Kenan-Flagler Business School Assistance

tarheel931

tarheel931

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Greetings my online Tar Heel brethren. I reached out to the Rock a while back about asking if it would be ok for me to ask for some guidance about applying to the Kenan-Flagler Business school. I am graduating in May with my B.S. in Cybersecurity from Augusta University and am in the midst of applying to Carolina. I've dreamed of attending Carolina since I was a kid but I lacked the discipline when I was younger. Luckily, the Navy cured me of that. I have a few questions if anyone has the time to pass along any wisdom or guidance.
I graduated high school in 1989 and started college immediately. I was a good student my frosh year but transferred to Ga Southern and the good times ran aplenty. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Statesboro. So much so, that it eventually led me to the Navy. I spent 24 years in service and rose from the rank of E-2 to retire a LT (O3-E). In full transparency, when I started back to uni after retirement, my GPA was atrocious. When talking to the Dean of the school, he told me about academic renewal. I applied for and was granted the renewal in the summer of '24 (all of the grades that won't qualify for graduation come off of the calculation of my GPA but stay on my full transcript). Since I have been back in school, my GPA is a 3.7 (78 credit hours) but my overall GPA is a 2.86. My two references are my former Commanding Officer (now VADM and running NAVIFOR (Navy Information Forces Command). My second recommendation is my civilian boss at my last duty station. I have been encouraged to include a section of my essay describing my previous academic performance and to touch on my military service.
Is there anything else I can do to prepare? I sent a copy of my resume to the admissions counselor and they are waiving the GMAT requirement based on my Navy leadership experience. I realize how ultra competitive this process and I want to ensure I put forth the best application I can. I would apprecaite any and all feedback or suggestions. Thanks for your time.

R,
Jimmy
 
SnoopRob said:
Out of curiosity, why do you want an MBA? What do you plan to do with it?
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When I commissioned in 2010, I was performing Program/Project Management roles. I've led from 45 Sailors to 165 and managed budgets in the 7 figures. I would like to continue to work in a Program/Project management role and know that an MBA from Carolina would continue to open a lot of doors. The plan is to work on my PMP certification this summer once I graduate as most of those roles require that certification. I'm also applying to Business school at UGA and Georgia Southern.
 
It’s probably not as competitive as you’d expect. Outside of a select few full time MBA programs, most schools will accept you if you are willing to pay. Sounds like you have great leadership experience in the military - I’d expect you wouldn’t see much resistance. I have my MBA from Wake, no GMAT required. I didn’t apply to KF, but spoke with an advisor a few times, and it sounds like they would have extended an offer had I applied. Mind you, this was 10 years ago.
 
I was an alumni interviewer for 15 years from a nearby school. Don't know about KF specifically, but most b-schools really like veterans (they also like stories where people found the right path). Your long service time makes you a non-traditional applicant: it's not always easy to get your story across just through the application.

Your objective is to get an interview to plead your case. You have a unique story. The questions admissions will have in their head is:
Can this candidate do the work?
what will his classmates learn from him?
Will he get hired?

If you get an interview, keep in mind those three questions even if the interviewer doesn't ask them directly (they may ask other questions but the is what they want to know).
 
Willy said:
It’s probably not as competitive as you’d expect. Outside of a select few full time MBA programs, most schools will accept you if you are willing to pay. Sounds like you have great leadership experience in the military - I’d expect you wouldn’t see much resistance. I have my MBA from Wake, no GMAT required. I didn’t apply to KF, but spoke with an advisor a few times, and it sounds like they would have extended an offer had I applied. Mind you, this was 10 years ago.
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I think this is true. I think you'd have an extremely good chance of getting accepted just based on your 20 plus years of Navy experience. The more recent strong GPA is really going to be much more indicative of your ability to handle the course load vs something that happened when you were young and dumb.

You may even want to aim a little bit higher. Keep Keenan Flagler as a safety school and apply to a few other places if the timing can work out. I say this as a semi-proud kenan Flagler alum.

One thing to keep in mind with a Keenan Flagler type of school. They are very strong regionally, but their reputation tends to get weaker the further you move away. So if you're interested in jobs that are in the Midwest, consider a peer institution like Notre Dame or Michigan. If you're interested in jobs on the west coast, consider something like UCLA. If you're interested in jobs in Atlanta, consider Georgia tech or Emory. But if you get into a place like Duke or MIT, The reputation is going to extend Nationwide.
 
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tarheel931 said:
When I commissioned in 2010, I was performing Program/Project Management roles. I've led from 45 Sailors to 165 and managed budgets in the 7 figures. I would like to continue to work in a Program/Project management role and know that an MBA from Carolina would continue to open a lot of doors. The plan is to work on my PMP certification this summer once I graduate as most of those roles require that certification. I'm also applying to Business school at UGA and Georgia Southern.
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You may want to test the waters a little bit before you invest the time and money into an MBA if you haven't already. If you have a cyber security degree and all of your security clearances and 20 years in the Navy, you're set to make an awful lot of money either as an individual contributor or managing a team for a contractor. The MBA might not get you much more in terms of money and or job satisfaction.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
You may want to test the waters a little bit before you invest the time and money into an MBA if you haven't already. If you have a cyber security degree and all of your security clearances and 20 years in the Navy, you're set to make an awful lot of money either as an individual contributor or managing a team for a contractor. The MBA might not get you much more in terms of money and or job satisfaction.
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I was thinking the same thing. You could be making a lot of money for the next few years rather than paying a lot of money. If your goal is to climb the corporate ladder and become a President or C-level position the MBA would likely help you on that journey, but if you wants to stay in your field I suspect the people determining your future advancement will care more about what you've done than what advanced degrees you hold.
 
Thank you all for invaluable insight and words. I sincerely apprecaite the assistance and you've all given me a lot to think about. It sucks having to grow up. HA!
 
gtyellowjacket said:
You may want to test the waters a little bit before you invest the time and money into an MBA if you haven't already. If you have a cyber security degree and all of your security clearances and 20 years in the Navy, you're set to make an awful lot of money either as an individual contributor or managing a team for a contractor. The MBA might not get you much more in terms of money and or job satisfaction.
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Agree 100% with this. I have a BS in economics. I have probably managed 15+ MBAs over the course of my career. I would do the PMP and take a pause to see what kind of job options you are seeing. MBAs are expensive and rarely necessary. I only recommend them to people who are already further on in their careers if they are looking to make a dramatic change in what they do.
 
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