Getting MBA at 33 years old

Question

Hello guys. I am a Georgian guy (Eastern Europe) with 13 years of working experience in Banking sector, (During my banking career I had several different positions, like Credit Manager, Head of Credit Team, Regional Manager, Corporate Credit Analyst and Credit Risk Analyst). Besides working experience in Banking sector I have my own business. My native country is a special place for wine making, UNESCO also recognized Georgia as the birth place of wine making and I decided to start wine business. My aim was to produce only premium wine and sell it across the world in a prestigious Hotels, Restaurants and wine shops. In the beginning I was struggling, because no one knew my brand and had to overcome many obstacles (there are many cases where I tested my limits, it really made me stronger). My wine is sold in Europe and USA (quite successfully). So, Since 2014, I am the CEO of my own winery and invested more than 2 million USD. My experience in wine business is endless story and I prefer to stop here

. During my professional career I had lot of success, but I have a big concern about my undergraduate degree. I have a Bachelors degree in Physic and Informatics (2004-2008) and my GPA is around 1.8. I know that it's really low score. By that time I needed to work at full time ( I had do work 10 hours in a day ), to have money for my family. That's the only reason why I could not manage to study at high level. Thanks to god now I have everything and I am capable of making many good things, but for me success is not measured by money. I cannot be satisfied unless I will not have an MBA degree from top Business School. That degree will help me to expand my business activities and I will feel more comfortable and confident. I am not interested in to be hired from tech company, or to be employed in a Finance field or something like that. I just need it for my business activities. I am not fond of writhing long stories. My question is as follows: Is there any chance to have an MBA degree with a such low GPA? Any suggestions/solutions? Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks in advance!

kv3456z · Answer

Hello,

To answer "Is there any chance to have an MBA degree with a such low GPA? ", most universities will not care about your GPA for several reasons:

1. It was 13 years ago.
2. You have a huge amount of work experience.
3. You are running your own business!

The only reason I think you might be rejected would be if the university thinks you already know everything there is to know. Your GPA will not be a problem.

All the best!

LogicGuru1 · Answer

HI Valey,

With a good GMAT score I am sure you have will have a success rate of 90% in many good European and Canadian and Australian schools. 
Heck !! even big B schools love to have entrepreneurs and businessman as their student. So it is a big plus.

But I am not sure that you want to go into salaried job as you already have your wine business and offcourse now the COVID disaster and its ramification on the world economy should also be considered.

If you want to do an MBA just for degree, then its no use. MBA teaches nothing that the real world job cannot teach you. 
Also remember many schools are not doing classroom teaching anymore and everything is just via video conferencing... Do you want such an experience?

May be getting a GMAT score should be first stage of your decision making process and after that see how things go on forward.

applicant123456 · Answer

I’m going to play devils advocate here.

That GPA is going to be factored into the class’ average. I can very well see a school rejecting purely based on that GPA even with a strong gmat.

Granted your first priority should be to smash the gmat. Would take some courses such as HBS Core or actual classes at a nearby university and get As too.

Would definitely reach out to an admissions consultant to get a better idea for sure.

The thing though is do you need an mba? To sink in 2MM means you probably are making or have made way over the mba median salaries. Idk if you mentioned it above but are you considering part time/EMBA? If so your chances of getting in should be higher vs full time

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Admissionado · Answer

Hi Valey,

You have a very interesting and differentiated background that will appeal to business schools. At this stage in your career and with the success that you have achieved, your GPA is not as big of a concern since you have proven that you have the intellectual abilities and qualitative skills to succeed in an MBA program. Furthermore, you have extenuating circumstances to explain the low GPA. However, you would need to make sure that the rest of your application shines to compensate for a very low GPA that will bring down the school's stats.

All that being said, I recommend that you consider Executive MBA programs instead of the regular program. The reasoning is that business schools want to educate students that need the MBA to reach their goals. They have enough work experience to add value in the classroom, but not too much to be open to new ways of thinking and experiences. The challenge you will have is making a case for why you need the MBA to succeed, and how you will fit in and learn from your peers with an average of 5 years of work experience. The Executive MBA programs are tailored to someone with your level of experience or more, and your extensive experiences would be seen as a plus and not a minus.

Feel free to reach out to us at Admissionado.com for a free consultation, if you would like to further discuss your candidacy by providing more information about your background.

Best,
Cindy

Valey · Answer

Hello guys

First of all, I want to express my gratitude about your opinions.
The goal is to study in US based school, because I have another business in States (constructing new winery in CA and also have importer/distribution company, which sells the wine across the US) and that’s why I will try to be accepted by one of US business schools.
My MBA plans are not new. Since 2010 year I have been thinking about that. My life developed in different direction (entrepreneurial one), but I am still passionate about getting accepted on an MBA program. At first, I thought I would need to have a Master degree to compensate my GPA. But I could not manage to find an appropriate time for that.
Nowadays I feel that I am ready and matured to pass on an MBA program and I prefer only full time, because I also want to disconnect from my businesses (not at 100%, but almost disconnect

. there employed lot of people who more or less would manage my business activities) and to be fully engaged in another life (student’s life, which practically I have never experienced and I am dreaming about that).
As already mentioned in my post, I am not aiming to have a salaried job. I just need that degree for myself and for my future goals. Everyone has different goals, some of them are trying to be engaged in investment banking, some of them in Tech companies and I am only focused on my activities.

Thanks

. there employed lot of people who more or less would manage my business activities) and to be fully engaged in another life (student’s life, which practically I have never experienced and I am dreaming about that). As already mentioned in my post, I am not aiming to have a salaried job. I just need that degree for myself and for my future goals. Everyone has different goals, some of them are trying to be engaged in investment banking, some of them in Tech companies and I am only focused on my activities. Thanks

Getting MBA at 33 years old

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