The Case for Military Experience

Graduate School Business School - MBA
1

<p>This year I begin my sophomore year at an Ivy League school. Before doing so I must make one of the more important decisions I've faced: whether to continue in the ROTC. If I continue, I will have committed myself to eight years in the armed forces (likely 4 Active Duty, 4 in the Inactive Ready Reserve). If I don't, I face the onus of paying for my three remaining years out of pocket. It's a big deal.</p>

<p>One of my key arguments for continuing has been my impression that military experience will help me gain admission to a top law or business school after my period of service. I'm interested in what members think about this. Will service give me an advantage vis-a-vis a similar student who enters finance or industry after college? Or is it regarded as being on the same plane? Because a military background is relatively rare among Ivy alumni, I would suspect the former.</p>

<p>I should make clear that my decision does not rest exclusively or even primarily on financial or career concerns. However, these do factor into my thinking and I want to ensure I have my facts straight. </p>

<p>For what it's worth, I'm an economics major with something like a 3.9 GPA. </p>

<p>In advance, thanks for your input!</p>

2

<p>Can't speak for the law schools but I'd guess that the majority of them will heavily weight your GPA and LSATs -- the latter more so the more removed you are from your undergrad days. The exceptions will be schools like Northwestern's Law School that look for candidates with work experience.</p>

<p>As for the top b-schools, you will not have any material advantage versus consultants or bankers as that would essentially be comparing apples and oranges. Instead, admissions committees will compare you to other vets. Your GPA is definitely on the right track (though you still have three years of more "meaty" upper division courses to go through) and your GMAT will have to be strong. Most importantly, you will have to progress well professionally. The vets at your top b-schools will more than likely have solid GPAs, good GMATs, and impressive military accomplishments. My military classmates from b-school were from service academies, top publics/privates (such as Berkeley and William & Mary, Northwestern, and MIT), and ivy league schools (such as Cornell and Princeton). Needless to say, your competition from the military to the top law/business schools will not be your average officer -- they will be the cream of the crop. </p>

<p>I will say that relative to most applicants, vets <em>do</em> have an advantage in that the content of their interviews -- where they talk about their leadership and teamwork experiences -- are infinitely more engrossing and interesting to listen to. While that may not appear to be a big deal to you, let me assure you that when your interviewer has heard countless stories of the challenges of managing project deadlines, yours about leading a platoon through an ambush will definitely be more vivid and engaging. Stuff like that gets you remembered -- in a good way.</p>

<p>In any case, it appears as if you're on the right track... do whatever it is you want to do -- just do it well.</p>

3

<p>I am just a 22 year old rising college senior at William and Mary. I just had to put my 2 cents in here. I would absolutely think that your military experience would and SHOULD make you stand out. I mean how many college students can tout that?</p>

<p>Best of luck. </p>

<p>Pedsox</p>

4

<p>
[quote]

As for the top b-schools, you will not have any material advantage versus consultants or bankers as that would essentially be comparing apples and oranges. Instead, admissions committees will compare you to other vets. Your GPA is definitely on the right track (though you still have three years of more "meaty" upper division courses to go through) and your GMAT will have to be strong. Most importantly, you will have to progress well professionally. The vets at your top b-schools will more than likely have solid GPAs, good GMATs, and impressive military accomplishments. My military classmates from b-school were from service academies, top publics/privates (such as Berkeley and William & Mary, Northwestern, and MIT), and ivy league schools (such as Cornell and Princeton). Needless to say, your competition from the military to the top law/business schools will not be your average officer -- they will be the cream of the crop. </p>

<p>I will say that relative to most applicants, vets <em>do</em> have an advantage in that the content of their interviews -- where they talk about their leadership and teamwork experiences -- are infinitely more engrossing and interesting to listen to. While that may not appear to be a big deal to you, let me assure you that when your interviewer has heard countless stories of the challenges of managing project deadlines, yours about leading a platoon through an ambush will definitely be more vivid and engaging. Stuff like that gets you remembered -- in a good way.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The above poster brings up a good point. Maybe you should consider the ROTC SMP. This way you can have a civilian career and also a military career as well. Why not be able to experience both the military life (during deployment and mobilization) and corporate life?</p>

