In Part 1 of the Military to MBA series, we looked at making the decision on an MBA. Is it even worth it? Are you going after an MBA just to get a fancy degree? Do you need it to accomplish your goals?
Assumedly if you are reading this, you are staying with the idea that going from Military to MBA is the right move for you.
So what do you do next?
Early on, you need to start evaluating schools. The MBA application process can be intense and time-consuming. There is a lot of research you need to do on schools, the test to study for, interviews, your resume, letters of recommendation, and then (hopefully) deciding between a fistful of acceptance letters. Going directly from the military to your MBA can be even more challenging while applying in addition to transitioning out of the military.
Before you jump into evaluating schools, you should already have thought about:
Format of the MBA
Maybe you don’t need a two-year full-time MBA. Maybe all you need is a part-time one. I visited a top-20 school and spoke with a vet who already had a successful business and was starting the process to start pitching investors on a new spin-off idea. He was already doing well and taking the time off from his business to commit to a full-time MBA would’ve been a waste of time. So he was just planning to do weekend classes. And likely he will crush it.
While having an MBA from a top program usually means going full-time, your career does not have to be limited by that.
What you want to do after your military to MBA journey
Have a good idea of what you want to do. At least know what 1–2 industries you want to pursue. If you are thinking, “I want to recruit for management consulting AND investment banking!” that is like a 17-year old going to the recruiter and saying “I want to be a Navy SEAL Ranger sniper.”
Narrowing your focus will help you look at how schools prepare their candidates for careers in that field. Later, in the essays (Part 4) and interviews (Part 5), you will also need to be able to articulate your career goals and how an MBA from that school will help you get there.
Where you want to live
People: If you are getting your MBA as a civilian, I have exciting news for you.
You can decide where you want to live.
No one is going to give you orders sending you to the god-forsaken parts of the country where military bases are. You can literally live wherever you want. Part of your decision on a school should take into consideration where you want to be during and after you graduate.
How do you like to learn?
There’s a few aspects of this that can be used to evaluate schools.
Class size: Do you mind being in a huge class like Harvard Business School, typically over 900 people? Or do you like knowing each and every person and want somewhere where everyone knows your name, like Tuck with around 280 people.
Teaching method: The big debate in MBA education is on the case method vs. lecture. Schools like Harvard say that the case method is basically the only way you can do a business education. The argument is that accounting is just not going to get learned via lecture — you have to get in there and crunch numbers. Other schools disagree. Harvard and Darden both stand out as being entirely taught via the case method, while most other schools have a mixture of case and lecture.
Faculty: This, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated aspects of a school. The rankings put way more weight into how much money someone makes right after school, and a lot less on how good the teachers are. Teach a man to fish and all that jazz. During your evaluations, take a look at the faculty. Call current students and ask how engaging and involved their professors are.
Ok, once you’ve thought about these things, what next? You need to actually start evaluating schools to determine where you will apply your time, money, and resources toward applying.
How?
Financing
This is a factor that I think gets drastically overlooked moving from the military to an MBA.
I did a full post on this topic, which you can access here.
For me, I know that I plan to launch a company from business school. I expect that the first few years after graduation, money may be a bit tight. With that in mind, I really did not want to go somewhere where I was going to have to take out students loans to afford my education — meaning that public schools were my best option.
If you do not have 100% GI Bill benefits, this can be a serious constraint as well. There are ways to help which will be detailed in future posts.
But you may be thinking, “I’m planning to go right into investment banking” wherein the salary and bonuses you receive will likely be enough to help you cover any student loans you need, and the long-term return on investment (ROI) on attending a top university is worth it.
Talk with current students
The best place to start is the veteran’s club. Every school has one. Find their email and ask to talk to a current student veteran.
I cannot express how amazing I found the veteran network during my own MBA search. The universal message I received was “We are here to help. Even if it is to help you get into another school. We want to see other vets get into top programs and crush it.”
If you aren’t having luck communicating with the club (as happens sometimes — it’s usually just a generic email that someone may check once a week) then do a simple LinkedIn search. Type in the school you are searching and a branch of the military, ex: “Michigan Ross Navy” and see who comes up. Send them a message and let them know you’d like to find out more.
Go into your conversation ready to ask specific questions about the program. Questions I would always ask:
- Is the school helpful in working with veterans?
- In what ways are partners and spouses brought into the community?
- How engaging are the professors? Can you access them a lot? Do they do a lot of work with students outside the classroom?
- What are the ways the school is helping with entrepreneurship/consulting/investment banking?
- What types of career counseling services are available and how long do they last as alumni?
If you can, link in with a vet who has a similar career goal. Talk with someone who is planning on going into consulting if that is what you want to do. If that’s not who you get, then end the conversation by asking if they know anyone interested in the same.
Then, and this is really important, ask to speak to a civilian student. This is a critical part of getting the best out of your military to MBA journey.
Why is this emphasized? Because, in my honest opinion, veterans have a tendency to have “dazzled by the lights” syndrome with business schools.
What do I mean?
Imagine you speak with a fellow vet and they spent last year in COP in a remote part of Afghanistan. They then went to visit a school and it was amazing! Gorgeous campus! Free lunch from the school! And everyone speaks super nice to them and they got to call the dean by their first name!
I think there can be a tendency from veterans to just be amazed by business schools. They have beautiful campuses, tons of social events, and are filled with diverse people. Compared against military experience, often spent in windowless SCIFs, grey-metal ships, and the groundhog day feeling of a deployment, business schools can all appear totally amazing.
Civilians, on the other hand, can be less impressed. If you speak with someone who worked at Goldman Sachs last, they are likely not going to be as smitten with all the flash as a vet might be.
So make a point to talk to both.
Talk with alumni
I personally underestimated this in my own process.
Talking with alumni can help you learn more about the long-term value of a program. Are they still connected with the network? Has the network helped their career?
Make no mistake, a huge part of what you are getting out of an MBA is a network. It may even be the only thing that really matters. Every alum I spoke with at different schools didn’t spend time talking about the best class in accounting they had — they spoke about the way their relationships from school have helped them. Especially moving from the military to an MBA, your network from business school is a really crucial component of your career trajectory.
Go on a school visit
If possible, go on a school visit. But go in being skeptical and with a healthy dose of cynicism.
The typical advice is “you have to go on a visit.” I always hear:
“Oh I went to my school because I came for a visit and loved it!” No shit. They treat you great and you are only there for a day. How much can you really expect to learn in a day or two?
Some schools you really do need to go visit. For example, I went to visit Tuck, which is perhaps the most isolated of the top programs. I didn’t fully appreciate this until I stepped off the bus from Boston and couldn’t even get an Uber. At all. But that remoteness creates a really tight-knit community.
If you go, have clear priorities on what you want to evaluate:
- Make an appointment with the financial aid office to talk about how you would pay.
- Attend a class. Ideally, find out what class you will be going to and email that professor beforehand and see if you can grab them to ask some questions afterward.
- Drive around the surrounding area and see if this is somewhere you want to live for two years.
My point is that go with clear things to discover, otherwise you can just be trapped into:
“It’s nice because they gave me a great free lunch and in the 17-minute convo I had with a student they said it was great and so now I am committing two years and tens of thousands of dollars.”
You’d be surprised how easily that will happen.
Especially as part of your overall transition process from the military, deciding on which schools to apply is a huge task.
Be deliberate.
Don’t be distracted by the flashing light and glitter.
Decide what you want and what really matters to you, your family, and your career goals. That’s the best way to successfully move from the military to an MBA.
Related:
Well laid out and with key points to consider