When are you too old to be accepted to a top MBA program?

Hey guys,

On average, when do you feel you are too old to be accepted to a top MBA program?

Dude, CvM and Palacio just gave you words of encouragement; Stop phrasing your questions so negatively. There are never any absolutes, it’s never too late and you’re never too old, it’s all a state of mind.

It’s almost as if you are looking for excuses to doubt yourself, just put your negative thoughts in the garbage and leave them there. You can’t change your past, move forward and use it as inspiration to just f*$k#n outwork every person that comes in your way to the top. Step one of being a BSD is acting like you are a BSD, and don’t you forget it.

You’re only 26! The world is still in the palm of your hands, are you willing to grab it? If you truly believe you have what it takes, get out there and show it! Just drop “too old/late, can’t” and all that other nonsense out of your vocabulary.

Coming to your question, average age tends to be late 20’s. Here’s the 2014 HBS Class Profile:

http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/admission-requirements/Pages/class-profile.aspx

Their average is 27, but that doesn’t mean that a 32 year old would be considered too old or anything of the sort.

Life isn’t easy, and while it may be hard to realize right now, you probably have it better than like 95% of this world. It’s gut check time, let’s see what you got.

When you have less than 2 years to live.

26 is plenty young for an MBA

I just finished business school last spring and I think the oldest person in my class was 33 at graduation.

When 33 years old you reach, look as good you will not. Hmm?

Not sure I’d agree with that…especially at HBS. They tend to like younger students, especially for woman. Remember, they implemented the 2+2 program for a reason. Not to say that there aren’t students there that are 30+, but it’s only a handful (and many have military backgrounds). To be honest, it matters.

However, each school is different. HBS tends to like younger. A school like Tuck (Dartmouth) has significantly more older, married students. Do your homework and check out the schools - they do differ in class composition and vibe.

But yeah, I agree with Kan-yeezy - you’re 26. Plenty young to still get into school, change carers, etc. However, if you want to be in the “norm” and are targeting top schools, I would start to think about taking the GMAT, etc.

Brother in law is 27 this year and going to be attending MIT for his MBA in the fall.

Presumably, it’s when you are too old to pay for it.

However, if there are enough paying younger folks, you may be too old by your mid-to-late 30s.

That said, there are executive MBA programs that probably accept older people.

This is a good point.

If you’re talking about a full-time MBA at, say, Berkeley, it would be a very young crowd; mid-20’s I think.

Berkeley’s part-time MBA crowd would probably be older, like 30+.

And their executive MBA would skew older still.

I’m too lazy to google for actual ages, but the point is that only the full-time MBA will be super-young.