Calling all US Military Fall 2011 Applicants!

Let's keep this thread alive with updates. It gives me hope that my 6+ years of military service will pay off

thanks! the schools have been pretty reasonable in accepting the updates. They are cordial on the phone, and then ask me to send the updates to an email address....that's where I get a little nervous. You know we're used to following up on EVERYTHING...it's hard to trust that someone is actually there reading those emails on the other end

Just try not to pester them. If you hit them up too much it's kind of like calling a girl the next morning after you get her number. Or like that scene from Swingers. Could hurt your chances. They should always want to update your score though because that is good for them too. Then again, what do I know?

Haha, this makes me think about that thread I just read "Picking up girls in bars with your GMAT score" in the Off Topic Forum thread. Although it pissed off a fair amount of people it seems (since it locked and he got banned), I personally thought it was hilarious.

Hi, I will be applying for fall 2012 as well. Recently returned from a stint in RC-SW supporting a Marine unit (Army officer).

For what it's worth, I don't think staying in the Reserves is a prudent choice. From a logistical standpoint (i.e. drill weekends conflicting with studies) it would be challenging. Perhaps more importantly, and this is my personal opinion, it's about psychologically "cutting sling-load" and disengaging from the military. Time to close this chaper of your life and move on if that's what you've decided to do. If you have one foot out the door (in b-school) and another foot in DoD, I think it makes it that much tougher to pour yourself into b-school and private sector recruiting. Guys in my unit are always telling me I should stay in the Reserve for the benefits. From my perspective the benefits associated with staying in the Reserves are far less than the benefits I would earn as part of my compensation package with a highly regarded private sector organization that recruits from strong business schools.

Subconciously, I think each of us knows how safe our jobs in the military really are...even with the proposed draw downs in 2015. DFAS will always pay you...it may not be the right amount, but you'll never be struggling for food. The military does so much for us from a Maslow's hierarchy, basic needs standpoint that it breeds a great degree of risk aversion in its people. I think it's this sort of risk aversion that compels a lot of people to never really leave and always "keep their options open" by staying in the Reserves. They are, in effect, hedging. If things aren't going well in the private sector, they can always go back on active duty for a year or two. To have the flexibility to do that, you have to work for an organization that won't hold it against you. Companies can't fire you for going back on active duty, but they can skirt that by eliminating your position...and they're protected. They didn't fire you. They just "restructured" and got rid of your job. What's the one company that is always supportive of people going back on active duty? The Government. I work at a largely civilian intelligence agency in Virginia and many of the civilians are in the Reserve. If they get something they don't like at work they just go on active duty. And when they get something they don't like on active duty they come back to the federal government civilian workforce. In doing this, they don't excel at either. Ultimately, I think it's hard to have a meaningful private sector career if you're being tugged on or otherwise know that you can go back to something else. It nags at you...in the back of your head ya know? I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but if you're getting out, then get all the way out. And if you're staying in, stay all the way in.

Amen, brother. My feelings exactly.

unless you're USMA or ROTC and have a reserve committment and have to balance taking your chances in IRR or doing MSO Redux and doing Reserves for 18 mos....

Only speaking from the Army perspective, but I think HRC has already parsed every file of interest in the IRR. To get called up you usually have to have some unique skill. When things really kicked off in '03 they were dredging up anybody that they thought they might need. Over 8 years in, they know what their requirements are and if they need your skill set I think they are more inclined to stop-loss you than let you go to IIR and call you up again. If you're just a normal guy without a special skill set (i.e. linguist skills, ability to run host nation intel collectors, etc.), they aren't going to come calling. I've always thought that stories of guys getting called up off IRR are a bit exaggerated. I personally think that it's a function of reporting/sampling bias. After all, you only hear stories about the guys that got called up, not the overwhelming majority of guys that didn't get called up...nobody asks for their stories about how the Army didn't tell them to come back. It's like asking the San Francisco 49ers how their Super Bowl experience was this year. Well, they weren't in it so no one cares.

