mainhoon wrote:
Thanks for the reply. I wanted to understand though as to why age is even an issue for Bschools. Presumably a lot of the older people have other things going on in life such as family, personal issues etc. that might demotivate them from going full time and naturally the applicant pool is mostly made up of younger folks - right out of school or after a few years of experience. So should not the Bschool look favorably upon those "older" folks who are willing to take up the challenge. After all there is still a lot of life left in these older folks to make it some place
As far as having a clear justification as to why does one need a MBA, in my experience, is it not true that almost any job can be done with the right training, I am viewing the MBA as that springboard and that training that will arm me with those skills, as inevitably I will be compared against people who have these skills and I will end up at a disadvantage not having the MBA.
Thanks for the link to the 1yr program at Cornell. It definitely sounds interesting. I know of such 1 yr programs in India, I was not aware that they exist here in the US too. However, I assume there won't be a scope for internship during these. Please point me to other such programs if you can. I was looking at MIT sloan too, they have good connections to the technology side and I should be able to leverage my background in that regard.
Thanks again.
Age is an issue because of expectations:
1) Schools gear their curricula for people with a certain level of experience, both professional and life. If you are expecting people like yourself and find yourself with people much less mature, you may not be happy. Similarly if teaching examples and level are directed at people with a certain level of experience and you have much more, you may be disappointed and blame the schools.
2) Recruiter expectations. Some fields, notably investment banking, really prefer younger grads whom they can work very, very hard. "Older" people tend to not want to work like that, especially if they have had jobs they liked that were less demanding. They may prefer a blank slate. They may offer salaries that are good for younger people, but not attractive for more experienced grads. School don't want to admit students who may have trouble finding work.
Again, if you at your age can make a good case that you have clear, realistic goals (realistic based on your past experience and education combined with the MBA), you do have a chance for acceptance, especially at programs with higher average ages.
Best,
Linda
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23 Jul 2010, 19:05
