Top 8 Military MBA Applicant Mistakes

Here are the top 8 most common mistakes I have seen military applicants make this season. The good news is that just about all of these can be addressed...

8. Not coaching theirrecommenders sufficiently

It’s the applicant’s responsibility to coach and educate hisrecommender, but often this is a senior officer, and doing so is contrary tothe military chain of command and protocol. This awkwardness often leads tomiscommunication and a “hope for the best” approach that won’t cut it.

Recommenders should ideally show new perspectives on theapplicant, reinforce key applicant value propositions, and shore up perceivedweaknesses. Often none of these happen in a military letter of recommendation.Some senior military leaders have written many letters, and are familiar withthe process. Others however may not have a clue for what makes a good LOR, andmay revert to language found on an applicant’s military performance report, whichis often vague and full of not very useful hyperbole.

Applicants should coach their recommenders by making surethey understand what it is business schools look for, and educate them on theirown applications and aspirations so that the recommender can do his part. 

Lastly, applicants should follow up regularly with therecommender to make sure the LOR is turned in on time, as late recommendationsare unfortunately more common than they should be. If a recommender is waitinguntil the last minute to write your letter, that is also a bad sign he is notinvesting the time and thought necessary to write a compelling recommendation.

7. Thinking that theyshouldn’t try to communicate specific career goals because they don’t knowbusiness well enough

“I don’t know anything about business, so I can’t write aspecific career goals essay.” This is an initial approach taken by manymilitary applicants. Showing that you have sufficient introspection to knowwhat kind of career you want topursue, and the ability to follow through with research as to what thatactually means, is part of the point of a career goals essay. Not havingbusiness experience is not an excuse.

6. Not having enoughnon-military people review their application

A military applicant can write an essay that he is in lovewith, and all his military peers may also love it, but it might be confusing,offensive, or just completely incomprehensible to a civilian reader who has nevermet anybody from the military. If you have ever returned to your hometown afterlosing a member of your unit on a deployment, and heard for example,“Afghanistan? Oh, do we still have troops there?” – Then you already know whatI am talking about. There is a large part of America that is largely insulatedfrom the military. While we should give the admissions committee the benefit ofthe doubt, it is still to your benefit to get people who you would neverotherwise engage with to provide feedback on your essays. I mean people wholive far away from military bases, who don’t know anything about the military,and are a different gender and generation from you. Getting their perspectivemay point to serious holes in your assumptions about what some people actually know.

5. Writing a resumewithout a civilian perspective

This one is pretty straightforward. Translating yourmilitary accomplishments into civilian friendly language, getting rid of alljargon, and emphasizing what is important to a civilian reader necessitateshelp from a civilian who knows how to write proper resumes. Make sure you havea trusted advisor for this step.

4. Underestimatingthe GMAT

Never count on a GMAT score until you have taken theofficial test. I’ve seen applicants who sometimes consistently score 700 onpractice CAT exams end up walking out of the testing center with something inthe high 500s. That may be an extreme case, but it’s not uncommon for applicantto score 50-100 points less than they hoped for on the day of the actual exam.The reasons for this are outside the scope of this article, but the point isthat don’t count on a score until you have an official one in hand. This meansthat you shouldn’t go forward with your application with a plan to just takethe GMAT late in the ballgame and assume a top score. Taking such a strategyhas caused many to delay for a later round, or force an application with a poorscore.

The best thing to do is to take the GMAT well in advance….Well before even starting applications. Having a score in hand will free you upto completely focus on the application itself, and give you a better idea onwhich schools you should apply to as well. If it’s too late to take it well inadvance (at least 6 months prior to the application), then at least leave timeto retake the exam a second time after 4-6 weeks if needed. One’s first shot atthe GMAT really ought to therefore be an absolute minimum of 10 weeks prior tothe application deadline. I also advice applicants not to work on their GMATprep and essays at the same time if possible. Either is difficult enough on itsown and takes a full commitment.

3. Underpreparing forthe interview

Most military applicants have never had a b-school styleinterview in their lives. Knowing how to properly handle insightful questions,awareness of how to read and communicate body language, engaging theinterviewer in conversation (not just monologue), feeling confident speakingabout your history, your future plans, your familiarity with the school, andcurrent market events, all take some serious time and effort.

Between the GMAT and essays, some applicants may spendhundreds of hours towards their application. With the interview weighing in asmuch as a third of your overall application, spending an hour or two inpreparation shows a complete asymmetry in one’s planning. It would be likespending 200 hours preparing for ingress and egress on a mission, and spending2 hours for actions on objdctive. Make sure you get the support you need toprepare if you are unfamiliar with these styles of interviews.

