@yikesyikesyikes
When I was a student (30 years ago) Ross did have a generous curve. My son is a student at Ross now and I wouldn’t call the curve generous.
Is it better than the freshmen weeder classes? Absolutely!
However as an upper division program, 1/3 of students in every single class will get Cs. My son’s frustration has been that so many of the Ross classes weigh group projects heavily. Many of the top internships and job prospects are looking for students with 3.5 and above. This means you have to consistently be in the top third of your Ross classmates. My son has a 3.4 due to his classes with group projects. I’m not complaining and he’ll tell you that the experience of Ross and the opportunities are unmatched. But he works his tail off every semester and sometimes that’s been for a B- that means a 2.7 GPA for that class.
LSA on the other hand tends to hand out a lot of As and Bs in their upper division classes.
Again, I think Ross is an incredible experience and opportunity, but the curve is tough in my opinion.
@jayrow - thanks for that feedback re Ross…extremely helpful. So is it fair to say you need to be in the top half of Ross students to get the best internship and job opportunities? Thanks again for your help!
@jayrow - if that’s indeed the case (which i guess is the case in most business schools) - does that lead to more challenging and competitive culture at Ross? Just curious if he finds collaborative or more cut throat culture there…
This would probably depend heavily on major. DC22 is a STEM major and minor and gradeguide will tell you that the upper division STEM courses aren’t handing out A’s so easily. And that’s once you get through the gaunlet of the lower division “weeder” courses, say like a Biology, Math (1, 2, 3, Diff Eq, Linear Algebra, etc.) and the various Chem’s (Organic, Biochem, etc.).
FYI for postponed/deferred applicants to LSA and CoE, these dates also correlated to LSA/CoE decisions too. Nursing, SMTD, Kinesiology, etc. tend to do their own thing in terms of release dates, at least in the past.
From memory, in the past, there were near zero or even zero decisions posted here, for any school, on or about the last date of mid-April. It’s really all about those the 1st three (3) release dates. And as I previously noted here, the acceptance % decreases the later the release.
For Ross there is a theory of competitiveness. But so in engineering etc. Michigan in general is not an easy school. As the above poster said you have to work your tail off for a B. I wouldn’t worry as long as your GPA is above a 3.0 or so. Remember… Not everyone is getting Amazon, Google, Wall Street regardless of GPA.
I would think it’s more important to be involved in school clubs and organizations. Opportunities at Michigan are endless if you get off the game computer and do something. Alumni are real and mostly want to help.
BTW - Ross is awesome. But you don’t need Ross to make it in business at Michigan. It’s an advantage but not the end of the world if you don’t get accepted.
Ross is awesome. Given the strong Type A student mix, I feel UG is more competitive (would not call it cutthroat like UCB) and Grad school is uber collaborative given the difference in maturity levels.
You will have to work your tail off at Michigan regardless of major.
anyone else receive their packet in mail with Certificate of Admission printed upside down? OOOPS… Name, everything, upside down - so I guess the certificate was put in printer tray incorrectly? Anyhow - kinda funny… For those people freaking out that they may have had a typo in an essay or some sort of small mistake on their application - it happens with the schools too! We are Northern California - received it today.
You are right about Ross. My D graduated from LSA with a communication degree, interned and then employed by a top consulting firm. She was able to take marketing classes in Ross along with python programming in SDI. She focused on digital media. Oddly, she thought her communications classes were the hardest as only 10 percent gets an A. If you don’t get into Ross - you will be just fine.
@DG
It’s hard to compare to other schools/programs since we don’t have another experience. I can say that his friends at Michigan State (who didn’t get into Ross) have very high GPAs if they study, and seem to be able to pull off Bs without studying.
My son likes the culture at Ross (on the whole.) He has a friend group of about 12 kids and they work together, help each other, and even share homework answers when they are having trouble with assignments. But he also says that if he asked a random classmate for help, they probably wouldn’t help him because the students are very conscious of the curve.
He has one friend who wishes she had never done Ross and had stayed in LSA because it’s too competitive. (The seniors this year are the last class where most of the students entered as sophomores.) But everyone else he’s good friends with loves being in Ross.
As for my son, he absolutely loves Ross and it was the right fit for him. He loves business classes and does not enjoy the liberal arts classes he has had to take. He only applied to schools where he could study business as he knew he wouldn’t enjoy anthropology, psychology, history, etc. classes. (The opposite of me- I loved my LSA education.) So I think that’s an important consideration as well.
I’m hesitant to post this, because it’s a stereotype. But just for full disclosure, there’s a word in the urban dictionary for a certain type of Ross student. No, certainly not all or even a majority of Ross students. Personally, I find it humorous.
I just started a new community for accepted students and parents. You can find it at Accepted University of Michigan Class of 2024. This way we can discuss questions related to choosing UMich, campus days, orientation, dorms, learning communities, etc without clogging up this forum for admissions decisions as they continue to come out through April. Anyone is welcome to join. (Accepted, deferred, RD, parents, alumni, etc.)
How is the curve not generous? This is what the Ross website says the curve is:
All BBA core classes grades are to be distributed as: ≤40% A- or above; ≤90% B or above; ≥10% B-or below.
In BBA elective classes grades are to be distributed as: ≤60% A- or above; ≤90% B or above; ≥10% B- or below
I just graduated in 2019, and can verify the Ross curve is really generous (matches what the Ross website says). I took both core and elective classes.
Compare that to many math/engineering large class grade distributions where the course median is around a B/B-, sometimes C+. So the course median for these classes, is approaching the bottom decile of Ross classes!
You can also verify this with the Michigan Daily grade guide ( https://gradeguide.com/ ), which has stats on grade distributions for most classes. People in undergrad Ross courses have an objectively higher chance of getting As or A-s than engineering students and science-based LSA students. They seem to have parity with classes such as political science.
The Ross curves and grade distributions are generous - there is no way that is up for much reasonable debate based on these statistics. This is particularly painful for an Econ major who wants to do something like management consulting or investment banking, where high GPAs are very much needed.
Their grade distributions are much more brutal AND they have to deal with the fact that Ross is seen as more elite by many/most companies recruiting for those positions. I saw this firsthand with my friends (had several in Ross and in Econ).
The curve does seem less brutal than some. But what about competitive? Did you find students did not want to help each other to protect grades? What was the vibe overall?