Michigan Ross MBA Essays, Prompt by Prompt

Part 2: Impact and Growth

Michigan Ross is proud to support a community of leaders and impact makers who value growth. As a future member of this community, we want to know more about who you are and what drives you. Choose one of the following prompts to tell us more about what makes you stand out beyond your academic and work experience. List the prompt you are answering at the top of your essay. (200 words)

• Think of a time something important did not go as planned. What did you do next?
• What is something you worked on for an extended period of time (over six months) that ultimately resulted in a positive outcome? What kept you committed?
• Share an example of a specific situation when your actions created a positive impact on your community or an individual.

Let’s go through each one.

[1] Think of a time something important did not go as planned. What did you do next?

Great one to consider. Look at where the weight sits: “What did you do next?” The setback is the setup. The NEXT part is the story: how you regrouped, what you changed, who you pulled in, what you tried second (and maybe third). And “important” matters. A typo in a deck doesn’t count. Pick something with real stakes, where your response tells us what you’re like when the plan falls apart.

Let’s break this down:

• Bring us into a situation where something important was on the line. What needed doing, what were the stakes, and what was the plan? (25-50 words)
• And now, what went wrong? What happened that you didn’t plan for, and what did it threaten? (25-50 words)
• Explain what you did next, and how you decided what to do. This is the heart of the essay, so give it the most room. It couldn’t have been easy, otherwise it’s not much of a notable story here. (75-100 words)
• Now explain how the experience has made you better somehow. How has your world gotten bigger? How has your ability to lead improved? (25 words)

[2] What is something you worked on for an extended period of time (over six months) that ultimately resulted in a positive outcome? What kept you committed?

Two asks here, and the second one is the sleeper. The project and its positive outcome set the scene. “What kept you committed?” is where Ross learns what drives you, which is exactly what the intro says they want to know. Six-plus months is long enough for the shine to wear off, for the work to get boring, for setbacks to pile up. Something kept you going anyway. What was it?

Great option. And honestly? Figuring out what fuels you like that is kind of a great exercise to go through… as a useful tool for……. navigating life itself. If you can dig deep enough to understand what keeps you at something for months, you may hack your own mainframe and understand what truly makes you tick. Once you do that, everything can change. So, hard recommend on attempting this one, even if you don’t end up writing about it!

What do they mean by this question? What are they looking for? Think about what it means to ‘use the right tool for the job.’ The idea is: If you understand the design of an instrument, and apply it smartly to ‘the thing it was designed to do,’ your chances of success at that task are… much better than if you didn’t understand any of that, used all types of tools, including ones that weren’t meant for that job. When you understand ‘your design’ and then set out to achieve things ‘for which you were designed’ your chances of success are high. Now here’s the twist: 

[Stay with us, this is going to get dense and philosophical…]

Whatever kept you in it is something that satisfies something deep within you. ‘Kept you committed,’ of course, is another way of saying ‘propels you forward’ or ‘makes your passion center glow with anticipation.’ This can be elusive. We can have a sense of what this is, but oftentimes we’ll get stuck on superficial markers.

Example: I love doing home improvement projects! (superficial, surface)

Deeper Level Insight: I love solving problems using my own intuition and my own hands (i.e., faculties).

Whereas the first superficial example may be ‘true,’ it doesn’t capture the deeper layer of insight. If you can get to that deeper layer, that’s when the magic happens. If you understand that you’re attracted to solving problems, its applications become limitless.

So try this out: List the things that pulled you through that project, especially at the moments you could have quit and didn’t. Then try to dig as deep as you can to find the ‘root-level’ feature, to the point where you can’t go any deeper.

Once you find that root-level insight, now you can begin writing:

1. You can either start with (a) the project itself and the positive outcome it produced, or (b) the root-level version of what kept you committed, choice is yours.
2. Whichever you start with, then follow-up with the other one. For example:
   1. Option 1: Start with Root-Level description, follow up with Specific Example
   2. Option 2: Start with Specific Example, follow up with Root-Level restatement 
3. What does this realization mean for your future? How does it inform what ideas you’ll pursue? How does it inform the approach you’ll take? If you’ve really engaged with the ‘digging deep’ exercise, you should start to see the wild implications of developing clarity around this insight!

[3] Share an example of a specific situation when your actions created a positive impact on your community or an individual.

Tough one because the purest version of making a difference is when the other guy is aware of it and you aren’t. It often undermines the whole thing if you’re conscious of the impact you’re having… not loving this question. But let’s see what they’re going for and get around it.

Rather than throw the spotlight on how important you are on the ‘delivering impact’ side, one way to pull this off without seeming conceited or disingenuous is to focus on being attuned to the needs OF the community or individual. Your sensing an opportunity TO have an impact is the key here. When you find a potential story to draw from, take us through the manner in which you saw an opportunity. What was it that alerted you TO that opportunity? What did you notice? Why did you care? Why was intervening meaningful to you? What was it you were hoping to achieve? To what end?

That’ll get you out of trouble:

1. Take us into the ‘situation’ that (if unattended) would have ended up one way. But ‘that way’ was suboptimal to you, because you could imagine a better outcome. Walk us through these thoughts. Why weren’t others intervening? Did they not notice? Did they not care? Did they notice and care but not have the right tools to problem solve and execute?
2. What then did you do? How did you develop your plan? How did a careful understanding of the community or individual inform the specific way in which you developed your approach?
3. What was the result? Finish this with a word about that ‘detection’ instinct you have and why it’s an important part of who you are.

These walkthroughs for all three options should get you to decent first drafts! Which one to tackle? It’s case-dependent, as always: go where your best story lives.

Check out our analysis for Optional Essays for MBA applications here!