Calling all US Military Fall 2011 Applicants!

it is definitely up there, not sure where I will go, need to do some more research and go over some stuff with my wife.

i loved darden though, waiting to see if i get any aid in the mail next week, also wharton and yale decisions coming out today and tomorrow

you heaing to darden or still thinking?

I'm pretty dang sure that I'm heading to Darden. I still have an interview at McCombs, so I guess right now I'm trying to decide if I should just withdraw my app or still finish out the admissions process there. Decisions decisions.

For those that are familiar with both Stern and Darden, what are the big differentiating factors? I'm interested in both of those schools and both appear to have strong veteran's organizations. It appears as though they're close to being peer schools with a slight edge to Stern.

In at Wharton!

Congrats Jawnpace!!! That's amazing that you got accepted to one of the top three schools in the country, simply amazing.

I just finished my TAP class (I think it's similar all across the military) and met a young Marine who really wants to earn a MBA. He is a F-18 CDI, and is definitely bright enough to earn a top MBA. Unfortunately, his undergrad degree is from www.diplomamill.com or something similar, so his education isn't going to help him much--even though he's got a 3.9+ GPA.

Bottom line, I think he'll be attractive enough to a mid-level MBA like San Diego State or University of California - San Diego if he can get a 620+ GMAT score. I recommended he also take a calculus and a finance class at community college, but am not sure what else he can do to improve his chances. I'm worried about his past education making him a total non-starter. He can explain getting a degree online, but it's still a terribly weak background.

Any ideas? I'd like to help him out some as a last good deed before leaving the military and I'm afraid he's going to go back online without some solid evidence he can do better elsewhere.

you going to welcome weekend,i was accepted as well

im going to the vets brunch on sunday, will you be there?

Piggles,

I wouldn't worry too much about his undergrad degree- there are ways of proving to a highly-ranked school's adcom that he can do the work required- GMAT, community college classes, recommendations specifically talking about his analytic skills, etc. Plus I have a feeling that grad schools will start to see more enlisted guys getting their degrees from distance learning centers with all the deployments and very unstable work cycles they have had to deal with. I think enlisted guys are going to get looked at as having their first military contract as their college 'experience'- something arguably more prestigious and challenging than doing kegstands and bong hits at Party U for 4 years.

If he's as smart as you say he is, he should be looking at a 700+ GMAT and could get into a top-20 program IF he has an interesting story and can prove that he has the intellectual horsepower to hang with his other b-school peers. Don't discount the military service aspect either. It is turning into a total wildcard for the applications process- at least for me.

More concerning though is going to be his work experience- how long has he been in? What's his career goals? He's gonna need a coherent story to show that he needs an MBA to reach his dreams, and why school X in particular.

To prevent him from going the online route you might want to show him a couple studies showing the salary difference from MBAs from top ranked schools and those from Distance Learning institutions.. the numbers speak pretty strongly for themselves. Better yet, encourage him to actually VISIT a b-school or network him with one of your current b-school friends to show him what it's like.

For people who have never been to college, and compared to the travesty of military 'learning', I'm sure the business atmosphere at a top school would totally blow him away and make him want to go to a brick-and-mortar place.

in at darden, wharton, and yale this week ; anybody considering any of these schools?

of course they all have the same damn admitted students weekend

Dahhhhh I'm going out of my mind waiting for HBS to release on Tuesday!!!!!! Anyone else sharing my misery? Hopefully there will be some military guys representing in Cambridge this year.

Yeah, man. I'm planning on being there. I am trying to get my PCS/Separation paperwork in order right now, but I should be gtg by the 14th. I will see you there.

I'm with you, but at the same time it looks like we both have backup plans in place so the stress level is way down compared to where I was at the R1 notification dates. I feel a little weird thinking of Kellogg or Haas as my "safety" schools right now because I definitely wasn't banking on getting into either (much less both) of them.

I'm glad I'm on west coast time though, which means my anticipation should be over with one way or another by around 9am or so.

HBS will definitely take their share of military guys--I think one of the first-years I talked to said they've got 45-50 vets in both 2011 and 2012. Most schools seem to be pretty vet-friendly these days but HBS looks like they go above and beyond.

Was anyone else at the HBS prospective military student day in March? They really rolled out the red carpet and made us feel like HBS truly values veterans and our life experience. I had not received invitations to such veteran events at any other school I applied to or was considering, and the fact that HBS spent considerable time, money, and energy to hold an event like that impressed me greatly.

Any notion that HBS holds some sort of liberal prejudice against military candidates was completely eliminated after my visit. Their guest speakers (military HBS alums) and current veteran student panel spoke very passionately about the school and its fit for military candidates. There was even a presentation by a professor on the military roots of Harvard Business School and the university's longtime connections to the armed forces.

If you are up to speed on the recent surge in veteran employment efforts and the decline of traditional applicant admits (banking/PE/etc) this past year at top MBA programs, I think it bodes well for strong military candidates who might have a shot at getting into schools they might otherwise have been dinged from in earlier seasons. While there is great speculation as to why this is so, the bottom line is the military 'brand' is stronger than it has ever been in recent times for getting into some of these top programs.

well said, and i think we really earned our brand though, we all had to lead in some incredible circumstances and now we have the opportunity to make an impact in other sectors

i think the top schools know one day they might see us leadng organizations, government agencies etc because of the motivation and energy we draw from combat

It would be sweet to go to school with Tyra Banks. I saw on the little CNN ticker she's going to HBS this upcoming year. I'm not sure if she's doing the full time program because while HBS doesn't have an EMBA they do have other executive education programs that run like 6 weeks in residency. You get a little certificate at the end, but you'r not an HBS alum obviously.

Yeah, I'm right there with ya emont. Kellogg was my top-choice, but I decided to toss in HBS at the last minute just because I had all the material together and I figured 'ahhh what the hell, why not'. I feel completely secure whichever way it goes, and I count myself lucky for even having an admit at this point, especially after seeing the zero-admits thread.

In other news, I've pretty much replayed my HBS interview over in my head so many times now that I have concluded that I am doomed for tuesday

Sounds pretty spot-on to me.

Different, not better or worse, makes sense.

And I've heard some similar stuff about HBS vs. Stanford from students at each school, so that seems to be accurate too.

Anybody attending Go Blue Rendezvous at Ross?

Tyra Banks is an annoying blowhard, I can't believe they would even let her in. That's almost worse than Bush during Vietnam. Maybe she will wear a fat-suit the whole time.