My son is a sophomore in the Stamps School. He did not want to go to a traditional art school such as SCAD or Pratt and was interested in having a more traditional college experience. Although it goes without saying that Michigan is such a large school, his experience with Stamps (and even before he started) was that it felt like a small college onto its own. We were able to visit Stamps before the world shut down (on February 29-leap day no less) and I was so impressed with their facilities. They had great spaces in a lot of different mediums and I thought the admissions person for Stamps (or maybe it was the dean) was very accessible. We were contemplating deferment and she had a one-hour zoom meeting with us which impressed me. At Stamps everyone starts off as a BFA candidate and there is a first year core of fundamental art classes which go into part of your second year as well. You do, however, have the freedom to create your focus within Stamps. The other thing that my son likes (and I do as well), is that he is taking classes in LSA (such as the first year writing course, psychology and a few others) and this allows him to mix in with the larger group of freshman (although he was that dreaded class of 2020 so his classes were a mix of in-person and remote and second semester started off fully remote). He has also made great connections with the Stamps teachers. One of them wrote a letter of recommendation for him when he was looking for an internship last summer. This year, his jewelry teached liked his work that one of the pieces he made is in a metals show that she curated at Wayne State. He has full access to the studios at any time and he has enjoyed the program. This year, he decided that he was going to go on the BA not BFA track which I think is a 60-40 split. I think this will make him more âmarketableâ when he starts to look for a real job. He is also taking a minor in creative writing and history. He looked at doing a double major with LSA and it is easier I think to do that when you are enrolled, but it required 2 or 4 semesters of a language and by the time he thought about it, he did not want to start over in taking a language for that period of time. The pros of Stamps is he is able to partake in a true college experience (football, tailgating, dorms with a mix of kids in other majors, parties, greek life (although that is not for him) and even live in a learning community if he wanted to) yet still retreat back to his school with about 150 freshman. Another plus is he has the cache and alumni network of the Michigan brand and that stands out. He did was not accepted to Northeastern (but we did visit the school) and he did not apply to Tufts. I visited Tufts this past summer with my high school senior and in comparison to the other schools I had visited (for my 2020 graduate and soon to be 2022 graduate), Tufts seemed a little stiffâkids were quite serious and it didnât seem like there was much to do except stay on campus. It is not that close to Boston and it canât compare to your traditional Ann Arbor college town. If you havenât visit the various schools she gets into, I would highly recommend that she does if you are able to do so. All three schools (Mich, Northeastern and Tufts) are very different in terms of campus feel, location, etc. If you have any specific questions, Iâm happy to help if I can.
I forgot to mention that he is also OOS-from California
Ross states itâs random and when you get accepted doesnât mean first or second rounds were stronger students. Thatâs on their website
I struggle to believe their statement. It would make zero sense. While I understand reviewing applications based on when they receive them, to randomly asses a pile of applications that were received at/around the same time would simply be incongruent with their desire to build the best possible class. A fair and âholisticâ way to analyze applications would be to compare them against each other in some way. They are competing for the same spots.
So I either donât believe Ross in stating the timing of review is purely random, or they are admitting that a lot of whether a student is accepted or not is based on blind luck. Because either a student is analyzed in an early round- where a certain number of spots are designated and that applicant is competing against the other randomly selected applications- or theyâre doing so in a later round.
This explains the process from 2019.
Also they claim once accepted to your home school review /acceptance is in no particular order. Just once accepted by your home school it gets sent to Ross for review.
Once accepted to Michigan I assume grades arenât a concern and maybe even Ecs. I assume the portfolio and essay might have more weight. Unfortunately, that takes time since several people do review these applications. Itâs a very top business school. Maybe their extra picky, have no clue⊠But you donât want them rushing through your application. They have great outcomes and companies know these students in general. They are doing something right. It sucks to wait. But everyone has a choice to do so or not. Many will bail soon and not see the worth. Good luck.
Oh, 100%. I was simply saying I donât believe they review as they claim, which is a somewhat random order that doesnât allow them a fuller view of the applicant pool. Ross is absolutely top notch in every respect, which leads me to believe that they way they review is a bit more targeted and specific than they lead on.
