It’s a good week at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. In a March 9th post to the Ross MBA Admissions Blog, Soojin Kwon, managing director of full-time admissions and program, shared her excitement about the Round 1 applicants who have paid their deposits and said they’ll be heading to Ann Arbor next fall.
The details she shared about the earliest members of the Ross MBA Class of 2020 suggest that diversity is the word that defines them. In addition to a professional hockey player in the NHL, a Ghanaian who leads commercial programs for GE, a greenlight coordinator for Uber in India, and an investment analyst from Kyrgyzstan, the incoming class includes students with experience working at leading consulting firms and investment banks as well as tech and consumer packaged goods giants and a range of non-profits.
“Students will be bringing experience from companies like McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, BlackRock, Itau, Google, Amazon, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and Nike as well as the Peace Corps, the military, and the United Nations Foundation,” Kwon wrote. “Many have graduate degrees ranging from art, architecture, religious studies and sociology to engineering and law,” she wrote. “We couldn’t be more excited about the wide range of experiences and perspectives these students will bring to Ross in the fall.”
Ross Breaks into U.S. News MBA Rankings Top 10
What could feel better after you’ve just made your decision to attend Ross than to have the school break into the top 10 of the highly regarded U.S. News & World Report annual ranking of best business schools? U.S. News, which will release its much anticipated rankings on March 20th, today revealed an alphabetical listing of the schools that will comprise the top 10. (Don’t miss your chance to win a $200 Amazon gift card by predicting the actual top 10 ranking here.) Ross made the list for the first time since 2005, pushing aside Yale School of Management in the process.
Ross is enjoying its second year under a vibrant professor-turned-dean, Scott DeRue, and it’s been sidling up the rankings under his leadership. Last year it advanced from 12th to 11th place in U.S. News, and today’s sneak preview confirms that this year will only continue that upward trajectory. Increasing admissions stats have certainly helped the school’s ranking as well. The average GMAT score for the most recent class jumped eight points over the year before, to 716, and GPA eeked up one tenth of a point as well, to 3.5.
Application volume has also been on the upswing for four years running. The number of applications for the Class of 2019 was a record-breaking 3,485, with acceptances offered to 25 percent. This increasing selectivity is another metric U.S. News looks upon favorably.
In addition to these feats on the admissions side, the post-MBA employment stats of the school’s most recent grads have also reflected strong gains. The median starting salary for the most recent graduating class was $123,000, up $3,000 from the year before. Amazon, the school’s leading recruiter, snapped up 38 2017 grads, followed by McKinsey, which hired 28.
Should You Apply in Round 3?
Amid all this momentum, should you consider applying to Ross in Round 3? Here’s what Kwon had to say. “Some of our most successful students and alumni applied in Round 3 or were admitted from the waitlist,” she wrote on her blog, adding that her team saves room in the class in order to ensure they don’t miss out on stellar late-round candidates. The deadline to apply to Ross in Round 3 is March 19th.
Wait! What About Round 2 Candidates?
According to Kwon, her team finished reading applications a week ago. “We’re now in the committee phase where we review preliminary decisions and shape the class to meet our goals for class size, caliber, and diversity,” she wrote. U.S. admits can expect calls on March 14th, with congratulatory international calls slated for March 15th. All decisions will be released at 12 p.m. EST on March 16th.
Congrats to those Round 1 candidates celebrating their decision, and good luck to Round 2 candidates anxiously awaiting word later this week. And if you’re feeling left out, remember there’s still time to apply in Round 3.
