military experience good/bad thing?

[alexis]

I've been kind of going back and forth on how to incorporate my three years as a military officer into my SOP. On the one hand, I got leadership/management experience straight out of college, learned a LOT, and I think it will be helpful to have the experience, particularly for the business schools. On the other hand, my professor, who I really respect (and her husband is military) says that the academic community kind of looks down on working in the military or government. I.e., we're seen as not really creative thinkers, have to follow a bunch of rules and regulations. (Which has a lot of truth to it. Not exactly encouraged to think out-of-the-box.) I tried to be as honest as possible in my SOP, while also balancing these two points--I talk about how the experience, combined with my academic experiences, got me interested in my research topic, etc. But I also say that while I enjoyed my time serving, I also realized that my questioning nature was better aligned with academia. (In addition to all the other reasons I want to get a PhD.) I talk about how I wanted to come up with new ideas, etc, basically implying that the military wasn't the right environment for that. At the same time, I don't want to sound like I'm "dissing" my service or anything. The military was wrong for me for SO many reasons, but I didn't get into all of that. I did well and got good reviews; just not for me in the end.

Does that seem like a good balance? Does anyone have any further insight into how military service is viewed at in the PhD level? I really do want to incorporate it in my SOP, as it is a crucial piece of why I got into my research interest.

[socialcomm]

Personally I think it sounds like you've handled it well in your SOP -- like you said, a good balance. But I have no experience in this area at all!

[fuzzylogician]

But I also say that while I enjoyed my time serving, I also realized that my questioning nature was better aligned with academia.

It sounds like you're handling it the right way. You want to say that academia is the place you want to be in order to pursue your research interests, and at the same time not say (or imply!) anything negative about the military. So, you want to construct your SOP in a way that starts with: "the positive thing about the military is: it sparked my interest in X", which naturally leads to "the positive thing about academia is: it will allow me to develop my interest in X and also do Y and Z". I'm not reading anything negative into what you wrote, so I think you're doing a good job.

[alexis]

Thanks for the advice. I'm feeling more confident now that I'm on the right track.