career switcher would like to apply for an MBA in 2 years - have questions

I keep seeing mba programs with an average work experience of 4-5 years and a recommended work experience of 10-15 for executive mba programs.

1. What if you did 10 years in one career and 3 years in a second career? Would that count as 13 or 3 years of work experience?

2. For a tier 1 program, how important is social work and extracurriculars? I know a lot of smart and focused professionals who are working too hard at their jobs to help lead a charity or political group.

3. For a career in corporate finance, is it more forgivable to do a tier 2 MBA?

4. Am I going to be flat-out too old to get into a tier 1 (part-time) MBA? I'm 33 and I want to go when I'm 35. Is that going to be a deal-breaker?

4 Comments
 

corporate finance = corporate financial planning and analysis, with some M and A thrown in on once a year. We do stuff like compensation analysis, deal recuts for clients, pricing strategies. It's not your typical FP and A forecasting job sometimes, but I wouldn't call it "corporate development"

It's halfway between being a financial analyst and a business analyst.

______ Corporate financial/business analyst looking for career/MBA/CFA advice.
 

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