Bluemarlin04 wrote:
Hey guys,
I have a quick question for some of you. I'm also a military applicant and am probably going to be applying this season (may push it to 2014 class depending on my GMAT Score).
I'm going to start studying for the gmat this month. I have a somewhat different background in the military. I served 5 years total enlisted (37 months active, 24 months drilling reserves while in college) and have since commissioned as a Naval Officer. I'll probably have two years of commissioned service for a total of five active and 7 years total service if I separate this coming May. My problem is I didn't graduate until 24 so I have a lot of experience, but I'm not sure if the schools will even count my enlisted experience because I wasn't post bachelors yet. My transcripts shows LOA's for military service and part time schooling when I was active.
I have a strong GPA from a state school with a degree in Finance. I'm going to use my GI bill and yellow ribbon since I have two years of it left. I'm worried I'm going to have to go to entry level finance jobs and work my way back up before applying to MBA programs. I don't want to go outside of the top 50 schools because I want to maximize my GI bill. No point in wasting it.
Do you any of you think my situation will hurt me? FWIW, I had a strong record of enlisted service (2 dets overseas, junior NCO of the year, #1 of XXX fitreps, etc...).
I was in flight school but got disqualified for a medical issue. With the draw down, they're really not reassigning junior Officers. TBH, I think it's just my time to move careers.
Thanks.
Experience is experience regardless of whether it's enlisted or commissioned or whether it's before or after undergrad. Two guys in my HBS class did their bachelor degrees after finishing their enlisted time so their "work experience" was made up entirely of stuff they did before college. Definitely mention your enlisted time on your resume and in your essays since it sounds like it was more significant than your commissioned time, both in terms of duration and the experiences you'll be able to talk about.
Don't feel like you have to apologize for the med discharge or anything like that. I know of at least one vet in my class who left active duty prior to finishing his initial commitment due to a training-related injury. That stuff happens.