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Q: Am I too old or too young to receive my MBA through a full-time, Top MBA program?
A: This is a concern that candidates frequently voice. Let’s begin withthe issue of being too old.
You will hear some observers and consultants say that you are too old toapply successfully for Top MBA programs if you are 30-years old or older. Idon’t agree with this assessment. I have worked with many such candidatessuccessfully who are 30-33 years old. But it is true, such candidates are at a point wheretheir age can be seen in more of a negative light by the admissions committee.
Why? Some businessschools think you will not blend in with the general student body, which may onaverage be younger.
Some business schools are weary of older candidates because they thinkthat older candidates will adopt a “I have a lot to teach my youngerclassmates” attitude, which is not good for building class cohesion or teamdynamics.
Some business schools believe that for the candidate who has been in mainstream businesssince graduating from college around the age of 22, they will have essentiallygained all of the knowledge they would have gained through an MBA, hence noneed to extend a seat to them.
Some business schools believe that for the candidate who has been inmainstream business since graduating from college around the age of 22, theyshould have known to apply to business school earlier, hence they did notmanage their career well. That will be seen as a negative.
These are among the reasons why candidates who are over 30 may be seento have “aged out” of any possibility of gaining admission to a Top-15 program. ed Jun 19, 2013 1:11 pm TOO OLD - REASONS TO HOPE
There are reasons to hope, however. For some top business schools, theaverage age of matriculating students has been getting higher. This is in partbecause those schools are accepting more students who are engineers or who havetechnology backgrounds. Such candidates often do not become aware until about5-6 years into their careers that they want to transition to the business sideof their industry, and hence they come into the MBA admissions process aroundthe age of 28, rather than 25-26 like their mainstream businesscounterparts.
But, since businessschools have these general concerns about candidates who are over the age of30, it would be useful if you address those concerns through means such as thetone you use in your essays, what you elaborate on when you are discussing whatyour contributions will be during business school and how you present yourselfin the admission interview.
TONE
By tone, I mean that you should present yourself as eager to learn from your peersin business school, and acknowledge that they have a lot to share with you.
You should be willing to indicate you can play the roles effectively ofboth team member and team leader in class projects (not just teamleader!).
CONTRIBUTIONS
When discussing your contributions, you should speak of your peers aspeers you look forward to working jointly with, not as professionals you willbe teaching from your vast experience.
ADMISSIONS INTERVIEWS
You should make sure no air of condescension creeps into your comments as you talk about how youwill view your peers during your MBA admissions interview. If you partake in agroup interview, you should be particularly careful with how you interact withother candidates, particularly those who are younger. 在申请时候超过30以上的申请者对于TOP的MBA项目可能竞争优势会相对减少一些。因为按照大多数人22岁本科毕业，商学院会认为你在近十年的工作中已经积累了相当的管理经验。还有商学院可能会考虑到你和班级大多数同学的年龄差而导致的一些问题。怎么解决呢？主要在你的文书中要体现出你读商学院的期望，想在商学院学到什么，面试时候千万不能有自高自大的态度。
WHAT IS BEHINDTHE CONCERN ABOUT BEING TOO YOUNG?
A: In top MBA programs, your contributions during class discussions and the quality of analysisyou bring are central aspects to contributing excellently to and benefitingfrom the MBA program. Most top schools want to provide an education that enables students to sharpen their leadership skills, consider difficultbusiness cases from varying vantage points, and benefit from outstandingteamwork during the MBA program.
If a candidate has no full-time work experience or only a year or so ofwork experience before matriculation, most business schools will believe thatsuch a candidate – even if they are outstanding academically and have contributed wonderfully in their extracurricular life – will not have enough to contribute in an MBA program.
When the topic arises in class about managing a difficult CEO, whatwould such a candidate have to share? Their peers may not want to listen as thecandidate draws a parallel to managing a difficult situation when serving aspresident of their undergraduate business club.
When the topic arises about managing a multi-country project, what willthe candidate have to share? What will your classmate, who helped manage amultinational project that resulted in a win of a new $3 million project, learnfrom you?
Wed Jun 19, 2013 1:18 pm USE YOUR ESSAYS AND RECOMMENDATIONSEXCELLENTLY
Two primary ways for a candidate to overcome this particular weakness –of being perceived as having too little work experience, which is often thesame thing as being considered “too young” – is to use their essay contentexcellently and to present recommendations that can point to the usefulness oftheir experiences.
ESSAYS
The younger candidate should use their essays to draw out their leadership and teamleadership insights, conveying effectively to the committee that they havevaluable insights to share. (There are many ways to show leadership inthe workplace, even with only one year of experience.)
RECOMMENDATIONS
The recommendations should do the same – elaborating on instances when the candidate showed clearleadership insights, leadership potential, outstanding teamwork and impeccable interpersonal skills that provide the candidate with valuable knowledge toshare in class.
当然年龄过小也是减少你竞争力的一个部分。因为MBA 项目非常重视课堂的讨论，如果你无法在课堂给出你的想法，无法用你以前的工作例子来证明你的观点，这其实是降低课堂的质量。当然也有办法补救。在文书中体现出你的领导力，推荐信中要突出领导力品质和交际能力等等。
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发表于 2013-7-2 03:29:07
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