Where to Apply? How to Choose your First-Year Admitting Unit on the Common Application

Since announcing that Michigan Ross is now a first-year admitting unit choice on the Common Application, the most popular question we have been asked is, “Where to apply?” With the follow-up question, “What are my chances?” Answering these questions isn’t as straightforward as the question itself, but I will do my best to give some transparency.

Where to apply?

When applying to the University of Michigan, you must choose a school or college on the Common Application. There are 14 undergraduate schools and colleges at U-M and 10 that admit first-year students. You must choose one unit unless pursuing a dual application or preferred admission. Check out our FAQs on which options are available with the BBA. 

Your first step is to explore which school or college has the academic major or field of study that you want to pursue. If you have an interest in business, Michigan Ross offers the primary undergraduate business education. However, there are ways that you can explore business adjacent majors, such as Economics and Organizational Studies in LSA; data analytics at the School of Information; Sport Management at the School of Kinesiology; or Industrial Operations Engineering at the College of Engineering. The difference between these is the curriculum, and you’ll want to do your research on the course offerings within each of these programs.

The Michigan Ross BBA is a professional undergraduate degree program that will give you the practical skills and experience to pursue specific business industries. There will still be economic theory-based courses through our Business Economics department, but BBA students have many options for courses that teach business skills that employers want to see. One such course is TO 411 Support with Excel, which teaches students decision support modeling using spreadsheets. My advice is to look through our course catalog to see if the courses offered both excite you and match your academic interests.

What are my chances?

We know that prospective students also look at the academic profile of admitted students when deciding where to apply.  The U-M Office of Undergraduate Admissions shares this information for first-year applicants. The BBA program’s admitted student profile provides similar information.

And while reviewing the data of an admitted student profile can be informative, it does not tell the whole story. At Michigan Ross, we have certainly admitted students who were both below and above the admitted student profile. That is because we have a holistic approach to reviewing our applications that takes into account the context of one’s high school environment, but also focuses heavily on one’s intent to pursue a business degree, which is reviewed in the Ross Admissions Portfolio. 

The Ross Admissions Portfolio is a personal, open-ended way to share more about who you are and why you’re interested in a business education at Ross. Our admissions team uses this portfolio as a complement to your Common Application to get a well-rounded understanding of who you are beyond the numbers. This is your opportunity to display your understanding of business and showcase how you’ve put your learning into action.

Your academic interests should be the driver of your first-year admitting unit choice. And while Michigan Ross does offer a transfer option, it is much more limited given that we only admit 100 cross-campus transfer students, compared to a first-year class of 500. If you desire to pursue a Ross BBA, you should apply through our first-year admission process.