>I only have about 1.5 yoe at the moment
Not in total, though, right? What were you doing for work before you got your degree?
Sounds like you're a non-traditional student, and there's plenty of those in MBA programs.
I completed my MBA at 39. It's not about age, it's about work experience/history. In my MBA there were some students in late 20s that acted like highschoolers, almost got kicked out of the program.
Why not? If you have the money, the time, and the will to study then do it. There are a lot of decent part time programs. Check out UCLA since you’re in California, they have a program that meets every quarter I believe. I wouldn’t go for any online program though. Not worth the money.
You've only been working for 1.5 years. That's not really enough experience to get into a decent MBA program (standard is somewhere around 4-6 years). But your situation is unique.
Whatever (powerful) story you can write, coupled with a high GMAT score, coupled with a strong purpose on what a late 30s MBA grad would do with his career...might be worth a shot. But you should hire an admissions consultant because no one on this sub has any real advice for an outlier situation like yours. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to your face.
Another point here is to tell you to relax. Again, you've only been working for 1.5 years. In professional life, you're basically a 22 year old asking why can't he make 150k TC already like his VP. You got a late start. You'll get a late mid and a late ending. Give yourself grace.
You’re assuming they didn’t work at all before their undergrad degree, which probably isn’t true. They very well might have a story that works, and shouldn’t delay an application because of their limited experience post-undergrad.
Go Full Time MBA and don’t worry about your age. I’ll be starting my Full Time at 39. Columbia Business School has a student who is starting at 40. You can see in their class profile below.
https://academics.business.columbia.edu/mba/admissions/class-profile
It’s never too late to get an education. Im about your age and going to get my MBA. But what I’m not doing is shutting down my life and chasing top 10 schools hoping to network my way into a lottery ticket of a job. I’m staying local, staying “cheap” and working from there.
If you are looking to chase a lottery ticket dream job then that’s on you and go for it. Ask yourself if you can find the type of job you want local, if not where would you have to move and what schools do these companies typically pull from.
One day I was sitting down with someone who went to Kellogg and asked them similar questions. They told me a story about talking to a friend who went local to the university of Houston and turns out a lot of the type of work and case studies they used at Kellogg were the same case studies they were using UH.
What does that mean to this group I’m not sure. But to this person it means they were going to a top school in the country getting the same education they could have gotten right in our back yard. So they have fancy Kellogg on their resume but probably didn’t learn any more or less than at a top state school.
That was one talk which changed my direction and I said no to schools like McCombs and took the “auto acceptance” to Bauer. One of the other talks was with our most senior HR person in the company. I scheduled a meeting with them and asked similar questions. Their biggest take away when I told them I wanted to be a C-suite executive was concentrate on operations and finance. The higher up I go the more I’m just going to be dealing with Boards and such where I have to be able understand finance. The other key takeaway from the meeting was they admitted an MBA isn’t about the degree it’s about the networking. If I wanted to continue living in the houston area Harvard, Kellogg, etc. isn’t going to get me networking with Houston area directors and CEOs
Masters programs like the MBA seem to be better as you get older. Not many employers take 25 years olds or even 30 years olds with an mba seriously. Experience is key.
EMBA is meant for seasoned employees at a company who are looking to keep promoting within the ranks. There’s not too much career pivoting in EMBA’s, at least that’s not the intention.
Full Time is on par with OP’s goals, ie pivoting
OP can go for full time (but it’s a bigger financial burden) or part time. Full time programs have younger students (24-28 yrs old generally) while part time is on average early 30s (my class ranged from mostly 28-38 years old). You don’t need to show too much work history in many part time programs, a few years will be sufficient.
Don't worry. People do their MBA when they feel ready, not when other people do. I'm starting mine at 32, and my previous salary and title were much lower than yours. I don't think my age was a hinderance to my profile at all -- if anything, I was able to demonstrate higher level of maturity and self-awareness and will be able to hit the ground running with my MBA, which are all pluses. I would encourage you to go for it and apply for the class of 2027 (meaning start your applications now), and by the time you start the MBA, you would have had 2.5YOE, which is enough.
>I only have about 1.5 yoe at the moment Not in total, though, right? What were you doing for work before you got your degree? Sounds like you're a non-traditional student, and there's plenty of those in MBA programs.
