Not much application stuff to talk about right now so it seems like a good time to spark some controversy/debate.
Driving to work this morning a noticed a Porsche to my right and immediately thought about that one consultant that created the Business School to Car analogies. HBS was a Bentley, Stanford a Lambo, Wharton a Mercedes...and so forth. I got to think about what might Business School to Military Branch analogies look like and this is kinda sorta what I came up with after a Starbucks Doubleshot...ordered by which analogies were easiest to come up with.
Marines: Rather small, tight-knit culture, and above all fiercely loyal. The Marines are Tuck. Considered making the Marines into Stanford, but Stanford puts out the touchy feely vibe. Also didn't see too many zeroed out haircuts in Palo Alto.
Air Force: The youngest of the services, but has established itself similar to the way one school vaulted from the mid-teens in the rankings to a perpetual Top 10 spot. This school did so while maintaining its laid back, but tech savvy culture. The Air Force is Haas.
Navy: Not getting as much press as the other services these days because of the nature of the current war, but still not to be trifled with on its own turf (water). A strong engineering background is a plus, the Navy is MIT Sloan.
Army: Really struggled with this one. I initially thought HBS just because of size, but the Army isn't HBS. The Army has to take a lot of people just to meet mission in a lot of those combat support/service support branches. So it's not HBS and certainly not Stanford. For that matter it's not Wharton or Booth either. You could make an argument for Kellogg since I hear Kellogg isn't academically rigorous. Kind of conflicted hear because I'm in the Army and the overall quality of the Army somewhat resembles an hourglass (albeit with the top being smaller than the bottom). You have a lot of high-end units like Delta, 160th SOAR, the SF Groups, Ranger Regiments, and other SMUs, but then you have the combat enablers, a weird mix of Reservists and National Guard folks of varying abilities. I personally like the Kellogg analogy, but I may be shooting too high. Perhaps a tri-brid of Ross, Fuqua, and Stern is more in order. Those schools have some high-end talent, but top to bottom there's a pretty significant standard deviation in the student bodies as well.
Coast Guard: I have no idea. I'll toss out Anderson at UCLA. They seem close to the water.
Israeli Defense Forces: Geographic position leads to some insecurity based on the fact that few of its neighbors acknowledge its right to exist and wouldn't mind exterminating it. Not above taking some aggressive initiative and making up a term out of thin air (M7 anyone?) and saying it belongs in the same club as HBS, Stanford, and Wharton, the IDF is Columbia.
Italy: Searching for a way to switch sides, but in a stylish way. I haven't gotten very far on this one. What do you guys think?
Add countries/services as you see fit.