Why Mid-Career Professionals Pursue (and prefer) EMBAs over MBAs

Heading back to school can seem like an impossible dream when college and even grad school are more than a decade past.

But there’s a good reason why EMBA programs differ significantly from their MBA counterparts with a frequently younger class profile.

The EMBA is tailored to a mid-career—and rising—executive. Not only is the curriculum structured for a part-time student balancing a high-level job with her studies, but also, students can more often than not rely on the continuity of the cohort experience to carry them through. With the cohort making up such a significant portion of an EMBA student’s time in a program, having an older, more experienced peer group to consult and bounce ideas off of can be enormously advantageous.

The Sloan School of Management at MIT has one of the highest average ages for its student body. With the average EMBA program participant at 40 years old, it’s clear that taking on a top-tier education to advance one’s career is an option that it’s never too late to make. With an older average student body, the EMBA cohort at MIT also benefits from an average of 17-years of experience in the workplace.

Annely Guzman entered MIT’s EMBA program with 17-years of experience herself. The co-founder of a New York City based tech startup, Annely sought out the Sloan School to dive deeper into data-driven analysis that could best advance her marketing skills honed over nearly two decades. She also wanted to enter what she called an “entrepreneurial ecosystem” that would help empower her as the leader of a startup. She found MIT to be the best possible program for her particular needs.

The IE Global Executive MBA in Spain also skews toward an older and more established demographic. The average student there is 38-years old with 14-years of experience. Add to that a cohort that is 93-percent international and it’s clear that an EMBA program participant at IE can learn as much from his peers as he can from the faculty.

Anders Osterballe is the director and founder of Scantech International. He credits the GEMBA at IE with making him a better manager and empowering him to run his company better. Anders is a strong example of a student who entered the program from an existing leadership position and entered the GEMBA to strengthen his knowledge and perspective.

The Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University also sees an experienced student body: the average EMBA student there has 12-years in the workforce and is 36-years old.

Ravi Chari completed his EMBA at Vanderbilt in 2008. He too came from a high-level position won with years of experience and hard work to further his business acumen with an EMBA. Prior to pursuing his EMBA, Ravi was a clinical professor of surgery at Vanderbilt’s School of Medicine. After completing his EMBA, he rose quickly through a variety of C-suite positions at medical centers and hospitals. Today, he’s the Senior Vice President in Clinical Excellence for HCA’s TriStar Division. A younger, less experienced student would not have the breadth of medical expertise to apply to the EMBA’s curriculum. Instead, Ravi used his already extensive higher education to catapult his career even further with an EMBA.

Ultimately, the decision to return to school for an EMBA will come down to much more than age. Knowing that it’s time to transition—careers, positions within a company, location—can help a prospective EMBA student recognize that a higher degree might be the catalyst for that change. It’s also important to remember that these programs are geared to the longstanding professional with often more than a decade of experience under his or her belt. Many programs, in fact, will not consider an applicant with less than eight years of experience. As a result, a young cohort at an EMBA program would be hard to find and, in many ways, would defeat the purpose.