Candidate:

Mr. Ambitious Veteran

About Me:

I have always been an industrious and passionate individual, and I am an effective leader in the Army Special Operations Forces. Every organization I have been in, whether formal or informal, I end up in leadership roles driving team cohesion and efficiency. My recent experience has been in PSYOP, building strategic marketing campaigns and delivering strong data analysis to drive innovation and decision making to affect operations on the ground. I am a detailed oriented person with great verbal and written communication skills. I am a Chemistry undergrad with a concentration in Forensics, my goal through college was FBI. My career goals have shifted but I have strong data analytics and quantitative background making me highly successful in higher level math classes.

My self-assessment of my MBA profile renders my GPA the weakest part of my application. I plan on highlighting my high academic history in math courses such as calculus and statistics as well as my success on the GMAT with a Quant score of 48, an 8 on the IR and 6 on the AWA portions. I was heavily involved in multiple organizations in my junior and senior year, all director or co-director roles, and had little enthusiasm for my higher chem courses. I also was on a strict timeline to graduate as I started college as a Chem/Music double major but had to drop Music my third year to the conflicting requirements of ROTC, Chem, and Music. I was therefore behind on vital coursework and had to spend my last four semesters taking 24 credits per semester plus some summer courses where I was still juggling summer jobs in the process. I have always been “too busy” and my regret in college is I was spread way too thin. I often think – imagine if I would stop spreading myself so thin, what I could be capable of?

Schools:

Target School: Columbia

Considering: Kellogg SOM, Berkeley Haas, Duke Fuqua, Harvard

See More Profiles For: Columbia

Application Status: Open

Details:

Undergrad School: Olivet Nazarene University

Undergrad Major: Chemistry

GPA: 3.1

GMAT: 700

Age: 29,  Ethnicity: Black or African American

Extracurriculars: Math tutor for kindergarten to college students, Volunteer in my church worship band as a drummer, Volunteered in my church to lead the youth group for 3 years.

Work History:

Title: Psychological Operations Officer

Industry: Government / Military

Company: Army

Length of Employment: 8 yrs, 1 mos

Big Life Wins:

In my last deployed role, I was a Special Activities Lead Planner for a unit conducting activities such as sabotage, subversion, military deception, and other activities. Our team was comprised of many different capabilities who had never worked together before and we had very little guidance. I was able to successfully communicate and focus the team’s planning efforts resulting in successful operations which taught me a great deal on communicating to an organization comprised of multiple organizations and skillsets. Additionally, I was personally asked by my church to start their youth program as the youth leader/pastor while working full-time in the Army. I invested a great deal of time and effort into the youth at this church, growing the program from four students to well over twenty active participating students in three years. I coordinated several big events throughout the year that were socialized through our city to collaborate with other churches and high schools. This time was one of the busiest and most rewarding experiences of my life. I also received a volunteer medal for my service to the church, coordinated through the Senior Pastor and my supervisor. Lastly, I was awarded an opportunity to intern with the Illinois State Police in their crime lab working specifically in the CSI department of Drug Chemistry but also was able to work in and around the Ballistics, Biology, and Fingerprinting department. A great experience which fueled my goal to work for the FBI.

Post MBA Goal:

I am using the MBA as a pivot point for my career to learn about the business world, ultimately providing a great foundation to allow my wife and I to eventually start our own company. Everything was geared to a government job working in the FBI/CIA post-military however, with two kids and a wife, I realized how much of a softy I truly am and my desire to be home with my family has become paramount. Alas, my resume was well padded for government jobs, not so much the business world. I am interested in learning anything and everything in the business world to ultimately find my niche, finding my passion and interests to break out into another industry after the initial 2-3 years. I am interested specifically in consulting and leveraging my experience in the STEM world, but am open to roles in project management and even PPM as well – mostly where my experience in PSYOP has been.

Odds:

Join in! Click here to assess the odds of Mr. Ambitious Veteran

The Experts Rate The Odds At: 18%

See what the industry experts have to say:

  • mbaMission Odds Assessment: 15%

    Hi Mr. Ambitious Veteran,
    Impressive credentials! This is Debbie Choy from mbaMission. I think you have a lot of strengths in your profile – very differentiated career with outstanding achievements, strong leadership experiences through the military, leader within your community with tutoring and church. That said, your academics (GPA and GMAT) are below the averages at Columbia, which could be a concern for AdCom. If retaking the GMAT is not possible, do look into other standardized tests like the GRE and the Executive Assessment. Be sure to check each school’s website to see which test they accept but these two tests are commonly accepted these days. Some candidates also find these different test formats more suited to their test-taking style. Finally, you are more experienced than …

    3 years ago Read the full review
  • Stratus Admissions Counseling Odds Assessment: 20%

    Hi Mr. Ambition Veteran, Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. Wow, you may have provided the most comprehensive profile I have yet to see! Thanks for taking the time to give so much background. And thank you for your service. You have a very interesting profile – with a lot that schools will be interested in. While I hear that you are concerned with your GPA – it sounds like you have a story behind this. If you pull out th quant classes in your jr and sr year, do you feel like this is a good representation of your quant abilities? If not, you may want to consider taking a Math for Management course UCLA/UCBerkeley or MBAMath to have a more recent example of your …

    3 years ago Read the full review

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