B-School Application Steps + Gouge
written by a Military Success Story from last year! [military-mba access required to view]
Are you transitioning from the military and looking to the MBA as your next challenge?
Vets and current servicemembers, yes it’s a total cliche to say it but, EssaySnark does appreciate your service to the country. You didn’t have to join up, but you’re a bad-@ss, and you did.
This page offers some military-specific resources for applying to business school, including some special military-only offers that we make available for MBA admissions consulting.
EssaySnark saw MBA admits from the military contingent in 2016 to: Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, UCLA, Yale, Columbia, Booth, MIT, Darden, Wharton and Ross!
In 2015, our list of military MBA admits was: Berkeley, Duke, Kellogg, Wharton, Ross, Tuck, Stanford, Yale, MIT, Booth and HBS. We know what it takes to get in and can offer some free resources to you as a military candidate to help you get there.
If you’re applying for an MBA in 2017, you should know that things are heating up in MBA admissions. Like other candidates, military applicants are coming to us even more prepared, with even more impressive profiles. The competition is stronger than ever.
Want to understand how you stack up? We offer several ways to help you in the journey from the military to MBA – see below for details – or you can start by browsing through our archive of blahg posts tagged for military candidates (some require signing in under an account with Military MBA permissions, which you can get for free based on instructions below).
Military MBA News
Please see the list of links on the side when you sign in under your Military MBA account. Here are some recent highlights:
NYU Stern now has a very generous scholarship and pre-matriculation program available to military students coming into their full-time MBA. The Fertitta Veterans Programs is unique among top bschools and this will be making NYU a preferred choice for many, we expect.
In addition, Cornell Johnson has been VERY welcoming to the military candidate lately. Military students went from 2% of the Class of 2013, to an incredible 11% of both of the Classes of 2018 and 2019. We don’t know of any other school that’s admitted such a high proportion, though their class tends to be smaller (~275 students) so in absolute numbers it’s not as extreme as it sounds.
The Class of 2019 profile at Michigan Ross also shows an appreciation for the military candidate: 10% of their class of 422 are from public sector (military/government).
You guys (and gals!) are popular!
That being said: It is definitely harder if the profile has significant weaknesses, since there are simply more transitioning servicemembers nowadays. A higher GMAT score can be a much more important boost than used to be needed for a military candidate to stand out at the most competitive schools. You don’t need to get into the stratosphere with your score — but lots of military candidates do report much more impressive totals than used to be common. It’s getting tougher for everyone!!
EssaySnark’s history of service to you
In 2012, we provided $2,225 in pro bono services to military MBA candidates, and it was $6,521 worth in 2013. We racked up over $10,000 in free services for 2014. In 2015, some unfortunate experiences caused us to scale back (explained below), yet even so we still broke the $5,000 mark in pro bono work, and we hit $3,800 in 2016. For the 2017 admissions season we’re already over $2,300 offered up to military applicants (and we’re very grateful that all of them most of them have had good manners! thank you for making us feel good about helping y’all out). Here’s a testimonial from a 2015 military candidate that attests to some value.
Current policy
Military candidates always get a free blahg membership and free access to the Military MBA microsite and all military-specific posts on essaysnark.com.
In addition, effective March 17, 2015, we will offer pro bono MBA admissions consulting services to military candidates on a referral basis.
If you come to us recommended by a former Brave Supplicant, we’re happy to help you with our standard set of free military MBA offerings we’ll consider your request for a free Comprehensive Profile Review. (If the person referring you has referred others in the past who were ungrateful f@cks, then sorry, you’re going to be refused. Referrers: When you tell your buddies about us, please explain the “good manners” thing, or your friends are going to be blackballed. Thanks.)
Didn’t find us by a referral? No problem. Even if you just wandered into Snarkville and you don’t know a previous BSer to offer a referral, we will still entertain requests for assistance.
(To understand the history and why we now have constraints on the pro bono stuff, please see this post; unfortunately in July/August 2016 we are again feeling like suckers since we did another 4 freebie reviews for guys who said literally nothing back afterwards – no reply, response, comment, or even acknowledgement of any sort communicated back to us – and yes we know they received it because they logged on to retrieve it. Four guys. WTF. That represents ten hours of work. WTF again. When was the last time you did ten hours of work for four different people – work that can help each of them tremendously in their ambitions in trying to achieve something very difficult – where your effort was literally not even acknowledged by anyone on the planet? It’s not like we’re asking to be granted the Nobel Prize here. Honestly, just a comment saying “Thanks!” somewhere would be nice. Yeah, and while we’re at it, “Get off of our lawn!”)
