jonus21
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Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 85
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| Posted: 08 Feb 2012 at 11:33 | IP Logged
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My background is a little different in that I came out of
college with a humanities background and started
teaching. After a couple years I moved into business and
accounting, eventually getting my CPA. I'm actually
slightly older than the average age, but remember that it
is only a mean for them. What you have to ask yourself
when you're applying to the different schools is: Am I
competitive with the other applicants? Can I help the
school's metrics? Is it worth the time/money to go there?
Is this the type of school/program that fits my
personality?
A big thing that people often don't think
about is how the top schools are rated at the top by
playing their own metrics games with the applicants. You
can read about how the rankings are calculated and then
start trying to figure out what each school is looking
for in order to boost their numbers. So if you have
something a bit different about yourself, something that
makes you stand out, it may be a very good thing. If you
worked at a firm with national or regional recognition,
it may help as the schools like to tout that crap in
their reports.
On another note, being strong in the quantitative
department isn't really an advantage. Duke and the other
top schools get a TON of crazy quant scores as there are
quite a few engineers from outside the US that blow up
the GMAT quant scores. What is better is a balanced score
with verbal. I hit right around the DUKE average on the
GMAT, though I actually had a lower quant and a killer
verbal score. I have to imagine I had a different
background as a teacher, CPA, and CFE. It helps to have a
good story.
Finally, just call the schools that you are interested
in. They will often tell you what they are looking for,
at least in general terms. I don't think your age will
keep you from getting into a big school as long as you
have a good story on why you want to get your MBA or
otherwise how it could help you further your career. I
know there are students your age in the top programs.
__________________
CPA
CFE
Working on MBA at Duke
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Topic: Is the MBA overated?
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