Duke / Fuqua - 07-20-2022 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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July 19, 2022 5:41pm ET

Applying: Duke / Fuqua, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM

Intake Year: 2024

Pre-MBA Career: Army Special Forces Officer

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Bain , BCG , McKinsey

GRE: 322

GPA: 3.4

Years of Work Experience: 8

Location: Colorado

Post MBA Location: North East / Mid Atlantic

Notes:

Current military officer with 8 years of experience looking to apply for spring. Specifically looking for advice on applying this cycle and then deferring one year for military service (up coming deployments that back up into next year’s R1 admissions windows). Some schools like Darden openly support deferrals, others don’t offer much insight.

Background: 3.4 GPA from large private university in NE. Business Admin undergrad. Acknowledge the less than stellar GPA - mostly a result of considerable time emphasis on Army ROTC scholarship that then led to future job. Have since taken masters level classes (PMP) with 4.0 GPA … is this worth mentioning in applications?

Work: 8 years active duty, will be 10 by the time I matriculate. Half of that time spent in special forces, multiple international work experiences.

GRE: 322 was first attempt. Retesting within the month. Practice tests averaged 326. Will consider HBS Core to augment sub 327 score.

Study: want to use the MBA as a transition point to move away from government sector and move into private, ideally consulting to start. Have particular interest in non-profit consulting - family founded business of 30 years turned into one of the larger non-profits in tri state (NJ NY PA).

After work: live near family on east coast.

E.C. Volunteer with Team Rubicon (disaster relief)

Like (1)

Show Comments (7) Last: August 8, 2022

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 Tricky one re the deferral issue. All programs will have a deferral option for extreme circumstances, but those candidates are essentially applying for a specific year of enrolment, then something happens, and they try to defer. Are you concerned that you will not be around during the round 1 cycle of next season, is that the reason? Will you be around for the round 2 cycle? Retaking the GRE will help, complimenting with HBS CORe also is a good idea. A brief explanation in the optional essay works, but just to provide context, and keep it brief. Military service, and special forces, should play well in admissions. Make sure you reach out to the veterans’ clubs of programs you’re targeting. I’d also firm up your long term goal, re your family business? (1)

mmyers19 Likes Earned: 3 Thanks for the response alex. I will be around for round 2, and could possibly submit for round 1, it’s just a large unknown what that time leading up to round one could look like (communication access, etc). Understand your point on the typical application of the deferral process. I think to clarify the goal, it would be to ultimately earn my way into an advisory / board position with the family non-profit and others like it where I can help smaller non-profits make that difficult transition from people run organizations into systems run organizations capable of scaling. It’s something Ive done informally for a while and would love to do it in a more official capacity. I envision the medium to get there being a pivot into the consulting field (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 I think I’d hold off and apply for next season, rather than try to figure out a deferral process. Round 2 should be fine, it doesn’t sound like you need to be in Round 1 (as a candidate who’s part of an over-represented group might). Consulting as a short term goal makes sense, and is very typical for military candidates. (0)

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1237 This is an interesting dilemma.... On the one hand, if you applied to programs and got in, then learned you were being asked by the military to do another tour/period of service for which your skills were needed and which would be a growth experience, I could see a last minute pitch to the program you had accepted and offer with turning out in your favor... On the other hand, if you already know in advance that you will be heading off on deployment and cannot attend this year, it's certainly a harder pitch. (2)

mmyers19 Likes Earned: 3 Updated gre 328 from 322. Curious how this adjust my applicant profile? Would something like HBS core still be advisable to maybe round out the quant strength looking at some of the tier one programs. 161 Q 167 V. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 328 is great! The 161 quant score might be lower than average, however, so if you have the time (and resources) maybe look at MBA Math? (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2022/08/wire-taps-246/ (0)