Hi All,

Am deep in my search for the right MBA, but am getting stuck a bit owing to my oddish profile for an MBA applicant, in terms of age (34 years of age, 11+ years of experience), and am hoping that you'll be able to help me out in identifying the right MBA programs I should be focusing on.

In brief, my profile is as below:
11+ years of experience in IT, in diverse roles ranging from software development to business development. 4.5 years of experience spread over US and Europe (primarily UK). GMAT 770 / 6.0. UG Mechanical Engineering - 70.8% from India. Good EC in UG, but not much after then (other than having published English poetry in bits and pieces, and rudimentary volunteer work).

Primary objectives from MBA: Gain good in-depth knowledge of the financial and strategic planning aspects of business management.

Ideal job post MBA: Corporate Strategy Planning in global IT firm (alternative: strategy consulting with global techno-business consulting firm).

Looking forward to your help! Thanks much!

I don't understand what you mean when you say your profile is "oddish" - your profile is excellent, and would probably get you in the best b schools! your high GMAT score, and 11 years of work experience should prove to be a door opener - don't worry about the age, it is perfectly normal for people in their mid 30 to do an MBA!

Thanks, D.jung, for your encouraging words. Unfortunately, am finding that the acceptability of candidates aged >29 seems to be suffering somewhat, probably owing to concerns about 'why so late etc.', and understand that some B-schools are more receptive of such applicants than others. Hence, am reaching out to understand which are the best B-schools that may be more receptive of my profile, so that I may target the right programs. Thanks!

is it a feeling you have, or did you already have bad experience yourself? you can always go for an EMBA - with 11 years of experience you might get a place in a good school(it would depend very much at how you present it at your interview and essays)
personally, i think that in the next years statistics we will see a rise in the avg. age of MBA participants, due to the fact, that many people already working for years, thought it is now a good time to take an MBA(because of the crisis).