The following section provides individual stories and their specific lessons learned. Each provides a unique perspective that can hopefully spur thought at what might be possible for you.
The following has been adapted, with permission from the author, from the upcoming book: Breaking Business School: A Military Veteran's Ten Step Guide to MBA Success
A few years ago, no one would have given me much of a chance at getting into Wharton. I was in my mid-30’s, had been working in the private sector for a few years, and had a less than spectacular undergraduate academic record. I was hardly the prototypical veteran MBA applicant. However, through focus, hard work, and perseverance, I was able to beat the odds and earn a place at my top choice school. I am sharing my story to highlight that there is no set age when someone, especially a veteran, has to get an MBA. Rather, the degree is a step in your journey that you must take when you are ready. Also, mediocre grades are something you can overcome by getting a high score on your GMAT or GRE and crafting a thoughtful, introspective application.
I graduated from the Naval Academy in 2005 with a degree in English and a mediocre GPA. Looking back at my time at Annapolis, I realize that I did not focus on excelling academically but mainly aimed to stay "sat" (off academic probation). I cared more about leadership and my extracurricular activities, which included sports and community service. I underperformed without question. However, I was lucky enough to be offered an interview for a commission as a nuclear submarine officer, which I passed, earning a spot at Nuclear Power School. I worked hard, made it through the battery of exams, and went on to complete a tour as a division officer on a fast-attack submarine. I had follow-on assignments in the Middle East and Europe. I enjoyed my time in the military, but, after seven-and-a-half years on Active Duty, I decided it was time to see what the civilian world had to hold.
I did not see the value in getting a full-time MBA and wanted to get into the private sector as soon as possible. I went to several placement firms but had my best success with the Service Academy Career Conference (SACC), where I secured a public sector consulting job through a contact I made. So, I moved to D.C. and started my career inside the beltway. After several years in D.C. which, included a Navy Reserve Mobilization to the Middle East, I was offered an opportunity to work as a defense consultant in the Middle East. The opportunity seemed exciting, so I jumped on it.
After a year of this work, I asked myself: "Is this the direction I want my life to go?" I had either served in the military or worked in the defense industry for almost all of my adult life. I wanted a change, but my background and experience were so specific, it made pivoting difficult. The best solution was simple: hit the reset button by getting an MBA from a top program. However, I was over thirty, had thirteen years of work experience, and had a low Naval Academy GPA. I was hardly an ideal candidate. So, how did I beat the odds and get into Wharton?
If you have a weak undergraduate GPA, you can make up for it by crushing the GMAT. People often target 700, which is fine if you have a good (3.5+) undergraduate GPA. But, if you are in the low 3.0/2.0 range, you should shoot to score close to 730 to compensate for your GPA. Getting this score takes a serious commitment. In my case, I spent about 200 hours over four months of studying. I did over 1,000 practice problems from the Official GMAT Guide and completed eight practice tests before taking the exam. My hard work paid off, and I scored well enough to compete for a place at a top business school. My score went a long way to removing doubts adcoms had about my academic capabilities, given my subpar GPA. To be clear, the GMAT is only one part of your application. Many people have gotten into top programs with lower scores. A higher score only improves your admission chances.
If you are older and have significant work experience, as I did, adcoms are bound to wonder what you hope to gain from a full-time MBA. In my case, I hoped to use the lessons I learned serving and working overseas to methods to use business to improve a wide variety of global issues. I sought to leverage my experience and combine it with a top MBA program's resources to pivot to the next phase of my career by joining a consulting firm that does social impact and sustainability work.
Before you start your applications, I advise you to sit down and write a concise one to two-sentence answer to the questions: "Why an MBA? Why now? What am I going to do with the degree?" These answers will provide the structure you can use in writing your essays and during your admissions interviews.
I chose Wharton as my top school because I had several friends who had graduated from it, each of whom had an incredible experience. The school has a well-deserved reputation for being very vet friendly. Furthermore, I knew its name would open doors for me professionally. Therefore, I contacted my Wharton friends to get their advice on my application essays and resume. The best part about working with your friends is that they will give you brutal, honest feedback. One of them tore my resume apart and said it was one of the poorest written he had seen. Although that feedback was tough to swallow, it made all the difference as I revised my resume and essays over a dozen times until each was polished to perfection. By narrowing my focus, I ensured that I devoted considerable time to get my application right. If you do not have friends at particular schools, reach out to their veterans’ clubs and get a Service to School MBA Ambassador. These people have been through the process you are starting and will share their insights into how you can best translate your experiences into a compelling application narrative.
My hard work and focus paid off when Wharton accepted me. I went on to have an incredible time during my two years at the school. The maturity and perspective my age brought, coupled with my years working in the private sector, served me well. I definitely do not think I would have gotten as much from my experience had I pursued an MBA at the “normal” time.
You should not go to business school just because you think it is the right thing to do at a particular time. Rather, you should apply to MBA programs when you have a clear focus and reason for wanting the degree. My example should also show you that you should never sell yourself short because you do not think you have a strong enough background for a particular program. A strong GMAT score and thoughtful application will go a long way to compensating for an unimpressive undergraduate transcript. Do not sell yourself short, and do not deselect yourself from a program you want to attend.
