Mr. Military Therapist

Hi Mr. Military Therapist, Kristen from MBA Prep School here. Firstly, thank you for your service, especially with regard to providing mental health resources to our servicemen and women. It sounds like you should have no problem weaving together a story of leadership and social good, and why an MBA is essential in order for you to bring about necessary changes. I do agree that the biggest obstacle you likely have is your amount of work experience. You will be far more senior than many of your hypothetical MBA classmates. I do think you have chosen your target schools wisely, as they may be more willing to step outside their own norms for an extraordinary candidate. If you aren’t interested in EMBA programs due to the requirement to be working full-time (or because you want a more immersive experience), I would urge you to perhaps consider the Stanford MSx and MIT Sloan Fellows MBA programs. They are 1 year, full-time on-campus MBA programs where the average amount of work experience is around 14 years. While these schools are more competitive compared to the others on your list, I think you will stand out. Feel free to reach out if you would like to learn more about them!

Hello Mr. Military Therapist, it’s Lisa Cummings of Stratus Admissions. First off, thank you for your service. Business schools tend to love applicants with military backgrounds as they generally have very solid leadership skills among other positive qualities. You seem to have a lot to offer and yours stats are in line with Tuck’s averages. Your volunteer work is impressive, as are your big wins. However, my question is around your years of work experience. You mention 6 here, so something must be missing. If you were to matriculate in the fall of 2021 you would be 39, well above the average age of a traditional MBA student. This may raise some eyebrows on admissions committees who may worry that you might be hard to place in the job market despite your solid skills. Have you considered an EMBA where your longer tenure would be seen as a plus? Either way, you’ll need to clarify your post MBA goal beyond CSR, and what type of firm and role do you envision yourself in. Best of luck.

Hi Mr. Military Therapist, Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. Thank you for your service. I can only imagine what you have seen in your work across the world. I think you have a very solid background for an MBA. And your goal helps explain why now is the right time for you to get an MBA – as industry is in great need of people to help champion BLM and Me too. The average years of experience for a full time program is 5 – and you will be bringing a wealth of experience much greater than that. I am wondering if you have considered EMBA programs? With your years of experience, you will be sitting around the table and learning from those with more commensurate experience. This slightly depends if you are planning to leave the military as a condition for admittance to EMBA programs is to be fully employed.I would encourage you to reach out to EMBA programs to understand the difference – in general the admissions teams are open to having conversations about your candidacy and whether their EMBA program would be right for your goals. All this said, I think you’re targeting full time programs that will value the work that you have done and would be excited to have you a part of their program. You might want to consider adding Duke or Ross to your list.