khulluskywalker
TWIC, what’s the guarantee of ECs coming out in the interview process as well? Whatever behavioral questions I was asked they all had to be answered from a professional work ex only and that is what is usually recommended by current students as well. What I’m saying basically is yes Ross’ application is really light but how do you think they are assessing fit (not passion, not excitement, not knowledge and research about the program) but fit for the school when the entire interview or the behavioural questions atleast are focused almost entirely (not completely) on the professional life
You might be anchoring on the wrong aspect - EC's are a part of an applicant's profile that can demonstrate many aspects of personality such as being community-focused, pursuing your passions, highlighting commitment if you have longer term EC's. They add colour to a profile and show how you interact with your community outside of the workplace, i.e. outside of a more controlled, predictable environment. However, if you've managed to demonstrate that through your answers to professional questions then there is no need to worry. You might have started a work initiative, or be on committees, or help arrange social functions. All of that shows community engagement. Its just that most schools ask for ECs in the application itself, and so they get a sense of how you interact with your wider community and then infer how you would interact with the school's community outside of the classroom.
Bear in mind that this is just a hypothesis, but its telling that Michigan Ross has such a light application and is one of the few schools to not ask about ECs explicitly. So how can they assess your wider community engagement? Especially for a school driven by its 'Go Blue' culture, community engagement, fit, and personality are so important. Every person you ask about Ross will tell you that there culture permeates many aspects of the experience.
To answer your question directly though, there isn't a guarantee of ECs being explicitly asked but I've seen that questions vary a lot between different interviewers. In my Ross interview, after walking the interviewer through my resume, he and I spent 5 minutes chatting about my interest in sports because I mentioned that its something I'm quite passionate about. And there is also some responsibility on the interviewee to manage the information they present to the interviewer as well. For example, in my Haas interview I was asked "is there anything else you would like me to tell the adcom about you" and I mentioned specifically how I would contribute to the Haas community given my previous community engagement experiences.