brien2000

OP, Glad and thrilled to meet another enlisted soul. I'm an active duty Marine Sergeant fulfilling my four year commitment after graduating from Carnegie Mellon in 2008. I had the same plan as you originally, go officer after one year. I decided against it on my one year mark and chose to prepare myself for grad school afterwards instead. I'm getting out 2012 May, so I'm currently waiting to hear back from schools. So far I've been accepted to Columbia Business School - so it's definitely doable. It's a matter of execution, since you already have a much higher GPA than I do and you're expecting a high GMAT/GRE score. Feel free to ask more questions if you want. I don't know if gradcafe has PM capabilities like GMATclub, but I'd be more than happy to help you in any way possible.

So, I realize that schools like HKS and SIPA are power schools for breeding diplomats. However, the more I dig into the process of joining the Foreign Service, the more I think that I need a solid back up plan. Am I completely wrong? I'd appreciate if somebody who's familiar with the career path chimes in to enlighten me a bit further. Here's what I have so far step by step: 1. Pass the foreign service exam (very competitive) 2. Pass the oral exam (even more competitive) 3. Pass the background check (could take almost a year) 4. Get put on a list of qualified candidates. Wait for a spot to open and get called for employment. 5. If you don't get called by a specific time period (I think 1 to 1.5 years it was), then start from step 1 again. Going by this process, I'm putting in anywhere between 1-3 years to get picked up as a diplomat, with no guarantee of employment at the end. I definitely can't rely solely on becoming a diplomat for sure, and it sounds like I need to work on my plan B at the same time. Is this right? What did all other diplomats do?

Didn't get mine either.

I didn't have that problem. Seems to work fine for me. I suggest that you contact them saying that you have technical issues if you still have that issue.

thanks for the info babybaby!

The office confirmed that there is no page limit for the CV.

Congrats on getting your application submitted. I'm a bit jealous because I'm still working on mine and hoping to get it all complete by early next week. I don't see much of a problem unless one of my recommenders fails to submit on time. 1. Does anybody know how strict they are with recs being submitted? The website does say all supporting materials need to be submitted by 2 December 5 pm, but was wondering if they were a bit lenient... 2. For the CV essay, did you submit 1 or 2 pages? I can't find anywhere whether there's a restriction to length for this.