As noted above, I have been selected to attend a full-time MBA program as a sponsored student with a required matriculation date of Fall 2021. After completing the program, I will move into an active duty finance officer role for my branch.

In my research, quite a few people told me that MBA programs love veterans and that sponsored military applicants are especially desirable. I don't necessarily have a strong preference for one school over another, so my initial list of schools was composed primarily based on gut feelings after reviewing websites and sitting in on info sessions. I then narrowed things down based on location and financial feasibility (there is a cap to the amount my program will pay for tuition).

Also, one piece of advice that was given on a ClearAdmit podcast really struck me. That is, if you're not getting rejections, then you're not aiming high enough. After I soaked that up, I also added Stanford just for the hell of it.

With regard to stats, I feel like a long-shot at a lot of the top schools. I'm on the older side, don't have a killer GPA, and my GRE score is only okay.

On the squishier side of things, I did complete the HBS Core (with honors), which I hope shows I have the academic chops for programs. With regard to work experience, I have a really interesting job right now where I work directly with industry on behalf of my branch and travel extensively representing my branch in countries across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. As a military officer, I also bring some leadership experience to the table that some others may not have.

Demographically, for what it's worth, I'm an LGBT woman, which will also be evident to the adcoms via some of my extracurricular experience.

All that said, at the end of the day, I'm not sure if I'm competitive for any or all of the programs I've listed or if I should be focusing my efforts elsewhere. I'll be happy to hear some thoughts on this.