational. He did take a lot of notes while I talked. It was a blind interview as in the interviewer had only read my resume and so a lot of questions were from what he saw on the resume.
List of interview questions:
- Tell me about yourself/background?
- Why an MBA at this point in your career?
- Why specifically Ross? (He touched on this point again later in the interview and said that a lot of other schools had clubs and centers in my area of interest, so what specifically about Ross excited me and why i think those centers at Ross make more sense than some of the other centers at other schools)
- Leadership example?
- Problems with a colleague/Tough team member?
- One weakness that my colleagues at work would point out?
- What do i do outside of professional life?
- How would you contribute to Ross?
- Questions for him?
The interview lasted about 40-45 mins. Compared to my other interviews, the Ross interview had a lot more cross-questioning. It wasn’t as if he was trying to put me in a tough spot, but i felt he wanted to dig deeper into most answers.
