The entrepreneurial route is less popular, but if that's your goal don't be shy about it. There are plenty of folks who want to do consulting so you can actually distinguish yourself more by talking about entrepreneurship.
I've been impressed by how strong the entrepreneurial vibe is in Michigan and there's a decent amount of stuff going on, with Ross students faring very well, particularly in the clean tech start-up space. Michigan as a state is trying to cultivate entrepreneurship. It sponsored the Accelerate Michigan competition and UofM students sweeped the student competition -
https://www.acceleratemichigan.org/main. ... &nid=14410. One of the great things about Michigan is that it's interdisciplinary, so these UofM teams are composed of Ross, Erb (Ross & SNRE), and Engineering students.
Another UofM start-up in the news is Bebaring. The founder is a senior and partner is an Erber (on the cover of the
UofM alumni mag). The founder, Allen Kim, just won Entrepreneur of the Year.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217707-3https://ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=8182Ross is also attracting students interested in social enterprise. There's the Social Venture Fund (
www.umsocialventure.com), one of the 3 student-run VC funds, that invests in for-profit social enterprises. And there's also a course called Social Venture Creation which launched Get Fresh Detroit, which has been garnering a lot of attention -
https://www.getfreshdetroit.com/.
At Ross, there's a group of classes under "Entrepreneurial Studies" and these include New Venture Creation, among others. There's also an interdisciplinary class with the business, engineering, and design schools that's called Integrated Product Development. And there's also a club of course - Entrepreneur and Venture Club.
UofM President Mary Sue Coleman has also stated that entrepreneurship is one of the biggest opportunities for the University, so look for more to come at the university level. She's heading up the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship -
https://www.annarbor.com/business-review ... member-sa/.
There's plenty more to find in Ann Arbor and Detroit (TechArb, SPARK, BizdomU, TechTown, Sakti3, A123, Accio, First Step Fund...) so harness your entrepreneurial spirit and go for it.
KingKREEP wrote:
MBMB wrote:
Thanks Piggles!
Infact I had looked at the Zell-Lurie Institute website before and am very keen on its offerings- but from the admission perspective, wasn't sure if they would like it- I might stick with the "safer" post-graduate professions and then if I get admitted i can always opt for courses from the Institute.
Best of luck to all Round 1 hopefuls who are waiting on their deicisons!
If your real goal is to start something after business school, I would highly recommend you state that in your essays. Yes, the school (and actually the University more broadly) is making a push to develop/provide entrepreneurial opportunities to students - DTE Clean energy Prize, Dare to Dream grants, Frankell Fund etc. It appears that the State of Michigan is also getting behind the university in the hope that companies founded out of school will create some much needed jobs. So by all means, feel free to stay true to your entrepreneurial goals in your essays.