Ross Admissions Director Provides Insight into New Essay Questions

soojin kwon 2The admissions film director at the University of Michigans Ross School of occupation weighed in on the schools unfermented application audition interrogationsannounced this weekin an trade of emails with absolve Admit. Read on to learn what she had to say.\nOn Wednesday, Ross rise to powers coach Soojin Kwon posted the schools new turn out questions for the 2015-16 application season on her Admissions Director Blog. This course of instruction, she and her police squad chose to approve last years twain essay questions (What ar you some proud of personally? and What be you some proud of schoolmasterly?) into one, to a greater extent(prenominal) open- culminationed question and ask a punt question nigh appli s complete wordts travel goals. \nWhat Drove the Changes This Year?\nIn an email exchange with Clear Admit, Kwon revealed three key drivers tin the changes to the questions this year. In terms of the closing to combine last years questions into one, the hope was to provide applicants with more latitude to keep open about some intimacy that really stands out to them, she writes.\nKwon uses her relieve oneself admissions charge as greaseball pigs to test essay questions, ask each of them to answer the questions to get a understanding of the kinds of responses applicants go away submit. In answering this years revised what ar you most proud of? essay, some members of her aggroup chose personal examples, others professional ones. The interest dismantle was hearing wherefore they viewed that experience as the thing they were most proud of, Kwon writes.\nBy no means should applicants impression limited to providing just professional examples, she says. In fact, some on the team fear that could be the unintended result of the change to the prompt. We hope to see a wide range of stories, Kwon writes. The distinguished thing is to choose a story that go away announce us something important about you as a person. \nA occupational group goals essay do it ba! ck into the mix this year because without one, the admissions committee found it more difficult to choose which applicants to entice for an interview. One applicant, for example, wrote about his passion for and achievements in philosophy for both of his essays, Kwon sh ares. This left us inquire whether business school do sense for him. It could have, but without perspicacious what his life story goal was, we couldnt say. For this reason, the team is glad to have the travel goals essay back, she writes.\nFinally, taken in concert this years two questions gain applicants to be both retroactive and forward-looking. Both questions are introspective but focus on different parts of a candidates timeline, she notes.\nRoss wants students who depart pursue locomotes that are interesting, motivating and fulfilling, Kwon writes. Hence, we ask the of the essence(predicate) Why? at the end of the career path question. Candidates who can define what is interesting, motivating and fu lfilling to them will be well on their way toward a career that will deliver.\nStars and Strugglers\nAt the end of each academic year, Kwon and her team meet with the schools career operate department and MBA program use to discuss the years Stars and Strugglers. aft(prenominal) colleagues in the other departments report students in each category, the admissions committee re-reviews those students applications to look for indicators or predictors of achiever or struggle, Kwon writes. Her team likewise gathers feedback on how the students fare in the recruiting process and whether their backgrounds and skills matched what recruiters in divers(a) industries were looking for.\nWeve found that anterior experience is only part of the recruiting success equation, Kwon writes. Much of an MBAs career success comes from their communication skills. She notes that a survey of corporate recruiters by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) found that the top quaternion things skills companies are looking for (out of 25) are comm! unications-related, specifically oral communication, comprehend skills, written communication and presentment skills. That is, in large part, why we launched the Team Exerciseso we could assess that come in of skills, she writes.\nRoss Seeks Real People\nIn her blog post announcing the questions, Kwon urged applicants to write clearly and concisely, as if they were harangue to a real person. In her email to Clear Admit, she grow on that advice. Tell your story, in your voice. Dont scour the interwebs for successful examples that got soulfulness else into business school, she writes. Doing so runs the take chances that the story you lift will also end up in someone elses essaysomething shes seen.\nWe go to bed getting a sense that someone has given us a glimpse into who they are by dint of the examples they choose, through the way they reflect on their stories, she writes.\nWere looking to build a community of people, not course earners or box-checkers, she writes. In fact, Kwon began her career years ago as a volunteer alumni interviewer for Yale undergrad admissions. I did it (and still do it) because I love skill about peoples paths and goals, she writes. People are interesting! We hope the essay questions weve posed this year suffice candidates share that with us.