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forcefeed
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 14:51
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So right now I am one of the younger applicants applying to b-school, I am 24 w/ a little over 2.5 years of work experience right now. I believe I do a good job in the essays showing how I have a significant amount of leadership experience and will provide a lot of valuable insight to my cohorts but...

Do I have to explicitly state why I want to go to bschool right now instead of holding off for a couple of years? I feel that I am not challenged in my current role, and the only way to face an opportunity that is interesting and challenging is through an MBA. Waiting another year just to meet some BS stat seems like a waste of time. Any advice on how to address this?
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kidderek
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 14:59
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forcefeed
So right now I am one of the younger applicants applying to b-school, I am 24 w/ a little over 2.5 years of work experience right now. I believe I do a good job in the essays showing how I have a significant amount of leadership experience and will provide a lot of valuable insight to my cohorts but...

Do I have to explicitly state why I want to go to bschool right now instead of holding off for a couple of years? I feel that I am not challenged in my current role, and the only way to face an opportunity that is interesting and challenging is through an MBA. Waiting another year just to meet some BS stat seems like a waste of time. Any advice on how to address this?
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I think 2.5 is fine especially if it will 3.5 at matric. However, I wouldn't mention "not being challenged." If you do go that avenue, I trust you would phrase it more positively.
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riverripper
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 16:01
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Most ask why an MBA and why now...you can easily explain why you believe you need an MBA. You have a fair amount of work experience, so I don't think it will hurt you as long as you have a few experiences to draw from.
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 17:05
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im the same age/work exp years. i havent found this to be much of a problem so far. my why now focuses on certain opportunities i want to pursue that are time sensitive.
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gmatclb
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 17:23
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I keep hearing how schools want to decrease their average age, but I've never heard this from an actual admission director.

Seems like a myth to me. Anyone have anything straight from an adcomm member?
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forcefeed
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 18:13
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LOL, I will definetly use more tact and not say my current job is getting boring. I'm just not sure if I should explicitly address having a little less work experience, or should I just let my essays and examples speak for themselves?

Its like having that "F" on your transcript, do you hope they just don't notice, or should you address it?
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 18:16
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gmatclb
I keep hearing how schools want to decrease their average age, but I've never heard this from an actual admission director.

Seems like a myth to me. Anyone have anything straight from an adcomm member?
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I have heard the same thing, but have not noticed much of a change in the incoming classes avg age or years work experience.
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 18:21
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forcefeed
gmatclb
I keep hearing how schools want to decrease their average age, but I've never heard this from an actual admission director.

Seems like a myth to me. Anyone have anything straight from an adcomm member?

I have heard the same thing, but have not noticed much of a change in the incoming classes avg age or years work experience.
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i think its part of the effort to decrease the acceptance percentages by increasing the number of applicants. it wont be long until schools start welcoming dogs and cats to apply in order to bring valuable new perspectives to future classes.
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 19:48
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gmatclb
I keep hearing how schools want to decrease their average age, but I've never heard this from an actual admission director.

Seems like a myth to me. Anyone have anything straight from an adcomm member?
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A Wharton adcomm explicitly mentioned this...
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gmatclb
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 19:53
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CookieMonster
gmatclb
I keep hearing how schools want to decrease their average age, but I've never heard this from an actual admission director.

Seems like a myth to me. Anyone have anything straight from an adcomm member?

A Wharton adcomm explicitly mentioned this...
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That's exactly my point...

Hearsay.

Do you have something in writing like an onine chat or something?
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 20:40
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Harvard Adcom Brit Dewey stated something to this effect years ago. When a reporter pointed out that discriminating against older applicants because of their age was illegal, she got really quiet.

I do also recall adcoms from Wharton and UCLA stating that they are interested in "early career candidates". They can't discriminate based on age, but they can adjust their admissions policies to favor people with less experience, essentially those that are younger.

Want some evidence? How about a link to the actually policy on the UCLA Anderson website: https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x9493.xml

Still not convinced because "a glance at MBA program websites shows class profiles that seem skewed to individuals with 4-6 years or more of work experience."? Funny, this exact same question was addressed on the official Wharton adcom blog. Check out this link for a discussion on early career candidates at Wharton: https://adcomblog.wharton.upenn.edu/admi ... ns__2.html

The simple summary is that many schools are actively encouraging early career candidates. Harvard and Stanford have been doing it the longest (perhaps 6-8 years) and have markedly lower averages for age and work experience. Wharton, UCLA and others have adopted the policy more recently, in the last several years. The Wharton Adcom did explicitly state in a chat last year that they were increasing the number of early career they were admitting. What written proof? Try doing a search. I can't do all the work for you.
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Age discrimination 06 Oct 2007, 20:54
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no i dont..
But there was an entire presentation slide dedicated to this topic at the Wharton info session in Chicago.


gmatclb
CookieMonster
gmatclb
I keep hearing how schools want to decrease their average age, but I've never heard this from an actual admission director.

Seems like a myth to me. Anyone have anything straight from an adcomm member?

A Wharton adcomm explicitly mentioned this...

That's exactly my point...

Hearsay.

Do you have something in writing like an onine chat or something?
Show more