770 GMAT, Military/CPG WE, eval please

Question

1) 25 year old, white male (US Citizen)

2) 3.6 GPA at unranked (?) private, liberal arts school. Majored in Financial Economics, 3.8 major GPA (I think). Participated in ROTC and commissioned into the Army National Guard upon graduation.
GMAT: 770 (49Q, 47V)

3) WE: I am in the Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq for 2009. My civilian job is at a top-5 CPG, working in customer operations. I am looking at a promotion soon, most likely into a logistics planning role. My WE is 1.5 years military, and 1 year at my CPG (although on paper I've been with the company for 2.5 years).

4) Extracurriculars: Volunteer weekly at a women/children homeless shelter, this spring I will help prepare taxes for low-income households, in college I did ROTC and was in choir.

5) Short/Long term goals: I might like to study marketing at B-school, but I have thought about pursuing non-profit work. If I did marketing, I would want to work for a company that produces something that actually makes people's lives better. I have not figured out what this is, yet. I am intensely interested in Behavioral Economics, and would like to study individual decision-making and have a career in helping individuals make better decisions for themselves.

6) Schools: Booth, Kellogg, Vanderbilt (Owen). 
I have just started looking at B-schools, and I have a year to decide what I want to study and where I would like to go. I am planning to start B-school in the fall of 2012.

Any feedback on my WE would be great, as I am hoping to have a shot at merit-based aid at top schools. Is this realistic?

*Edit:* I am not eligible for GI Bill since I had an ROTC scholarship, so I can't participate in Yellow Ribbon Programs.

mohater · Answer

Your profile looks strong.

Two things:

1. You have military and prof experience. Make sure you paint a picture drawing from all experiences. Don't pigeonhole yourself.

2. Consider expanding your scope. Some other schools are very strong in Marketing and are a bit lower ranked (IU Kelly School of Business). With a strong app, your chance for money (fellowship, scholarship, etc.) is more likely at a school such as IU.

shadow · Answer

I think your profile is very strong on paper. You should have no trouble getting an interview, but once you're sitting in the interview, none of the stuff on paper matters anymore; it's all about how you sell yourself to the interviewer and demonstrate that you would 1) be easily employable and 2) be a good classmate and team mate.

Just an aside, you mentioned you were interested in behavioral economics, but listed booth as one of your top schools. Booth - while a great school - is heavily focused on efficient markets theory, which is pretty much the antithesis of behavioral economics (in fact, the whole efficient markets line of thinking is referred to as the Booth school of thinking).

One the other hand, schools such as Yale SOM are more receptive towards behavioral economics. In particular, one of our professors, Nick Barberis, focuses his research in this field; he's one of the most sought after professors at SOM because of his overall teaching style: https://mba.yale.edu/faculty/profiles/barberis.shtml

Good luck in your app process!

spivey181 · Answer

I was (and am) a little confused about Booth, as Richard Thaler's books played a large part in my initial interest in Behavioral Economics, and then I found out that his approach is not representative of the school as a whole. I will definitely take that into consideration when I start refining my school search.

Thanks for your feedback!

bschoolnerd · Answer

I have met other people with military backgrounds here at Kellogg, and I would say your profile matches well - you should have no problem getting into top schools. One comment on your goals though: with CPG marketing, you often don't get to choose the products you work on, so you might work on products that are detrimental to humanity rather than helpful. The required pre-term at Kellogg called MORS 430 (mine was with Professor Adam Galinsky - look him up, he was a fun and enthusiastic teacher) includes a lot about behavioral economics, so that is right up your alley.

770 GMAT, Military/CPG WE, eval please

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