12+ years exp in Consulting, am I too exp for full time MBA?

Question

All,

I am Computer Science graduate, a management consultant with 12+ exp and in mid 30s. Am I too experienced and old for a full time MBA?

Please advise on top (top 10) college I should target.

Any info will be highly appreciated.

Cheers,
Adam

dheeraj7890 · Answer

Hey Adam, I don't think at all that you are too old for a regular MBA. I think its great that you have a substantial amount of experience and you can convince the schools that you would have a lot to contribute to the class. I had a friend who had 12 years of pre-MBA experience and after her MBA she was able to land up in a great job. You should definitely target top schools, but as you know your school selection would depend a lot on your future aspirations, constraints and many other things. I think you should go for it !

Let me know if you have more questions! Cheers ! Dhiraj MBA - SDA Bocconi, Milan (Batch of 2011) www.globalmba-gyan.com

abdc99 · Answer

Hi gompgo,

I don't think you are old for an MBA. In fact, it's not a question of age (I am only 25 and got enrolled in a program already) but a question of goals. What do you really want to get out of the MBA with? Switching industry/increasing salary/managerial positions/Starting a company? If you have that goal and can convince the admission folks, then you are the perfect candidate.

DinaFortuna · Answer

Hello,
As an applicant with 12 + years of experience, you should really think about why you're planning to get your MBA and know that in a full-time program you will be in class with students who are much younger and less experienced. You will really need to make a strong case for your candidacy and be aware of a number of challenges that you would likely face (such as on-campus recruiters that are looking for less experienced candidates who they can develop through their careers). If the schools that you are applying to have part-time or executive MBA programs, you will need to have a strong case for why the full-time MBA program is a better fit (you can usually apply to only one program at a time from a particular school).

We covered this topic in one of our blogs "Getting into Business School when you're 30+" so for a lot more detail on this topic, see the article:
https://fortunaadmissions.com/getting-in ... ts-041614/

Good luck!

BazingAu · Answer

Agree with DinaFortuna. You would need a compelling reason to want to essentially quit your career to go to school full-time for 2 years. After that much experience, b-schools expect someone to be well-established in their field or employment and want to continue on that trend.

bizwiz84 · Answer

I also think it's not about the age (although it's a factor), but more about all that experience in one field, and the reason why you'd want to get a full-time MBA. Basically, at a top 10 school, there are literally thousands of younger, accomplished management consultants, and you'd be competing with them as far as professional background goes. If your future goal is, for example, change careers to finance, PE or VC, then there are even more younger applicants with similar profiles. 
I'd say you'd need a pretty damn good 'wow factor' to convince adcoms at top 10 schools to accept you instead of others. Your professional experience, no matter how accomplished in your field you might be, definitely is not.
Maybe you should ask yourself if you really need a full-time MBA to achieve your goals. If there's any other way to achieve them, maybe you should pursue that path.

But that's just my opinion. Of course there are people in their mid-30's at Stanford, Wharton and Harvard. But they represent probably less then 1% of the class.

Good luck anyway!

bizwiz

12+ years exp in Consulting, am I too exp for full time MBA?

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