Do I have to be a boss to apply?

Having said that, it is still important to demonstrate your leadership skills. You do no have to be in management role but you do have to show leadership in other areas either at work or extra curricular activities.

i think this is bad advice. by the time you are a "boss", you could very well be too old for full time MBA programs . Usually, those positions are reserved for the upper end of 20's or 30's, and once you start to get into that age range you are put at a disadvantage in the application process.

i haven't seen too many 25 year old bosses, and I think if there was such a thing many of the older employees would be quite pissed off and indignant.

It depends. Many of my classmates who are in their mid-20s have experience supervising other employees (technically "management" experience), some people even had "manager" titles.

Regardless of whether you have formal supervisory responsibilities or a management title, as an applicant you need to be able to demonstrate that you can influence others and have done so to achieve a favorable outcome. Whether you do that at work or in your extra-curriculars is less important.

at my former place of employment, there were several layers of job titles before the first real manager position (where you would conduct performance reviews, give people permission to take days off, etc).

the people in those layers often led projects or initiatives but did not have the authority to give a raise for example. I guess that is what i was defining as a "real" manager, and I can't see someone in their mid 20's given that authority, but that could have been only at my workplace

i'm 25 now. been a finance manager since i was 24...i'm a bit of an odd case though since i started undergrad at 15 and graduated by 19...so it took me 5 yrs of work experience to get here.

i NEVER tell ppl at work how old i am and if they ask i'll just say late 20's and never get into detail (i look older anyways, and i'm asian so ppl can't really tell). the ppl i manage range from early 20's fresh out of school to mid/late 30's...so it's not a terribly old group, which makes my age less of an issue and my job slightly easier.

i truly do think management experience is great to have for business school though. i've learned A LOT from managing ppl, so now i think i have a lot more to contribute to an mba class and i can also learn more too. but of course, it's tough for most ppl to get it before going into an mba due to the timing.