Mr. Army Engineer

Hi Mr. Army Engineer, Kristen from MBA Prep School here. First, thank you for your service. As a former MIT adcom, I felt compelled to review your profile. I have to ask why MIT Sloan isn’t on your list of target schools, given your experiences there already! I think your application would be viewed very positively there, in addition to the schools you have listed. You have so many things going for you: nearly perfect academics at West Point, solid GRE score, engineering master’s and research at MIT, volunteer work, and what i assume are some very compelling examples of leadership in your role as platoon leader. The two areas I think you will want to focus on to maximize these strengths are putting together a compelling narrative demonstrating leadership and clarifying your career goals. You’ll want to highlight situations in which you persuaded and collaborated with others, questioned the status quo, solved problems, and developed innovative ideas. From a career goals standpoint, what about the VC industry attracts you? Is there a certain type of firm you want to work for, or companies you want to invest in? Why? Consulting is also a very typical industry for vets to enter into to get that broad business exposure, so you want to make clear connections about why you want to start there and how it will get you to VC eventually (for example, certain practices you want to join or clients you want to focus on). Stanford is looking for applicants who think big and want to change the world, so your goals should illustrate that in more specific ways. Stanford is always extremely competitive, but I think if you put together a strong application you will have a shot. I am very confident at your odds at your other target schools and would love to see you add Sloan to your list. Please reach out if you would like to talk more!