The only branch that I would be worried about would be Air Defense Artillery. That branch has taken a beating the last decade because neither of our enemies had air forces. Every time the Army needed to laterally transfer assets it poached ADA. They are in a constant battle to keep their "numbers up" so that they don't lose any more funding. I had a friend at Ft. Bliss try to get out as a 1LT and turn his remaining active duty time into reserve time and he was rejected. Everyone else that applied received it. The difference? He was ADA. Similarly, the only person I know that got called up off of IRR was prior-enlisted ADA and held an MOS that the Army had since stopped training people for. That was in '03.

For our purposes, I think everyone's safer in the IRR than they think.

Great points GRYPHON, for me as a prior enlisted combat MOS I just try not to read the Mideast or World section of various online news publications. Having dodged stop-loss I feel it'd be just my luck to get snagged on IRR.

Yeah, I don't see IRR being used much in the years to come, especially with these proposed drawdowns, which are predicated on about a dozen different things coming to fruition. Sometimes I feel like I'm misleading myself whenever I apply logic to anything involving the military, though.

hey guys just checking in. Our Relief in place (RIP) is happening soon and our replacements are getting on deck, which is reminding me that the end is soon to come. One really good news, I found out I got 100% benefits for Post 9/11 GI Bill! i was in shock, but turns out all my active duty time counted! I just went to their website, did the web app and submitted my information, most of it was blank and I didn't have a lot of the DD214s but that's okay because when you get separated a copy of that automaticLLY goes to the VA anyway.

Anyway, was pretty shocked and am praying that I get into Kellogg, their YR is $10,000! Anyway we shall see shortly..

thats great man i hope you make it, did you hear from stern yet? if i do not get into wharton i am heavily weighing stern, i got 40K from them which would be really helpful and likely prevent me from facing any debt


i know everyone also has their take on reserves / irr; i think i am going to keep waiting and think about it a little more. i just do not like taking my chances, i usually have **** luck in the army esp. based on the combat scnearios my platoon kept finding itself in etc. so i may be willing to sacrifice a little time to get it done

i think it also has to do w what reserve unit you are in, my buddy (a first year at wharton) does reserves and his chain of command is chill and he rarely shows up or works around tough work loads

i might not do reserves in the end but im going to wait till the end of this summer to see what direction afghanistan will go; i assume we will be there at least several more years

Congrats on Stern. Weighing your options does seem like the best bet, but just be sure you're okay with getting called up in the second semester of B-School to do a year in some staff billet in Afghanistan--or maybe even worse, right as you're getting ready to finish B-School. I can't imagine too many top firms are going to hold a job offer--or frankly even keep your job available if you disappear before you can make yourself indispensible to them. It just isn't worth the limited reserve paycheck to take that chance--at least in my opinion.

I have to imagine the current Mid-East turmoil has some evil Lieutenant Colonels parsing reserve lists to stand up hypothetical command structures. Ugh.

thats why i said I was doing MSO redux, which I described on here earlier:

I would only have an 18 month committment with a 24-month stabalization period, hence I would not deploy, do you think i did not think of what you just described here, im not retarded thanks tho

why would i think it was better to do something where i could deploy to avoid the possibility of deploying in the irr in my third year, i considered the reserve option specifically to cover that chance and ensure i would not deploy so it would not mess up my job or family plans

Marine reservists seem to be getting called up involuntarily all the time to man our staffs. The IRR seems largely irrelevant from my point of view unless you've got some special skill. Maybe it's a difference in the service's manning methods.

most likely, its also the particular option i am talking about it, its all good though i know what im talking about, leave it to the marines haha

Just got my first admit at Ross and breathed a big sigh of relief. Now just waiting on Darden. Does anyone here have plans to attend Ross or know anyone there currently? Any general opinions about Ross? I like the idea of action-based learning, I like their new facilities, but those northern latitudes are a long way from home.