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Great thread.

I'm a current Army officer looking to apply to full-time programs this fall. I'm having a tough time developing my "story" and would love to hear how fellow vets sold their stories to the adcom.
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cf1988
Great thread.

I'm a current Army officer looking to apply to full-time programs this fall. I'm having a tough time developing my "story" and would love to hear how fellow vets sold their stories to the adcom.

I guess I would advise just trying to be honest... I think your story is going to be personal, so it's different for everybody. Talk about the basics and work out from there; where did you go to school? What did you study and why? How/why did you choose to enter the Army? What experiences have you had in the military and what have you learned from them? Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years, and how does b-school work into that? stuff like that.

The hard part for me (and most people I think) was projecting my story forward in a way that made sense. That process entails developing some career goals, researching the types of skills that your target industry demands, doing some self-analysis to get an idea of what's transferable from the military and what's lacking in terms of a skill-set, then pointing to specific elements of mba programs that can help you fill those gaps. If you're having a hard time picking a career path to focus on, try research sites like the Vault, or better yet tap into an alumni network and exchange emails/phone calls with alums who are working in an industry that you are interested in. You'd be surprised how receptive people are to reaching back to lend a hand, particularly when it's a vets thing.

Anyway, I'm by no means an expert, but that's my two cents. Good luck to you.
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cf1988
Great thread.

I'm a current Army officer looking to apply to full-time programs this fall. I'm having a tough time developing my "story" and would love to hear how fellow vets sold their stories to the adcom.

I guess I would advise just trying to be honest... I think your story is going to be personal, so it's different for everybody. Talk about the basics and work out from there; where did you go to school? What did you study and why? How/why did you choose to enter the Army? What experiences have you had in the military and what have you learned from them? Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years, and how does b-school work into that? stuff like that.

The hard part for me (and most people I think) was projecting my story forward in a way that made sense. That process entails developing some career goals, researching the types of skills that your target industry demands, doing some self-analysis to get an idea of what's transferable from the military and what's lacking in terms of a skill-set, then pointing to specific elements of mba programs that can help you fill those gaps. If you're having a hard time picking a career path to focus on, try research sites like the Vault, or better yet tap into an alumni network and exchange emails/phone calls with alums who are working in an industry that you are interested in. You'd be surprised how receptive people are to reaching back to lend a hand, particularly when it's a vets thing.

Anyway, I'm by no means an expert, but that's my two cents. Good luck to you.

I liked this document that was put together by the vets at Darden. Also, the military to business blog has great info that can help you answer some of your questions.
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Hi Gents,

I'm an junior Army officer looking to get out as I hit CPT in 2015 and apply for B-school admissions for class of 2016. Planning on taking the GMAT this june/july. Any advice on good study guides that are flexible with the work we typically do in the Army where we might be stuck at work from PT until 1700 most days?

Cheers
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Any (former) enlisted out there? The abundance of pilots, academy grads, SOC types is making me feel a little inadequate. (I was enlisted Army military intelligence).


Yup, there's a sprinkling of us, although that distinction hasn't come up even once so far including in my interview.


One more right here.

Another one right here. When I went to Duke's military symposium I didn't run into any enlisted folk applying. There was one girl the first year I went that was enlisted but I believe she's graduated now. I'm already in at SC Moore since #1 International MBA program was appealing to me, waiting to hear back from Duke (R2).
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cf1988
Great thread.

I'm a current Army officer looking to apply to full-time programs this fall. I'm having a tough time developing my "story" and would love to hear how fellow vets sold their stories to the adcom.

Please excuse a bit of blatant self-promotion on my part, but this issue is a huge part of what we do at MilitaryToBusiness.

We're not just an essay editing service--in addition to essays/resumes, guidance on GMAT prep, and picking target schools, we do a pretty solid job of helping military guys/gals clarify their career goals so they can make a convincing case as to why they need an MBA and why a particular school should admit them. It can get a little touchy-feely, but we're pretty good at forcing people to dig within themselves and examine their experiences so they can really get a handle on their interests, skills, and passions then package them in a way that makes sense business-wise.
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tringuyen0243
Hi Gents,

I'm an junior Army officer looking to get out as I hit CPT in 2015 and apply for B-school admissions for class of 2016. Planning on taking the GMAT this june/july. Any advice on good study guides that are flexible with the work we typically do in the Army where we might be stuck at work from PT until 1700 most days?

Cheers

Manhattan GMAT prep has a good mix of hard-copy books and online-based materials that you can do pretty much anywhere.
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tringuyen0243
Hi Gents,

I'm an junior Army officer looking to get out as I hit CPT in 2015 and apply for B-school admissions for class of 2016. Planning on taking the GMAT this june/july. Any advice on good study guides that are flexible with the work we typically do in the Army where we might be stuck at work from PT until 1700 most days?

Cheers

Manhattan GMAT prep has a good mix of hard-copy books and online-based materials that you can do pretty much anywhere.

