my chances???

Your age does not need to be an issue, as long as you explain why you are applying now and work hard at your application (I work for ARINGO - aringo.com - and we helped a 35 year old candidate get into both Wharton and Kellogg this year, with a lowish GMAT, so really: anything is possible!).

Your GMAT is fine, you are an applicant from a rare and interesting industry and being from Italy might be an advantage as well. Your profile is not one the schools see all that often, but having traveled a lot is not that unusual for applicants from Europe, especially if the travels were mainly in Europe, so I would not focus too much on that. You did not mention anything about extra curricular activities, but with such an interesting job, I figure you might have something to add there too, so would rather suggest you think hard about that.

If you are at all open to the idea I would also recommend getting some professional assistance with your application, due to your unusual profile, in order to make you stand out even more, which would of course increase your chances of admission. At ARINGO, we really do excel at pinpointing strengths of very unique candidates that schools don’t get applications from so often, so I do believe we might be able to help you if you’d like.

Good luck to you whatever you decide to do!

As someone with zero experience in this outside of also applying to MBA programs (if not too early in my career, at least on paper), I say people rarely regret chances they took compared to ones they did not.

So basically as long as you know how it fits your objectives and why that school and an MBA, you won't know if you don't try.

I don't think it's enough to deter you from applying. Things really drop off after 34, I would go for it this year with all your might.

You have an interesting job and an under-appreciated industry, I could see how they would be interested in your work experience as it would add additional depth to the classroom. It's very unlikely anyone else works in the same industry.

I will say that you might want to state a different goal; than Consulting on your applications. If you're most interested in entrepreneurship I think I would go that direction.

The reason for that is consulting is a bit of a lockstep model. It might be a bit awkward for recruiters to bring you in as the consultant level alongside 27 year olds. And schools are primarily concerned with having candidates that are viable recruits for their post MBA goal.

But if it's something you really want, I would reach out to MBA recruiters for the consultancies you're interested in about this. Your background is unique and that might be more important.

Farrell Dyan Hehn, MBA
Admissions Consultant & Verbal Strategist MBAPrepCoach.com