Michigan Ross Class of 2028 essay analysis
- Amit Kapur
- Jun 4
- 2 min read
Michigan's Ross School of Business has released its questions for the 2025-26 application cycle.
Part 1: Career Aspirations
What is your short-term career goal, and how will Ross' philosophy in Action-Based Learning help you achieve it? Please be specific. Please answer both parts of this question. (300 words)
Part 2: How will you make an impact at Michigan Ross?
Michigan Ross is proud to support a community of leaders and impact makers. As a future member of this community, we want to know more about who you are and what drives you. Please choose 1 of the following prompts to tell us more about what makes you stand out beyond your academic and work experience. List the prompt you are answering at the top of your response. (200 words)
What makes you unique?
Can you provide a specific example of how you've overcome a personal challenge?
What makes you excited to get up each morning?
Describe a time when you made a difference in your community or with an individual.
Optional Essay
Is there something in your resume or application that needs a brief explanation? Appropriate uses of this essay would be the explanation of an employment gap, academic outliers, choice of recommender, completion of supplemental coursework, etc. You may use bullet points where appropriate. (250 words)
2025/26 essay question analysis
Part 1:
This essay is essentially a more traditional “Why [our school]” that other schools ask as well. Given the tight word limit, we recommend focusing on your top 1-2 ways you envision gaining value as it relates to your career goal, rather than a laundry list of experiences and resources you will use. The former approach will make it easier for you to make a stronger link between Ross and your future success, through explaining how you will use the particular examples you cite. That will help differentiate you from other applicants.
Part 2:
This is an opportunity for applicants to share what makes them truly unique, and thus why Ross should be excited to join their class. Having coached thousands of successful applicants over the years, the range of examples one could use in this essay is truly limitless. One challenge is that applicants may be tempted to choose examples that may have led to a successful outcome, but may not differentiate themselves from other applicants sufficiently. Consequently, as you consider what examples you could share, ask yourself whether the characteristic you are showcasing is something that would make Ross eager to choose you over someone else.
Optional essay
If you have a differentiated long-term goal (i.e. a specific business idea you’re working on now), and haven’t expressed it elsewhere in your application, you can use this space to explain it and give comfort to the reader that Ross will help you achieve success. Otherwise, this space is intended as a place to share any other information about your candidacy that you want Ross to know about you that is not elsewhere in your application.
Other application details
The online application is live now.
Re-applicant?
Check out information here (near bottom of page).
School resources
Check out our links to several of school's resources, including blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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