A Steely-Eyed Infantryman Writes a Personal Essay – Winning Admission to Harvard Business School (Part 2)

Marty told us about his GMAT drama last week, this week he provides us some more great info on getting killer letters of recommendation and writing fantastic essays (while deployed, of course).

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 Applying while deployed

With my GMAT complete, the rest of the application could be completed while deployed.  I applied to only four schools after talking with friends, reading forums, and pouring over school websites in order to find the best fit:

1)      Harvard because of the brand and reputation, location, the Case Method, the general management focus, and all of my friends there said the equivalent of “it was [or is] the best time of my life,”

2)      Wharton because of brand name and reputation, the ability to choose majors, and proximity to Virginia – I have fond memories of Philadelphia (and UPenn) from Army-Navy games

3)      MIT because of brand name and reputation, and location

4)      Darden because of reputation, its proximity to my family and friends, affordability – education benefits would pay for the entire tuition, the Case Method, and location (Charlottesville is an awesome city)

The applications were relatively straight forward with the main parts consisting of 1) administrative data (filling in GMAT/GRE scores, academic history, parent’s information) 2) letters of recommendation 3) essays and 4) resume.  The majority of applications were due in October 2011 with the schools announcing results in December 2011 thru January 2012.

 Letters of Recommendation

For my letters of recommendation I asked my old Battalion Commander from my first assignment.  I choose him because he could highlight one of the more “academic” and business-related jobs I have held – a battalion civil military operations officer while deployed to Afghanistan.

My second recommender was my current Battalion Commander – he could comment on my command time as a Headquarters and Headquarters Company commander in garrison and in Iraq.

My third recommender, for the schools requiring one, was my Battalion Commander during my first company command.  I performed well and he would be able to describe my performance in garrison leading a company through the Army transformation process.   I did not choose a recommender from my West Point days because I failed to keep in touch with any of my old professors.

I had kept in touch with all of my former (and current) bosses so they were not surprised when I asked them for a recommendation.  I sent them my college transcript, all of my evaluation reports, and a letter of intent with a brief description of the aspects I was hoping they could touch on (it is terribly cliché but I was trying to mold the “Marty Peters” brand that I was presenting to the schools).  All of the letters of recommendation are completed electronically with each school’s application program.

LESSON:

• Choose your recommenders carefully in order assist the “brand” you are trying to present to the business school.  Pick ones who know you well and can comment on various aspects of your career and on you as an individual.  During interviews, schools drew questions from my recommendations.
• Keep in touch with old professors to give yourself recommendation options.
• Tell your recommenders as early as possible.  All of mine are very busy Army officers in command of hundreds and, in one case, thousands of troops.
• Send polite reminders via email and phone (as necessary).  One of my recommenders did not submit a recommendation until two hours before the deadline – I was stressing heavily until he emailed me saying it was complete.
• Identify a secondary recommender and ask them if they would be willing to fulfill the role.  Ask your recommenders to complete their forms a week before the deadline.   If they do not/you are unable to make contact with them shift the recommender to your secondary one.  You do not want to have an incomplete application because a recommender was unable to write one for you.

Essays

At West Point I took the prep course for cadets selected to apply for the Rhodes, Marshall, and Mitchell scholarships.  While I did not earn a scholarship, I grew from the application process in understanding how to write personal essays.  This assisted me greatly in writing my business school applications.

For the essays, I brainstormed ideas.  Given my background (older (29), unique Army experiences, deployments, more direct leadership experience) I did not have any trouble finding ideas to answer the prompts.  I wrote my essays during my free time.  The motivation to write the essays was not hard to find since after-work activities were limited.  On completion and after initial edits, I sent my essays to 1) Tim Hsia (Stanford Business School and friend from USMA) 2) Andrew Hitchings (Harvard Business School and friend from USMA) 3) my father and 4) my wife.  They all provided me very good feedback.  I did not make any major changes with my essays, but all helped me with the flow, better wording, and making my writing clearer.

LESSON (nothing shocking here):

• Brainstorm for ideas.
• Make your essays personal.  If you do not feel embarrassed about showing them to people they are probably not personal enough.
• Send your essays to people in business school, or alumni.  They can give you a good assessment.
• Send your essay to someone who has no experience with the military!  They will ask the questions that need to be asked if you are writing an essay with a military subject.

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Thanks again to Mary for his great advice.  If you are a veteran applying to business school or even grad or law schools and think you could use some help, let us know .  Stay tuned for Marty’s last AAR bits of wisdom next week!