Tips on Applying to the Michigan Ross BBA Program

When choosing an artifact, we often tell students to think of your four years of high school. What are you most proud of? And then submit that and write a reflection on it. The artifact does not have to be business related. It does have to be something where you've shown significant contribution to something, where you might have challenged yourself, where you might have learned something or grown. When you read the prompt, we do call it a learning artifact. So, we really want you to reflect on your learning. You know, oftentimes it is an extracurricular activity and that's where the extracurriculars really come to life. It doesn't have to be, but again, think of your four years of high school. What are you most proud of? And that's typically what you submit for your artifact. So, an artifact can appear to be authentic and not just another extracurricular activity description when you really tell us a portion of what it is. So, if you are picking an extracurricular, think of something you did within that extracurricular. Was it an event that you put on for your school? Was it a team of your peers that you had to lead? Was it a uh public speaking experience as part of this extracurricular activity? So, I wouldn't say it's a description or an extension of your list of your extracurriculars in your common app, but a piece or a component where you can reflect on growth, community, contribution, engagement, reflection, learning, some of those areas, the business case discussion. So, your topic for that prompt is not something you have already done. So, if you read through the prompt, this is an exercise in problem solving and in critical thinking. It's not an exercise in telling us what you've done and how you solved something. So, it's best to pick something that is hypothetical, a challenge that you see local in your community. Tell us what the issue is. Tell us what the business implications are and provide a solution. When you pick a topic of something you've already solved or work with, you tend to get too focused on the solution of what you did than actually telling us more about the problem and the important piece of what the business implications are and you go straight to solution or to what you did. And so that takes away from us understanding your problem solving ability and how you think through an issue. So how can you stand out in your application, specifically the Ross admissions portfolio? I think you've heard me say this a lot. I think authentic voice is really important. I also think picking something that is local to your community for the business case discussion, not something global like world poverty or world hunger, but again something is local that will really stand out to us. And then the artifact as well. I don't think you should choose an artifact where you're looking to impress us. It doesn't have to be business related. Again, it's something where you've really shown growth, where you've been challenged, maybe where you really excelled, where you really contributed to something. That's more what we're looking for. And so, authentic applications are really what stand out to us. The artifact also isn't anything new. It's not something you just start senior year to get admitted to a business school. It's also not a business plan. It truly is something that you've worked on that has really shown who you are from high school. I often talk first about the Ross curriculum. It's very actionoriented, action-based learning is something that we are known for. We have active learners, students that are, you know, positively engaged in the classroom and contributing to classroom discussion. So for us, you know, when we're looking beyond grades, test scores, rigor of curriculum, even beyond essays, we're looking to see how you would fit in that type of environment. So extracurriculars do mean a lot to us. The portfolio does mean a lot to us. We're looking for students that would really like an active oriented classroom environment where they're solving problems, they're working in groups, they're doing case analysis, they're doing co-curricular events on Fridays with clubs and organizations. And so that's the type of student we're looking for, the student that has the potential for leadership and can also really actively contribute in the classroom. When students apply to the University of Michigan, they choose to apply to a firstear unit. And students are no longer applying to Ross through LSA. They're choosing business as their firstear unit. So, when the student receives their notification of whether they were admitted or not, it won't be an LSA notification. It'll be for the RAW School of Business. And if a student is admitted, great. We're very excited to welcome them to the class. If they are not admitted, they will not be considered for LSA or one of the other firstear units. I think for us, it's a holistic review. We're looking for strong academics. We're looking for strong essays in your common application. We're looking for leadership in your extracurriculars. And then the portfolio adds the component of that sort of business intent and interest, especially in the business case discussion. And then the artifact really shows us your ability to connect with our type of curriculum. So there isn't necessarily one component that is weighted more than others. It is a holistic review process, but the portfolio is the place where we really get to understand your interest for an undergraduate business degree, your intent for the future, and a little bit of how much you know about business as it relates to when you're working through the business case discussion. them.