Thanks for reaching out and sorry for the delay. I missed a batch of these last week somehow.
Your graduate school experience and prior career "redirect" as a result means that all bets are off with your age. You aren't going to project as someone who is 32 in a "missed the window" sort of way. Now, you might have other challenges to show the recruiters (and therefore the adcom members) why this degree makes sense now and how your previous experiences will transfer to future endeavors (You + MBA = Next Thing). But everyone has that challenge.
I think HBS still might be a stretch, because even post-grad school, four years of work is at the high end of what they are looking for. They want people who are flying through their careers, hitting benchmarks at ridiculously early points. It's how they appear to be figuring out how to differentiate between literally thousands of qualified applicants. So yeah, that's going to be a stretch.
Stanford GSB is averaging out a little younger than many elite programs, but not for the same reasons. It is mainly because GSB will literally admit anyone that fits their class-building goals. They are true MBA alchemists and what they want is a diverse group of people who bring interesting perspectives, challenge each other to think in new ways, possess real passions and social values, and - most importantly and least commonly understood - who will allow for female students to thrive. They want an environment free of gender/power issues, where tomorrow's women leaders are cultivated. So what that means for a male is that you need to show your teamwork skills not just in interdisciplinary and intercultural scenarios, but in gender constructs as well. It's not easy to do, but there you have it.
Wharton is not really in the same conversation, as that is a school that still really values seasoned professionals. With Wharton, it is all about global perspective and a spirit of innovating through a community of people.
The rest of the list is strong, full of the usual suspects for someone with finance aims. Booth is the most obvious choice, given your goal of working in Chicago. Just know that with Booth you want to nail a risk-taking spirit: someone who wants to start over with no pretense and just be challenged, grow, stretch, and make a mess if necessary. That's the Booth spirit. Yes, it's analytical and finance driven and all that, but you have to get the pulse of the place to stand out. Booth is definitely one school that doesn't care about your age though.
Haas and Kellogg don't really scream finance, but both value an older, more seasoned student, and there's certainly nothing wrong with their finance programs and/or recruiting pipeline. Kellogg obviously has a geographic appeal as well.
UCLA Anderson is a nice choice - very underrated and they seem to value an accounting baseline.
NYU and Columbia are crowded markets for a finance applicant, of course, but you can stand out at each place. At NYU, it's all about scrappiness and teamwork - elements sometimes avoided or not in possession of many people coming from a quantitative background. At Columbia, what matters most is whether you can get the post-MBA job you are seeking and if you have carefully plotted your career and can draw lines through the whole thing. Past to present to Columbia to first job out.
In other words, the list is good, but the hard work is still ahead as almost all of these schools will require a different approach. Obviously, we can help a great deal with that, so email us at
mba@amerasiaconsulting.com if you want to get into it.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti