Do business schools understand foreign armies or military services such as the French Foreign Legion and consider it as a prestigious work experience leading to MBA?
All for a US born, US educated individual. For example, doing sales for two years (really well) and then joining the French Foreign Legion for 5 year contract before applying for admission?
I have a high GMAT and will get it higher, but also have a terrible GPA (will end up around 2.6/7). My resume has 6 months of entreneur work (failed), 6 months at the hottest startup and then assumedly another 2 years in technology/startup sales and doing great.
What schools would be best for this profile and how does admission view FFL (foreign army) experience.
Think it would depend which schools you apply to. The lady screening apps at HBS probably doesn't know about the FFL, but will more likely have heard about places like the 75th, green berets, etc. This is especially the case with the FFL because, unlike their American counterparts, the French don't pump out movies and media appearances about the Legion every 2 weeks.
Very important, I think, would be how joining a place like the FFL fits into your story. It`s probably easier to spin an American joining the SEALs after school than to try to get people to understand why you went 100% off the radar for 5 years to serve with a rather shady/mythical (but impressive) foreign special force. Being a French citizen/native, I understand just how much becoming a Legionnaire tells about your character, but that won't be the case for everyone.
As a side note, there is no military unit I admire more than the FFL- these dudes are hard as fuck. Remember reading a piece about how, once far into the selection/training process, the instructors would physically beat guys who were not learning rapidly enough (long way from IB, lol). Also recount a Brit saying that the Legion is the same quality of training as the British Paras, but without the political correctness of the UK MoD and with a brutality he had never seen before.
Oh man, this is a good topic. Haven't seen one like this in a while.
So. The FFL is pretty fucking epic. They see a lot of combat as well. I'd probably advise against joining the FFL for anything other than a strong desire to GTFO and do something rogue as fuck. It is incredibly difficult and people are going to wonder why you didn't just join the US Army or something. Honestly, I am wondering why you don't just join the US Army.
https://www.sofmag.com/french-foreign-legion-turns-185/
When I was a kid I read a story of a US Ranger who left the US Military and joined the FFL. Pretty bad ass back in the day.
In conclusion, I would expect zero to negative benefit. At best they don't know. At worst, they wonder why a US citizen would join a foreign army.
The reason why is my brother is a part of the Legion. So I do have personal connections to it. But that is exactly what I was assuming.
Consider getting into a reputed American military academy instead. Those would be preferable for HBS adcoms
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