Setting Priorities

"The vast majority of MBA students have high expectations of themselves, and it is almost guaranteed that those attending top-tier schools are accustomed to being the best"

by Nathan Kolmodin

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Nathan Kolmodin
University of Washington
MBA Class of 2009

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The circumstances that influenced my process of choosing the business schools to apply to were unique. I was deployed in Afghanistan during 2006 while my wife was pregnant. I came home for the birth of our daughter, but I did not return to Afghanistan because our daughter passed away when she was nine days old. We decided that if we were going to have children, it would only get harder for us emotionally as time went on. We found out that my wife was pregnant again in January, shortly after deciding that I would apply to B-school. It was important to my wife and me that we find a school that was near family, offered scholarships and other forms of financial support, and was the best school in the area. Based on these stipulations, I came up with two candidates: the University of Washington's Michael G. Foster School of Business, near my family, and the University of Texas' McCombs School of Business, located a couple hours from my wife's family.

We decided to apply only to Washington's B-school because of its proximity to family. Also, I had a continuing monthly obligation with the National Guard. Placing all of my eggs in one basket was risky, but applying to just one school has the benefit of reducing the amount of work I had to do. I was able to write my essays and polish my résumé in a weekend with the help of volunteer editors. (Grammar and punctuation have never been a strong suit.)

Financial-Aid Opportunities

Preparing for the GMAT took much longer than anything else. I never had to diagram sentences or analyze their structure during my first 16 years of education, and several years had passed since I used geometry and algebra in an academic context. The test was daunting, and I studied more than what I believe is normal. I checked out a GMAT prep guide from the local library and proceeded to read the entire thing and to take all the tests. From my previous experience in test taking, I knew that it would be as important to understand the questions and what kind of answers the test makers sought as to understand the content that would be tested.

Applying to business school was a difficult decision made easier by the financial-aid opportunities provided by the University of Washington. A more important factor was the school's goal of fostering a close-knit class in which personal relationships will all students can be developed. Obviously, developing and maintaining relationships is an important skill to have, one that's especially important for a manager. The Michael G. Foster School of Business focuses as much on building relationships as on academics, so students do not concentrate solely on the book side of an MBA and miss the other half of their education.

While I waited to see whether I had been accepted, I looked for financial-aid opportunities available to me through the Army and the university. The application process required filling out a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) for the university and various other forms through the Special Services Office for the Army. I strongly suggest filling out any and all financial-aid forms if you're not independently wealthy, because you might get several thousand dollars for an hour of your time and you can decline the loans if you determine you will not use them.

Setting Priorities

When we found out that I was going to receive the university's W. Hunter Simpson Scholarship, we were very excited. We were going to have a daughter arriving at the beginning of the school year, and every dollar was a blessing. We knew we would be able to provide our daughter all that she needed, but the scholarship allowed us some breathing room. The University of Washington also recently instituted a tuition waiver for veterans. The waiver is generous and simple to apply for.