Grooming My B-School Application
I have just graduated from a large university in the SEC and I am headed to Navy OCS in about 2 months. I had a 3.32 in accounting during undergrad.
I haven't had to work in the past few months, so I have put in about 150 hours of gmat studying, and I am taking the test on April 9th. I have been hitting 710ish on my practice tests, and I still have another month so I anticipate scoring 710 to 720 on the actual exam.
That would put me about average for schools outside of H/S/W, and Duke is my first choice. What can I start doing NOW and at the beginning of my Naval career to make my application look more favorable to business schools when I start applying in 2015 or so (after my 4 year commission in the Navy has concluded)
Adcomms focus on the following (in no particular order):
Undergrad ranking (i..e top program vs. no name) GPA (also consider difficulty of major, grade inflation, etc.) GMAT - want to see an good split between Q/V (min 80%/80%) Extracurricular activities during and after college - volunteer work, community involvement Essays (how compelling is your story, why MBA, etc.) Work experience and growth (leadership roles, salary and responsibility increases)
You should focus on becoming as well-rounded as you can by getting involved in stuff that interests you (i.e. donate time and coach a little league team, etc.)
With a 710, 3.3 GPA, 4 solid years in the Navy, hopefully some outside activities and a cogent story you should be competitive for all schools outside of H/S/W. You could compete at any of the M7 schools if you can build in some kind of wow factor over the next 4 years. Good luck.
You could take a few graduate level courses and get A's as well which adcomms sometimes recommend to help mitigate low GPAs but I would say 3.3 is low.
yes I was planning on taking a few online classes or something to boost that GPA up to a 3.4, which seems to be the mean for most of the top schools. I appreciate the response.
Focus on being at the top of your peer group. Stand out by working harder and smarter than everyone else. Awards will fall into place. Take leadership roles in your community, and be entrepreneurial with your community service (do something innovative and productive for your community). Show that you retain solid ties with your undergrad. Befriend Barack Obama or Admiral Mike Mullen so they can write you some recs.
Not in the military--its all a political game and timing within the unit. Learn what you have to do to get those top rankings and quarterly awards. Surprisingly, they don't always (actually, almost never) go to the guy who is contributing the most.
Hence the " work smarter" portion of my advice. I agree - you can get screwed with timing and you have to know how to play the game. When you are the most senior guy in your peer group you need to make sure you are set for that #1 ranking. My experience was that some of the bigger military leadership awards (the ones where they take nominations from several commands) are obtainable if you have done great work and drop a hint to a helpful higher up that you would like to be nominated. Do something that puts you on the map with senior leadership outside of your command (for instance, writing a compelling article for a military-wide publication) as well.
I will definitely do all of the following. Do you guys think I could get away with fewer volunteer "community leadership" type activities considering I will be on a ship in the middle of the ocean for 6 months a year?
Who says you can't help your fellow man on the ship? Okay, that sounds gay but you know what I mean.
haha I will get in some community stuff on my ship then. it should be really easy to get involved with, right? I have very little knowledge about how life in the Navy works, just to be completely honest.
One more thing guys:
should I study for the CFA level 1 at some point in the next 4 years and pass it? Obviously you cannot be a CFA in the Navy due to the lack of applicable work experience, but would passing level 1 help me very much in terms of b-school apps? I think that 150-200 hours would be enough studying, and considering I get 6 weeks of liberty a year I know I can find that time in my schedule to devote to studying.
Occaecati vel suscipit vitae magnam. Magni quo qui illum neque quaerat nulla corporis. Maiores voluptas ut nihil ex error commodi ea blanditiis. Quia corrupti asperiores sint eum.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...