Calling all [[Michigan (Ross)]] 2008 applicants...

My university issues only one copy of transcript, an original one I asked Admissions Office and was advised to bring it with me when I come in August and they will make a copy of my transcript. Admissions Assistants are very responsive and you can ask them about the deadline.

My understanding me the letter was that we need to submit the original degree and the transcripts, by Aug 15th. I need my Original degree for my Visa stamping and am in no way planning to part with it before i land in Ann Arbor.

hmmm we need the degree for the visa?
gosh this visa rules are getting more and more complicated
do I need my elementary school diploma also?

also, how do I get an admission consultant? I don't have one

Really??? I got an e-mail from a nice lady at Ross, who advises what documents should be sent to her to obtain I-20 form and what should I do with the transcript confirmation. I got an e-mail from her when my deposit was confirmed.

I'm doing MtreK. I'm also doing the accounting waiver class so my options were somewhat limited, but I chose:
-Virgin Islands
-Costa Rica
-Trinidad and Tobago
-Belize

Yup, I want to do the ACC waiver course too. I was looking closely at Costa Rica. I also got to know one of the guys leading the trek. Let's see how things pan out....

Guys,
It seems that UM has decided to build everything again in the campus. After business school building they are going to build a new stadium.
https://mgoblue.com/Multimedia/Multimedi ... ryId=82220

That is absolutely not true, Shared Folders. They are modernizing Michigan Stadium, but by no means is a 'new' stadium being built. That said, you will love Michigan Stadium and football Saturadays. I am jealous!

GBR Recap

I just returned from GBR, so I thought I would post my experience.

My wife and I flew out from Seattle wednesday night. We arrived in Detroit at about 5 am on Thursday morning (2 am for us) and got our rental car. We then drove to AA. Out of all the things I printed out to bring the one thing I forgot was directions to the hotel. So I had my wife look them up on my Blackberry. Unfortunately I told her 3200 Broadway instead of 3200 Boardwalk, so we got lost for a bit. By 7 am we were at our hotel. I cannot sleep on airplanes, so I was very tired, so we slept until about 11:30.

We arrived at Ross just before 1 and got started right away with the walking tour of housing near campus. This primarily consists of houses that you can either rent with a number of roomates, or houses that have been split into a number of smaller units. I didn't really like the stuff we saw, it reminded me of the places I lived in undergrad. Great when I was 20, not so great now. It started to rain, so the group voted to return to Ross.

I had a couple of other events in the afternoon. The financial aid presentation was straight forward, I already knew most of what they discussed. The main thing I got from my pre-career counseling session was that I should try to be focused on an industry and a function by the time I come to school. The rest of the time was spent mingling with other admits and some students. I am not the greatest at going up to people I don't know and starting a conversation. I know that I need to improve that prior to recruiting, so I walked around and talked to lots of admitted students. Throughout the weekend everyone I spoke to was friendly and fun to talk to.

Dean Dolan's opening speech was funny and also quick, which was good because it was dinner time and I think we were all hungry. I went to Chop House for dinner which was very good. I think my wife now understands that there are nice restaurants in AA (not that we'll be able to afford to eat at them much).

Friday kicked off with a very cool scavenger hunt. My team didn't win, but we didn't come in last, so that was good. Career panels were next. I thought the entrepreneurship panel was very interesting. Particularly because none of the people were in technology related industries that are so commonly associated with entrepreneurship. The GM panel was useful for me also because it helped me realize that GM may not be where I want to go. Certainly the career development that the rotational leadership programs provide is fantastic. However, I think I need to work somewhere where I am excited about the products that we deliver. I am just not excited about the markets that GM and Pepsi operate in.

The sample Strategy class I participated in during the afternoon was great. The strength of the Ross strategy department is one thing that really excites me about going to Michigan. The "focused learning opportunities" discussion that I chose as my second class was not good. The institutes (ERB, ZLI, WDI, other TLAs as well) are all great, but they only had a few minutes each. I didn't learn anything that I hadn't read on their websites.

Friday night dinner at a host student's apartment was a great chance to talk to people more individually. Plus it gave my wife and I a chance to really see one of the Woodbury Gardens apartments. Unfortunately, now my wife wants one of the townhome style apartments like our host couple had.

I thought the "meet the clubs" event on Saturday would be uninteresting. I don't see clubs as much of a differentiator between schools since so many clubs are replicated across the top schools. However, I actually had a good time talking to the High Tech Club, VC/Entrepreneur club, Soccer Club and some others that I can't remember. The High Tech Club president showed me some numbers about how successful they have been in high tech recruiting, which of course got my attention. It turns out that about 13% of the class goes into the tech field. So I won't be one of the few going after tech, which I like.

Saturday afternoon consisted of a "speed dating" style apartment complex tour. We only had about 15 minutes at each place. Lake Village was very nice and large, but also far away and and very expensive. I thought Briar Cove was a pretty good value for the money. I was a bit disappointed with the 2 bedroom we saw at Woodbury Gardens. However, its benefits of being the closest complex to school (other than Nob Hill) and the fact that 200 MBAs that live there will probably win out.

