Calling all US Military Fall 2014 Applicants!

Anyone receive any good news this week? Anyone potentially going to Ross?

Hey everyone...I am in a serious debate right now and am hoping you all can help me decide and need some help!

So I am an enlisted sailor, E5 intelligence specialist and an coming up on my EAOS. I finish my bachelors degree in Intelligence Studies from the American Military University (regionally accredited) next month. I EAOS in June of 2015 and am debating if I should start an online MBA with an AACSB accredited institution or should I wait, prep for the GMAT, do well on it hopefully and apply to a top 30 school?

About me...

BA Intelligence Studies, American Military University 3.6GPA
6 Years intelligence analysis, supervisory roles, multiple extra specialties and classes taken
2 deployments totaling 18 months on Aircraft Carriers
Can easily provide great letters of recommendation
Can get the GI Bill to pay for a GMAT prep course here in DC so hope to score 650+

Target schools would be a top 30, but what are my realistic chances since I am coming from the enlisted side of the house with a bachelors from a for-profit online college, but it is RA.

I can apply for college like Ohio State, Texas a&m commerce and Northeastern university completely online, no GMAT and they are AACSB but i know the top 30 will be better for me in the long run? Thoughts? anything you guys can provide would be great! Thanks so much for reading this!

Gents,

I have a question about the GI Bill. I am currently in the process of determining my ETS date and pushing the date as far to the right as possible. I will have over 60 leave days, so my concern is not about work conflicting with the beginning of school. My concern is that I need to make sure that my ETS date is appropriate and does not negate any GI Bill or Yellow ribbon benefits. Does anyone have any guidance on this or recommended timeline for ETS leave to end and officially be out of the military? Thanks!

- NCK

Thanks for the post. I'm a USMA 2007 grad, maybe we'll get you in football this year...Anyway, I'm eyeing acceptance into one of the top tier business schools (HBS,Kellog, Booth, etc.) for the classes of 2017/2018. I have a couple questions:

If I gain acceptance for the fall of 2015 (class of 2017) can I defer a year and attend in 2016? In general, no. Some schools don't allow deferments at all, and those that do offer them only on a case by case basis for applicants who are impacted by something beyond their control....i.e. involuntary extension on active duty or changes in deployment dates. If you get admitted one year knowing that you wouldn't be able to attend you'd likely succeed in making the adcom mad with you. And you'd be depriving yourself of another year's worth of experiences you could use to make your application package stronger. So my recommendation is to apply for the class you'd actually be able to attend.

What do you suggest as a target GMAT score? I just started studying and I'm planning on taking the test in October. I usually tell people to shoot for 700+ if they hope to attend a top-tier program. Keep in mind that you're going to be competing for admission against a lot of other service academy grads (and ROTC/OCS types from highly-respected schools) who have GPAs in the 3.6 to 3.9 range. The higher you score on the GMAT, the more you can offset a GPA that isn't as high as someone else's. And you'll make yourself more competitive for scholarships, particularly from public schools.


Thanks for the help..

Hey EBM, thanks for starting this thread! Just wanted to give a shout out to the military applicants for this Fall's cycle and let them know that EssaySnark is doing pro-bono Comprehensive Profile Reviews and offering other discounted services for veterans. Check it out here:

Hey EBM, thanks for starting this thread! Just wanted to give a shout out to the military applicants for this Fall's cycle and let them know that EssaySnark is doing pro-bono Comprehensive Profile Reviews and offering other discounted services for veterans. Check it out here:

https://essaysnark.com/military-mba

Here's a link to an hour-long admissions Q&A webinar that a few HBS vets did in the spring: https://video.hbs.edu/videotools/play?cl ... ry_webinar

We received a handful of HBS-specific questions from viewers, but I'd say a majority of our discussion applies to any target schools.

Hi everyone!

Great thread. Thanks for posting all the tips!

I have a question for the general community. Right now I'm active duty - looking to separate Summer 2014. I exhausted most of my post-9/11 GI Bill between my undergrad and graduate degrees (my journey took me from enlisted -> Michigan State -> officer). I have a mere 4 months left. That said, I'll need funding. Are most B schools reluctant to give military personnel non-Yellow Ribbon funding opportunities? Or is it all based off competitiveness?

Thanks for the help!

Jeremy

Hi everyone!

Great thread. Thanks for posting all the tips!

I have a question for the general community. Right now I'm active duty - looking to separate Summer 2014. I exhausted most of my post-9/11 GI Bill between my undergrad and graduate degrees (my journey took me from enlisted -> Michigan State -> officer). I have a mere 4 months left. That said, I'll need funding. Are most B schools reluctant to give military personnel non-Yellow Ribbon funding opportunities? Or is it all based off competitiveness?

Thanks for the help!

Jeremy

I'm sure it is school dependent but they should base it off of merit and need. Columbia is notorious for being cheap when it comes to scholarships(the Dean even admitted it in an interview) however I received almost $20,000 in various scholarships and I know another officer who got over $30,000. Neither of us qualify for the Yellow-Ribbon Program these were just general scholarships all students compete for.

Also the GMAT seems to be a big factor in determining merit-based scholarships...not sure how the GRE is treated in this sense as I haven't seen many posters talk about fellowship $$ when getting admitted with the GRE.