Military veteran / West Point graduate seeking tier 1 MBA. What are my chances?

Graduate School Business School - MBA
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I left the service this past November after 6.5 years as an infantry officer and have deployed to Iraq as a leader of 20+ men. In my last Army assignment I was an analyst dealing with higher level issues such as materiel acquisition, organizational restructuring, and Knowledge Management. I would like to get my MBA from schools such as HBS, Wharton, or Columbia.</p>

<p>I graduated from West Point in 2003 with an Electrical Engineering degree and a GPA of 2.67, which I know is below par for top business schools. I have a GMAT score of 680.</p>

<p>My first question is how much top b-school admissions officers take in account the undergrad program and institution? I’m hoping that the fact that EE is a challenging degree, and that West Point is a challenging institution with significant mandatory extracurricular activities, will help me. I’m sure that if I had attended a state school and majored in literature or political science I would have a much higher GPA. </p>

<p>The second question is the value of my recent and current work experience. I am currently serving a year in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor embedded with an infantry brigade (3,000+ people) as a Knowledge Management (KM) Officer. I am part of our military’s first effort in history to place individuals in a combat theater with the objective of streamlining information flow and other systems and processes. I have also worked in KM for two years at the US Army Infantry Center. I also work for one of the top defense contractors that has a household name. I want to use my MBA to learn how to run a business and then start a KM consulting business in the civilian sector. </p>

<p>The third question is the value of a non-MBA masters from a good school to raise my GPA and overall CV. I would ideally go directly into a tier 1 MBA program but am considering a detour to increase my chances. I have been accepted to Carnegie Mellon’s Masters in Information Technology program, which is congruent with my KM path. I would be able to take some of the courses online from here in Afghanistan. Would getting a very high GPA from CMU significantly help my chances? I would hope a committee would consider how I have grown academically over the years.</p>

<p>Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.</p>