I agree with you that it does not seem random. Based on our small sample size of OOS Ross accepts, it skews female (for yield) and also the accepted students have strong business related ECs. And interestingly, these are very strong students (not knocking my kid) who have been accepted to peer schools for business - off the top of my head, the Ross accepts have also been admitted to McDonough, Flagler (?), Marshall. Maybe the Ross AOs do know where they are doing because it makes sense that they try to put out offers earlier to these strong students who (Ross suspects) have acceptances from similarly ranked schools.
Whereas DD22âs other acceptances are at Kelley/DâArdmore so no need for Ross to âwasteâ an acceptance on her at this point.
Maybe Iâm giving the Ross AO too much credit.
Agree with this line of thinking. I also wonder/suspect whether LSA has some small impact on EA decisions and eventual rounds with respect to Ross. They ask the applicant to tailor an essay to Ross if theyâre applying, which seems strange to do except for 1) making a determination on eventual yield if they feel the applicant is a good fit for LSA but unlikely to gain admittance to Ross 2) determining whether to push through a great Ross applicant in EA as opposed to postponing a high stat OOS kid.
UM knows what theyâre doing. It may not seem/be fair to the psyche of applicants (Iâd argue it is patently harmful), but Ross is a well-oiled machine. Timing ainât random.
What I find common and maybe too obvious (granted limited sample size/selection bias) is that good candidates for Ross are also good candidates for peer/higher ranked schools.
Iâve fallen down the Reddit/cc rabbit hole too many times and invariably there is a candidate debating between Wharton/Ross; dyson/Ross; Tepper/Ross, etc.
I wonder how many of the OOS Ross admits are more in my ddâs camp - Ross (if she gets in) would be the highest ranked BBA program.
Could these March 4th and 25th releases possibly include OOS Postponed applicants?
I really hope so!
Yes, they should.
RE: Deferred Ross Applicants. I know Ross will not review the Ross portfolio until they pass the first hurdle of acceptance to U-M, but does the Ross portfolio get looked at by the âregularâ AO team for deferred candidates to get additional information about the candidate and to help make the initial acceptance decision? Seems like it might be a helpful source if they are trying to decide between a group of candidates that are all well-qualified based on their regular application.
hoping so. if it follows the same schedule as last year it should
My D is the same. Itâs the only business program she applied into, even though sheâs likely to pursue a pre-professional path in college. Sheâs in UNC and believes there to be a decent chance she could end up in Keenan-Flagler, but a Ross admit would be something sheâd heavily consider. My brother-in-law is a Ross alum from when you applied from LSA after freshman year, and sheâs enjoyed all of the tales as to how it has really helped shape his career.
I suspect Ross likely has a lot more candidates like our daughters than the typical top 10 B-school. Maybe itâs UM, maybe itâs the process of gaining admission to a great school and then having something great to fall back on if Ross doesnât hitâŠI donât know. For example, my D would have loved Wharton but she applied RD to Penn regular instead because she just felt the bar was impossibly high for Wharton. Thereâs the advantage for her in Ross- itâs not âall or nothingâ.
Which leads me to wondering if, at some point, Ross becomes direct admit? If LSA cares about yield, would make their job a little easier with super high stat kids.
Before my time here on CC, Ross was once direct admit. I can only speculate why they changed, but maybe Michigan wanted the rejected Ross applicants to still have the opportunity to matriculate to their âhome school.â Overall yield would be less affected.
Or maybe because the Ross program begins in earnest Sophomore year (3-year program) and thereâs a weeding out process for whatever reason, which allows the student, who has been weeded out to âtransferâ back (yes, preferred admit) to their âhome schoolâ or another school. Thus by sophomore year, you have your âcoreâ or âdiehardâ business student.
Honestly, I prefer the direct admit process, seems easier for the universityâs admissions departments.
Thank you so much for your detailed response. I am hoping that she chooses Stamps for all the reasons you cited (opportunities to take courses at Stamps and LSA, campus life, networking, internship opportunities, etc). My daughter is interested in illustration, creative writing, and history, and I feel that an education at UMich would provide an unparalleled education as compared to a traditional art school. We are headed to Campus Day in a few weeks, so I hope that will convince her. It sounds like your son is really enjoying his time there! Best of luck to him!
same with my DD! wanted U Penn Wharton, but thought was impossible to even consider so took it all the way off of the list! Did not even apply!