I hear it’s pretty cuthroat. Everything is graded on a curve, a lot of people have “snobby”, entitled attitudes, and people are generally in it just for themselves. I was wondering if someone who actually experienced the Ross undergrad program can describe honestly what the experience was like. whether it was collaborative or generally cutthroat, and perhaps the process by which recruiters come in, (do they only look at top GPA’ers or is it pretty lax)
P.S - Also if possible, how hard is it really to get into ross, applying regular
We just took a tour, met a few students (in the program now), spoke to staff and came away so impressed. Many of the labs and challenges students do (we saw one in action) require collaboration. The director of the program made a point of speaking about students work together in courses etc. There seemed to be tons of camaraderie amongst Ross students. My son is thrilled to be going in as a pre-admit! Obviously I’m not a Ross student, but I thought I’d reply. Hopefully others will have first hand experience.
It’s not as crazy as it seems. Not everyone in Ross (or for the most part, anywhere) is super smart. It’s only cut throat because of the way that core classes are graded. For team projects, its pretty collaborative. There isn’t anyone trying to sabotage your grade for the most part, but people do wish that you fail the next exam lol. There are a fair share of “snobby” people, but it’s nothing overwhelming.
@jazzshreddermom The PA program is a good program, but don’t believe all the hype the director says. I’m not sure about the camaraderie, as I have not experienced that in Ross, but I could be wrong.
I guess people have different experiences. We spent over an hour with a current student who is the son of a friend of a friend. He has an amazing internship lined up. There were actually some recruiters there while we were there, and there was a bit of discussion about by current students presentation, but I can’t report anything specific (mostly just about how great the alumni network is and how Ross is very well thought of by recruiters). I’m sure current seniors would know far more. Maybe some will chime in?
@RealTalkdoe yea, positive experience so far. But the thing with Ross is, you don’t go into Ross BC you like academics. Ross is focused on your career, perhaps overly so. If you’re going into college, and you want a pure academic experience, Ross is a pretty stupid experience imo. They want to get you a career more than they want to help you learn
@RealTalkdoe with regards to the intelligence and competitiveness, I feel that the top 30% of the preadmit class will blow your socks off relatively speaking. The middle 40% is pretty standard (your average, hardworking umich student). Then, the bottom 30% will make you question how they got into umich in the first place (usually those that can’t keep a 3.3, even with going out of their way to take the easiest classes).
However, it is hard to do extremely well (A range) in ross classes bc only 40% of the class get A- or above
OP - My son is a sophomore in Ross so this is his first year in core class. He was not a pre-admit. He had a 3.7 GPA freshman year and had some leadership roles in a couple of clubs he joined. His application essays were very good. Is he super smart? No, but he’s a very hard worker and was thrilled to be admitted. This year has been an eye opening experience for him. YellowWolverine is right on. The school is unabashedly career focused. Yes, the grading curve is weird and he has expressed a lot of concern that he doesn’t know what his grades are until the end of the semester. His fellow students have a range of abilities (just like anywhere else), and he has participated in many group projects and he said most of them were very collaborative. He was throughly prepared for internship interviews this spring and has landed a summer internship with a national company. As far as an elitist attitude at Ross, that has not been his experience. Maybe the drive and determination of these kids is taken as a superior attitude, but most of the kids are just incredible focused on the end game. I can’t talk about the recruiting practices, he’s not there yet.