Michigan Ross Application Essays for 2019-20
Short Answer questions: Select one prompt from each group. Respond to your selected prompts using 100 words or fewer (<100 words each; 300 words total).
Group 1
• I want people to know that I:
• I made a difference when I:
Group 2
• I am out of my comfort zone when:
• I was humbled when:
Group 3
• I was aware that I was different when:
• I was challenged when:
Essay 1: Michigan Ross is a place where people from all backgrounds with different career goals can thrive. Please share your short-term career goal. Why is this the right choice for you? (300 words)
Optional Essay:
This section should only be used to convey information not addressed elsewhere in your application, for example, completion of supplemental coursework, employment gaps, academic issues, etc. Feel free to use bullet points where appropriate.
Michigan Ross Winning Sample Essays – 1
Select one prompt from each group of the three groups below. Respond to each selected prompt in 100 words or less (<100 words each; 300 words total). Every word counts here – the tight word count is intentional to force you to focus.
- Group 1
I made a difference when I: stood by and supported my friend after discovering that he is HIV+. Being HIV+ carries a huge social stigma in Indian society. I helped my friend broke the news to his family members and counselled them with the support of an NGO on how to live a healthy life.
In the process, I felt deeply touched by the plight of similar cases during my hospital visits. I pledged to do regular volunteering with the NGO and raised funds/campaign to create much-needed awareness about HIV. Through our efforts, we managed to set up 23 counselling centres with a free testing facility.
- Group 2
I was humbled when: It was a typical winter project that I was volunteering to teach Maths & Science to the 8th-10th graders at an NGO when my colleague asked if I could help his autistic son Aman to prepare for the Matriculation examination. He mentioned that the kid wasn’t doing good academically and to top of it, none of the other private tutors were willing to help due to his medical condition.
I decided to give it a shot & befriended Aman to start with. After spending some exclusive time, and through experiential learning methods, I was able to generate genuine interest in academics. He scored 57% marks in the final exam and till date sends me regards on Teachers Day, which makes me one proud person.
- Group 3
I was challenged when: In 2018, my manager decided to terminate my friend/colleague Ukpai’s contract, without a performance improvement period.
I strongly believe that to be a good leader you need to have empathy and give people a chance to improve. I negotiated with my immediate boss for 3 months of time under my mentorship to guide Ukpai.
I had a 1-1 meeting over lunch and he opened up about his father’s illness, which was making it hard for him to focus on work. For the next 3 months, I worked overtime with him and was able to turnaround his performance and save his job.
Michigan Ross is a place where people from all backgrounds with different career goals can thrive. Please share your short-term career goal. Why is this career goal right for you? (300 words)
Throughout my career so far, I have worked extensively in the technology sector and have acquired excellent client handling skills and manage people from diverse backgrounds. I have also taken multiple initiatives for clients on the projects/products I manage, which have fetched me numerous accolades and appreciations.
Now in the short term, Post-MBA, my goal is to transition to a Technology consultant role at a big tech firm (e.g., Accenture or IBM) where I could leverage my technical skills and work on more challenging and overarching business problems.
Even after nine years of experience, I have always felt challenged by the strategic and behavioural aspects of business and leadership, respectively. For instance, recently while working on a customer project who planned to implement the Agile framework, I had a hard time convincing the key stakeholders about Agile efficacy and eventually had to propose hiring an external consultant (Accenture) to convey and implement the same. I want to pursue an MBA to bridge this gap in my capabilities & refine my leadership skills to be an all-rounded business leader.
Also, my mentors/managers had encouraged me to widen my horizons and work on more challenging projects not only in the IT implementation domain but in the overall business growth domain to continue growing in my career. These experiences have motivated me to step up from project implementation to the strategy and consulting aspect of the technology sector.
But in order to do that, I have realized that I need to fulfil gaps in my academic knowledge and broaden my thought process outside of technical solutions. After extensive research & conversations with Alumni, I believe an MBA at this stage of my career will prepare me to achieve my professional objectives.