UCLA Anderson School of Management is very heavy in entrepreneurship. I was already expecting that, but I was surprised at the number of opportunities to help you advance your ideas towards reality.
In the beginning, I felt out of place (impostor syndrome) from being next to so many talented and successful individuals. Then you realize that most people think the same way about everyone in the room.
When you break into your core teams, most people look to the veteran to get things going or start things up. Similarly, we tend to take an extra second to analyze things before jumping to conclusions.
Expect to spend more than 20 hours per week on schoolwork. You can get away with less, but it depends on what kind of grades you are looking to achieve. Also, most of the work is performed in teams; you must be clear with your teammates about grade and work expectations. You could be in a group where everyone is shooting for a B, and you want to get an A. In this situation, you will be doing most of the heavy lifting. In my case, I have spent, on average, 30 hours per week in schoolwork. When you are not working, you are doing schoolwork.
As a veteran, I received a lot of help getting my tuition requests from the VA established. I am using Vocational Rehab benefits that fully cover my tuition. My experience with our Veteran office has been outstanding.
If I used my GI Bill benefits, tuition would be fully covered too because UCLA is a public school. It is crucial to do your homework and find out how far you can stretch veteran benefits to cover tuition.
I am an active member of the Anderson Veteran Association (AVA). I have answered to many veteran requests for information about the program. Before beginning at UCLA, I did not know I could reach out to veterans at Anderson to help me navigate the application process. Please reach out to your intended school’s veteran association before applying.
Switching to 100% online was tough. UCLA was not immediately ready to do the change from my experience, but this was new for everyone. EMBAs were significantly affected because, in a hybrid program, we already have limited interaction with each other.
Since the beginning of 100% online classes, I have seen a lot of effort put in by Anderson faculty and classmates to enhance our virtual school experience. I can honestly say that UCLA is doing an excellent job of listening to student feedback.
Author profile: Single male. Marine officer for 6 years. Attended Stanford GSB full time MBA program 2017-2019.
Regardless of whether someone was transitioning from the military or a different sector, almost everyone I know who got an MBA evaluated the decision (pre-matriculation) from the perspective of financial opportunity cost. While there are many other considerations, it’s the most tangible and concrete data that people can compare on an apples to apples basis. This isn’t a wrong or bad methodology. Just one of many and the most common. It’s not dissimilar to how people anchor on salary in job negotiations when we all know that a job encapsulates so much more than a paycheck.
In hindsight, I can honestly say that I have not thought about my decision to attend a full time MBA program from a financial perspective a single time since I have graduated. I say this as someone who took out six-figure student loans. In fact, I have thought many times that I would make that decision all over again if someone told me that stepping out of the workforce for 2 years and paying a lot of money would have zero positive impact on my future lifetime earnings.
Similar to how it feels wrong to count the money you spent on the countless dates trying to get to know your husband/wife or the money you spend on raising your kids, it feels futile to try to put a price tag on the experience of a full time program. What is it about the experience of a 2 year full time program that underpins such a strong sentiment?
When I think about my time in business school, here’s what I feel I took away in order of significance.
Lifelong friends and memories
Personal journey
Network
Education
The reputation of business school is that it is primarily partying, schmoozing, and professional networking. That’s partially true, particularly on the surface level. But after you graduate and see the experience for what it is on the other end, it just feels like it doesn’t capture the totality of the experience. It’s like how someone can read a million books, watch every war movie, and talk with hundreds of vets, and even then, their understanding will be lacking and won’t fully capture the totality of what military service entails.
Before business school, every now and then, I would meet someone who would come across as particularly thoughtful, kind, charismatic, interesting, and grounded, and would really whet my appetite to spend more time with them. At business school, I’d say that described the majority of my interactions on any given day.
A full time program afforded me the environment, time, and autonomy to build the foundations for lifelong friendships and to create treasured lifelong memories. I love my friends from the military, but when I left and they stayed in, our common life experiences naturally diverged over time. My military friends understand me in ways that my business school friends never can. Having said that, my day to day life, experiences, and the things I think about on any given day have much more overlap with those of my friends from school.
The experience was incredibly vivacious, perspective giving, and life breathing. Because of the diversity of experiences, I (along with many of my friends) felt like I lived more life during those 2 years than 5 years of working a normal job. I don’t think of my classmates as my “network.” I just think of them as my friends - friends that I feel as strongly about and fondly towards as I do with my friends from the military.
For me and the vast majority of my friends who left the military, transition was a longer, harder, and rockier process than we had all anticipated. Business school is in some ways a 2 year placeholder on your resume where no one will critique what you accomplished professionally.
The full time experience meant that I was immersed in an incredibly supportive and forgiving environment for two full years where I could ask all my dumb questions, explore and learn about what might be interesting for me professionally, soul search about post-military life, and test different hypotheses on how I might best structure my professional career and environment moving forward. It was an incredibly meaningful and powerful opportunity to reflect on my identity outside of that as a Marine and to shed my old skin. Life in the military is the definition of a bubble, and my two years in school afforded me a chance to gain a sense of self-awareness and appreciation for my past life.
