Veterans Day: More MBAs With Military Backgrounds Find Their Place At Stanford GSB

Austin Welch, MBA ’22, was a pilot and aviation officer in the U.S. Army before enrolling at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Courtesy

Austin Welch always knew he wanted to join the military, and he always knew he wanted to fly. But when he looked at the different service academies, he saw statues of airplanes outside the Air Force academy, statues of ships outside the Navy’s, and statues of leaders at West Point. “One of my favorite pieces about the Army is that as an Aviation Officer, I wasn’t a pilot who happened to be a leader, but a leader who happened to be a pilot,” he tells Poets&Quants.

If not for an injury, Welch would have stayed in the Army uniform longer than 5 ½ years. Instead, he faced an unexpected transition from military service to civilian life and didn’t know quite where he might fit in. He decided to apply for an MBA because he thought a business education would best remove the blinders to becoming an effective leader in the next chapter of his life. While he eventually pictured himself in business school, he didn’t necessarily picture himself at any school in particular. He applied to Stanford Graduate School of Business as a matter of geography.

THE QUESTION: ‘WHY STANFORD’?

Austin Welch

“The real answer is my fiancée lives in L.A. and she told me, after six years of a long distance relationship, that I will go to school in California,” says Welch, MBA ‘22.

After nearly five years hovering around 3% veteran representation in its incoming MBA cohorts, Stanford GSB hit 5% representation this year, putting it roughly on par with other top B-Schools in the United States. It comes after outreach efforts to help veterans like Welch imagine themselves at Stanford while making concerted efforts to remove the financial barriers for veteran candidates.

Now, as vice-president of the Stanford GSB Veterans Club, Welch connects with prospective veteran MBAs to show them the support, community and other resources available to them at GSB. One year in, he’s certain Stanford was the right school.

“’Why Stanford?’ has become a much more complex question for me over the last year. I think one of the things that is most beautiful about this place is that it really prides itself in emotional intelligence and emotional leadership,” he says. “I thought I was a pretty good leader before, but I realized that leadership outside of the uniform has so many nuances and complexities that I couldn’t even begin to appreciate. It just validates the path that I have chosen.”

DIVERSITY IN EXPERIENCE AND BACKGROUND

Developing the veteran pipeline is part of GSB’s holistic review admission process and attracting diverse experience and background to each cohort, says Wil Torres, director of outreach for MBA admissions at GSB. While admission practice has not changed, the school has been intentional in helping prospective students, including veterans, see themselves at Stanford.

Wil Torres, Stanford GSB

“We think about diversity as broadly defined, so as part of my core responsibilities, it’s been really exciting to watch the pipeline grow and to engage with veterans to get to where we are today and to continue to build on that in the future,” Torres tells Poets&Quants.

Between 2017 and 2021, the percentage of veterans of incoming MBA cohorts at GSB hovered around 3%, dipping to 2% in 2020. The number rose to 4% for the incoming class of 2022 and, this year, broke 5% for 2023.

There’s nothing magical about that 5% threshold. It isn’t an industry benchmark for top-ranked business schools or even a stated goal at Stanford GSB. The percentage of military veterans is, however, at least a measure of how well a B-school is reaching out and developing its pipeline of military talent. If diversity of thought and background bring forth diversity in solutions and approaches to business problems, as many B-schools say that it does, then veteran participation is a reflection of how highly a business school values the unique work experiences in high-stress environments veterans bring to an MBA class.

Read more: In honor of Veterans Day, Poets&Quants reached out to MBAs with military backgrounds at several top B-schools. See them here.

USMC veterans, left to right, David Laszcz (MBA 2021); Skip Nordhoff, Colonel (USMCR, Ret.), HBS Director, International Strategy & Principal Gifts; Phillip Jones and Ian Epperson (MBA 2021) participate in the Marine birthday cake-cutting tradition at Harvard Business School. Courtesy

B-SCHOOLS AND MILITARY VETERANS: A COURTSHIP

It’s no secret that graduate business schools like to court military talent. In the top 25 programs in P&Q’s most recent rankings, veterans generally make up between 5 to 10% of the incoming MBA cohorts.

