Is 38 a good age for MBA?

Question

Hi All,

I'm 37 years, I'm French planning to enroll in a full time MBA outside France, 8 years after my MSC in IT: with 4 years as IT project Manager (in 2019: Manage IT Team : 10 people and global budget ~= 1,4 Million euros).

Being interested in MBA in USA, England, Singapore I cannot follow an EMBA due to the distance

Score Toefl Ibt: 90
Score GMAT: 710

I have few questions:

1. What are my prospects of getting admission to a BS ranked from top 10 to 25 ?
2. Will it be easy to get a job after MBA?

Your feedback and advice will help me a lot to make my decision and go ahead to reach my goal and take my carrer to another level.

Regards,
GRADEL

G2MAT · Answer

Some programs will be more ‘welcoming’ than others since they want to make sure there is an alignment with career placement. Not an issue for executive MBA or part-time MBA programs, but it can be with full-time MBA programs at select schools that are in a competitive rankings race. A 38-year-old candidate who has spent more than a decade in the same position without showing progression will have a hard time being admitted to a top M.B.A. program. This is not because of age. Rather, it is because the candidate may not demonstrated growth during that time. For the past five years, an average 31 percent of the incoming class of executive MBA students have been age 40 or older. By contrast, its 2018 full-time MBA students are an average age of 28. Students who enroll in the classic full-time, two-year MBA programs tend to be about 28 years old at top universities. My best advice that I could give you would be to reach out to each school and get their thoughts on your career progression.

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Abi1995 · Answer

Age is just a number if you career growth is clear, if MBA is the path which will help you achieve your long term goal, go for it

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donesd · Answer

To your questions (pertaining more to INSEAD since you posted here):

1) It will be challenging to get admitted. There are a few posts here where the adcom told the applicant (who are younger than you by 1 - 2 years) that they will not consider their application for the MBA programme, and suggested for them to consider the EMBA one instead. You can get in touch with the schools themselves to get a feel of where your application stands.

2) While the MBA programme offers structured recruiting, the outcome depends on a few factor: your efforts, what's your desired job after MBA (whether it aligns with the strength of the sch), external circumstances during recruiting. It's hard to comment on this without knowing what's your post-mba goals.

unraveled · Answer

At 38, many bschools won't welcome so you have to be very specific about the question 'why mba now? I think nobody would stop you from doing mba. A little search in Gmatclub would help you - take a look into similar threads from recent past. https://gmatclub.com/forum/mba-at-269435.html https://gmatclub.com/forum/full-time-mba-at-242219.html https://gmatclub.com/forum/any-good-mba ... 82373.html 1. What are my prospects of getting admission to a BS ranked from top 10 to 25 ? Difficult but not impossible. 2. Will it be easy to get a job after MBA? Depends on what you are targeting as industry - present one or shifting to another. It also depends where you end up doing your mba. I'm sure you can get more inputs over the internet. It would be better if you reach current students, the older the better.

AliciaSierra · Answer

Gradel , Answer to your question is YES, Why Not! Go for it. You don't need many schools to do MBA. Only one school is required

All the best!

freedom128 · Answer

Yes, pick up the one-year MBA programs and do for career progression, so as to increase your chance to be admitted.

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applicant123456 · Answer

You might want to reach out to an admissions consultant and get a free review. 38 is pretty old for an non-EMBA so a professional would be able to give better guidance here

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Shift5105 · Answer

For the US schools, I would definitely consider a 1-year MBA at your age because the justification is simple: less time out of the job market to get an MBA and the full-time experience. Other than that, 2-year programs are definitely harder to get into as an older applicant (I know this from experience in speaking with admissions recruiters at the US schools). Even some of the European schools will still try to push you toward an EMBA.

Side note: this is incredibly frustrating because sometimes you really enjoy your work and don't see the need for an MBA at 28 (this was me). Age shouldn't really be a determining factor in whether or not you can further your education on a full-time basis. And, EMBAs, in my opinion, are overpriced ways to get money from larger institutions that will sponsor their employees tuition. Universities should at least provide a discounted rate to self-funded applicants attending an EMBA. But...that'll never happen.

Dleerium · Answer

1. You do have a good chance getting into a BS ranked 1o to 25. As echoed from other posts, a lot rides on 'why MBA, why now essay'
2. Depends on what area you want to go in and at what level. You and your classmates who are 5-10 years younger will get applying for the same roles post MBA, once again you will need a good reason for an employer to hire you. If however you want to go out and do your own thing or go back into industry based on your previous experience then I think that is very doable

bb · Answer

Is 38 a good age for MBA?

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