Calling all US Military Fall 2011 Applicants!

Gentlemen, good to see so many successful former military transistion to so many prestigious MBA programs...gives me a lot of hope. I'm currently an AD Marine Officer planning on EAS'ing later this year. I'm taking the GMAT in about 6 weeks and will be applying for fall 2012 (my EAS date doesn't support getting out for 2011)...made the great decision to extend for a deployment... Anyway, I was just curious are any of you, or do you plan to, continue to serve in a reserve status while in a Full Time MBA program? Just curious if anyone has any experience doing Reserves while studying full time. Also, has anyone ever used any of the military placement firms that alway send mail, email etc like Orion, Lucas group, Cameron Brooks etc. Just wondering if anyone has any experience working with them and if they yielded any decent results.... Anyway, thanks for all the great info!

Gents,

Glad to see a lot of updates about interview invites / acceptances. I think the application year is drawing to a close for me. Applied to a total of 4 schools (all round 1):

UW Foster - Accepted
MIT Sloan - Waitlisted w/ interview
UCLA Anderson - Dinged w/o interview
Northwestern Kellogg - Dinged w/ interview (self-initiated)

Unless I'm miraculously admitted off the Sloan WL, it looks like I'll be heading back to UW (my alma mater) for an MBA. I live (and own a home) here in the Seattle area so I'm stoked about not having to deal with a cross-country move.

I'll probably be visiting this forum less frequently going forward, but I'm committed to helping out other vets any way I can. If you're applying to any of the schools listed above, I can share some of my strategies (in the case of the latter 2, perhaps what 'not' to do). Just shoot me a PM.

Best of luck to all of you at school next fall and in your future careers.

Reserves and education are doable, but don't mix well. This was my experience during undergrad (served Enlisted Marine while getting my bachelor's degree). Many a drill nights studying for Monday morning midterms or finals in a cold 2-man hooch with headlamps/flashlights (not to mention humping out 15 miles with 2 or 3 add'l textbooks... hey, those things aren't light!). Maybe you can pull some officer strings and avoid s**t like that.

I also got deployed during my junior year of college -- something you have to consider. Less of an issue during undergrad, but I imagine it breaks up the rhythm/pace of an intense 2yr MBA program. If you can drop to the reserves and somehow remain non-deployable status, it probably won't be a big deal. Just a pain. Also, drill obligations can/will interfere with internship opportunities as well as trips/treks various groups within the program might sponsor.

Just my $.02 - good luck and Semper Fi.

Obviously I haven't enrolled in an MBA program yet, but the feeling I get is that staying in the reserves while in a rigorous MBA program just isn't doable. Drill weekends won't be very compatible with school, and summer drill periods would make it next to impossible to get a good internship. Laws prevent companies from discriminating against reservists or National Guard, but I can't imagine that the possibility of being mobilized and deployed would be too enticing to potential employers when it's time for the job search.

Any ideas as to where you plan to apply? Now would be the time to start contacting vets clubs at any schools you might be interested in attending--I've gotten good responses from former military guys at every school I've reached out to. Fitting in some school visits and info sessions will be a big help in terms of narrowing down potential schools and for when it comes time to write the "why school XYZ" essays...of course, that'll be partially dependent on where you live and how much leave time you've got on your hands.

I met a couple of guys at Notre Dame who are doing the reserve thing, so it is doable, but I'm with everyone else in saying it is probably too much to handle. Additionally, think about what would happen after you get your MBA. Assuming you want to move into a high-paying/high-responsibility type job, you may struggle finding employers reluctant to support the commitment required by the reserves. Just a thought.

I've heard mixed results with the military placement firms. Apparently there are a lot of sales jobs, which may be good and may be bad depending on your interests.

Does anyone have experience with using the yellow ribbon program to cover tuition gaps at a private school?

Okay -- just found this blog. Here's my stats --
All R2 --
Tuck (interviewed)
UPenn/HBS (Ding no interview)
MIT (no word)
NYU (no word)
8 years MI experience -- PL/XO (Korea); BCT S2X (Germany/Iraq); DS MICO CDR (Iraq/Germany); currently at MICCC
3.34 GPA from GWU (IBUS)
GRE (because I am also applying to I-O Psych/MPP programs) 490v; 570q (which I was just told converted to a 500 GMAT WTF).

So basically, I'm freaking out. I have a strong military and undergraduate record; **** GRE scores, I know this and have no idea what to do to fix it because I'm way out of time and now I'm starting to think that my essays or resume sucked or something. I have no idea -- I didn't go to any consultants, I contacted vet programs and they were cool with reviewing my resume but I found them too late to really assist with the essay.

Anyway, have enjoyed all your posts and appreciate any insights --

The Yellow Ribbon Program is actually going to end up covering tuition gaps at public schools too. The post-9/11 GI Bill now covers the full cost of undergrad tuition at the state's most expensive public school (I asked the VA, and the email is a couple pages back on this thread). I'm assuming it works a little bit like everything in the military--relatively straightforward on paper, but once you actually try to do anything, you run into significant delays/problems.

A lot of schools do an interest free loan to cover any wait between school starting and the GI Bill paying out.

