What's more important? Age or getting your application right?

Question

Hi. There's something that's been been really bothering me for a while and I would be appreciate if there is something who can clear my mind on this.

Here's some background. I am 27 and have about 3-4 years of working experience. There were some issues after graduation that delayed me getting the work experience I wanted.

I am still the in the process of finishing my professional exams, getting sufficient experience etc. I predict it will take me until I am 29 or even older before, I will have accomplished what I need to have a good profile.

Lately I noticed a lot of people similar age are joining MBA programs and I'm getting frustrated with how long its taking me to build my profile right.

I'm wondering, should I just drop it all and focus on the gmat so I can apply next year? Or should I be patient and ensure I am ready before I apply? The average age thing keeps bothering me, since I'm worried I would be 30 by the time I am ready. Wouldn't that be too old and put me at a disadvantage in my mba application?

Appreciate any comments to help me clear my mind. Seems I can't focus on anything while these thoughts continue to disturb me.

bb · Answer

Hi. I don't think 29 is a problem at all or even 30 for most schools to be a consideration. As long as you don't delay into 31, 32, or 33, you will be a pretty "average" applicant from the age perspective.

At the same time, you should not spend more than 5 months preparing for the GMAT. Spreading your prep time across a longer period of time makes it really hard to stay focused, engaged, and to remember all the wealth of knowledge/experience and traps you have learned and discovered. GMAT is a perishable skill - if you are not constantly engaged, your abilities decline.

keats · Answer

dchan  I am a current student at the Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University full time MBA program and I can say with confidence that 30 is definitely NOT too old. Average age at Top 25 MBA programs is usually in the range 26-28. So, you should not worry at all. I have a lot of people in my program who are even above 30 ( the number is at least 20% of the whole class) And as  bb  noted, you should not spread your GMAT over a lot of days. Just get on it for once and finish it.

99Colleges · Answer

Getting application right is more important. 30 is not a spoiler.

I want to make a different point here… just a food for thought. Question your assumption that you do not have the perfect profile. Maybe you already are fine. Maybe you need one year. Maybe, two. What matters is quality of experience (in more concrete terms, impact you made at work and did you do it better than others), in whatever field it is? 90-95 percent chance is that you’re right in your assessment, but sometimes there can be blind spots.

dchan · Answer

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Right now I work in the accounting/finance field. I have done a bit of research. Firstly a lot of my peers have their professional credentials before applying. Right now its frustrating because I started my career in this field a bit later and the process is taking a bit longer than expected. Secondly, regarding experience: I am sure many peers have at least some level of supervisory experience. Again it will take me 1-2 more years before I can confidently say I have obtained adequate experience in that area.

It seems though so far everyone saying that age is not such big a factor and that I should focus on getting my achievements in order before starting, applying etc?

MBADecoder · Answer

Hi Chan,

I have a different opinion here.

Maybe you are comparing yourself too much to your peers and chasing someone else's "perfect profile". Rather introspect your own strengths and weaknesses and gain insight into whether they make you a good fit for the programs you are targeting.

Getting professional certifications and accolades can be a never ending goal. Can you do that alongside your MBA preparation? Will these certifications help you get better opportunities at work and in effect lead to a big jump in your profile?

ARINGO · Answer

In your case the age really won’t be that much of an issue, for most schools it only becomes an issue when you hit your mid-30s in my experience (and even then, in some cases, especially if we’re talking European schools, it’s something you can overcome!).

And depending on what the issues you ran into after graduation were, you might even be able to use that in your essays to strengthen your profile (hard for me to say if that is the case here or not, just putting the idea out there!).

I totally understand that you might feel like your are “behind” other similar candidates, but keep in mind that what really helps your case is what makes you unique, rather than having kept at the same pace as “everyone else” applying. So try to focus on that instead. (If you’d like to brainstorm unique angles together, you are welcome to contact ARINGO at  https://aringo.com/mba-process-registration/  as I can’t really suggest an angle now, knowing very little about you)

JL

What's more important? Age or getting your application right?

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