If you did not get into Ross as a Preferred Admit

If you did not get into Ross as a Preferred Admit, don’t fret and don’t frown. We admitted less than 10% of the applicants to the program. (I would have been a borderline case for admissions; I have great sympathy for those of you who did not get admitted.) We turned down lots of applicants who, based on what I read in their applications, would have a very good chance of succeeding at Ross. (Should we be bigger? Maybe; we have to compete for space and resources with other Ross programs. Can we get bigger right now? No; the construction process makes it quite cramped right now — though this will be better 18 months from now.) When these same applicants apply next year, they will have a much better chance of being accepted. The acceptance rate for the 3-year program is more in the range of 30-35%.

The question becomes what the student should do in order to improve his or her chances of getting in next year. We will look at highlights from your high school application to UM (not to Ross; we don’t care one way or another if you applied to Ross out of high school) so you won’t lose “credit” for your good deeds from high school. Though we will note your high school accomplishments, we will focus on what you have accomplished since you graduated from high school. The following are some productive steps that you can take in the following year:

• This summer you should do something with your time that is productive in any way possible (paying job, volunteer, or whatever). When you do something, there’s a chance that you will have stories to tell later. And it is with these stories that you can convey a sense of who you are to other people.
• You should be sure that you get good grades next year. A 3.6 GPA is about the average for students entering the business school. Certainly, some admitted students have lower grades than this (it is an average, after all) but all other things being equal, it’s better to have higher grades than lower grades.
• Take Econ 101 and one math class (at least Math 115). If you perform well in analytic classes, it helps your chances of getting into Ross. If you take only analytic classes, that’s not so good. If you don’t take these two classes, then we won’t consider your transcript. Analytic skills are an important prerequisite to succeeding at Ross since so many of our classes build on this particular foundation.
• Take LS&A classes that interest you. You might find a double-major or minor opportunity. Or you might change your major! You just never know. But you’ll certainly do better in a class that you want to take.
• During school you should be involved in a couple of activities and/or projects that show that you can accomplish something

That’s about it. We’re looking for smart doers with different people mixing those two ingredients in different ratios. The clearer that you can make it that you fit this description, the better chance that you have of getting in.

Note the following: If you think that your grades don’t measure up but you have some other significant accomplishments that outweigh your grades, then please go ahead and apply to Ross if it’s what you have always wanted to do. Don’t let outsiders talk you out of it. Do all that you can do and let us make the admissions decision. Maybe you’ll get in and maybe you won’t — but at least you’ll know for sure.

Preferred admit activities

My attitude to the preferred admit (PA) program might surprise some people. (And I’m writing about it here so that incoming students don’t end up being surprised.) My goal for the PA students is that they use their freshman year to immerse themselves in the activities and culture of the university while at the same time becoming acquainted with Ross. The University of Michigan is a complicated enough place without us overwhelming the PAs with a bunch of Ross-related requirements. The diversity of options (programs, people, events, classes) at the university is probably our greatest strength. I want the PAs to be comfortable about all of the resources outside of Ross available to them so that they can take advantage of them during their time at UM.

We don’t let the PAs simply roam around the campus without interacting with us. We started off the year with a short orientation whose purpose was generally to allow the PAs to meet each other and to get introduced to our staff. Starting soon thereafter we offered a series of weekly seminars (attendance required) just for the PAs. The purpose of these seminars is to introduce the PAs to business and to Ross. The following are those seminars that we offered this year. Next year will most likely be somewhat different but the general structure and purpose will be the same.

Introduction to stock trading Time management Using the school library Self-assessment workshop Retailing Career assessment Strategy

Accounting Dual degrees Financial services company Clubs and Internships Marketing Microsoft

Medical device manufacturer International Business Entrepreneurship Global Sustainable Enterprises Finance Global equipment manufacturer

We will be updating this series of seminars over this summer so don’t hold up this list to me as some kind of promise for future services to be rendered.

In addition, during the year PAs can use both their LS&A advisors and their Ross advisors to help them put together their academic plan. Given that many of these students are planning on working toward a dual degree or minor, these academic plans need to be constructed fairly carefully.

What we are trying to do is to give PAs a bit of a head start into business and Ross since they are “our” students. For those sophomores who do not get into Ross as PAs, the information that we provide to PAs is not something that they wouldn’t be able to pick up during their time at Ross; however, this does allow PAs to learn about business and Ross without being under the academic pressure of upper-level classes. We think this low-key introduction to business provides a reasonable place to start for students who we want to integrate fully into the university’s life.

Purpose of having freshman and sophomore admissions

The Ross School has two paths by which students can gain admission to the program. The first is the “preferred admit” program for high school seniors and the second is the standard program for college freshmen.

Our preferred admit program allows us to target those high school students who have both built a very attractive resume out of high school and know that they are interested in getting a business education. After gaining admission to this program, they can become full-fledged Ross students their sophomore year if they maintain a 3.3 GPA during their freshman year while taking several required classes (including microeconomics, freshman writing, and a math class).

The standard admissions program yields us several types of students, all of whom have done well at Ross in the past:

• Students who are late bloomers and distinguish themselves more in their college application than they did out of high school,
• Students who discovered their interest in business after enrolling at Michigan, and
• Students who, though they distinguished themselves in high school and were interested in business, were not chosen during the preferred admissions process. Unfortunately, there are lots of students who I would like to admit into the program out of high school that I simply don’t have slots for in the PA program. This means that they have to re-apply after their freshman year and I can only hope that they do so.

Concerning the relative sizes of the PA and standard admissions programs, I would like to balance them so that the third type is minimized while still allowing a strong and large group of the first and second types. It will probably be several years before we know what the proper balance should be between the two admissions paths. I have a feeling, though I am not sure, that there is an actual difference between the students in the two admissions paths — not in their performance or eventual career success but in their interests. We like the diversity of student interests that we have always had here at Ross, and I don’t want us to mess that up. If having two separate admissions routes helps us maintain our general diversity, then we’re going to have two admissions routes.

We have strength in finance, consulting, accounting, operations, marketing, etc. We have a strong job placement success in the Northeast and Midwest (because that’s where our students are generally interested in working) though we generally are able to provide some help in placing students wherever they want to go. I think this diversity is a strength of ours. I will continue to be a strong proponent of maintaining these two paths so that we can learn more about the strengths of each and maintain the diversity of our student body.

Competition for preferred admit program

We are extremely blessed here at the Ross School. Through a combination of factors, there is a great competition for the slots in the preferred admit program by which high school seniors can gain tentative admittance to the Ross School. (I say “tentative” because these students have to maintain a 3.3 GPA during their freshman year at Michigan before they become full-fledged students of the Ross School.)

This program was approved as a two-year pilot program by the Ross faculty in which we would hope to enroll about 70 freshmen per year. Last year got off to a great start and we were able to enroll a great group of students. This year has been even better. (The following numbers are tentative but are indicative of how competitive the program is.) UM received about 25,000 applications this year. Of those, about 2300 indicated that they would like to be considered for the preferred admissions program. 2300! I went to the Ross faculty and said that, though 70 sounded like a good number a couple of years ago when the program was approved, I’d like to enroll about 100 students this year. I showed them the evidence of the quality of these students and they were convinced. Thus, this year we should have an entering class of 100 preferred admit students.

We do not know if 100 will be the number of slots for this program into the future. I bet that it’s going to increase in coming years but we’ll just have to see how the applications look. For now, I’m glad that we have been able to provide an avenue for these students to get into Ross right out of high school. I look forward to seeing great results from them (and all Ross students) in coming years.