Calling all US Military Fall 2010 Applicants!

They do not offer a waiver for military, unfortunately. MIT Sloan waived the military fee, just FYI.

Good luck on R2 for HBS!

Happy Birthday Marines.

Thread bump.

Updates anyone?

I'm going to the Darden Info Sesh in LA tomorrow.

Anyone else notice that military applicants apply to more schools than most people? I am guessing the admissions fee waivers are a contributing factor.

I don't know about anyone else's situation but mine is... if no business school 1.) get out and do IT consulting or 2.) stay in and get moved again, which triggers another two-year committment. IT consulting not bad if you like it, I have lost all desire to do IT, if I wanted to do IT I'd just stay in the USMC.

I want to do finance so that's why the shotgun approach and lots of essay writing for me.

Can't speak to anyone else's reasons if their list is longer than non-military types.

Happy Veterans Day all!

at least in my situation, since i'm such a non traditional candidate, i've got to do the bird shot approach to the schools. i really have no idea what my chances are, so to make sure that I have an actual variety of choices of acceptance, i do a few in the top, few in the middle, and few in the "bottom", rather than those from IB/Consulting/Corporate world, who have a particular profile, and can weigh their options based upon others who have come before them and apply to 1 top, 1 middle, and 1 safe.

so for me, its literally a "i have no idea", "throw everything i've got and hope my poop sticks to wall", approach.

Not really a factor for me. Every school has different essays, and the effort I put into them individually is worth more to me than a $200 application fee. Additionally, a full time MBA costs as much as a house in some places (at least Detroit), making the $200 so fractional as to be insignificant. It is a nice gesture, but did not effect the number of schools I applied to.

I agree with the others - the "birdshot" analogy is pretty apt. You simply will not find a military applicant who is afraid to uproot from New York, Boston or San Francisco because there are no large bases there. When you live in Kansas, Japan or Norfolk, the military will move your stuff to a place of your choice when you leave the service. Geography is less a constraint - the quality of the program is.

Leaving active duty to attend business school is a profound act - you can't simply go back to work if you do not get accepted. At least for officers, the resignation process is virtually irrevocable, and must be submitted with around a year's notice. You are leaving perhaps the most secure line of employment in America (and a profession that requires tremendous idealism and emotional sacrifice) to go back to school and become the archetypal career switcher. Once you cross the Rubicon, you absolutely need to hedge your bets and apply to quite a few different schools. The cumulative application fees cost quite less than my last set of tires.

This threads been pretty quiet lately, I take it that everyone is hard at work on their R2 apps! For myself, I'm waiting to hear back from Kellogg, Booth, and Wharton for R1. After completing R1, one additional tip I have is to practice phone interviews if you've never done one before. I had a phone interview which felt very challenging because it didn't seem conversational but rather like a series of mini-speeches. Without visual cues or a face to face connection, it also seemed much easier to ramble and diverge off topic. In person interviews still have much to improve on, but at least those are feeling much more natural.

Good luck to those working on R2 and be sure to post if you have news to share from R1!

You can add me to the list of prior enlisted applicants. I was an 0311 in the USMC, got blown up in Iraq, was medically discharged, and am now in Portfolio Management.

I submitted R1 apps to Darden and NYU and will be submitting R2 apps to Columbia, Booth, Wharton, and possibly Harvard and Stanford (we'll see).

Good luck everyone,
S/F,
Tobey

Tobey, welcome welcome. Glad you have you aboard. If you've got time, please check out the non-prof that I'm at now. It was founded by combat vets, for combat vets, looking out for combat vets.

Once again, welcome aboard.

S/F
Chris

Hello fellow military folks. This thread has been quiet for some time, I thought I'd bump it up to see if any new military types are lurking on page 1. To update: I've been dinged at Wharton R1 (no interview), accepted to McCombs, have heard nothing from HBS (assume ding is coming 15 Dec), invited to interview at MIT (interviewing in D.C. on 21 Dec). I'm working on R2 applications to Chicago and UCLA. My awkward visit to Kellogg is still grinding on me with regard to whether I apply there or not. I may forego the application there but I am unsure.

Good luck all!

Congrats on the MIT interview! R1 has been mixed for myself so far: dinged at Kellogg, waiting for post-interview decisions from Booth and Wharton. If you're still on the fence about Kellogg, I highly recommend contacting their Veterans Club. The website has some useful info and the person I reached through it was very helpful in discussing the school. domtri33 is a vet who's there now who posted on last year's thread and this year's MMM thread, so you could contact him as well. Good luck!

Things are going well for me so far. I will be traveling next week for interviews with Darden and NYU. The rest of my apps are R2 so I am a ways from hearing from them.

Good Luck All
S/F

Gents,

Had my consortium interview today and was asked a question that was a pretty good humdinger that i didn't expect.

"You being in the military, you're used to taking charge, leading, and taking responsibility. How would you deal with being in study groups and student organization where you would have to take a back seat and let others lead?"

Something along that vein.

i thought i answered it pretty well, but wanted to give you all a "Shot, Over."

Hey guys, I also had an interview that was pretty interesting.

The interviewer first waited until I responded "name three of your qualities." He then asked: ok, in business school there are going to be hundreds of people that are X, Y, Z. How would you, with these qualities, contribute to an interesting class?

Good luck everyone!

I gotta also say, that jargon continues to be more of a challenge than expected.

you would think, that with all the news over the past few years, that everyone and their mother would know what an IED is.

TOC, COC, FDC, etc etc, totally understand. I gotta look some 'em up sometimes too. But IED? She had to stop me and ask. "Improvised Explosive Device...." she continued to look at me as if I were speaking greek. "Homemade bomb...."

"Ahh..." she said.

Barney style gents... gotta do it by the numbers.

Hello all, happened across this forum when searching for info in regards to Sloan admission fee waivers for active duty military.

I actually just submitted my app to Sloan the other day, specifically the LGO program. As I am looking at dual/joint degrees I am applying to HBS/KSG for MPP, Wharton/UPENN Engineering, and Stanford MBA/IPER (Sustainable Energy Program). My undergrad was Nuclear Engineering and I am doing a joint degree to build on this to either work in the Nuclear Industry, or transition over to the alternatives, hence the Engineering programs. As for KSG - I ultimately want to go into energy/nuclear policy, so if I choose that program I'd probably head that route much earlier. Interestingly enough, with my Nuke degree I was not in the Navy; I was in fact on the opposite end of the spectrum as an Infantryman, so naturally didn't use Nuke in the workplace.

I am pretty confident in my chances to get into at least one of the schools, as in addition to very strong GPA at a very strong school, I have good a GMAT, a very strong leadership background (like all of us military guys here), and a distinguished albeit short Army career. What really helps though is that I was severely wounded in Iraq, which definitely makes my story interesting and compelling.

Other than blasting out the rest of the apps over the next few weeks, I really have nothing admissions related going on, but will certainly keep everyone updated and look forward to reading more interview stories! Best of luck all!

RLTW

Folks - been perusing this website as I labored through the application process and I've appreciated all your insight. I'm a Navy guy in San Diego - so any SoCal guys holler and we'll link up for a beer or several. Currently in at Booth, waitlisted at HBS and Kellogg, and waiting on a response from Sloan.

Good luck to all you second rounders. Would love to talk through everybody's plans to finance this education at some point. Merry Christmas and good luck to all the applicants; congrats to all the admits.

Take care,

Justin