Thanks EBM, yeah I was looking into getting the MGMAT Interact or the Veritas On-Demand, both priced around 900~1,000 bucks

Any reason one might be better than the other? I'm about a Q40 and V29 after taking my first practice test from Princeton Review over the weekend. Looking to hopefully obtain a Q50/51 and a V40+ in order to be competitive for my target schools such as Standford or Chicago Booth.
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Hi Gents,

I'm an junior Army officer looking to get out as I hit CPT in 2015 and apply for B-school admissions for class of 2016. Planning on taking the GMAT this june/july. Any advice on good study guides that are flexible with the work we typically do in the Army where we might be stuck at work from PT until 1700 most days?

Cheers

Manhattan GMAT prep has a good mix of hard-copy books and online-based materials that you can do pretty much anywhere.

Thanks EBM, yeah I was looking into getting the MGMAT Interact or the Veritas On-Demand, both priced around 900~1,000 bucks

Any reason one might be better than the other? I'm about a Q40 and V29 after taking my first practice test from Princeton Review over the weekend. Looking to hopefully obtain a Q50/51 and a V40+ in order to be competitive for my target schools such as Standford or Chicago Booth.

Can't give any first-person observations about Veritas...I liked MGMAT but for all I know I could have done 20 points better with Veritas. Just pick one that seems to be a good fit for your learning style and for books vs. online vs. iPhone availability and go with it.
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tringuyen0243
Hi Gents,

I'm an junior Army officer looking to get out as I hit CPT in 2015 and apply for B-school admissions for class of 2016. Planning on taking the GMAT this june/july. Any advice on good study guides that are flexible with the work we typically do in the Army where we might be stuck at work from PT until 1700 most days?

Cheers

A few pieces of advice:

1) buy at least 1 MGMAT book so you can get access to their online content. 6 legit CAT tests on there. If you can spare the $$, I would buy the entire series. I found it to be awesome and well worth the money.
2) use the Veritas Free Question bank. As the title notes, it's free, and I used it a lot and found it helpful. It's nice b/c you can select the types of questions you want to practice, and it spits out lots of metrics to help you better understand what you need to work on. Google "Veritas Free Question Bank"
3) there's a thread on this site somewhere that lists out all the free CAT tests available out there. Taking lots of CAT tests is crucial IMO.
4) when you sign up for the test, it comes with 2 free CAT tests. Save taking those two tests for last (like in your final week of studying) b/c they are the most representative of the actual test
5) before you take the test, read this briefly https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-get-6-0-awa-my-guide-64327.html. I wouldn't advise spending more than a day on prepping for AWA, and if you read and follow the structure in this thread, you will get a 6.0/5.5

side notes:

I was deployed when I was studying, and I used a website called "bellcurves.com" for a lot of my preps. It's not great quality, but it's only like $15 a month or something and it has 6 CAT tests and a bunch of other semi-decent content. You might consider that.

If you don't have consistent computer access, I'd just stick to the physical MGMAT books; can't go wrong with those. Everybody's different, but for me self-study was the way to go, and for what it's worth I don't recommend spending upwards of $1,000 on a course, when you can get the same material for <$100 with a little work. Good luck to you.
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Thanks Dust, thats some great and helpful tips, I think I might actually try that approach first before deciding to put a large dent in my wallet with buying a full online course. I just paid $99 for the Magoosh GMAT question bank and prep as I begin my studying this weekend.

Appreciate the helpful response guys, would love to hear more about how many of y'all transitioned from the military into going into a business school mindset
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Thanks to dustwun, fbpointgod10 and EBM for their responses and advice. That write-up from Darden is awesome, it really helped me clarify my career goals. I will likely buy the military guidebook from the Military to Business website as well, just to get a sense of what a successful military applicant looks like.

Honestly, this process is pretty nerve-racking. I just took the GMAT for a third (and last) time. I broke the "700 barrier" and scored a 710 (48q/38v). I have a decent GPA from a Big 10 school (3.6), but admissions seem to be a bit of a blackbox though, so I don't know where I'd be competitive at. I would love to hear some feedback from others on where to apply.

Good luck to everyone applying this cycle. It is almost over for you guys so congratulations on that.
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cf1988
Thanks to dustwun, fbpointgod10 and EBM for their responses and advice. That write-up from Darden is awesome, it really helped me clarify my career goals. I will likely buy the military guidebook from the Military to Business website as well, just to get a sense of what a successful military applicant looks like.

Honestly, this process is pretty nerve-racking. I just took the GMAT for a third (and last) time. I broke the "700 barrier" and scored a 710 (48q/38v). I have a decent GPA from a Big 10 school (3.6), but admissions seem to be a bit of a blackbox though, so I don't know where I'd be competitive at. I would love to hear some feedback from others on where to apply.

Good luck to everyone applying this cycle. It is almost over for you guys so congratulations on that.

It's a little hard to say without knowing more about you. Do people with 3.6/710 get into H/S/W/Booth/etc? Sure, but people with those numbers (or better) also get dinged sometimes.

