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Do a simple search on the top 15 schools' websites. Most report an average of 4-5yrs WE at matriculation.
There's no reason why the average would be optimal though in terms of what you gain from the MBA?
It all depends on what your work experience is in. Many people go to b-school after 2 years at MBB, but after 5ish years at a F500.
Here is a post I made on a similar, recent thread:
A lot of it depends on the type of experience. Someone who has done two years of consulting or banking is far better positioned to get more out of their MBA than the person who did Teach for America. That said, I matriculated with six years of experience and I'm really glad. I think my experience has given me a far better perspective on on what I want out of a career and generally "the way the system works." If I had matriculated right out of banking I would be getting far less out of my MBA. This is coming from someone who has always been pretty self aware.
My recommendation would be to shoot for 4-5 years of experience at matriculation. This will put you closer to the average and should be sufficient time for you to figure out how to get the most out of the program.
Could not agree more with this. Optimal is such an impossible thing to define, because so much depends on who you are and what you've done. From my experience, I can tell you that I wanted to apply last year with about ~3.5 years of experience but for personal reasons, did not. When I applied this year, 90% of my essay and interview material, as well as key resume points (those go together) were from the last year. These made my apps significantly better.
So, while I was certainly at an acceptable point in terms of work experience, I hadn't necessarily reached the point of being the best possible applicant I could be. That basically echoes what CompBanker said. Moreover, personally, I am much more ready to go back to school now and take advantage of what it has to offer than I would have been a year or two ago.
If you know you want an MBA it makes sense to go ASAP so you can start earning that post-MBA money sooner. Of course, depending on what you want out of the MBA it might be beneficial to wait. Bankers don't seem to care about age much, but consulting and "rotational leadership" type gigs don't really want babyfaced 24 year olds.
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