Admissions breaks down the incoming Class of 2009

Author: Soojin Kwon Koh, Director of Admissions

Last week, the Admissions Committee welcomed another round of top students to join the Ross MBA Class of 2009. With a 31% increase in applications and a four point increase in the average GMAT score of applicants and admits, gaining admission to Ross is perhaps the most competitive it has ever been.

We are particularly excited about the global diversity of the class. We have representation from 37 countries (up from 31 last year) and 38 states across the U.S. We have significant increases in students admitted from Latin America, Western Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

In addition, the admitted students bring a wide variety of professional experiences. Among the prospective students in the Class of 2009 we have:

• An assistant for Jerry Bruckheimer Films & Television (producer of hit television show CSI).
  
• A US Navy SEAL and Surface Warfare Officer.
  
• Let's Go Travel Guide writers for Mexico, Austria, Chile, and New Zealand.
  
• A marketing campaign manager for The New York Times Crossword Puzzle books.
  
• An advocate for children's healthcare in Haiti.
  
• A professional hockey player, an improv comedian, and a former TV weather anchor.


While it was challenging to get through the mountains of applications and hundreds of hours of interviews, the bigger challenge looms before us - getting this group of terrific admits to come to Ross. The large increase in applications to Ross can, in part, be attributed to an increase in the number of applications submitted by each prospective student. The upshot is that each of our admits is likely to have many options so we'll need to work hard to recruit them to Ross.

It Takes a Community

Recruiting is most effective when it's a community-wide effort - Admissions, current students, alumni, faculty, and staff. In fact, at this point in the cycle, the folks who are in the best position to influence admits are students, alumni, and faculty. Over the next couple of months, Admissions will be reaching out to connect admitted students with many of you. Our efforts will focus on making the best connections based on an admitted student's areas of interest or concern.

As admitted students weigh their options, they will want to know a few key things: How strong is the school in the field that they're interested in? How strong is the alumni network? Do alumni live and work in places that admits hope to get to? Does the place "feel right?"

While the Admissions team can help answer most of these questions, the answers are more credible and have more impact coming from current students, alumni and faculty - folks who have experienced it and live it.

How can you help? Be an ambassador for the school, whenever and wherever you can. The Admissions Office has a number of formal opportunities through which members of the Ross community can help bring the best students to Ann Arbor.

Students
• Welcome calls: Thanks to the 60+ students who volunteered (in the first few hours of sign-ups, no less) to be official Welcome Callers. The Admissions staff contacted each and every admitted student to share the good news. A follow-up call from a current student reinforces our interest in recruiting each admitted student.
  
• MAP teams on travel: With MAP teams scattered around the world for the next few weeks our potential reach is broad. Admissions has asked a number of MAP teams working in locations in which we have admitted students to welcome them to Ross and let the admits know that they're working on a project in their area. This outreach from MAP teams on location will highlight the truly global and action-based nature of our program. In addition to the outreach, a few MAP teams will be joining staff and alumni to welcome admitted student at receptions around the U.S.
  
• GBR: Thanks to the 250+ students who are working on Go Blue! Rendezvous. This is an incredible show of commitment among our students. GBR is a high yield event for us - 68% of last year's attendees ended up coming to Ross. Our goal this year is to increase the attendance rate. Last year, 42% of admits came to GBR. We'll need your help in convincing admits to come.
  
• Students on exchange programs: If you're on exchange in another country, we will be reaching out to ask you to connect with admitted students from that region. Again, this outreach from students beyond the borders of Ann Arbor will help showcase the global and flexible nature of our program.


Alumni
• Welcome calls/e-mails: Admissions is in the process of reaching out to individual alumni to welcome admits to Ross. We have tried to "match" alumni with admitted students based on geography and career interest wherever possible. We rely on the information in the alumni database, so keeping your profile up to date is extremely helpful. Alumni are asked to call or email admits and to consider meeting with them in person. Admits are extremely appreciative of alumni outreach, and it gives credence to the strength of our alumni network. We are always looking for more alumni volunteers, so please let us know if you are interested (rossintv@umich.edu).
  
• Alumni clubs: We will also be reaching out to alumni clubs to join us in the recruiting efforts. In the past, some alumni clubs have invited admitted students to attend local club events. Others have hosted informal get-togethers to welcome admitted students in their area.
  
