This post is updated from last year.
Interviews for the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business are not particularly hard. Based on my experience as well as the reports found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com, I can say that they are generally seem to be friendly, focused on fit, and require the applicant to discuss the basics.
Ross interviews appear to be conducted blind, but since what you say in the interview will be checked against what you wrote, make certain that your oral and written presentations are consistent, especially in terms of your goals. Keep the following in mind:
The nice thing about this is that you don’t have to generate alternative stories or themes for interview. You should expand on what you wrote in the essays, but clearly keep things consistent because admissions seems to really care about that.
My colleague, Steve Green, has compiled the following common questions:
- Tell me about yourself. Walk me through your resume. What should I know about you? *Probe resume: Cross-reference, push for details about why and how.
- Tell me about your current position.
- What do you do outside of work?
- What are your career goals?
- Why do you want an MBA?
- Why now?
Why Ross? - How will you be involved outside of class?
- What will you do if not accepted to Ross?
- How would you deal with a teammate who doesn’t act like a team player?
- Tell me how you dealt with a team member who was under-performing.
- Tell me about your role on a team.
- Tell me about a time when your team faced a lot of obstacles? (WHAT LEARNED?)
- Tell me about a time you showed initiative.
- How do you manage conflict?
- Please give me 3 examples of your leadership experience?
- What does leadership mean to you?
- What 3 adjectives would your friends use to describe you and why?
- What makes you unique?
- What was a challenging experience in your life?
- Tell me about a time when you had a professional failure and what did you learn from it.
- Tell me about a time when you received negative feedback from a supervisor and how did you respond.
Ross interviewers are admissions officers, students, and alumni and interviews can be in person or by telephone. Reported length for interviews is usually 30 minutes with some going 45 minutes and few lasting an hour (these seem to be an exception). Campus interviews will most likely be 30 minutes.
Given that this is quite a short interview, I think it is particularly important that you have a very clear idea about what you want to cover. The most frustrating thing about such an interview could easily be lack of time to cover your own perceived key points, so make sure that when you think about the likely questions above, you have fully considered how you will use your answers as a vehicle to help your interviewer understand why you should be offered a place at Michigan. For more about strategy, see here.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my recent post on “Why I don’t analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant.”
-Adam Markus
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Read the full article: University of Michigan Ross MBA Interviews