2. Assuming theirmilitary experience is unique

Military applicants sometimes think that theirinternational, Pentagon, or MOS experience, by themselves, makes them unique enoughto stand out from the crowd. Similarly, some applicants with weak GPAs from aservice academy think/hope they will be cut a break from schools because lifeat a service academy is more demanding than non-service academies. All of theabove are poor assumptions to make.

Of all the military applicants at a school like HBS, it isunlikely any MOS or deployment experience is the first they have seen. It islikely there is at least one, if not a half dozen or more other applicants witha similar enough profile. Furthermore, there are plenty of applicants with topGPAs from military academies, so the thought that attendance at a serviceacademy, by itself, will mitigate a low GPA, is also a poor assumption. Inother words, one should not over-assume strengths or underplay weaknesses incomparison to his competition.

None of the above implies that one’s military orundergraduate experience cannot be leveraged to deliver a great application.Certainly some experiences can be very compelling; they just can’t be assumedto be enough. It will still take a lot of effort to find your voice.

1. Self-selecting outof top schools

“I don’t have the stats for my dream school, so I’m notgoing to apply.” – More often than not, this is wrongly assumed. GPA and GMATare not the only criteria… and why would you ever self-select yourself outanyway? At worst case, you lose the application fee and spent some timeadjusting/improving your portfolio of application essays. Why not let theschool make the final decision? The only way to guarantee you won’t get in is notto try.

MBA Military Applicant Guidebooks

I'm pleased to announce a series of guidebooks specifically geared for military MBA applicants. After collecting successful applications from military applicants at the top business schools (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Dartmouth, Columbia, Booth, Kellogg, UVA, and Duke), I hand picked best-in-class essays which effectively communicated the wide range of experience that military applicants typically struggle with in their application process. For each essay, I included a one page analysis highlighting why that essay was selected, what its strengths were, and what areas could be improved to make an even more perfect essay. The "Ultimate" guide has over 100 pages of essays, resumes, analysis, and advice.



The essay topics are broken down by category, such as leadership, accomplishments, setbacks, and community engagements. Military stories range from picking up one's first platoon, to passing a navy performance test, to commanding an aircraft, to life at a service academy, to going above and beyond on collateral duties typically assigned to a young officer. There are also many essays that are not directly military related, ranging from playing sports in college or organizing high school events. It's important to recognize the value of these essays as well, as it is sometimes difficult for military applicants to know where to balance military and personal stories. Reading through these essays will bring a tremendous amount of clarity to all these questions.

Additionally, I created a resume book of successful pre-MBA resumes, to give new applicants an idea of the kind of language that successful applicants used in their resumes to effectively communicate accomplishments and job descriptions. The resume book covers applicants who went to USMA, USNA, and USAFA, as well as private and public universities.

Overall, I believe these guides will serve tremendously to level the playing field for military applicants versus traditional (banking, consulting, etc) applicants, who can more easily gain access to successful examples of applications for people of their backgrounds.

The guidebooks are a great companion for somebody in the process of applications, as well as for anyone several years out who wants to get a glimpse into the kinds of activities, engagements, and valuable lessons that applicants were able to tap into as part of a successful application.

For more information on the guidebooks, click here.

MBA Application Essay Strategy: Career Vision

Without a doubt, the career vision essay is one of the hardest questions in any MBA application. Indeed, it’s a difficult question for any young professional to answer, but it’s especially so for military veterans. As military veterans, you have little-to-no experience in the private sector, and therefore seemingly little context with which to frame your vision. You’ve just begun to dip your toe into these waters, so how could you possibly know where you want to go and what you want to do? Perhaps a quick look at what veterans go on to do after business school will point you in the right direction. But I think you’ll find this exercise fruitless. Veterans go on to become consultants, bankers, private equity investors, entrepreneurs, and general managers...just like most other newly-minted MBAs. And telling the admissions board in your essay that you can’t wait to be a consultant isn’t going to earn you any extra points. So, is it even possible for veterans to provide believable answers to this question? In my opinion – YES, absolutely, but you need to approach it wisely. While HBS has dropped this traditional question from its required essays this year, the question is still implied in it's new essay (Why do you need an MBA?). Furthermore, most other top business schools are asking it in one form or another as well. And even if you don’t write about it in an essay, the question is bound to come up in an interview, so developing a well-laid strategy for tackling it will be well-worth your time. In this article, I’ll offer a few pieces of advice that will help you craft a winning answer to this vexing question.

