MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 26 Dec 2008
Posts: 2457
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Re: Is 33 too old for an MBA?
[#permalink]
30 Dec 2009, 14:33
Age is less the issue in your case.
It comes down to what your specific career goals are and the sorts of schools you're after. Keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of b-school students have "office jobs" as work experience - whether it's corporate, engineering, nonprofit, healthcare, etc. As such, you will be at a disadvantage - not because adcoms look down on your job, but given that you've been a restaurant manager for so long, there are concerns about your ability to adjust to a traditional desk job (in whatever industry) -- it may seem silly or trite because you may feel it's not that big a deal, but to someone like an adcom who has either spent their entire career in academia or in the corporate world, they do feel it's a big difference (because they don't have personal experience outside of the "desk job" world).
Having said that, if your GMAT is respectable (i.e. mid-600s or better) you should be able to get into a local part-time, executive or full-time program outside the top 30.