Hi Edgar,
You can get an MBA at 42 (I've seen students in their 40's), the question is what is the right MBA for you.

If you're considering a full-time MBA, you need to have good reasons why this is the right option for you, versus a part-time or an Executive MBA.

There are 3 ways to look at that:
1. Will the schools think you can fit in with the class and benefit from being together with a group of a younger crowd?

2. Will you get the best return on your investment being in such a group, or maybe you would benefit more from more experienced classmates? Maybe the network of decision makers in an EMBA would be better suited to your ambitions.

3. Companies - if you're looking for a full-time job post school, you will be competing with younger candidates - with less experience but also with lower salary expectations(probably). Companies might consider you too senior to join at the post-MBA level, and not all companies are flexible about hire MBA's in terms of compensation and starting roles.


I would be happy to give you more feedback - I need to understand why you are interested in a full-time MBA program, and the programs that you have in mind. Feel free to reply or drop me a message at yael at admit1mba dot com.

Best of luck,
Yael
www.admit1mba.com

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Yael says it well!

Think about why a full time MBA will make more sense to you, as opposed to an Executive program. An executive program could be more fast paced, could help you get better connections, and in general be more suited for someone in your age group.

A full time is something you should consider if you want a career change - not just an upward movement into management/administration in your industry. Understand that the career change would imply you starting at the beginning again - Evaluate if this is something you would want to do. Understand also that hiring companies might sometimes not want to hire you for a role that involves a lot of "do what the manager says" - mostly because they might think that you wouldn't want to

As far as the business school is concerned - they will derive a lot of value from you. Its up to you to decide what value you get in return.

Nothing more to add.

Karthik

Hi,

I have an article that you might find interesting on my site, How Old is Too Old for an MBA?

Seeing the distribution of age in a typical MBA class will help you better gauge the probability of being admitted after 32 years old or so.

I would strongly recommend you apply for an EMBA. While you could get into a FT program as mentioned above, you stand a much better chance with an EMBA. Additionally, you will learn a lot more! Your classmates will also have a lot of experience and the network you build will be that much more beneficial to you. Of course there is nothing wrong with a large group of extremely smart 27-32 year olds in your network, but wouldn't you rather have a network of executives?