When I think about what I learned at business school, my attention immediately snaps to the depth and breadth of all that I learned about myself, the world, and others. It’s only after I spend time reflecting on the big life lessons that I recall everything I learned about the nuts and bolts of the business world.
While I don’t think of my friends as my network, I do think of the general alumni base as the network. One important thing to note when it comes to the value of a network is how responsive and helpful the alumni network is. Some school networks are a loose affiliation. Other schools foster such a tight knit experience that alums will respond to cold emails as if you’re a long lost friend. I tend to think this is a function of the size of the program, the culture and experience of the program, and perceived exclusivity by alums.
I loved where I went to undergrad (a big state school) and wouldn’t change it for a thing if you offered me the chance to redo life and you sweetened the deal by giving me a full ride and admissions to the most prestigious universities in the world. Having said that, the difference in access to people I wanted to engage with before and after business school was on a totally different scale.
I went to school thinking that my greatest takeaway would be the classroom education. Whenever I was assigned to a certain position in the military, I was always sent to a school to learn the ropes whether that was airborne school, MOS school, etc. When I left the military, I just assumed that if I was going to vaguely work in “business,” I should probably go to “business school.” While I chuckle at my naivete, business school in some ways felt like a career starter in a box: “Here are the basic concepts you need to know. Here’s the culture you need to absorb. Here’s the jargon. Here’s your rolodex of people who can help you along the way.”
While I had incredible professors and I learned more in my classes than I can sufficiently capture in this note, the vast majority of my business learnings during school came offline. From asking my friends questions about their previous roles on random weekend trips or dropping in on random conversations on campus, I found that so much of what I learned were things that are more caught than they are taught. How do you communicate the interpersonal dynamics between a lieutenant, the company first sergeant, and company gunny to a new officer? Similarly, I think lessons like that have to be experienced and are incredibly difficult to articulate through a textbook.
It’s also the soft stuff - reading a room, being comfortable talking with executives, developing pattern recognition of complex business dynamics, understanding different organizational cultures (sales, finance, legal, etc), recognizing you aren’t so different from your civilian peers, developing the confidence to feel like you belong in the room and that your opinion isn’t totally irrelevant, etc. To me, the full time experience gave me every opportunity to fill that out.
I haven’t gone through a PT or EMBA or online program. I was intentional in trying not to compare the experiences. Maybe it affords the same opportunity, maybe it doesn’t, but that’s a call that only you can make for yourself. Truth be told, if you’re the type of person that can gain entrance to a top program, you probably don’t even need all the benefits that it affords. You’re the type of person that will succeed regardless of what obstacles you encounter and what disadvantages you may or may not face. But if you have the chance to add all these advantages to your toolkit at what will be a marginal cost in hindsight, why wouldn’t you? I also acknowledge that not everyone is in a position to attend a full time program, but if you can afford to take the time off and have the budget for it, I would highly recommend it. 10/10.
Unfortunately, my test scores, GMAT in my case, were extremely low compared to the average applicant at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Through peer reviews, and talking with the admissions staff it was clear it was going to be large hole in my application to overcome.
I took the GMAT a total of three separate times within a period of two years. Test prep was an investment that I made (classroom, book, and online), but contrary to glossy brochures filled with guarantees, I was the outlier whose score did not increase appreciably. It was devastating; the time, the study, and the money invested did not move the needle in my favor. I remember vividly sitting outside a testing center in a suburban Memphis strip mall frustrated and alone in my 1996 Ford Ranger, “What is wrong with me?” was repeated until I composed myself and drove home. That was my Scarlet O’Hara moment with regards to Business School Admissions.
In the cycle of grief, my sadness, anger all turned to motivation and I developed a new strategy to present the best version of myself to the Admissions Committee without a solid GMAT score. I had been given the advice to take graduate level finance and accounting courses in order to show the board that I could handle the academic riggers and complexity of a top business school education. I enrolled myself into the University of Arkansas satellite campus in Memphis, TN. The University offered a unique one-year degree in Operational Management. The course work included a finance and accounting course - bingo. I am not a dumb person despite what my GMAT indicated, and I knew I could succeed in a classroom environment. I dedicated myself to each course and through a lot hard of work and time commitment in class and out of class I was able to achieve high marks across all my classes.
Instead of hiding from the GMAT, I addressed it head on in my application. Several schools give you the ability to add any additional comments that you feel the Admissions Committee should know upon the review of your application. Northwestern University is no different. I wrote the following to committee
“There is only one reason why I obtained my Masters in Operational Management from the University of Arkansas. It was the next step I had available to prove to you, the Kellogg Admissions Committee, that I have the aptitude, desire, and resolve to handle graduate level business courses. I have been attending night class for the last year and a half, Monday through Thursday, 7pm to 10pm, to prove to you that I can handle: finance, accounting, and management courses. I have dedicated the last couple of years to get to this point – hitting the submit button.”Did this get me into Northwestern? Who knows? The admission’s board does not provide feedback on applications, whether you are accepted into the program or not. Nevertheless, it validated to me that my drive was worth it. It also gave me faith in the system that schools are looking for the best applicant regardless of potential or perceived holes.