<p>Do colleges care about what you did in the military? For instance, will a college look more favorably upon someone who was in a more specialized unit, where everyday life was arduous and the fact that someone lasts more than a few months qualifies them as one of the best soldiers in that branch? I don't really want to delve in specifics, but if someone has had a college express interest in what you did specifically in the service Id be very interested to hear about it.</p>
<p>In a word no…they don’t care that you were in special forces or a mechanic…there’s no way for a college adcom to know what jobs are harder than others to get into in a given branch let alone between the branches.</p>
<p>Ditto everything they said. Universities care more about HOW you tell your story than what your unit/branch/MOS does. You could be a Special Forces Soldier (those guys are awesome), but be passed over for admissions for a civilian, if you don’t put enough effort into your application and essays.</p>
<p>And that’s harder said than done. For example, one of the places I applied to asked what I did during the previous summer, which is when I was in Afghanistan. It wanted a one sentence answer, and it took me weeks (yes, weeks) to come up with a good sentence.</p>
<p>tip: focus on SHOWING what you did, rather than explaining it (that’s what your recommenders should do). Give a short story or tale of a moment from your military experience. It’ll allow you to provide more details, and separate you from the applicants that just talk about how hard/great/important their job/volunteer experience is compared to others.</p>
<p>Thanks for your insight yolocholo and army113. I definitely need to figure out how to condense my experience into an easy to understand blurb. I have one of those jobs where everyone in the military knows it, but to people outside of the community when I talk about it, they just have so many misconceptions.</p>
<p>Maybe try concentrating on a particular event that helped you grow or helped dramatically shift your character into who you are today? Maybe something from a schoolhouse/training event so as to avoid any possible OPSEC issues that could affect the flow of the essay when you leave them out. My essay probably encompassed a 10 minute span of the seven years I was in.</p>