My Take: The Michigan Ross Difference

December is always a busy time for me in my role as associate dean of the undergraduate program and as a professor here at Ross. I’m busy grading for BA 100, our business foundations course for first-year students, and reviewing early action applications for next fall’s incoming class. Ever since we announced that Ross is now a first-year admitting unit back in June, our admissions team has been working hard to release decisions in late-January, which is several weeks earlier than in the past.

That last point means I am gearing up for some of my favorite conversations of the year once admissions offers start going out. If you are one of the high school seniors admitted to Michigan Ross and therefore the University of Michigan, you will likely be asking yourself: Why Michigan Ross? Or, put another way: What is the Michigan Ross Difference and what does it mean for me as I weigh all of my options?

We are confident that your Michigan Ross education will transform you professionally and personally. I’d like to tell you about a handful of experiences and opportunities that make this transformation happen.

The freedom to explore

The Ross curriculum provides the rigor and breadth necessary to understand all facets of business and the flexibility to pursue your interests and passions. Forty-nine of the  120 credits you need to graduate come from “core” Ross courses, which are required courses of all BBA students. The core is designed around a series of Signature Learning Experiences which include both curricular and co-curricular elements that form the foundation for you to become a well rounded business leader. You’ll earn the remaining 71 credits through a combination of Ross and U-M required and elective courses where you’ll explore curiosities, gain new perspective, focus on specific interests, and set the stage for working with our career coaches at the Ross Career Development Office, who will help you achieve your career goals.

There also are many off-campus educational experiences like our Global Initiatives and internship opportunities. Nearly half of our juniors study abroad at one of our partner schools each winter semester. We also have numerous opportunities for short-term global immersions within Ross courses. 

A REAL business education 

At the root of the Michigan Ross longstanding commitment to action-based learning is the straightforward idea that if you want to learn business, you need to “do” business and have experience being a business leader while you’re still in school – where you can safely make mistakes and learn from them as you are guided by Ross faculty. Ross Experiences in Action-Based Learning are experiences where there are real stakes, real decisions, real clients, and real capital. These experiences are not just role-playing within case studies or hypothetical situations. With REAL, Ross BBAs make real investments through our investment funds, they advise real clients through consulting projects, and they lead real business teams. They can even manage and implement business initiatives for real companies in our Living Business Leadership Experience course. 

A collaborative community

The most widely regarded feature of the Ross undergraduate program is our community. Our community includes students, faculty, staff, and alumni both at Ross and U-Mt. Through our positioning and admissions process, Michigan Ross attracts students who are collaborative and team-oriented. Faculty and staff reinforce this tendency by creating an environment and pedagogy that develops well prepared, empathetic leaders. Ross alumni are extremely engaged and play an active role in student learning as guest speakers, action-based learning project sponsors, recruiters, and mentors. 

All the benefits of a world-class university

At Michigan Ross and U-M, you will interact with people from across the U.S. and around the world. This applies to everyone from faculty and staff to your teammates in BA 100 and your peer coaches. The resources available to Michigan students are vast, including access to more than 1,600 clubs across the university and the more than 60 BBA clubs at Ross. Plus, when you join U-M, you are starting a lifetime journey as a Wolverine. You should not underestimate the power of having an instant connection to more than 58,000 Ross and 682,000 U-M alumni who are leaders at organizations of all sizes and industries around the globe.

The best college town

The university truly has a vast reach and provides so many opportunities, but somehow our campus and the city of Ann Arbor feel intimate. The city has a great selection of restaurants, outdoor activities (the U-M Arb is my favorite), a great start-up culture, plus so many cultural opportunities, including two great movie theaters just adjacent to campus. One of our students recently wrote a piece with some advice on how to spend a weekend in Ann Arbor. In addition, Detroit is only about 45 minutes away and worth exploring when you want a change of scenery. If you need to fly home or to an interview, we are only 30 minutes from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a major international airport. 

One final piece of advice: Visit!  

Seriously, you have to visit U-M – preferably during the academic year when the campus is really buzzing – to get a good sense of what it feels like to be a Ross undergraduate. 

We hope you decide to call Ross your home for the next few years!

If you can’t make it to campus or if you want to get a sense of what it is like to be a Ross undergraduate, our admissions team is here to answer your questions. Better yet, you can even engage with one of our Ross Ambassadors.