Interview with Michigan Ross’ Soojin Kwon and Diana Economy [Show Summary]

Soojin Kwon, Managing Director of the Fulltime MBA Program, and Diana Economy, Director of Fulltime Admissions at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, share a wealth of information about the Ross MBA program, admissions process, and how you can be admitted. In recent years Ross has increasingly focused on action-based learning, having students work in teams to solve real business problems for both local and international organizations. It’s no surprise, then, that in the application they are evaluating applicants on how they will thrive in environments such as this – from self-awareness to empathy to the ability to work with a team to arrive at the most equitable solution. Listen in for all you need to know to arm yourself for success at Michigan Ross!

Michigan Ross MBA: It’s about REAL, Clear, and Teamwork [Show Notes]

Both Soojin Kwon, and Diana Economy are returning guests to AST. I’m thrilled to have them back so that we can learn more about the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business MBA program.

For those listeners who aren’t that familiar with Ross’ program, can you give an overview of it, focusing on its differentiators? [1:21]

Soojin: There are three we like to highlight.

You learn best by doing and there isn’t a better place to get your MBA than Michigan Ross. Our portfolio of action-based learning opportunities is second to none. In addition to MAP (more on this later) we have a whole portfolio of subjects that people can do under the umbrella of REAL – Ross Experiences in Action Learning.

Go Blue Go Anywhere – that is our mantra. If you come here you can go anywhere – geographically, industry-wise, career-wise. Everything is your opportunity having the Michigan brand and network behind you.

Ann Arbor provides the opportunity to be part of a tight-knit community. More than 90% of students come from outside of Michigan so they don’t have a pre-existing network, so the focus of their experience is their MBA and their classmates.

Ross appointed a new dean, Dean Scott DaRue approximately two years ago. He believes that MBA students should experience four things while in b-school: Start, Advise, Lead, and Invest in real-world businesses. He proudly announced at the AIGAC conference in June that Ross students in this year’s entering class will be able to perform all four functions. When do Ross students do all that? [3:10]

Soojin: Some of those things are co-curricular experiences. Some are through coursework like MAP, which I’ll talk about in a second, but some of them are parallel to the academic experience. For Start, they can get seed money for startups from our Dare to Dream grant money funded through our Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. They can get advisory support for their startup ideas through our entrepreneurs in residence program, and they can learn how to start a business through our business development seminars. Students can do all these things at any time during their MBA program.

For Advise, all MBA 1s in the last quarter of their first year do MAP (Multidisciplinary Action Project), which are projects that can be anywhere around the world and in any industry,