Mr. Tech Leader

First off, let me say how sorry I am to hear of your misfortune due to COVID. Many people all over the world have been furloughed due to the pandemic and a good number of them are now applying to business schools to upgrade their skills. Unfortunately, in your case, you will have a tough time of it due largely to your age. You will be 40 at matriculation and there are very few 40-something MBA students at the schools you have targeted. Generally, the schools would expect you to apply to their Executive MBA programs and not their full-time MBA options. There are other MBA programs that would be more open to accepting someone at your age but they are not ranked as high as the schools you have chosen. You need to look at schools ranked below the Top 25: Michigan State, Ohio State, etc. These schools have fantastic MBA programs and they would be more willing to consider you. No one would doubt that you could enter INSEAD even though you would be 11 years older than the average 29 year old who enters the MBA program at the school. Some 22% of INSEAD’s latest class of 1,020 MBA students do, however, boast over seven years of work experience, and in Stanford’s latest MBA class, there is at least one student who is 37 or 38. But I will bet anyone that the oldest students are not Indian engineers with sub-700 GMATs and they are not applying in what will be one of the most competitive admission cycles ever.