Hello Giuseppina
You shouldn't be that much worry about your age ,the average age for most MBA programme is 28-29 ,and for EMBA is around 40,regarding Trium it's a very good programme by the three best Business school in Europeand US but i would suggest you to consider other BS in Europe as well and never forget you can always apply for an MBA programme with a couple of years more experience you actually would be able to contribute to the programme.Good Luck

i'm 34 age now.
i'm an entrepreneur from 10 years.
i , thinking to take an mba , i choose the imd school but i think it's very difficult to enter.
my problem is the age....too old for an mba in an another school ( except the imd) , maybe too young for an emba( i prefer the trium)
who can help me?

34 is still an "ok" age to do an MBA, but with 10 years of work experience as an entrepreneur, an EMBA would suit you better. How come as an entrepreneur you have time to take one or two years off for an MBA at all? Did you sell your business or did it go bust ;-)

In principle, with 10-year work experience as an entrepreneur, an EMBA should suit you better. I would however consider other things too. How much have you learnt as an entrepreneur, where do you want to move (professionally), and what weaknesses do you want to strengthen? In MBA programs it is assumed that everyone needs to get some basic knowledge about the main business areas, plus some specialized knowledge for some of them. So you have an important "knowledge transmission" part (from faculty to students), in addition to class discussions (among students and faculty). In EMBA programs, because people have more experience, the faculty-to-students knowledge transmission part is less important: instructors tend to let students discuss, correct them now and then, and add their own perspective. If you have experience as a small business owner and you feel that you haven't had enough exposure to corporate world, MBA format could suit you better than the EMBA format. So I wouldn't completely put away the MBA option.

Hello Jaitego, after reading your comment, I'm a bit lost.
Looking from the outside, in fact I fulfill the requirements to do an EMBA. I have a similar profile as giuseppina - I'm in my mid thirts, 9 years work experience, several years in management position.
But what you explain about knowledge transmission made me a bit insecure now, because I think I would need a more solid basis of knowledge.

Well, it looks to me as if I should quickly enroll in an MBA program, or I'll be too old...

Any comments?

Jona,

If you feel that you need basic training in some of the business areas that you haven't been very exposed to at work (for ex. you don't know much about accounting or you feel a bit lost when you read a financial report), and/or you don't have an academic background in business, I think an MBA would suit you better than an EMBA. Maybe other people have a different opinion.

Also, I don't know whether your work experience will be much of a disadvantage when applying to a program. Take into account that there are many good MBA programs nowadays, and very strong competition among them. It is definitely better to have "too much" work experience than "too little". Finally, when looking at work experience you should take into account not only the number of years, but also the type of employment. If you have 9 years of work exp. but (for example) your first 3 years were in positions of little responsibility, then 9 years is not that much. And also, how do you count part-time jobs? You see that besides the total number of years, the type of employment matters.

I've been browsing a little of course to find out what are the important factors for different good MBAs to filter their best candidates, that's why I wasn't so sure about the question if EMBA or MBA would suit me better.
Just counting the number of years of work exp. I look like the perfect candidate for an EMBA - but actually the state of m knowledge makes the MBA a better solution. As you say Jaitego, two things:

I don't have a strong acadmic background in economics, in fact after 2 years of economy I switched to a complete different subect (between arts + media) to finish my university studies. that's the field I work in right now.
So I often lack knowledge - one reason for the MBA.

On the other hand, several years of my work exp. I was in more creative positions with with less responsibility. So I think it would be more accurate to count some 5 or 6 years prof. exp., when I was working in managerial positions.

Now I have a clearer picture of the situation! thx

Jona's post is of 2007 and its 2010 now.
Anyway I am in the similar situation.
I am an India and keen on pursuing a One Year MBA in Marketing for the course starting in 2011.
By that time I would be 34 years in age & would have 10 years of expeirence.
(Presently I work for Siemens in the marketing department. I started my career as a junior developer
and gradually matured to an Application Engineer's job. Presently I am a Senior Appli. Eng. also responsible for busi. deve. activities).
The 10 years I am talking about would shrink to just 5 once we talk about responsible positions. Also I do not have an economics degree as I have my Bachelor's in Electronics and yes my reels by looking at the balance sheet. Not too experienced there.
I am presently shortlisting the schools I will apply to as I am married with a kid so cannot afford a 2 year MBA.
When I look at the class profiles, specially in the Asian schools I find the avg. age of guys to be 26-27 and work.ex. as 5 years.
In Europe I do get profiles similar to me becuase there the avg. age is 29-30 & work ex. is 7 years.
US is almost in between. with Avg. age as 28 and work .ex. as 5-6.
Now my confusion is am I too old for the MBA ?
I discussed this thing with one of a friend (who is not very well informed) and he suggested that I should go for an Executive MBA
rather than MBA because of my age, my present profile, my job and etc.
I am not convinced that I am old and think this is the right time for me to go for an MBA but definitely confused by looking at the class profiles
and what the friend is saying.
Any response, feedback, opinion is welcome.
BY what Jona & others have said, I think I should go for MBA but I am embarrassed to think that I would be oldest or old in the class.
Kindly comment.

any one ?????

Lioneko you would have to clarify first.. which part of the world you would like to study in as you pointed out the class dynamics in europe, asia and US are different. In europe you would be perfectly fine as there more experienced students while in asia you would come across as older if not the oldest in class.

As mba is as much about getting knowledge from classmates as is learning from professors europe would come across the right place (a lot of 1 year MBA programs there).

Though to really get a feel of what you should look into, i recommend you send you send e-mails along with you resume to some of the schools you like in Europe, Asia and US and put this question of yours to them.

They will surely be able to give you an idea of what kind of class they like to have and i am sure you will get different answers from different regions.

Personally i would recommend Europe as it tends to value experience more than but you will get a better feel from school's feedback.

good luck