Marc graduated from West Point in 1999. Before leaving the Army he was a Squadron Communication Officer. During his six years in the Army he served in a variety of leadership positions, ranging from platoon leader to ROTC instructor.

He was deployed twice to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 through 2005. Marc made good use of the time he spent in a tent with 80 soldiers in Kuwait as they all waited to return to the United States: he studied for the GMAT exam.

How was your transition from the military into the school environment?

For me, going into the school environment can almost be characterized as a combat to classroom transition. I was extremely happy to be back in the U.S. and then to be able to go to school for two years really was an incredible opportunity. One could almost consider it a break given the situation I was coming from. It’s been an enjoyable experience to say the least.

Nevertheless, it is a lot of hard work. I probably worked harder during my first year in school than I did while I was deployed. There are a lot of late nights and early mornings. If you decide to leave the military and pursue an MBA, you need to be mentally prepared for the workload.

I decided to pursue an MBA because I felt I needed to learn how businesses make decisions. My leadership, people, and soft skills were strong due to the leadership positions I held in the Army. What was missing was the technical knowledge behind accounting, finance, and marketing to name a few business areas. An MBA will build on the skills that I've already gained in the Army and will help make me attractive to employers when I graduate.

One thing I had to quickly learn was how military culture differs from the school environment. The way we interact with each other in the Army is different. Fellow captains could yell and scream at each other, but ten minutes later there were no hard feelings. We considered these incidents to be professional disagreements. I had to tone down a lot for group work in business school.
 
I have enjoyed meeting the variety of people with different backgrounds. Coming from the Army there is usually one common set of people. Business school introduced me to people that thought differently on a variety of business and world issues. It has been extremely rewarding interacting with my fellow classmates.