Profile Evaluation - Real estate major

GPA: 3.6
Major: Real Estate
Undergrad: NYU-School of Continuing and Professional Studies
Enlisted Marine (E-4) before NYU

Recently started working at CoStar Group (real estate research firm) as research associate and will be applying next year. (class of 2017)

First of all, I emailed top 20 b-schools about my time in military and most of them gave me very vague answer. For example,

Ross stated: "Our application asks for "post-graduate" work experience; however, you can include your entire work history including military experience for evaluation of your candidacy. For students admitted last Fall, the average amount of post-undergraduate work experience was five years."

Kellogg stated: "In terms of military experience, we are not officially not allowed to “count” pre-bachelor’s degree work in any statistics that we report but we do take military work into strong consideration"

I know b-schools take time in military after college (officers) as work experience but not sure if they would still consider enlisted as a solid candidate. What do you guys think?

Second, does working at a small firm (2000 employees) hurt your application when compared with someone who worked at a prestigious firm like goldman, McKinsey, BlackRock or google?

Third, when I applied to NYU-Stern, they said that because I am a non-traditional student, they referred me to SCPS which is subpar to Stern. Will this put me in disadvantage..? if so, by how much?

Last, with gmat score of 720, do you think it's worth my time applying to HBS and Wharton? Will I even have a good shot at top 10...? (ie. Columbia, Stern, Kellogg)

Please provide some feedback!
Thank you very much.

2 Comments
 
Best Response

Hi Tae Kim, I think the business schools were vague when you emailed them because what they are saying is true: they will consider your time as an enlisted person. You will find on other forums the whole discussion of enlisted vs. officer, and I leave it to the military guys to advise you on that. So everything gets all wrapped up. Also, because you are applying for the class of 2017, which is a bit away, you have lots of time to develop in your current position, so it's really hard for someone to say, "you're in!". Anyway, to me Kellogg seemed to imply that they were not so worried about the statistics and more interested in your whole story.

I think that your progression is interesting, and if you continue to show leadership in your current position, you might be an interesting candidate. I say "might" because I am not very good at assessing odds with the kind of information that can be put out in public on a forum.

My biggest question is about the NYU school of Continuing Education. I'm not that familiar with that school and worry that it might raise some flags. That might be why the Stern people sent you away -- or did they? Maybe I'm missing something in the explanation. As for the GMAT of 720, that might counterbalance any questions about your academic strength, particularly if your quant score is around the 80% range.

The fact that you work for a 2000 person firm doesn't hurt you. It makes no difference at all. The issue is more about what you do there and how you progress there. Also, in your resume and in your data sheet it is incumbent upon you to put the firm into context. If it is relatively unknown, but the "largest/best/ XYZ in its segment".... then mention it. Or in the case of CoStar, it is a publicly listed company that is (something like this): "the worlds the largest and most comprehensive researcher of commercial real estate data"

Betsy Massar Come see me at my Q&A thread http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/b-school-qa-w-betsy-massar-of-master-admissions Ask away!
 

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