The value of an education at Ross

There has been quite a swirl in the Michigan Daily (the university's daily student paper) about the value of a BBA. First, a student who apparently didn't enjoy his time here at Ross wrote an opinion article and, now, a BBA wrote a response describing his much more positive experience. Speaking as the BBA Faculty Director, I hope that readers take seriously the points made in the second article and discount the first as the rant of a student who is still finding his way.

Speaking as a parent and educator, my position expands somewhat on this. As a student, your education should be a highly personal journey. Each school, department, professor, student, class, and extracurricular activity has something to offer you, and what you can get out of any one experience is different than what someone else can get out of it. For better or for worse. You are unique and bring something different to the table that differs from what someone else might bring — again, for better or for worse. How your strengths, weaknesses, hopes, desires, and attitude match up with each particular situation all goes in to the possible value that you might gain from it.

Further, the actual value that you gain from any one situation (school, department, professor, student, class, or extracurricular) will frequently not be clear to you until many years after you have completed the activity. I know that I did not enjoy the professor of my introductory calculus class as a freshman while I was a freshman but, by my senior year, he had become a valued acquaintance and advisor. I also absolutely never enjoyed my modern algebra class and cannot point to any particular event in my life that would have changed because I took Western Civ. I still cannot point to any specific benefit that I got from either one of these classes. However, looking back I absolutely know that the training (in how to think, analyze, argue, listen, write, and read) I received from my undergraduate education was, if not priceless, valued more highly than anything that I ever will, might, or could own.

Regardless of all of this, a student still has to go to some particular school at some particular university. This is where I feel pretty good about Ross and UM. We have a lot of strength in a lot of different academic areas; we have really hard working, smart students; we have dedicated, smart, interested faculty; we have a lot of resources (money, centers, staff) in many areas. We try to communicate these strengths as clearly as possible to possible applicants to minimize the possibility of having enrolled students who end up not liking or appreciating their time at Ross. While we may not be a perfect fit for everyone, we offer opportunities to many types of people who, if they take advantage of those opportunities, can prepare themselves for success in life (no matter how you want to define "success").

Does this mean we're right for everyone? No. Does this mean that everyone who is admitted should stay because we're so great? No. What it does mean is that many students will, while they are here, have many opportunities to work with many other smart students in many interesting situations. Further, they will not only have the opportunity to have a great, well-rounded undergraduate experience but they will also graduate having had many opportunities to prepare themselves for life after graduation. Other schools and universities probably try to provide the same type of preparation; they are not my concern. It is my concern to do what I can to provide more and better preparation to more Ross/UM students while they are here. We have been and will continue to work on this.