Is there an disadvantage at the age of 33+?

PT programs tend to be open to "older" students. It is typical to have average age on entry around 30 and an age range that extends at least into the 40s. PT programs also have fewer concerns about employment risk since students are already working when they enter the program.

Perhaps I can be of assistance...

As it happens, I am 45 years old, going on 46, and I myself am about to venture into that perilous quest to pursue my MBA. So it is that I have been considering very much the same question, and it prompts a few counter-questions:

1. What, specifically, do you plan to do with your MBA?

2. If someone looked at you by your resume, what career course would they most expect you to pursue?

3. What are you willing to sacrifice to accomplish your goal?

You see, by the point you and I reach, we have established a track record. Schools will judge us by it for the same reason we judge job applicants by their resume. If what you want looks like a drastic change, people will wonder why, but if your course needs an MBA for the next step or one in about 3 or 4 years, then you will gain respect for demonstrating that forward-thinking.

In my case, the executive level for the company I work at, is strictly MBA-only, but the MBA does not have to be from a super-school if there is solid work as an employee; they like to promote from within. So there is a natural, and more important permanent road to a Director's chair by showing my value as an employee, and by carrying the credential. So for me, living in Houston and knowing the ways in which my company grooms executives, I do not need a high-priced degree, but I do need an AACSB-accredited school with some name recognition.

I understand that a lot of folks love the lure of investment banking or the CEO's chair, but in my case I am chasing a spot near the CFO, especially since my company has not yet put anyone in charge of Sox documentation; no one seems to want that job, but I would love it!

Anyway, I hope you get where I am hinting. Figure out what you want and what you are willing to pay to get it, and that will tell you what sort of school to look for, and what to avoid. Because just as there are many companies out there, so some schools, despite their reputation, may not be the best thing for your career, while a few details can tell you which school can accelerate your success.

Drummond makes some good points. I would like to point out that older applicants have some advantages over other applicants:

1) Older applicants have had more time to evaluate and understand their own strengths and weaknesses.

2) Older applicants often have a much better idea what they want to do with their MBA and how it fits with their career (e.g. I need an MBA in Health Management so I can advance in my career path as a hospital administrator vs. I want an MBA so I can work for some sort of MNC or consulting firm or maybe start my own firm . . . ).

3) And, perhaps most importantly, older applicants often know who will be evaluating their academic credentials and what they are looking for. This is the difference between a young applicant who must "shoot for the moon" since she must impress the unknown, unseen resume screeners for the elite firms versus the older applicant who knows he needs to impress Beth the CFO who sits two doors down the hall from him.