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The average age of MBA applicants has fallen to 25.5 years, from 26.8 years in 2004, according to a recent QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey. With 69% of MBA applicants between the ages of 20 and 28 this year, compared to 58% in 2004, the message is out, loud and clear - MBA applicants are getting younger.

So what does this mean for the average business-school applicant? The traditional 3-plus years of work experience, while still highly valued by most business school admissions officers, may be subject to greater flexibility than in the past. Linda Meehan, Admissions Director at Columbia Business School, announced during the QS World MBA Tour in 2006 that Columbia is actively seeking to recruit fresh graduates into her class of 2007 - academic high-fliers who would otherwise be lost to the business school world once they enter fast track careers in banking or elsewhere. Columbia, according to Meehan, will also target a greater number of candidates with less than three years of work experience.

Harvard Business School has also started to recruit younger students to their MBA programme. They target students within 3 years of graduating from university or college. The average age of the Harvard MBA student was 27 years of age, but has fallen to 26 years of age as the school has recently admitted a number of 22 year-olds. But can they still get good jobs following graduation?

According to Jana Kierstead, Director of MBA Career Services at Harvard Business School, of those who entered within 3 years of finishing university or college, 94% had job offers at graduation. The average for the whole 2006 intake was 96%. So, the evidence at Harvard is that a lot of younger MBAs seem to have little trouble competing with more experienced candidates. According to Kierstead, these younger students received salaries just as competitive as their more experienced classmates, and equally across all industries. But of course, we're talking about Harvard, or Columbia, or Wharton.

Your choice of business school and preferred area of career expertise are two factors which may help or hinder your chances of becoming a young MBA. If you have top academic grades. you stand a chance of gaining acceptance to a top US business school in 2007, but European schools have not moved in the same direction. The average age of 28.5 for MBAs at top European business schools has remained stable. Francesca Roveda at SDA Bocconi comments that the school has no intention of reducing its age requirements for candidates. Janet Shaner at IMD also emphasised the point during a QS World MBA Tour panel discussion in October: "We see no benefit in reducing the average age of our MBA intake, either for the school or for our recruiters," a view shared by her European counterparts.

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Source: -
Marie Field
Website: www.topmba.com