Calling all US Military Fall 2017 Applicants!

That's awesome. Good on them for providing so much support for veterans.

How are the interviews going for everyone? Only 3-4 weeks left until R1 decisions.

Hello all,

I'm currently an active duty Air Force pilot looking into distance MBA programs at Kansas, Florida State, Oklahoma State, and Ball State. I know that online programs typically are not looked at favorably, but at this time the online option is my only choice for an MBA. I am having trouble figuring out whether Kansas or Florida State is a more respected school. Kansas was just recently ranked in the top 100 for its full time MBA, but Florida State is ranked higher for its online option. Does anyone have any helpful insight into how to go about selecting between these two for my top school? Any input is greatly appreciated!

Speaking purely from a semi-biased perspective, I would steer clear of FSU for an MBA. This coming from an FSU undergrad. Their MBA program is not very respected. Before deciding to transition out, I was pursuing the online route and deciding between Arizona State, Indiana and UNC's online programs. Reputable MBA programs in general and great online programs from everything I've read. I personally think the "Online MBA Rankings" are total BS. I have no facts to back this up, but to me the institution from which you earned the MBA is looked on more favorably than if the online program was considered "better".

I would look into those three programs I listed. Indiana's Kelley Direct program pioneered online MBA programs and is VERY established. Arizona State is a little newer but slightly more affordable and a lot more asynchronous. MBA@UNC is also a great program but extremely expensive. My supervisor (a transitioning Captain) is in his second year with the MBA@UNC program and says he loves it. It does have mandatory weekly live classes but he says its manageable and we go to the field on average every month and a half.

Just my $.02. Hope this helped a little bit.


Wrapping up my third and final interview this coming Monday at Owen. Already accepted to Fisher, interviewed a Georgia Tech this past Monday and was pleasantly surprised by the program in general. Waitlisted without interview at Fuqua is very not surprising lol I was scraping the bottom 80% in just about every statistic.

Owen would be awesome. I'm from Nashville and it's an amazing city with endless opportunities. It's been a long time since I've lived there and I'm blown away every time I go back. The place is exploding.

Started R2 school apps today. I want to get these mostly done so I'm not starting completely from zero if I don't get in to any of my target schools R1.

Also, who else is still waiting on Darden? This wait sucks

Yea, I need to start on R2. Applied HBS and Wharton R1. Just finished up my Wharton interview two days ago. Dinged HBS with no interview.


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Same reason I made sure I got all mine by R1. Knew I was fighting an uphill battle with the academic side of the house so gave myself enough reaction time to hit some lower ranked schools if my initial 4 didnt work out. Also was just flat out tired of the application process in general and didn't wanna prolong the agony.

Added Fuqua and Anderson for R2. Going to submit a CBS regular decision app later this week.

Mind is still blown about Darden. I thought it was far and away my best essay and my best application overall. Who knows.

Ding without interview at Darden?

Negative. However, the window is closing fast. They give out interview invites all the way up until the deadline (which is Dec 13). Several people last year got invites 3-5 days before the deadline. Obviously my chances are getting smaller by the day. I know it ain't over until it's over but it's getting close. The other **** aspect of it is I am probably going to have to do a skype interview if I get one. I have 10 days of drill in December and won't be able to fly to Charlottesville unless the dates are perfect.

The good news is I should have my CBS application submitted later this week.

Skype interviews are my all time least favorite. I ended up taking leave for each of my interviews and made the drive to the different schools just so I could avoid a skype interview. December 13th is still about 3 weeks away so you've got more than enough time to land an interview invite.

FWIW, the one business school interview I had was over skype and I think it definitely played to my advantage. For CBS, I was unable to do an alumni interview (There were no alumni in my area and I was about to go to the field for a month so I didn't have time to travel). I did an interview with an admissions officer over skype. I definitely think there are advantages. I didnt have to worry about driving somewhere new and meeting up with someone. The interview could not have been any more straight forward. The conversation is exactly like what you would expect (tell me about your resume, why an mba, why columbia, why finance, how will you get involved with the cbs community, what are your questions for me). No curveballs, took 30 minutes, got the acceptance call two days later. I was stressed about how having to do it over skype would affect my chances but I don't think it hurts at all. Don't stress, just my 2 cents.

For me it's definitely a personal preference. I found that travel time between work and getting to campus gave me a good amount of time to unwind and clear my head. Also, being able to see myself on the screen throughout the entire skype interview kinda threw me off lol.

R1 decisions are getting close gents, best of luck.

Next decision is 12 days away. The wait is killing me. Hope everyone starts seeing some good news rolling in just before the holidays/block leave.

Does anyone in here have any advice/experience in studying for the GMAT while in the field? BLUF: I need to crank out a 700 by February 1st for fellowship consideration but will be in gunnery for three weeks (+ one week for retraining) in January. Trying to take it as close to February 1st as possible to give myself maximum time to prep, but half of my remaining time will be spent in the field. Thanks ahead of time.