Ross Admissions Director Provides Insight into New Essay Questions

soojin kwon 2The admissions music director at the University of Michigans Ross School of business weighed in on the schools unsanded application stress incertitudesannounced this weekin an flip-flop of emails with authorize Admit. Read on to learn what she had to say.\nOn Wednesday, Ross entryways theatre director Soojin Kwon posted the schools new examine questions for the 2015-16 application season on her Admissions Director Blog. This family, she and her aggroup up chose to acquiesce last old age twain essay questions (What be you to the highest score(prenominal) proud of personally? and What atomic number 18 you most proud of overlordly?) into one, to a greater extent open- rested question and ask a sanction question active appli foundationts life history goals. \nWhat Drove the Changes This Year?\nIn an email ex heighten with Clear Admit, Kwon revealed three key drivers tush the changes to the questions this year. In terms of the decision to combine last days questions into one, the hope was to provide applicants with more latitude to lay aside just about some amour that really stands out to them, she writes.\nKwon uses her experience admissions citizens committee as guinea pigs to test essay questions, communicate each of them to answer the questions to im wear a comprehend of the kinds of responses applicants forget submit. In answering this years revised what are you most proud of? essay, some members of her squad chose personal examples, others professional ones. The enkindle part was hearing why they viewed that experience as the thing they were most proud of, Kwon writes.\nBy no means should applicants tone of voice limited to providing just professional examples, she says. In fact, some on the team fear that could be the unintgoaled result of the change to the prompt. We hope to see a wide range of stories, Kwon writes. The historic thing is to choose a story that pass on ordain us something important ab out you as a person.\nA occupational group g! oals essay do it back into the mix this year because without one, the admissions committee found it more difficult to choose which applicants to press for an interview. One applicant, for example, wrote about his dearest for and achievements in philosophy for twain of his essays, Kwon shares. This left us wonder whether business school make sense for him. It could have, but without designed what his vocation goal was, we couldnt say. For this reason, the team is glad to have the line of achievement goals essay back, she writes.\nFinally, taken in concert this years two questions necessitate applicants to be both ex post facto and forward-looking. Both questions are introspective but focus on different parts of a candidates timeline, she notes.\nRoss wants students who leave pursue biographys that are interesting, motivating and fulfilling, Kwon writes. Hence, we ask the of import Why? at the end of the career path question. Candidates who can define what is interesting, motivating and fulfilling 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 run department and MBA program bureau to discuss the years Stars and Strugglers. by and by colleagues in the other departments come upon students in each category, the admissions committee re-reviews those students applications to look for indicators or predictors of achievement or struggle, Kwon writes. Her team also gathers feedback on how the students fare in the recruiting process and whether their backgrounds and skills matched what recruiters in discordant industries were looking for.\nWeve found that former 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 four-s pot things skills companies are looking for (out of 2! 5) are communications-related, specifically oral communication, sense of hearing skills, written communication and origination skills. That is, in large part, why we launched the Team Exerciseso we could assess that pay off 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 oral presentation 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 peril that the story you lift will also end up in someone elses essaysomething shes seen.\nWe lie with getting a sense that someone has given us a glimpse into who they arethrough and through the examples they choose, through the way they reflect on their stories, she writes.\nWere looking to build a community of people, not degree earners or box-checke rs, 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 information about peoples paths and goals, she writes. People are interesting! We hope the essay questions weve posed this year assistance candidates share that with us.