Older, non-traditional candidate profile eval request

[coreyjhansen]

Age: 39 (turn 40 10/23)

GMAT: 770 (first take)

UGPA: 3.1 - Indiana University - Bloomington, Economics 1992: mitigating factors = managed a family owned car care center (full service car wash, meineke muffler, jiffy lube) in Chicago full-time throughout entire undergraduate as a result of a family tragedy - commuted 4 hours to Chicago Thurs-Sun every week

W/E: nontraditional career tract ~ 160 months as small business entrepreneur: successfully started and operated multiple successful small businesses in two sectors: restaurant (1994-present) and financial services (mortgage banking, 2003-present) - patent pending related to technology mentioned below

Plans after MBA: start a vertically integrated mortgage company, leveraging proprietary software and a low-cost pricing model made possible by technological advantages to disenfranchise the dominant mortgage broker (think hybrid of Carmax and Dell).

Alt Transcript: currently taking calculus and stats - will have As in both

Schools:

Wharton
Stanford
Michigan
Duke

viable in r3 this year?

Answer to your likely question: yes, I have considered and dismissed the part-time and Exec program options.

[MBAApply]

Chances are zero if you don't apply at all, but Round 3 is a roll of the dice. You certainly will be an outlier, so it's really hard to say what your chances are (even if you were to apply in Rounds 1 or 2). Folks like you aren't unheard of at any top b-school, but there's literally 1-5 individuals who are older than 35 at each school. In your case, it really comes down to whether you can convince an adcom that your reasons for wanting a full-time MBA right now are compelling - and that is a combination of your story as well as the individual adcom reviewing your case (some are more open-minded than others, and that varies by individual adcom). I know that won't give you much more clarity - my advice is if your heart is set on going, by all means give them your best shot and hope for good news.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
http://www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com

[coreyjhansen]

Can you please make recommendations for elite programs most likely to give proper consideration to my candidacy? In other words, those adcoms that are open-minded....

[MBAApply]

It varies by individual, not by school. You're going to be an outlier no matter where you apply, so it will come down to the individual reading your application and whether he/she is willing to be sold on your story.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
http://www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com