Michigan Ross 2015-2016 MBA Essay Questions

Michigan Ross MBA essays

The University of Michigan Ross School of Business has posted the following MBA essay questions for the 2015-2016 application cycle. While the first essay also appeared last year, the second is a revamped essay prompt.

  1. What are you most proud of and why? How does it shape who you are today? (up to 400 words)
  2. What is your desired career path and why? (up to 400 words)

The Michigan Ross admissions blog states that:

The first question is intentionally broad. We want to give you the option to pick something from either your personal or professional life. The context (personal or professional) is less important than your reason for being proud of something. We want to understand what makes something important to you. It gives us a glimpse into how you think about and process things, and what your priorities and values are.

This is how we assess fit – through alignment of your values with the values of our community – not whether you pick a personal or professional example.

The main purpose of the career path question is so we can evaluate whether business school makes sense.  A “good” answer isn’t about saying you want to go into a traditional business field. In fact, many of our students pursue a wide range of careers outside of traditional business fields (e.g., education, nonprofit, emerging markets). A good answer will describe your rationale for being interested in a particular path.

For both questions, there isn’t an answer that we “want to hear” other than a response that demonstrates that you’ve done some self-reflection and gives us a sense of you as a person.

A note about writing style: we like clear and succinct. “Up to 400 words” means it can be less than 400 words. It’s not a word count test, nor is it a creative writing test. Don’t write two paragraphs of introduction before stating what you’re most proud of. You can even start with, “I am most proud of….” Write as you would speak. To a real person. We, who read the essays, are real people.

For more information, please visit the Michigan Ross MBA admissions page.

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Michigan Ross 2015-2016 MBA Application Deadlines

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