Rejected from Ross School of Business

I was rejected from the Ross School of Business today. I am going to major in economics now. I'm pretty crushed because I was told recruiting for LSA students at the University of Michigan is kind of bad. I also feel like all the top clubs won't be interested in me if they hear I'm not in Ross. Not sure what to do now. How can I give myself a competitive advantage? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

no matter how much UMich sucks, it is still better than many schools. calm your head down.

it comes down to try Ross again, finish a Econ degree, or transfer to Umich/Ross equivalent schools.

Just a friendly warning: Not that many schools are equivalent with UMich. There is about... 10-15 ivy leagues included?

 
Best Response

First thing I will say is that you need to look within and figure out why you didn't get into Ross - while the ~40% acceptance rate doesn't make it a literal cakewalk, there are plenty of non-geniuses who get in every year. Put simply, it would be some combination of your GPA, not being involved in extracurriculars, or completely tanking your essays. Whatever the reason, if you really weren't up to the task of getting in and that's your proverbial "ceiling", you're probably not cut out for this ultra-competitive industry and/or you'll have to really lower your expectations.

But anyways, as much as it may suck right now, as the above posters said it could be worse. In fact, one of the smartest guys I know who just graduated from Michigan is working at an EB after getting rejected from Ross as a freshman and majoring in econ.

What that said, he's the exception (which he became by being an absolutely insane networker who was very involved on campus) that proves the general rule that Ross is the place to be at Michigan if you're interested in the core finance fields (IB, S&T, ER, AM, etc.), which I assume you are since you're here at WSO. So you have two options:

  1. Stick with econ and and as mentioned network your ass off and do whatever you can to get in front of recruiters, who will be all over campus but obviously focused almost exclusively at Ross. Not everyone is capable of doing this, so...

  2. You could re-apply to Ross in a year and take the extra year to graduate. That comes with the big caveat that you'd have to pay the extra year of tuition, which if you're out of state is not cheap, and even in-state is a bit of an investment. You'd also need to look at what it was about your Ross application that got you rejected and rectifying that next year (you should do this regardless, but it's doubly important if you apply again).

If you can't do option 2 and aren't able to successfully execute on option 1, then you may be in some trouble, but still not the end of the world since we're still talking about one of the top public schools in the country. So whether that means doing something else after graduation and coming back for your MBA or whatever you can still make it work.

Hope this helps, feel free to PM me with any other questions.

 

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