Once you've reached the unofficial "you must be this tall to ride" GPA and GMAT numbers for a given school it becomes a matter of the qualitative stuff...what do you (and your recommenders) say about your performance and potential? How convincing can you be about your career goals and about why you need to go to this particular school? How well do you interview?

My general recommendation is to apply to ~6 schools. Two that are reach schools where your admission odds are ~10-20%, two that are sweet spot schools where your admission odds are ~30-50%, and two that are relatively sure things (~60-90% odds). I don't want to use the term "safety school" for that third tier because that implies it's a school you wouldn't be thrilled to attend, or one that's just going to be a waste of two years and $150K....but assuming you're dead-set on getting an MBA and you've already dropped your resignation letter you want to be absolutely certain to get into at least one school.
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Thanks to dustwun, fbpointgod10 and EBM for their responses and advice. That write-up from Darden is awesome, it really helped me clarify my career goals. I will likely buy the military guidebook from the Military to Business website as well, just to get a sense of what a successful military applicant looks like.

Honestly, this process is pretty nerve-racking. I just took the GMAT for a third (and last) time. I broke the "700 barrier" and scored a 710 (48q/38v). I have a decent GPA from a Big 10 school (3.6), but admissions seem to be a bit of a blackbox though, so I don't know where I'd be competitive at. I would love to hear some feedback from others on where to apply.

Good luck to everyone applying this cycle. It is almost over for you guys so congratulations on that.

Congrats on the GMAT! It's such a relief to get that out of the way. I echo the fact that you've met the numbers criteria. Now it's all about your previous performance (which indicates potential), your story, and execution. As you can see by my profile, I was unsure how ADCOMs would react to my undergrad GPA so I applied to a wide breadth of schools (all top-20 still or else it's not worth it). The only straight up ding I had was from GSB. So, I am definitely a case in point that it's not just about the numbers.

Feel free to PM me and we can discuss further if you like. Good luck!
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cf1988
Thanks to dustwun, fbpointgod10 and EBM for their responses and advice. That write-up from Darden is awesome, it really helped me clarify my career goals. I will likely buy the military guidebook from the Military to Business website as well, just to get a sense of what a successful military applicant looks like.

Honestly, this process is pretty nerve-racking. I just took the GMAT for a third (and last) time. I broke the "700 barrier" and scored a 710 (48q/38v). I have a decent GPA from a Big 10 school (3.6), but admissions seem to be a bit of a blackbox though, so I don't know where I'd be competitive at. I would love to hear some feedback from others on where to apply.

Good luck to everyone applying this cycle. It is almost over for you guys so congratulations on that.

It's a little hard to say without knowing more about you. Do people with 3.6/710 get into H/S/W/Booth/etc? Sure, but people with those numbers (or better) also get dinged sometimes.

Once you've reached the unofficial "you must be this tall to ride" GPA and GMAT numbers for a given school it becomes a matter of the qualitative stuff...what do you (and your recommenders) say about your performance and potential? How convincing can you be about your career goals and about why you need to go to this particular school? How well do you interview?

My general recommendation is to apply to ~6 schools. Two that are reach schools where your admission odds are ~10-20%, two that are sweet spot schools where your admission odds are ~30-50%, and two that are relatively sure things (~60-90% odds). I don't want to use the term "safety school" for that third tier because that implies it's a school you wouldn't be thrilled to attend, or one that's just going to be a waste of two years and $150K....but assuming you're dead-set on getting an MBA and you've already dropped your resignation letter you want to be absolutely certain to get into at least one school.

Also - keep in mind when your application hits the admissions desk, you're going to be compared to other veterans, so your story may not be as unique as you'd like. Try to think - "how can I stand out to a civilian adcom among a sea of vets who all have had experience leading people and managing teams?"
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MIT Sloan will be having our annual Veterans Ambassador Day Event for prospective veterans on April 16th. Check in will begin at 0930 and plan on staying until at least 1600 (there will be a happy hour from 1600-1900). During your visit you will be able to..

1) See the Campus
2) Attend a Class
3) Talk with veteran and civilian students
4) Take part in Q and A sessions with Admissions, Financial Aid and Sloan Veteran Alumni
5) Relax at a Happy Hour with current Sloan Veterans and Sloan Veteran Alumni

Sign up at the link below. Please PM me if you have any questions.

https://applymitsloan.mit.edu/register/ ... yApr162015
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FROM MilitaryToBusiness.com: Sloan Veterans Ambassador Day 2015


MIT Sloan will be having our annual Veterans Ambassador Day Event for prospective veterans on April 16th.  Check in will begin at 0930 and plan on staying until at least 1600 (there will be a happy hour from 1600-1900).  During your visit you will be able to..

1) See the Campus
2) Attend a Class
3) Talk with veteran and civilian students
4) Take part in Q and A sessions with Admissions, Financial Aid and Sloan Veteran Alumni
5) Relax at a Happy Hour with current Sloan Veterans and Sloan Veteran Alumni

Sign up at the link below for more details

https://applymitsloan.mit.edu/register/VeteransAmbassadorDayApr162015
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
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