Meet Notre Dame’s MBA Class of 2017

Will Moran

University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business

Hometown: St. Louis, MO

Undergraduate School and Major: U.S. Naval Academy, B.S. English

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: U.S. Marine Corps: Major, Helicopter Pilot, Forward Air Controller

Recalling your own experience, what advice do you have for applicants who are preparing for either the GMAT or the GRE?  In flight school, you had to know “the gouge”- i.e. what was going to be covered on the next flight or evaluation. The GMAT is the same way. Learn the actual test, in this case meaning the type of questions, how many, how long, how they are scored, what are the possible answers to each type of question, etc.  You could get that on your own from prep books or from a prep course. Time is your biggest constraint on the test and knowing all of the specifics will pay off. Once you have that down, you can focus on refreshing subject material like algebra or exponents.

Based on your own selection process, what advice do you have for applicants who are trying to draw up a list of target schools to which to apply? Broaden your horizons. That’s the advice I received from many MBA candidates ahead of me. My perspective changed so many times throughout my MBA prep and application process, and my target school list was initially very narrow (and for very limited reasons). I couldn’t be happier to be at Notre Dame – yet I hadn’t seriously considered this school when I first started my search, and there was no particular reason why. Thanks to some helpful suggestions, it all just seemed to click once I started my detailed school research. Once I broadened my search, I realized that this school was a better fit for me than other schools that I ultimately turned down.

What advice do you have for applicants in actually applying to a school, writing essays, doing admission interviews, and getting recommenders to write letters on your behalf? Start early, and practice! The earlier, the better, so that you have time to let your materials be reviewed by others – or just sit while you take a break and reflect before coming back for another draft.  That also helps with recommenders. On that note, pick somebody who can write genuinely about you, not simply the highest person up your food chain that you think would agree to do it.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? First, it was the emphasis on family – from becoming a part of the Notre Dame family to including my own family in as many events as possible, which is important to me during this big career change with a family of seven.  But more than that, there’s that “special” somewhat unquantifiable attribute that is the university of Notre Dame. It’s the same reason people around the country who have no affiliation with the school still get goose bumps when those golden helmets run onto the field. I can’t describe it, there’s just something about this place, and it’s very cool to be here. I feel so proud and excited every time I bring my family on campus, and my boys race to be the first one to see “The Golden Dome” through the trees.  There’s definitely some future “Domers” in this family.

What would you ultimately like to achieve before you graduate? A lot – I wish there was a 3-year MBA! Perhaps the fact that I graduated from college 11 years ago gives me more perspective than some of the younger folks in that regard. Obviously, I’d like to use all of the many available resources to decide on a particular business concentration and find a great job. But my point is that I want to make the most of my short time at Notre Dame, and I can already tell that it is going to fly by way too fast. I want to learn about as many industries as I can, travel on the great inter-term Mendoza international trips, take my wife and each of my 5 sons to a Notre Dame football game, get to know all 120 of my classmates, live in South America for a quarter, and much more! Go Irish!