Finding Real Support and Community: My Ross Women’s Weekend Experience

For my entire career as an engineer, the activities done in the business world were a complete black box to me. I didn't even understand the most basic elements of finance (looking at you, net present value), let alone how strategic decisions were made. When I decided to challenge myself to learn what new knowledge could be gained and what doors could be opened with an MBA, I decided to look for schools that felt human-centered and honest.

When I attended Ross Women's Weekend to learn more about the Ross School of Business, I didn't have any expectations besides assuming this would be just another B-school touting repetitive MBA statistics and showing off their fancy conference rooms. 

To my complete surprise, I was immediately engulfed in what felt like a real and supportive community. The Ross admissions team and current students welcomed the weekend's applicants with open arms. 

Over the next two days, there was structured time to learn about the copious opportunities offered at Michigan Ross, time to reflect on my personal recruiting journey, and time to have dinner in the apartment of a current student. The group dinner was pivotal for me because I got the transparent “behind closed doors” dialogue that I was looking for.

The group of prospective students was able to ask questions that we wouldn't have felt comfortable asking in larger groups, and heard responses on the true challenges of going back to school again.

I went home that weekend with more focus on taking the GMAT again (yipee!) and completing my application. When I got accepted into Ross, the student who hosted me for dinner continued to support me with my final decisions, even after saying yes.

It felt like a very easy decision to attend Ross because RWW showed me firsthand how strong the humanistic support is when seeing students in the Michigan Ross community succeed.