Age an obstacle for Quants? - Myth or Truth?

I am an incoming student to a Masters in Financial Engineering program. I keep hearing that for many quant roles ( quant researcher/trading/derivatives pricing/fixed income/statistical quant etc) prefer younger people (with less than 3 years of any previous experience right after undergrad). Is this true? Do older folks have a harder time getting into these roles? About me - Finished my undergrad 4 years ago. I have 3 years of work experience as a software dev. The program I am accepted to isn't in NY or Chicago or California. On quantnet, it is ranked between 10 and 15. This is my first post here. Please help out this Chimp.

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