At the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 5.9% of its current MBA cohort are veterans, and the number of MBA students with military backgrounds enrolled has increased nearly 300% since 2006, according to the school’s 2023 class profile. Military representation at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School has ranged between 5% to 8% the previous five class years, and it reached 11% for the 2023 cohort. And, at Harvard Business School, veterans have averaged 5% of MBA cohorts the last five years, Mark Cautela, HBS director of communications, tells Poets&Quants. Veterans come from all branches of the U.S. military as well as from foreign militaries.

“Veterans bring a variety of unique and valuable skills to the HBS community. This is especially important when it comes to our case method pedagogy which requires diversity in the classroom to ensure a robust discussion of business challenges the students will face when they graduate,” Cautela says. “That diversity includes the backgrounds of each student, and veterans bring a unique perspective from their time in the service.”

The Armed Forces Alumni Association’s Veterans Day celebration is an annual event to celebrate, support, and appreciate service members, who make up more than 5% of the MBA cohort. Here, Zeita Merchant, USCG, HKS 2020 National Security Fellow (at left), poses with Laura Weimer, US Army LTC, HBS Doctoral Student. Courtesy

Many of the top schools waive MBA application fees to veteran candidates, offer scholarships and fellowships to ease the financial burden, and have robust and active veterans associations to help attract military talent. Further, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Post 9/11 GI Bill offers up to 36 months of tuition and fees, housing, and other funds for qualifying veterans while the Yellow Ribbon Program provides out-of-state grants for the difference in in-state tuition, matched dollar-for-dollar of participating schools’ contributions.

Harvard is a Yellow Ribbon Program School that doesn’t limit how many participants are enrolled, awarding up to $20,000 for each eligible student matched by the federal Veterans Affairs. About $1.5 million need-based aid was awarded to HBS student veterans in 2020-21, Cautela says. Harvard also has an active, student-led Armed Forces Alumni Association (AFAA) to assist military veterans in professional development and job searches, promote camaraderie, and raise awareness and support for the military on campus. This week, AFAA and MBA Admissions are hosting a Military Virtual Visit through Nov. 12 to help military applicants engage with the school’s veteran community. AFAA also helps prospective veteran candidates with the strenuous application process, compiling their top ten application tips for members of the military.

Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University is also a Yellow Ribbon school which supports all eligible veterans across its full-time, evening and weekend, and executive MBA programs. The school has had nine of its students selected as senior fellows by the U.S. Army’s Chief of Staff to help advise the Army on emerging opportunities and challenges, cultivating relationships and fostering a greater understanding of the Army, says Christine Mayer, Director of Full-time Admissions at Kellogg.

“Veterans bring deep leadership experience and perspective to the classroom and community, as well as a profound ability to collaborate and work effectively in teams, which is essential to the Kellogg student experience,” Mayer tells P&Q. “Through explorative curriculum pathways, a plethora of industry-focused clubs, experiential classes and more, veterans can consider Kellogg a safe-space for identifying and exploring career switches.”

Read more: In honor of Veterans Day, Poets&Quants reached out to MBAs with military backgrounds at several top B-schools. See them here.

Stanford GSB Veterans Club hosts retreats and meet-ups, like this recent camping trip, to build a strong veteran community on campus. Courtesy

BUILDING THE MILITARY PIPELINE AT GSB

Andrew Alexander Beck, inspired by stories of his grandmother as a nurse during World War II, joined the Army in the spirit of service. He was commissioned from West Point in 2011 and spent 9 years as an infantry and Green Beret officer.

“I had a phenomenal experience in the military,” Beck tells Poets&Quants. “I got to travel around the world and see the impact that we had. But what I also saw was the impact of commerce and investment and how transformative that can be.”