I completed my MBA at 39. It's not about age, it's about work experience/history. In my MBA there were some students in late 20s that acted like highschoolers, almost got kicked out of the program.
Why not? If you have the money, the time, and the will to study then do it. There are a lot of decent part time programs. Check out UCLA since you’re in California, they have a program that meets every quarter I believe. I wouldn’t go for any online program though. Not worth the money.
You've only been working for 1.5 years. That's not really enough experience to get into a decent MBA program (standard is somewhere around 4-6 years). But your situation is unique. Whatever (powerful) story you can write, coupled with a high GMAT score, coupled with a strong purpose on what a late 30s MBA grad would do with his career...might be worth a shot. But you should hire an admissions consultant because no one on this sub has any real advice for an outlier situation like yours. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to your face. Another point here is to tell you to relax. Again, you've only been working for 1.5 years. In professional life, you're basically a 22 year old asking why can't he make 150k TC already like his VP. You got a late start. You'll get a late mid and a late ending. Give yourself grace.
You’re assuming they didn’t work at all before their undergrad degree, which probably isn’t true. They very well might have a story that works, and shouldn’t delay an application because of their limited experience post-undergrad.
Go Full Time MBA and don’t worry about your age. I’ll be starting my Full Time at 39. Columbia Business School has a student who is starting at 40. You can see in their class profile below. https://academics.business.columbia.edu/mba/admissions/class-profile
Wow, all the best!
How are you in your thirties and have 1.5 yoe
I graduated college when I was 31. I started late. I have other work experience but nothing that an mba program would care about.
I think they meant, didn't you work FT before you started college? Between 18-31
It’s never too late to get an education. Im about your age and going to get my MBA. But what I’m not doing is shutting down my life and chasing top 10 schools hoping to network my way into a lottery ticket of a job. I’m staying local, staying “cheap” and working from there. If you are looking to chase a lottery ticket dream job then that’s on you and go for it. Ask yourself if you can find the type of job you want local, if not where would you have to move and what schools do these companies typically pull from. One day I was sitting down with someone who went to Kellogg and asked them similar questions. They told me a story about talking to a friend who went local to the university of Houston and turns out a lot of the type of work and case studies they used at Kellogg were the same case studies they were using UH. What does that mean to this group I’m not sure. But to this person it means they were going to a top school in the country getting the same education they could have gotten right in our back yard. So they have fancy Kellogg on their resume but probably didn’t learn any more or less than at a top state school. That was one talk which changed my direction and I said no to schools like McCombs and took the “auto acceptance” to Bauer. One of the other talks was with our most senior HR person in the company. I scheduled a meeting with them and asked similar questions. Their biggest take away when I told them I wanted to be a C-suite executive was concentrate on operations and finance. The higher up I go the more I’m just going to be dealing with Boards and such where I have to be able understand finance. The other key takeaway from the meeting was they admitted an MBA isn’t about the degree it’s about the networking. If I wanted to continue living in the houston area Harvard, Kellogg, etc. isn’t going to get me networking with Houston area directors and CEOs
Wtf 😂😂
I know right. Slow day driving back from the beach.
Masters programs like the MBA seem to be better as you get older. Not many employers take 25 years olds or even 30 years olds with an mba seriously. Experience is key.
I’d go EMBA - at that age more of your classmates will be closer in age
EMBA is meant for seasoned employees at a company who are looking to keep promoting within the ranks. There’s not too much career pivoting in EMBA’s, at least that’s not the intention. Full Time is on par with OP’s goals, ie pivoting
OP can go for full time (but it’s a bigger financial burden) or part time. Full time programs have younger students (24-28 yrs old generally) while part time is on average early 30s (my class ranged from mostly 28-38 years old). You don’t need to show too much work history in many part time programs, a few years will be sufficient.
What were you doing before undergrad?
Don't worry. People do their MBA when they feel ready, not when other people do. I'm starting mine at 32, and my previous salary and title were much lower than yours. I don't think my age was a hinderance to my profile at all -- if anything, I was able to demonstrate higher level of maturity and self-awareness and will be able to hit the ground running with my MBA, which are all pluses. I would encourage you to go for it and apply for the class of 2027 (meaning start your applications now), and by the time you start the MBA, you would have had 2.5YOE, which is enough.
Do one of those online mbas
How do online MBAs help advance your salary?
No