The first mistake that many veterans make when answering this question is that they’re too specific in their answers. They essentially come up with a career roadmap. This is understandable since this is how we’ve been trained to think. If you were planning on making a career of the military, you could pretty clearly map out your next 25 years to include promotions, geographic moves, top-level schools, etc. But that’s not what these business schools are looking for. There are three problems with this approach. First, it’s just not believable – it’s very unlikely that as a veteran, you’ve got a firm enough grasp on all the career opportunities out there to know exactly what you’re going to do. Second, it reveals a lack of understanding of reality. In reality, a career roadmap is quickly rendered useless. No plan ever survives first-contact with the enemy, right? The same holds true for career paths following business school. And third, it’s just not very interesting. The admissions committee is reading thousands of essays and wants to be wowed. A too-specific career vision essay risks reading more like a snooze-inducing career manual than an attention-grabbing story.

The next common mistake that veterans make is that their answers can be far too vague. If the clearest takeaways the reader is able to draw out of your essay are along the lines of “this candidate wants to lead people,” or “this candidate wants to have an impact,” then your essay falls into this category of unconvincing ambiguity. These takeaways, in and of themselves, are not bad, but they only begin to scratch the surface of what’s needed. 99% of the applicants with whom you’ll be competing also want to be leaders who have impact. So if that’s all your essay communicates, then you haven’t done anything to separate yourself from the pack. Beyond that, a vague answer to this essay could indicate to the admissions committee that a few things could be true of you: you have no idea what your career vision is, you haven’t invested the time reflecting on the question, or you’ve just taken a stab in the dark at something that might be interesting to a reader but that you really have no interest in. Clearly, you don’t want to give the admissions committee, or anybody else, a reason to think these things of you, so do yourself a favor and don’t be vague.

So far, all of I’ve done is tell you what not to do. Don’t be too specific, and don’t be too vague. And you’re thinking that it sounds like there’s a very fine line to walk somewhere in the middle. You’re absolutely right, and that’s partly why it’s so hard to get into top business schools, regardless of who you are. But, now I’d like to offer a way to find that fine line.

The approach I’m proposing incorporates just three simple rules:

1. Be authentic: For this essay to be both believable and interesting, your answer must be authentic. It has to be sincere. Don’t fret over picking an industry to write about. Many veterans think they need to put their stake in the ground somewhere so they just choose something…like consumer package goods or renewable energy. In most cases, unless you can really make your case that you were made for these industries, picking an industry like this just won’t seem authentic. So start by reflecting on what you’re passionate about. What are you great at? What do you love doing? What activities really energize you? And when answering these questions, think about function before industry. The next step involves orienting your passions toward your career aspirations. Maybe you love working with a blank slate and creating something completely new, and thus you can’t wait to be an entrepreneur. Perhaps you relish the opportunity to develop and mentor people one-on-one, and therefore look forward to further honing your leadership abilities and investing in individuals as a general manager. And perhaps you do have an industry, say real estate, that you’re truly passionate about, and you’re clamoring to learn the art of the deal and develop your first property. These would all be a great start to developing your career vision. Whatever it is you end up deciding to write about, if you make sure it’s a real passion, and not some manufactured answer, then your essay will meet this first critical requirement of being authentic.

2. Talk about results: While it shows great ambition and confidence that you aspire to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the admissions committee is much more interested in learning about what you’ll do as that CEO. What impact will you have? Other than the fulfillment of personal ambition, what will be the result of you reaching the pinnacle of corporate success? Think about the mission of the schools to which you’re applying. Take the mission of Harvard Business School as an example: “We educate leaders who make a difference in the world.” Focus on the last part of that statement. It doesn’t say “we educate leaders who rise to the top of their respective organizations.” So as you craft your response to this question, think about the difference that you’ll make. Translate your career vision into tangible results that the world and other people will feel, and you’ll be on the right track.

3. Connect the dots: Remember that this essay is but one piece of your candidacy and that it needs to make sense in the context of the rest of your story. While most of your application, including your other essays, will be a reflection of your past, who you are, and where you’ve been, this essay affords you a rare chance to talk about who you want to become, where you want to go, and what you aspire to accomplish with your life. The last thing you want is for this beautifully written essay to be floating out there on its own, so make sure that you’ve taken the time to link your vision with the rest of your story, both past and present. As the admissions committee reads your essay, they should think to themselves that the essay could only belong to you, because yours is the only puzzle into which this piece fits.

So, clearly, this is a tough essay to get right. In fact, according to conversations MilitaryToBusiness has had with admissions committees from several top schools, it’s the most common weakness with military members’ applications. But this doesn’t mean you should avoid the question and choose another that’s easier to answer. Try to view this question as an opportunity to shine and standout from the group. Just make sure you understand what it takes to nail this essay before you begin to attack it.

One final suggestion: before you begin brainstorming potential answers to this question, read a few of these HBS Portrait Project essays to get your creative juices flowing.

-Dave C., Guest Blogger and Senior Consultant with MilitaryToBusiness (bio)