Andrew Beck, MBA ’22

Beck, Stanford MBA ‘22, recognized that an MBA was a relatively well-trodden path for a lot of veterans, one that allowed them to spend two years transitioning to civilian life while using their military experience and leadership to leapfrog into a challenging new career. At Stanford, he found a forward-looking MBA program that surrounded him with experts from both the academic and practical worlds. As the current president of the Stanford GSB Veterans Club, he spends a lot of time telling prospective veterans about his MBA experience.

“So why Stanford? What I tell veterans who are thinking about it is that Stanford allows you to see into the future. It’s not just world class academics, you are surrounded by world class practitioners, and you get to see that debate in the classroom. You’re mixing the person who wrote the textbook with the person who’s running their own fund,” he says. “Being here really teaches you how to think through another lens. When I’m facing a problem, I feel like I can come at it from several different perspectives: From my expertise in foreign policy from working overseas, or looking at it through an investment perspective, or from a social impact perspective. It just gives you so many different viewpoints of how to see a problem and understand the opportunities out there.”

Using veteran voices, like Beck and Welch, to connect with prospects is an essential piece to building the military pipeline, Torres says. The community support veteran MBAs find at Stanford in turn encourages them to pay that support forward to new recruits who then pay it forward to more prospective veterans. “Our Veterans Club has been so active in supporting our efforts, and also helping us to figure out different ways to reach folks and meet them where they are,” he says.

For example, Veterans Visit Day was created in partnership with the veterans club as an in-person meet up at Stanford in 2018. Coronavirus forced it to go virtual in 2020, but the format actually allowed more veterans to participate because veterans are normally spread out across the world. The Veterans Club also updated its website to be more accessible and inclusive, organizes meetups to build community, and actively engages with veteran alumni.

REMOVING THE FINANCIAL BARRIERS

Of course, a large part of building a strong veteran pipeline is removing the financial burden a top-ranked B-School can impose. Some people may look at Stanford’s $150,000 ticket price and self-select themselves out of even considering it. But, like many top-ranked B-Schools, Stanford offers many financial aid packages and incentives available for military veterans.

Elizabeth Llamas, Stanford GSB

While GSB was close to a full match of the Yellow Ribbon Program in previous years, it went to a 100% match two years ago. That means qualifying veteran MBA students have 100% of their mandatory tuition and fees paid. The school also waives the MBA application fee for military veterans.

“From a financial aid lens, it’s about eliminating financial barriers wherever there is an opportunity for us as an institution to do so,” Elizabeth Llamas, director of financial aid at the GSB, tells Poets&Quants. “Letting veterans see themselves here and part of this community with that financial burden eliminated is just another step for veterans to say that there is nothing holding them back from applying, at least financially.”

Beck agrees.

“The GI Bill and Stanford’s match is life changing. It’s an incredible opportunity for veterans to realize that everything is covered,” he says. “It’s also important to remember that the Stanford GSB Veterans Club has both international and U.S. veterans. Members from the international military community also bring incredibly diverse perspectives.”

That diversity extends to what Stanford veteran MBAs plan to do in their careers after graduation. There is a stereotype that veterans transition to more traditional industries and occupations after leaving the military. That’s certainly not true with GSB’s MBA veterans, Beck says. Both he and Welch will go into consulting after graduation. Beck is joining Bain & Company in San Francisco while Welch is headed to McKinsey.

“We have vets who are going into entrepreneurship that are starting their own companies, vets who are working in venture capital, and some who did internships in private equity. We have veterans in the social impact space,” Beck says. “I mean, you name it, and you’re going to see that path as a possibility here. I think that’s important for veterans to understand that there really isn’t a limit. The resources and support network is here.”

Read more: In honor of Veterans Day, Poets&Quants reached out to MBAs with military backgrounds at several top B-schools. See them here.

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