Here at Menlo Coaching, we appreciate the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for its commitment to teamwork and real-world experience.
Menlo Coaching’s Founding Partner David White interviewed Soojin Kwon, the Managing Director of MBA Admissions and Student Experience at Ross, to get the inside scoop on what it’s like to be both an applicant and a student at this prestigious MBA program.
In this part of the interview, David and Soojin discuss
You can watch more from David and Soojin, with videos covering Admissions & School Research, The Ideal Ross MBA Candidate, and The Ross MBA Curriculum & Connection with University of Michigan.
Ready to start your application now? Apply to Ross.
| Salary Median | $170,000.00 |
| Signing Bonus | $30,000.00 |
| Offers Upon Graduation | 76% |
| Offers At 3 Mos. | 84% |
| Post-MBA Industries | Consulting: 33.5% Financial Services: 19.5% Technology: 13.1% Healthcare: 10.2% Consumer Packaged Goods: 8.9% Other: 6.4% Manufacturing: 3.8% Energy: 2.6% Retail: 2.1% |
| Post-MBA Locations | United States: 97% Mid-Atlantic: 5.1% Philadelphia Metro Area: 1.3% Washington DC Metro: 3.8% Midwest: 36.9% Chicago Metro: 19.5% Detroit Metro: 10.6% Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro: 2.1% Northeast: 22.0% Boston Metro: 5.1% Tri-State Area (NY, NJ & CT): 16.1% South: 6.8% Atlanta Metro: 1.7% Miami Metro: 1.3% Southwest: 5.9% Austin Metro : 1.3% Dallas Metro: 1.3% West: 20.3% Los Angeles Metro: 1.7% San Francisco Bay Area: 10.6% Seattle Metro: 5.5% International: 3.0% |
| Post-MBA Companies | Boston Consulting Group: 16 |
| Career Development Resources |
The data above is from 2025 and represents the career statistics for the Michigan Ross class of 2025.
See the full report: Michigan Ross MBA Employment Report.
Additionally, about two thirds of Ross’s graduates are located in places other than the Midwest, including international markets. For students who don’t like the idea of staying near Ann Arbor, it’s important to note that Ross’s biggest post-MBA markets are San Francisco, Seattle, New York, and Chicago. And while there are a lot of marketing jobs in Minneapolis and Chicago, Ann Arbor is less than half an hour from an international airport making it easy for recruiters to get to and for students to fly out of in order to visit different companies.
Apropos of this, Ross offers a number of recruitment treks so that students can meet recruiters on their home turf. Through partnerships with professional student clubs and the career development office, Ross offers a tech trek, real estate trek, marketing trek, emerging market trek, and healthcare trek. Most of these occur in late October, during the professional development week between Ross’s first two terms.
For those students interested in smaller companies or paths that don’t have the full support of on-campus recruiting, MBAs find themselves conducting what Ross refers to as self-directed or off-campus searches. These are facilitated by the alumni network and a professional student club that is focused on their particular area of interest. Even when the school is less able to help in a structured way, Ross’s excellent alumni and club networks share resources that help individual searches feel less arduous.
To propel these career outcomes, Ross’s career office has a number of great resources. Two stand out as more or less unique to the campus.
This is all in addition to student clubs, alumni visits, conferences, workshops, and speaker series.
The implicit bias against Ross is that, because of its location in Ann Arbor, and its focus on tech and consulting, applicants often think they won’t be able to get jobs in the industries or regions they want. Given Ross’s wide-ranging network, this particular critique is more of a myth. As they say on campus: “Go Blue, Go Anywhere.”
The Ross Business School, as a part of the University of Michigan, is part of a huge alumni network. If you’ve heard someone say “Go Blue” or seen the Michigan M, you’re probably aware of the far-reaching cultural footprint that the university has. Ross MBA students will be able to take advantage of that extensive network.
Ninety percent of Ross MBA students come from outside of Michigan and, because Ann Arbor is a smaller town than many of the bigger-city applicants might be used to, it forges a powerful, close-knit bond. Without expansive networks of friends and family that many MBAs find in larger cities, the relative isolation of Ann Arbor helps students become hyper-focused on their relationships with one another and cement the bonds that the alumni network provides.
There is a genuine willingness to support one another. Students leverage their alumni network to find internships and full-time jobs. All one has to do is say “Go Blue” at the bottom of an email and it opens up a deep well of passion and camaraderie that connects students and alumni.
Perhaps one of the reasons the companionship is so strong among the UMich community could be due to the shared-experience of calling Ann Arbor home for a time. With MBA students coming from New York, San Francisco, Boston, LA, Tokyo, and London, the vast majority all seem to have a deep passion for this small Michigan town. There are plenty of fun things to do in Ann Arbor.
In short, Ann Arbor has all the perks of a walkable, livable small town with friendly people, and the advantage of a nearby big city with all the amenities and events that implies.
Gain personalized guidance from our seasoned MBA consultant professionals to navigate the nuances of employment outcomes and the extensive University of Michigan alumni network at Ross.
Maya Parikh Gandhi
Sr. Admissions Consultant
Education: BA
With experience as a management consultant in big tech and manufacturing, plus time as a lobbyist in European Parliament, Maya takes a message-focused, pragmatic approach to the admissions process, looking at how each point on your resume advances your case and highlights the qualities AdComs want to see.