Lysa Wang and others at Michigan Ross explain what collaboration actually means in their MBA program. It's not just agreement, but healthy debate and genuine support. Students share recruiting information and help each other succeed.
And I think one other thing that Ross stands out for is being really collaborative. Can you share an example of how that culture has shown up in a way that maybe is more spontaneous or behind the scenes?
To be honest, I do want to clarify this whole understanding of like Ross is a collaborative community. Yes, we are very, very collaborative. But I think one of the misconceptions that a lot of prospective students have, and we've been asked this, and I've personally been asked this quite a bit, is to do Ross look for like the nice guys to admit, like, is it just that? And that is not what we mean when we say that we are known for being a collaborative community.
Right.
You can have healthy arguments, disagreements, right? That is not. We're not looking for people who are agreeable to come and join the community. That is absolutely not the case. I think collaboration more so stems from having that self awareness and ability to self reflect on yourself.
Right?
To be able to, you know, know that, hey, the world doesn't revolve around me, right? To be able to step aside and allow others to shine that are on your team. And so I think I want to first clarify that, you know, yes, we do have a reputation for being collaborative, but it does not mean we only admit people who are agreeable and kind, like, nice. You know, it's more so about your ability to be collaborative. And so that really comes up, you know, throughout just even the recruiting phase as Ross. To be honest, I was really surprised because I've also worked for other business schools. I was once an MBA student myself. And so when I actually first heard that our MBA students share information about interview tips. For example, if two people are interviewing for Nike and one person has an interview before the other person a couple days, they will actually come out and share tips and information about how their interview went so that their classmates can have a better interview.
Right.
And do better. And so it's not competitive in the way that you would think of an MBA where students are like, you know, all like, you know, at each other's throats trying to get that one job or one position at Amazon or wherever it is they're trying to go. They are truly, truly supporting each other throughout this entire recruiting process. And that's one thing that I think one shocked me a little bit when I first started working for the full time MBA program where I was like, oh wow. Like I didn't realize that the students were sharing this type of information too and setting each other up for success, you know, in this type of manner. And so that's something that has been pretty impressive for me. And then again, just overall, I think it's just pretty much embedded into who we are at Ross is that they want to give back. They want to give back. And I think it kind of. I don't want to repeat myself, but going back again to our alums that, you know, offered their time to host our admits, you know, even though they. They're so busy themselves.
Right.
And so, again, I think that's really what shows up when you come to Ross. You really do feel the true, genuine, collaborative nature of the students and alums in our community.
I love that. Yeah. You don't have to kind of be a doormat to be collaborative, because I.
Was like, what do you. No, we're not just. And how do you even assess who is a nice guy?
Right.
But, yeah, I think that it's. It's so good to see because I think a lot of people think, oh, to be collaborative, you just have to agree with everybody else. And that's not really collaboration, is it? No, it's not going to get your team very far either. The real world.
