Mr. Army Officer

Hi Mr. Army Officer, Kristen from MBA Prep School here. Firstly, thank you for your service to our country! Military applicants tend to do very well in the MBA admissions process, and I think you will be no exception. Your leadership experience leading platoons, establishing relationships with international counterparts, and providing humanitarian assistance will be huge positives in the evaluation process. Your GPA and the fact that you are a Berkeley alum don’t hurt either. Given your major was in the arts, make sure you can showcase quantitative aptitude in other ways (whether practically in your military career, through your GRE quant score, or through online coursework in calculus and microecon). Also be sure to tie the skills you have developed in the Army to consulting through specific examples, and try to emphasize collaboration and independent thought (as sometimes these values can get lost in a lock-step, hierarchical military environment). I think you have a solid shot!

Hi Mr. Army Officer, Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. Go Bears! And thank you for your service. Overall, I think you have a very strong profile – if you haven’t already check out the MBA Veterans Network. You can connect with others who have used an MBA to transition from the military to industry. Consulting is also a common path – as you build a set of skills that are highly leverageable into consulting through your military career. As you are thinking through your story – where do you see consulting taking you long term? What do you want to do aspirationally? This story will be an important part of your application – it shows up differently in each school’s essays. Haas will be looking for how you embody their 4 Defining Principles. You will also want to make sure that you demonstrate these principles and that you can handle the quantitative rigor of a business school program, since your degree does not appear to be quant heavy. Berkeley has a great extension course that would help demonstrate your commitment to an MBA and your readiness. I like the list of schools you have overall – and think you’d be successful across this list. I’d say you have 2x the likelihood of Haas’s average of 17%. Reach out if I can answer any other questions.