<p>I am currently attending Rutgers Pharmacy as a 3rd year student for my Doctorate of Pharmacy. I'm also an Officer Candidate/E-6 Staff Sergeant for the NJ National Guard (50th IBCT). I'm 21 and I am expected to graduate May 2012.</p>

<p>While I do not come from an Ivy-level school, a Doctorate (direct admit from HS) will give me better opportunities, job security, etc relative to the average student with a Bachelor's. Although I didn't come from a service academy, having the experience as a military officer beats not having the experience at all. I believe if you have a combination of great academics (which leads to better work opportunities/experiences) and military experience as an officer, you will indeed stand out from the crowd.</p>

<p>The military is completely different from the civilian life. You'll know it when you get there. The other college students that spend their years partying in a protected environment will never understand the things that we will have to endure in our service. And that will make us different from them. They are accustomed to delivering the best results in the best circumstances (quite classroom environment), whereas we're trained to deliver the same results under the worst circumstances (lack of food, sleep, distance from home, fellow soldiers being KIA'd). But it's during those times, when the best truly shine, and those who seemed good fall back into the shadow. The military will give you great leadership opportunities that the private sector never will.</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
I'm also an Officer Candidate/E-6 Staff Sergeant for the NJ National Guard (50th IBCT). I'm 21 and I am expected to graduate May 2012

[/quote]

Wow... E-6 at 21? The Army sure promotes quickly ;)</p>

6

<p>Indeed they do. It's almost impossible to reach that rank at 21 unless if you've entered the Guard's OCS program. And from what I believe, this is the last year they've promoted officer candidates to E-6, they changed it to E-5 for the coming years.</p>

<p>It's decent pay for a college student. Also, since the state of NJ has a 15 credit tuition waiver for each semester that you attend a public university for any degree, Rutgers Pharmacy is nearly free for me.</p>

7

<p>I think that either way you'll have a somewhat similar shot at top b-school, dependant of course on how you perform in your 4 years of military service or job experience. Keep in mind that in your case, one experience is going to replace the other. Lets say your goal is to be an investment banker and coming from an Ivy with your grades I would say that is a good possibility. You can work in high finance for 4 years than go to a top MBA program, and pretty much right your own ticket in a field like PE or Hedge Funds. If on the other hand, you become an officer and get into the same MBA program, I think you'll have a tuffer time getting into certain fields since you will have no finance experience at all. You can certainly have very successful careers either way but going with route # 1 will allow you access to the most lucrative fields.</p>

8

<p>I'd say you'd have a good shot, if you go into finance or acquisitions, etc. That would give you at least "mid-level" experience very quickly.</p>

9

<p>Polo08816,</p>

<p>I'm not going out of my way to be a dick but my understanding of your OCS program is that you are PAID as an E-6 but do not actually hold the rank of Staff Sergeant. Instead, you are simply a student in your Officer Candidate School and train on your one weekend as if you were in boot camp. I know the Army promotes quickly but becoming a SSGT in 3 years is impossible! A lot of military people tend to exaggerate aspects of their experience (Force Recon, Saved the war, Ect...). One trait of a great leader is modesty. Never exaggerate your own accomplishments and you will quickly gain the respect of your troops. Congratulations on Rutgers Pharmacy. I went to Rutgers myself and I know this program is top notch, so good look in both your military and civilian career.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]

I'm not going out of my way to be a dick but my understanding of your OCS program is that you are PAID as an E-6 but do not actually hold the rank of Staff Sergeant. Instead, you are simply a student in your Officer Candidate School and train on your one weekend as if you were in boot camp. I know the Army promotes quickly but becoming a SSGT in 3 years is impossible!

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yes, I specifically said that the only way to get to E-6 at 21 is to do it through the OCS program. Currently, they've been having issues with the pay grade of OCS candidates, I think they might even have bumped it down to E-5 SGT for OCS candidates.
I admire the dedication of those in some super secret squirrel career fields, but that's definitely not me. It takes a ridiculous amount of time for training I don't think I'd ever be able to fit it into the civilian career goals I also had in mind. I've always wanted the experience of being a military officer and the path towards becoming one has presented unique challenges that I wouldn't regret having had experienced at all.</p>