“Age is just a number”

I have come across a number of aspirants who are often in a doubt of whether doing an MBA at far end of 20s or early 30s is a good option or not. To such aspirants, my only advice is that age is just a number more than anything else. You only feel old from your body and not from your mind. Well, Human body has such unique characteristics. While we can keep our physical fitness intact by a regular regime of exercise, we can also keep our mind fit and agile by having a clear goal in life and a sheer determination of achieving that goal. And I believe that our mind is very much agile even at 30s. So, without giving more focus on age, one must have a belief in oneself that learning is perennial and not just an age bound characteristic.

There have been a lot of success stories in the past of people doing great pursuing MBA in a somewhat late educational age of their life. This might be because they wanted to have a good amount of experience behind them before joining for an MBA degree or maybe a late realisation of their career path. The trend of ‘fresher’ or ‘zero experience’ is quite common in India as compared to the other countries. This is simply because most of the foreign country’s colleges prefer experienced students for their MBA program rather than fresh out of undergrad. In India, other than ISB Hyderabad, not many colleges preferably ask for rich experience. ISB prefers students who have a rich experience behind them, approximately between 2 to 5 years for their MBA program. Apart from ISB, Great Lakes Chennai has a mandate of minimum 2 years of experience for a candidate for its one-year PGP program.

There are few psychological biases regarding the same,

1. MBA students over 30 will find it more difficult to get jobs than below such age
2. The salary jump for above 30 years will be lesser than it would be for 20 around years graduate
3. Older MBA students will not fit into a class that has a lower average age

Before you clutter your mind with such biases, let me show a table of average age and work experience for MBA of different universities. I am pretty much sure, you will come out of such biases after going through the table below.

Note: These tables are representative lists. Please refer to the official pages for changes and updates

An executive MBA is not a much hit in our country as compared to a full time MBA and hence most of the people in their late 20s and early 30s prefer a full-time course. There are several reasons for these aspirants to choose the full-time course as like their 20s peers. This will include a full-blown immersive MBA experience, expanded career opportunities, to become a part of elite alumni network and off-course a good paying profile.

To improve your admit chances, for a B-School admission, show good amount of confidence in the perspective of business and show high level of maturity in your answers. Let them know that your grey streaks of hair are actually a result of wisdom and prosperity that you gained in your worthful experience. Believe me, there are not many who would see the corporate world in the way you see it.

All the very best!!!

Hello,

As per your requirement, i would say that its definitely okay to do full time mba at 30 years of age.

Amybody can do mba as there is no upper age limit for it. Many experience holders do mba at age after 30 . So its not an issue, instead you will have more preference as you would be expernc holder.

Good luck