After working for a tech startup for five years, Claire Yee (Ross, ‘21) decided to get her MBA to build a career at the intersection of business, technology and social impact, and enrolled at the University of Michigan Ross MBA Program. In this interview, Yee shared some of the criteria she used to select Ross, what makes the Ross people and culture unique, and the various experiences such as Action Based Learning that have enriched her MBA experience.
MBASchooled: What did you do prior to business school, and why did you choose to apply to business school?
Prior to Ross, I worked at a tech startup in San Francisco that created the nation’s first pay-per-mile auto insurance product for five years. I started in customer service and eventually transitioned to project and product management. As my responsibilities and our company grew, I found myself wanting to better understand the business decisions that drove our evolution. In addition, I wanted to return to the social impact work I had done in undergrad and find a way to apply the power of technology to addressing the issues I’d seen, whether that meant starting my own venture or exploring different ways at other companies.
MBASchooled: What were your big questions coming into making your decision on which school to attend?
I’d be a huge liar if I said that return on investment wasn’t a big question. I really did have to think long and hard about what I thought I might be missing that business school could help me find and if what I wanted to achieve could be done without an MBA or not (in retrospect, I would make the distinction that the MBA degree is one thing, the MBA experience is another). Big questions for me, then, included whether I should choose a school based on its ranking and prestige, how important geography might be, and what roles and companies each school had a history of sending students into.
MBASchooled: What characteristics were important to you in selecting the right MBA school?
Whatever school I went to had to have a focus on entrepreneurship and have demonstrated that social impact was a key value in its programs. Given that I wanted to stay in touch with the technology sector, it also would have to have a strong alumni network within tech and the West Coast (because you can take the woman out of California, but you can’t take the California out of her). I also wanted classmates who had a diverse spread of interests, as opposed to a program that tended to cater to a specific geography or industry. Lastly, but equally importantly, I needed to feel like the school I picked was home, and finding a collaborative, supportive community was essential in that aspect.
MBASchooled: Why did you choose to attend Ross?
Ross fulfilled all the criteria I listed in my previous answer. I was particularly attracted to the amount of programs and resources it has for both entrepreneurship and social impact–some examples of which were MAP (Multidisciplinary Action Projects, the quarter-long consulting project every first year MBA does in the spring), the Social Venture Fund, Open Road at Ross, and the Detroit Revitalization in Business Club. I looked for analogues of these experiences at the other schools I was deciding between and couldn’t find them. I really wanted to actually DO things in addition to learning about them (buzzword here: “Action-based learning”), and Ross had so many offerings to help me achieve that goal. And then, of course…
MBASchooled: What about the culture and classmates stood out to you about Ross?
The people I met at Ross were a huge part of my decision. The authenticity of Rossers stood out to me. Everyone, from the admissions office to my fellow admitted students, had this quality of openness that I loved. There is also a fierce loyalty to Ross and the University of Michigan that characterized several of the informational interviews I had–people wanted me to go to Ross so badly, and it showed. An alumnus who I met in San Francisco took me out for an hour long breakfast when I said I was having a hard time making a decision and talked about how much Ross–faculty and students–took care of him when he was struggling. During Go Blue Rendezvous, Ross’s admitted students weekend, I felt this powerful sense of belonging and acceptance that honestly blew me away. It felt like I was home!
MBASchooled: What resources, programs or information were helpful to you in making your decision?
Talking to current students and alumni was critical in helping me make my decision, not only between schools, but also between going to business school or not. They gave me a lot to think about beyond what I had already considered and pointed me in directions that would help me research some of the question marks I had. I also attended as many school-hosted events as I could to meet other admitted students, since they would be my potential classmates.
Many schools also have sections on their websites that highlight common career paths and demonstrate what classes, clubs, and resources students interested in those paths have utilized. That was a great starting point for researching the offerings each school had.
MBASchooled: How has Ross helped you work toward your own career goals and aspirations?
There have been an abundance of opportunities for me to use what I’ve learned in class and also try out new skills. I’ve focused a lot of my time on exploring social entrepreneurship and have been able to find so many resources to do so. To name a few: I’ve attended several workshops hosted by the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, competed in the Michigan Business Challenge with a product that I designed from scratch with a team, gone on a professional “trek” to San Francisco to have intimate discussion panels with women at VC firms and tech companies, and consulted for a public school foundation in Detroit. I’m currently in the middle of my MAP project, the goal of which is to formulate a market assessment and entry strategy for a tool designed to promote worker engagement in low income garment factories in India.
MBASchooled: What parts or aspects of the academic experience attracted you to Ross?
I’ll be completely frank about academics–in terms of class content and teaching, I don’t think there is a ton of variation among business schools. Personally, the opportunities to apply what I’ve learned and to build out skills that I might not have had before are more important to me than sitting in a lecture. As such, action-based learning is and was the Ross difference for me.
My MAP project is actually drawing upon several concepts and frameworks that we learned during our core classes (classes like economics, accounting, strategy, operations, etc that you are required to take in order to graduate). The fact that we get to use these learnings in a real life situation and to help a company achieve some of its goals is pretty rad. And as I alluded to before, MAP is definitely not the only area where this happens. There are so many programs and clubs in which you can exercise what you’ve learned and at the same time have impact on a real organization.
MBASchooled: What has been your favorite moment or experience during your first year of business school?
Ross has a very strong culture of storytelling, and one of the programs it hosts through the Sanger Leadership Center is Story Lab, in which students tell short stories about their lives to an audience. I tore my ACL one week into the start of the school year and subsequently went through one of the most challenging periods of my life as I struggled to balance all the newness and demands of school, socializing, recruiting, and my personal health. I was selected as a storyteller and decided to open up about how hard it had been for me.
The process of reflecting on everything I’d gone through and finding what I wanted to say was truly a transformational experience. I have a new level of self-awareness and faith, as well as an increased appreciation and love for the family at Ross that supports me.
MBASchooled: What advice do you have for those who are evaluating where they want to attend business school?
Think really, REALLY hard about what you want to get out of your MBA. It’s not just a degree, it’s an experience. What do you lack now that you want to improve? What will make you more well-rounded? How important are things like geography, size of your class, extracurricular opportunities, socialization, etc to you? Once you have those answers, it might be easier to identify the aspects of each school that will best suit your personal needs.
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For more interviews with Ross MBA Students, check out the links below