How much experience is too much for a traditional 2 year MBA

Question

Ive heard rumors that 7+ years experience is too much for a top tier MBA program. I have about 6.5 years by matriculation (will be 28 by matriculation) and wondering if that is too much for a school such as Sloan, McCombs, or Duke? I dont want to feel like im the older one compared to my classmates and want to blend in well.. Also want to make sure adcoms do not reject me automatically for my age/experience.

ARINGO · Answer

7+ years of work experience will not prevent you from being accepted to traditional 2 year MBA program, especially if you can explain why do you need an MBA now and how it makes sense for your career goals, but keep in mind that the average WE for top programs is around 5 years.

Older and more experienced applicants tend to apply to Executive MBA programs because it makes more sense career-wise: https://aringo.com/mba-vs-emba-vs-mim/

Regarding the schools you mentioned - Average WE at Sloan is 4.9 years, at McCombs 5.5 years, at Duke 5.6 years.

bb · Answer

That's a perfect age! Having 7 years of work experience should give you a good foothold during recruiting to be able to angle for more serious and senior position vs. some of your 25-something classmates. Maturing will help also provide a deep pool to draw upon during class discussions, debates, and hopefully your better credit history helps too!

P.S. You should not have any age-related issues until you start hitting 30's

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

No concern whatsoever, and especially for those schools. Sloan actually likes slightly older students. HBS and GSB like younger applicants, but you are still very much in the zone.

JatinBhandari1 · Answer

Well, those are just rumors.
From the class profiles of the incoming classes of 2019 at top schools, a safe bet is that work experience of over 10 years for business schools in the USA, and 12 years for business schools in the UK could be considered a challenge for admission to a two-year traditional MBA.
Look at the average work experience for the incoming class of 2019 for some of the top European schools.
HEC Paris- 5.8 years
INSEAD- 6 years
London Business School- 5 years
University of Cambridge Judge- 6 years
University of Oxford Said- 5 years
Now, some of these business schools also have 20% of students with work experience of over 15 years. 
If you have a string equation of employability, your 7+ years of work experience won’t be a problem for the admissions committee members at your target business schools.

How much experience is too much for a traditional 2 year MBA

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