• Admissions recruiting events on the road: Admitted and prospective students tell us that the participation and support of alumni at our events really differentiates Ross. Admissions maintains a list of alumni who have assisted us with recruiting in the past, so if you'd like to join us at one of our admitted student events in the spring or our prospective student events in the fall, please let us know (rossintv@umich.edu).


Faculty
• Classroom Visits: Thank you to the many faculty members who opened up your classrooms to prospective and admitted students throughout the school year. The classroom experience is a critical piece of a prospective student's due diligence. Because of classroom capacity constraints, allowing visitors in the classroom has been a bit more challenging this year. But the flexibility and openness of faculty have enabled over 440 prospective students to experience a Ross' class this year. We hope to provide that opportunity to even more prospective MBA students next year.
  
• Join us for recruiting events: Many prospective students place high value on the opportunity to meet our faculty and to learn about the courses you teach and the cutting edge research you are doing. As your schedules permit, we hope you'll consider joining us for various recruiting events on campus throughout the year. We would particularly appreciate your support at Go Blue! Rendezvous, which will take place on April 12-14. Specifically, we would love to have faculty join admitted and current students for dinners "on the town" on Thursday, April 12th.
  
• Meet with prospective students on the road: If you are planning to go on the road this spring, please consider reaching out to or meeting with admitted students who live in the area of your travels. The opportunity to meet a Ross faculty member in a foreign country, or even domestically outside of Ann Arbor, will speak volumes to the commitment of our faculty to our students and to the school.


Our goal is to recruit students who will contribute to our community on many levels - as students, teachers, and alumni. Our success, and the success of the Ross community as a whole, depends on the commitment of all of us. We welcome your ideas on recruiting and look forward to working together to firmly establish Ross as one of the top business schools in the world.

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A Little Education Goes A Long Way

Hong Kong -Michael Minhong Yu is more than a quarter of the way to joining the Forbe’s billionaires list.

The 44-year-old founder of New Oriental Education & Technology Group is worth at least $270 million, after his company’s successful initial public offering in New York last week. Offered at $15, shares in China’s leading provider of educational services are now worth $24.67, a 64% premium to the IPO price. That values the company at about $870 million, giving Yu’s 31% stake a price tag of more than a quarter of a billion dollars.

The elevated status of Yu, who started his career as an English teacher at Beijing University, attests to the growing importance Chinese parents place on higher education for their children. Chinese families typically have only one child due to the country’s long-standing policy of limiting the growth of its population, now 1.3 billion.

New Oriental makes money mostly from English language test preparation courses. It enjoys a near-monopoly in language and entrance examinations used in the United States, including the Test of English as a Foreign Language, the Scholastic Aptitude Test used to qualify for undergraduate programs and the Graduate Management Admission Test, required of business school applicants.

In the fiscal year ended in March, New Oriental had more than 375,000 students enrolled for test preparation courses, about a third of whom took courses for overseas examinations.

Given the consistently high interest of Chinese students in studying in the United States, New Oriental stands to benefit from a steady recovery in the number of students enrolled in America. The number dropped precipitously in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks due to tight visa screening. That process has resumed to normal. In 2005, there were 62,523 Chinese students enrolled in U.S. institutions, second only to the 80,466 hailing from India.

It also helps that China is pressing its citizens to speak better English in preparation of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and that growing international trade has increased the importance of fluency in English.

These factors supported New Oriental’s IPO, which was 35 times oversubscribed.

Investors have brushed aside a copyright infringement and testing fraud case that occurred early last year when New Oriental was fined $774,000 and required to make a public apology after the highest court in Beijing ruled in favor of two U.S. graduate study test administration agencies. The Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the GMAT, and Educational Testing Service, whose tests include the SAT, complained New Oriental illegally copied, published and sold test questions since 1997.

Yu attributed the company’s IPO success to investors’ confidence in China’s economic growth. He might as well thank the high thresholds for foreign students in attending U.S. universities. Yu’s difficulties in securing an enrollment motivated him to set up Oriental 13 years ago.