Thanks for the advice, I think you're both right that it could be almost detrimental to do the reserves especially while pursing an MBA full time. The thought of having to study while in the field...NO THANKS. Actually, I think I've had my fill of field ops as it is...
Great advice about contacting the vet clubs, I will definitely do that soon. I do have an idea of where I'd like to apply, mostly schools relatively close to me but I guess I should see how I perform on the GMAT (taking in 2 months) before I get too ahead of myself.

Anyone else get those why you need to stay in guilt trip talks?

I would say you're looking at things backwards--don't pick your schools based on what you get on the GMAT, pick some schools now and focus on getting your GMAT in the neighborhood of those schools' mean/median GMAT if possible. Or really, as long as you're in their median 80% range you should still be competitive for admission as long as you've got decent undergrad grades and work experience and can make a strong case for why you need an MBA. The "why MBA" part will also go a long way towards helping you pick what schools to apply to.

Since you're getting a pretty early start on things you have the advantage of being able to take 8-10 months to figure out what your story is going to be and how you're going to position yourself as a strong applicant. Schools generally keep their essays fairly consistent from one year to another, so check out this year's applications and see what kinds of essay questions they ask for. Keep a notebook or online document and keep it updated with any anecdotes or details that you think might apply for those essays. Think about how you'd define your leadership style, big mistakes you've made and what you've learned from them, specific times you've demonstrated leadership, times you've had to make a difficult or unpopular decision, things like that. You'll also have a lot of time to figure out exactly what you want to do post-MBA...if you can be very specific and compelling, you'll distinguish yourself from the guys who just say "uhh...I want to do I-banking or consulting." Some Stanford guys passed this guy's story along to me (https://www.nuruinternational.org/videos/theendjakesstory.html), and I think it's a pretty good example of how to make a strong case for an MBA. Apparently his "what matters most" and career goals essays were basically this video in text form.

Initially I had the same approach of only planning to apply to relatively local schools, but the more I talked to people about what I wanted to do and career placement for various schools, the more I kept hearing that (absent any huge extenuating circumstances) you want to go to the best school you can get in to. In other words you shouldn't limit yourself to top 20-30 schools just so you can stay where you are; you should consider top 5-10 schools wherever they're located assuming you have a profile that matches up well with theirs and assuming the school is a good fit in terms of culture and what you want to do.

I'll add my two cents to say that all of my former military friends who did their MBAs full-time either quit the reserves while they were in school, or did not participate at all. Everyone who quit said that reserve duty was a very unwelcome distraction, and I can definitely see how that could be true.

To add to what emont posted, I would say you should pick your schools based upon what your goal is post-grad. Ex., if finance is your pursuit your school list should differ significantly from someone who prefers general management. I think sometimes people make the mistake of selecting solely on rankings. It's true too that it pays to be specific. For instance, investment banking comprises a multitude of different functions. To say 'ibanking' is going to sound vague and uninformed to the adcom. I recommend starting with the Vault guide, and honing in on a specific function from there.

For the essays, I would recommend people assume total ignorance on the part of adcom. Most of them have no idea what military life entails. That being said, schools are becoming increasingly pro-military due to the recruiters pressuring them to do so. Recruiters definitely gravitate towards the military candidates.

mbaanimal:

I was an enlisted guy. Did 4 years as a Marine grunt, got out as E-5. My profile:

GRE - 1510 (Q 780, V 730) ~ 750 GMAT according to the conversion tool
GPA - 3.74 (humanities) at Univ of Georgia
Focus - nonprofit-
Community Service - Wounded Warrior Proj, Special Operations Warrior Foundation, founded 501c3 last year

So far:

Dinged at Harvard w/o int (that one hurt)
Int with Darden, waiting
Int with Ross (this went horribly. Unprofessional enough that I actually sent a complaint to Adcom), waiting
Waiting on Columbia (submitted 1/5)
Waiting on NYU (submitted 1/7)

All Round 2.

I'm a little concerned that I won't get in anywhere. If you look at the military organizations at these schools, seems like they're almost all West Point/Annapolis guys. It sucks to have spent all the money and time, but if I get skunked I'll take the GMAT for next year and take an accounting course or something. Someone will let me in if I bang on the door hard enough. Not getting discouraged!

jmb, one of the Darden guys posted that 2 of the 3 Marines in his class were enlisted rather than officers, and the only Marine I met at UCLA was a prior enlisted scout/sniper. Your profile looks pretty strong, so as long as schools are fine with GRE as opposed to the GMAT I can't see you getting shut out by all five of your schools.

guys, just finished my final interview at wharton this morning, waiting on Wharton, Darden, Yale decisions in 4 weeks, now i am done worrying, its out of my hands. I wish you all the best, PM me if you ever need anything out there.

Worst case, I already got into Stern so I'll be out in the business world somewhere, now its time for an ice cold Sam Adams

good luck Wp06, I'm sure it will all work out. I had to bust out the Imperial White after my first admit, I finally get to kick back a bit. Had to go to Muster Duty today, which was a 7 hour SRP, hurry up and wait in long lines definately gave me some flashbacks, glad to be moving on. Jmb good to hear your story, I don't know too much about the schools you are applying to but I wouldn't be surprised if you got into at least one if not all of them, good luck.

You're fine man. I have a similar enlisted background and got into Booth with a signifiant scholarship.

It's just like everything else, need to articulate what you got out of your experience and where you're trying to go. But a service academy is definitely not a requisite.