Now they are admitting kids out of undergrad but with a work requirement. Holding a spot in essence. I know a UTK kid accepted at Harvard. I need to ask him mom his other results.
Strikes me that if full time mbas are indeed mostly capping ages around 30 or so, that older, more experienced people would get more value out of EMBA programs anyway, not just because they are not sacrificing earnings while doing it but they will be networking with and cross learning from others of more significant experience rather than the lower rungs of management/experience. There are enough top schools who offer EMBAs that it doesn’t need to be a trade-off on that front.
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I dunno, man. My best friend did the EMBA at Wharton when I did my full time gig at my school. He was getting a credential while I was doing a career change. Strokes and folks. Very different experiences. He wasn’t taking it nearly as seriously as I was. For obvious reasons.
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The distinction IndySceptic draws, credential versus career change, is probably the clearest way to choose between formats. For a career switch, into consulting or a different industry, the full time program remains the cleanest route because the summer internship acts as the bridge, and firms hire heavily from their intern classes. That is hard to replicate part time or in an executive program. For moving up in a current field, especially with employer funding, the executive or part time route makes more sense. With deferred admission programs, treating the work years as a deliberate test of what you want afterwards is the best way to get value from the reserved seat.
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Gets difficult for applicants age 33 or older who, presumably,would be entering the elite MBA program at age 34 or older. This is almost universally shared by MBA consultants featured on major MBA web sites.
Of course, there are exceptions regarding MBA admissions to the most elite programs for those in their mid-thirties.
Elite programs are best for those MBA candidates seeking to switch industries as the summer internships offered are a key component to those programs.
While switching careers has indeed been one of the biggest benefits of full-time programs, MBA admission consultants are also suggesting that applicants have and articulate a pretty clear idea of where they want to be post-MBA and a reasonable justification/resume for that. Apparently, schools are concerned about exmissions. It also doesn’t help that recruiting for the summer internships that lead to permanent placement begin within the first month of the first year of the program!
Way back when I did this, recruiting for summer positions started in Jan/Feb, and it was entirely valid to use that summer to try something entirely new. (I test-drove consulting, got a FT offer, and continued to interview in several other industries, and ultimately selected one of those.) This is no longer the model.
The full-time program is still better for the career pivot, but not so much for exploration. FT programs are definitely better for building networks, but this isn’t the only way to do that.
This popped up in my feed and seemed relevant here:
UCLA Anderson School of Management enrolled a smaller, younger, and higher-scoring MBA class this fall, after a steep drop in applications and a summer of visa delays and last-minute enrollment losses.
It is also a class that is harder to win over. Gary Fraser, associate dean of the full-time MBA program, says Anderson is now recruiting a Gen Z cohort that grew up distrusting institutions, negotiates harder over offers and needs more one-on-one attention.
Visa problems, which Anderson largely avoided last year, accounted for part of the shortfall. So did an unusual circumstance. “This year was a little different,” Fraser says. “There were actually a handful of students that, for active military reasons – U.S. citizens – could not enroll.”
The class skews younger. The average age fell to 28, with a range of 22 to 39, from 29 a year earlier. Average work experience dipped to 5.4 years from 5.6, and 21% of the class has fewer than three years of experience, up from 17%. Ninety percent plan to switch careers, up from 84%.
Be interesting to see if these factors are affecting other schools as well. They note Andersen might be more affected by visa issues because they start earlier than most, giving students less time to sort visas out.
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We won’t know but I wonder if the 22 year old has work experience or what the pull was?