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Stanford University GSB

Rank in 2006
3
Rank in 2005
4
Rank in 2004
7
3 year average rank
5
School name
Stanford University GSB
Country
U.S.A.
Audit year
2005
Salary today
156126
Weighted salary (US$)
152442
Salary percentage increase
128
Value for money rank
94
Career progress rank
25
Aims achieved %
82
Placement success rank
20
Employed at three months (%)
95(99)
Alumni recommend rank
3
Women faculty (%)
17
Women students (%)
32
Women board (%)
16
Int'l faculty (%)
39
Int'l students (%)
39
Int'l board (%)
20
Int'l mobility
60
Int'l experience rank
40
Languages
0
Faculty with doctorates (%)
99
FT doctoral rank
6
FT research rank
3

Global MBA rankings 2006

Harvard Business School

Rank in 2006
2
Rank in 2005
1
Rank in 2004
2
3 year average rank
2
School name
Harvard Business School
Country
U.S.A.
Audit year
2003
Salary today
159937
Weighted salary (US$)
152733
Salary percentage increase
123
Value for money rank
72
Career progress rank
18
Aims achieved %
80
Placement success rank
36
Employed at three months (%)
94(100)
Alumni recommend rank
2
Women faculty (%)
22
Women students (%)
38
Women board (%)
49
International faculty (%)
35
International students (%)
37
International board (%)
15
International mobility
42
International experience rank
54
Languages
0
Faculty with doctorates (%)
96
FT doctoral rank
19
FT research rank
1

Global MBA rankings 2006

In the coming times, everyweek I will post detail of a university ranked under top 100 In Global MBA rankings 2006.

University of Pennsylvania: Wharton

Rank in 2006
1
Rank in 2005
1
Rank in 2004
1
3 year average rank
1
School name
University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
Country
U.S.A.
Audit year
2003
Salary today
153415
Weighted salary (US$)
148798
Salary percentage increase
139
Value for money rank
93
Career progress rank
29
Aims achieved %
84
Placement success rank
19
Employed at three months (%)
92(92)
Alumni recommend rank
1
Women faculty (%)
17
Women students (%)
32
Women board (%)
4
International faculty (%)
31
International students (%)
42
International board (%)
75
International mobility
46
International experience rank
36
Languages
0*
Faculty with doctorates (%)
97
FT doctoral rank
1
FT research rank
2

Next week look for details of Harvard Business School

Data source: Financial Times

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Indiatimes Mindscape Launches Online Prep Test

While preparing for competitive exams, it’s extremely crucial to get real time assessment on practice tests. Indiatimes.com, the country’s leading Internet portal, is now providing online testing services, under its knowledge brand - Indiatimes Mindscape Test Centre. This service allows students to take a number of practice tests for competitive exams like IIT JEE, CBSE PMT, BITSAT and AIEEE at a very nominal cost. On taking each test, a real time assessment and analysis is provided to the student. The service will very shortly be extended to various other competitive exams, including CAT, GMAT, GRE, TOEFL and also Xth & XIIth boards. “The education business is growing at a rapid pace and Indiatimes has decided to focus on this field. The launch of testing services is a unique service offered to students for online practice tests to increase their chances of success in the real exam. This is the first step towards eventually offering a full services education portal, with a whole range of content and service offerings, right from school to post graduation. Our next step will be to expand into e-learning and e-coaching,” Anurag Gupta, General Manager, Subscriptions, Indiatimes.com, said, at the launch. BITSAT is the only engineering examination in India that is conducted online and Indiatimes is providing 10 full length practice tests covering all parts of the actual tests like physics, logical reasoning, mathematics, English proficiency, and chemistry at a cost of just Rs 999. Indiatimes has strategically tied up with All India Education Testing Services (AIETS); the only organisation in India dedicated to testing, while its technology partners are Brick Red. For further information, please log on to: Click Here

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Students Can Beat Test-Taking Stress by Developing Better Time Management Skills with eXaminator®

The de Brito Corporation launches eXaminator. A tool with focus on:
1. Master test anxiety with a foolproof time management tool
2. Pacing is key to achieving higher test scores

Standardized multiple choice and essay exams have become the method of choice for determining student performance levels under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Colleges and universities evaluate applicants’ performance on entrance exams from the SAT, ACT and GRE, to the GMAT, MCAT and LSAT, in order to determine who is admitted into their programs. With so much riding on how well a student tests, it’s no wonder many fail to perform effectively, no matter how well they’ve prepared academically.

Test stress is indiscriminate, impacting students regardless of gender, ethnic background or grade level. Test taking anxiety can undermine confidence, impede cognitive ability and impair memory. The anxiety ridden test taker is less likely to perform up to his or her academic ability, which can limit future educational and vocational opportunities.

Learn more about eXaminator.

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