Military Officer Evaluate my profile

Question

Thank you in advance for the profile review,

Stats up front:
29/m
*3.2/4.0 from a top 30. History Major, Geophysics minor 
*Varsity Lacrosse, ROTC
*GRE: 321 (161 V, 160 Q). On the ETS converter that comes to a 680 GMAT

Work Experience : 7 Years Navy SEAL Officer. 5 Deployments to date with combat. 
-Consistent leadership in a variety of austere and high profile locations.
-Senior level coordination within DOD
-Excellent lessons learned in terms of personnel management
-Task Unit commander in charge of $25M in equipment overseas.

Extra Curricular: Involved heavily in several charity foundations and recruiting campaigns in support of the SEAL community. 
-Repeated visitor to my Alma Mater as a speaker on Leadership for the Athletic Department.
-Lead food drives at work 
-Volunteered at foundation events for the Wounded Warrior Foundation.

Hobbies: 
-Reading
-Lacrosse
-Soccer
-Golf

Future goals:
I love the experience of leading people and I have a passion for working within small teams. I also feel as if the driving economic forces of today's global environment are the most significant. While I think I could find reasonable employment within the private sector, I am looking for a management role. General Management seems like a great fit for me.
My decision to take the GRE is likely to be an issue. I chose to take it because I want to remain competitive for several of the fellowships offered in the service. Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School among others only accepts the GRE.

Summary: I feel I can articulate my leadership experience and I actively stay in touch with fellow members of my community who are now in business school. I also feel that my essays will have tangible examples of what I think ADCOMs are looking for. I will not be making a move to business school for a few years but I have spent some time getting to know the process. I will likely retake the GRE to get to the 90-92% percentile. Given what I have to work with now though, how do I look for the following schools?

HBS
Wharton
Tuck
Darden
Fuqua
Johnson
Owen

Regards, 
Duff

bryantmichaels · Answer

Duff you're in luck, as many top programs are warming to the GRE. B-schools love military and you stand out in that crowd as a subset of applicants by serving on the teams. Since you have so much time, you might consider taking the GMAT as well, but it's not a critical part of the puzzle. By the way, your History undergrad will also put you in a different bucket and b-schools like pedigree so top 30 UG is good as well. Your real ace in the hole, though is your leadership. Good luck--let us know when the time comes if you need help pulling your pitch together.

Duff · Answer

Bryant,

Thanks very much. I am currently still active duty and deployed as we speak so I will not be diving too deep into business school applications any time soon. Right now, I am still trying to get a feel for how competitive my profile is.

I thought about the GMAT as well but I also considered raising my GRE score. I took the test without as much prep as I wanted because of a deployment. I think I can break the 90th% mark. Given that I am a 3.2 history major, do you think it is wise to put up another GRE score? Also, what do you think about a supplemental transcript with some statistics, accounting, and finance classes?

Thanks again, 
Duff

bryantmichaels · Answer

I would say the supplemental classes OR the additional (assuming: higher) GRE would boost your chances for sure. I really doubt you would need both. If you happen to have the time to achieve both, you could definitely raise your chances of a top 10 school, but you should be able to get in one anyway.

Duff · Answer

Bryant,

Just re-took the GRE after returning from a deployment. Brought it up to a 324, which the ETS site estimates to an even 700 GMAT. Wondering if you think this will be a competitive application to HBS. I will be pursuing HKS as well but the dual degree with Tuck if I don't get into HBS.

You think I have a shot with a 3.2 and pushing 31 years old when I apply?

Duff

bryantmichaels · Answer

Duf I would say yes, you should be competitive. B-schools don't hold age as much against Military guys as they do others, and even though HBS has an age bias for younger applicants, your carer on the TEAMS can and should be able to trump reservations. Make sure your application is well written and compelling and you should have a shot.

Duff · Answer

Bryant,

I have a question for you about MIT Sloan. To be honest, it's not a high one on my list because while I was an undergrad, I interacted with MIT students and they seemed brilliant but severely lacking in social skills and I found no common ground (I went to BC).

What do you know about the Sloan student body? I am sure it is not the same but I am wondering about my own fit at the program. The MIT/HKS degree offers a great opportunity to get two degrees and remain in Boston throughout as opposed to commuting form Tuck. This is all planning in the event I don't get admitted to HBS, of course.

Am I way off on these guys?

Duff

bryantmichaels · Answer

Duff--

You will find the student body at Sloan to be far different if not totally uncorrelated with the undergrad personality at MIT. As a b-school, Stern attracts the same top students to its program as HBS, Wharton, Chicago, Duke, etc. does.

-b

Duff · Answer

Bryant,

Great insight. I know that to be true, I think I just need someone to slap some sense into me. MIT is an excellent school.

Once again, looking for your sage advice. I have to complete a micro and macro-economic pre-requisite for two of the policy schools to which I will be applying (Yale-Jackson, Princeton-WW). I intend to do this online, and I will ensure it gets the attention it deserves in order to get an A.

I have a finite amount of time with an active duty assignment leading up to application season in the fall. Do you think macro and micro will be valid additions to an alternative transcript to be used for B-School applications? I know the standard ones are finance, accounting, statistics, etc… Do you think I need to add one of those in there too.

Thanks, 
Duff

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