Saturday night Dosa, ncprasad and I went out to dinner with our wives (and another guy and his girlfriend, not sure if he is on gmatclub) at a local Indian restaurant. I had Briyani and got to see what a Dosa was (Dosa ate a Dosa, in an interesting cyberspace meets real world event). I also learned that I had been pronouncing "desi" wrong in my head this entire time.

All in all GBR was a great experience. The students, staff, and other admits were all great, and I know that I will have a great experience if I go to Ross. Unfortunately, the weekend did little to resolve the concerns that my wife and I have about her finding a job. Before this weekend I would have said that if I converted the GSB waitlist into an admit, that I was off to Chicago. Now I know it will be a tough decision. It seemed that many people at GBR were struggling with tough choices. However, as we reminded each other, all of our choices are good ones and we can't really go wrong.

nice writeup bherronp. Kudos! It would be great if some of you guys could share some photos though!

Nice summary bherronp - its funny, I was thinking almost the exact same thing during the GM career mtg...

I'm even more impressed with Ross after GBR. All the students and admits I met were great and I had blast all weekend.

It is nice to hear that there will be cool people at Ross

I am just so sick of dealing with idiots . I had 2 days at home (yesterday and today) and I won't be back in a while. So yesterday and today I went to the bank to get the bank statement required for I20 for internationals and I had to deal with idiots at the bank all day long .... why is it so damn difficult for some people to issue a stupid statement with all the money quoted in US dolars?

soo ... now I am frustrated with the world but, with the statement I am one step closer to Ross now

Great report bherronp- I dont think I have the patience to type out all that stuff again but here goes what I learnt at GBR:

1. GO BLUE! Get used to that phrase, you are going to say/hear that some 11,576,356,982 times over the next two years. GO BLUE!
2. The students are amazing- the prospective students are even more. ncp, many, bherronp, skaballet are all
3. Be prepared to drink...(GO BLUE!)
4. Be prepared to hate Ohio State- in everything- including the Big Ten Hotdog eating contest
5. Recruiting is not bad for the class of 2008- in fact it is better than what it was at the same point of time for the class of 2007
6. Be prepared for a slow down in hiring
7. Be prepared to drink...(GO BLUE!)
8. If any of the attendees remember the one guy who forgot to turn in the remote after the scavenger hunt game- it was me!
9. Manylander is like an energizer bunny- kept running all over the place in the scavenger hunt
10. bherronp can eat spicy stuff- and finally got to see a "Dosa" *pun intended*
11. Met Bransons friend whom I had met on a previous trip to K and is picking Ross over Tuck (Branson, PM me!)
12. Be prepared to drink...(GO BLUE!)
13. Most people fall in love with the school during admitted weekend (not just at Ross but everywhere I think)- bunch of people were picking Ross over higher ranked schools- K, W, S etc. Again, things could change once they attend those schools.
14. A TON of people deciding between Ross and pick one- Haas/Duke/Darden/Tuck and Ross seemed to be winning in most debates. That might explain its relatively high yield%.
15. Michigan weather sucks
16. Be prepared to drink...(GO BLUE!)
17. Michigan golf course rocks
18. ncp has an amazing of timing- puts up a deposit for an apartment, and then gets admitted with $'s to UCLA. PERFECT!
19. Deal Dolan is really funny - and Nat Geo CEO is a Ross Alum and Tom Brady almost become an insurance salesman
20. Be prepared to drink...(GO BLUE!)

Did any of you go to the Hill House party? That was crazy! I'm so excited after GBR to be going to Michigan. I even got housing even if the lease doesn't start until the end of August (and no I have no idea what I'm going to do about that since I need to be there in early August for the acc waiver class....)

The amazing thing to me was that my student host went to the Hill House party after my wife and I left his apartment at almost midnight. He was trashed before he went to the party. He still managed to be at Ross before we were there the next morning. AND he had gone to see his accountant earlier in the morning. Incredible recovery time.



I didn't think mine was too spicy. Could have been a little spicier, but not too much. It was pretty good.

Lol! NC, I would've given anything to see the look on your face when you got the admit e-mail/call

At the risk of being redundant after bherronp and dosa, here is my quick two cents:

1) The GBR was good not great. But the people, especially the prospectives were awesome. I can easily see myself making lifelong friends who will be not only fun but also challenging and enriching. You can drink and party with a lot of people but you can not benefit from many others' minds. With Ross prospectives, it looked like you could do both.

2) Many MBA2s I talked to were so jealous of us. They wanted to live the two years again. Even though they were all happily employed.

3) Ann Arbor is cooler than I thought. Much cooler. It resembles the hip neighborhood of any large city. i.e. Lincoln Park for Chicago.

4) Aside from my Desi brothers, a significant crowd of Brazilians and Israelis make the international majorities. 20+ were admitted from each country, at least half with multiples

5) Many people I talked to who had a Kellog admit were decided to go to Kellog.

6) The "other school considered" was most of the time Haas,UCLA,Duke and Darden. People with K,C,W were more or less decided to fare Ross well.

7) Hill House is probably going to be "VERY" popular.

8) HAIL TO THE VICTORS!!!