Anyway: If you’re a military candidate looking to transition to bschool, please don’t hesitate to reach out – we will be able to offer you something on the site for free – but we’re generally disenchanted ATM about doing more of these time-intensive customized assessments. We’re sure that you are not an ahole, but…
Still reading? Good, glad we didn’t scare you off. We do want to see you successful, we promise!!
We have steeply discounted offers available to qualified military applicants: Comprehensive Profile Review (currently $99 instead of standard price $ 1759.00) and Complete Essay Package (currently $ 999.00 instead of standard price $ 1759.00) — you may want to take advantage of those (please email via instructions below for details). Paying for stuff makes for a cleaner transaction all around and we don’t expect anyone ever to come back with a ‘thank you’ when they bought it. You plunk down a little bit o’ cash, you get a screaming deal of all our in-depth feedback and guidance, you can go on your merry way and we don’t mind if we never hear back again. Easier, right?
We also will grant access to the Crowd-Sourced Essay Reviews section of essaysnark.com to military candidates. Get free input on your essays from other Brave Supplicants – and offer your opinion to others who are struggling with the same! If you’re already a Military MBA member, and you have essays ready for review, AND YOU ARE INTERESTED IN GIVING FEEDBACK TO YOUR PEERS, not just receiving it, send a request in and we’ll enable your account with access. (Note: This service only gets busy right around the deadlines; if you join in the off season there’s not much action there. The 6 weeks pre-deadline are when to do it.)
Here’s some comments received from a military candidate in the midst of the application process in late 2015:
I just wanted to thank you guys again for all of the pro bono offerings for military folks. I spent the last 24 hours digging through your site and I’m really impressed with the content. I wound up purchasing the career goals app accelerator and the six strategy guides to help with my essays. I believe that these are going to be incredibly helpful. I know that I’m going to have a much better product overall having gone through the school guides. I’m also really looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say about my profile.
Thanks, BSer!
Some of this page is accessible to approved military candidates only.
You are not logged in. Please log in to continue, or follow the instructions below to request access.
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This is a special EssaySnark microsite with specific resources for military candidates going for their MBAs.
If you’re a current or former member of the U.S. Armed Forces, you may email your request for access to military at essaysnark dot com. Please include your full name and at least two of the following:
- your resume (can be a work in progress, need not be beautiful or final)
- a current set of orders
- your Proof of Service letter
- a scan of an official form of ID (state driver’s license or passport, or selfie described below)
- send the email from your .mil address
We understand that you can’t photocopy your CAC but how about taking a selfie holding it, with your thumb over the QR code, and sending that? The point is that we want to see that you possess one, it doesn’t have to be a close-up with the details. Bottom line, we do need something to verify you. We’ve had some fakers try to take advantage of our generosity so we need to get some evidence that you are qualified for these services.
We also have special deals for Peace Corps and Teach for America alumni.
Every single year – including this last ultra competitive one – EssaySnark has helped military candidates with successful applications to:
- Harvard
- Stanford
- Wharton
- Columbia
- Tuck
- MIT
- Duke
- Tepper
- Darden
- Cornell
- Berkeley
- Yale
- Ross
- LBS
and many other great schools (basically any that you can think of). We’re here to help you no matter what stage of the game you’re in.
As part of our ongoing program to support to military MBA candidates, we offer:
- a free three-month membership to the EssaySnark blahg
- access to this Military MBA microsite
- an opportunity for a pro bono or heavily discounted Comprehensive Profile Review (available to U.S. servicemembers only)
- steep discounts on other admissions consulting services
- free access to the Crowd-Sourced Essay Reviews private forums for those willing to contribute – contact us if you have some essay drafts ready for critique by fellow Brave Supplicants, and you’re ready to provide comments on theirs
We also published The Military Candidate’s Guide to the MBA, a complete how-to from EssaySnark. You can pick yours up here or, if you purchase future admissions consulting services from us (after your freebie Profile Review) then we’ll throw in the Military MBA Guide for free. (Again, you can read this post from April 2014 to understand why we’re not giving the guide away to everyone; this may change in the future – hopefully.)
Here’s what one servicemember said after receiving their pro bono Comprehensive Profile Review:
EssaySnark,
That might have been THE most helpful thing I’ve received throughout this entire b-school application process. Thank you.
And another comment:
Thank you for the great feedback! It was far more than I ever expected.
One more:
I just wanted to acknowledge receipt of the profile review and thank you for your analysis. It is clear from my initial read that this product definitely took some time and you did it for free- I really appreciate it. I also appreciate the frank assessments and recommendations- it made me do some hard thinking and I already contacted (school) for more information and contacted their veterans group. So that was a great initial takeaway and recommendation.
Thank you for that! (See, we know that not everyone is ungrateful.)
If you’re a current or former member of the U.S. military, email military at essaysnark dot com with the verification items above to request access. And thank you for your service!