Ross Acceptance Rate Analysis

I plan to post the Ross admission calculator online as soon as I have time to build that portion of the website, probably over Christmas break. In the mean time I will share some of the insights I got from building the predictive model.

Ross Acceptance Rate by GMAT

Obviously your chance of admission to Ross School of Business increases if you score higher on the GMAT. The good news is that Ross’s acceptance rate of 34% is significantly higher than almost all other business schools in the top 20. The Ross class of 2016 profile shows that the average GMAT and GPA are 702 and 3.4 respectively. The data used to create this analysis comes from GMAT Club. Of the applicants in my data set, 84% had GMAT of 700 or higher, which means that I am fairly confident about the relationship between GMAT and admissions in the 700’s but not as confident in the 600’s.

Ross Acceptance Rate by GMAT MBA Admissions Michigan School of Business To create the graph above, I used the average GPA from my data set which is 3.42 and then shifted the GMAT score in my model. The model takes into account the interaction of GMAT, GPA, years of work experience, undergraduate major and the industry you worked in.

Ross Acceptance Rate by GPA

Next I looked at how GPA affects Ross acceptance rate. I’m sure it is not a surprised to hear that a higher GPA increases your chance of admissions at Michigan school of business. Ross Acceptance Rate by GPA MBA Admissions Michigan School of Business

Ross Acceptance Rate: GMAT vs. GPA

The real question is which is more important for raising your Ross acceptance rate, GPA or GMAT? In the graph below I compare how much the admissions rate changes if I alter the GMAT or GPA by a standard deviation. A standard deviation is a measure of variance in a population or sample. Since I can’t compare the absolute variance because GMAT and GPA are on different scales, I compare how the shift of one standard deviation impacts the Ross MBA acceptance rate.

Ross Acceptance Rate GMAT vs. GPA Admision Michigan School of BusinessAs you can see the slope is steeper for the GMAT line. This means that Ross prefers applicants with a high GMAT over applicants with a high GPA. One standard deviation higher in GMAT increases acceptance rate by 22% while a standard deviation in GPA only increases chances of admission by 14%.

Other Ross Acceptance Rate Insights

similar to Harvard and Wharton, at Michigan the acceptance rate is noticeably lower for Indian applicants vs. non-Indian applicants, 17% vs. 41% respectively. Engineering majors have a lower chance of admission while liberal arts majors have a higher chance. Many schools are trying to increase the number of women in their program. The higher acceptance rate for liberal arts majors may reflect Ross trying to attract more women, however my data set is missing gender information. More years of work experience increases the chance of admission by around 2.5% per year. Also military applicants have a higher chance of admissions.

For those of you who have already been invited to interview at Ross, your acceptance rate is higher at around 62%. Check out my Ross Interview Acceptance Rate Analysis to see what your chance of getting admitted is.

Good luck with your applications!

9 thoughts on “Ross Acceptance Rate Analysis

  1. KINJAL

    More years of work experience increases the chance of admission by around 2.5% per year. Does it taper with more experience. I have around 8.5 years of experience.

    Reply
    1. Data Guru Post author

      The data gets thin as work experience increases, so it is tough to be sure how how WE impacts your odds after 8 years. The problem with people who have worked too long is they start getting to the place where they are too senior to be placed with companies recruiting on campus. If you have 8.5 years that is plenty of experience, so you should be applying now. If you wait too long it will hurt your chance because you will be outside the standard age range. I know a few people at school who are 30 and 31 but above that is pretty rare.

      Reply
  2. Engr2012

    Hey, interesting analysis. Do you mind presenting my chances:

    750 GMAT, 74.6% Mech engineering UG (school: Delhi college of engineering, India), Masters 3.53 (Mech Engg., McGill University, Canada), 3.5 years WE, Indian but working in Canada for 3.5 years (team lead currently).

    Thanks

    Reply
      1. Engr2012

        Thanks for the reply. Do you mind telling me what factor(s) decreased the acceptance rate from 33-35 (average acceptance of Ross for the past 2-3 years) to 20 for my profile?

        Reply
        1. Data Guru Post author

          Applicants who have Indian citizenship have a much lower acceptance rates than applicants from other countries. If you were applying as a US citizen then your acceptance rate would be 46%. With a great resume and essays, you can absolutely get into Ross.

  3. Roma

    Hi, can you analyze my chance of gaining acceptance?

    750 GMAT, 3.7 GPA Economics Major(The University of Michigan), 2 years of WE, caucasian and I am a Michigan native.

    Reply

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