Never Too Old For Business School

The extra decade Schmitz enjoys over some of his classmates gives him an original viewpoint and a bevy of experience, he says. “I’d already managed large teams of people, published lots of papers, conducted clinical research; I’d done basic science research and was pretty well connected in the academic medicine community, and that probably brought significant value to our class,” he says. He points out that most startups fail, but the odds of success are higher for older founders. “Those success rates really derive from three things that us old guys have that the young guys don’t quite have: maturity, access to capital, and a network.”

‘I BELIEVE THAT MY COMING HERE WILL TURN OUT TO BE THE GREATEST GIFT I’VE EVER GIVEN MYSELF

But those benefits don’t turn an MBA into a cakewalk. Schmitz deems the Sloan program one of the hardest things he’s ever done – this coming from a doctor who spent decades working on human hearts. But when asked if he would do it all over again, Schmitz is unwavering. “I believe that my coming here will turn out to be the greatest gift that I’ve ever given myself. It’s really given me an opportunity to recharge my batteries, view things in a completely different perspective,” he says. “Part of that gift is the opportunity to spend a full year in intense analysis and problem solving with 50 other classmates who come from different generations, cultures, and industries.”

Students like Schmitz may be increasing, but they’re still far from common. Stanford’s MsX program, a counterpart to LBS’ Sloan program, doesn’t include any 60-year-olds. “We think of this not in terms of age, but in terms of career timing. When we say the program is for ‘mid-career’ professionals, we mean a minimum of eight years work experience (which we generally start counting after college),” says Michael Hochleutner, director of the MSx program. “This year our students come with a range between 8 to 25 years of work experience, with the average being 12 years. This pattern is roughly similar to the past few years.”

IT’S NOT ABOUT AGE BUT LIFE AND WORK EXPERIENCE 

Even for LBS, which will celebrate another 60th birthday in its 2015 cohort, admitting students over 50 is “unusual,” according to Linden Selby, the senior admissions manager for the B-school’s Sloan program. However, more senior students can be a boon, she says. “Our program’s success rests on bringing people at different career and life stages together … This sort of generational mix happens in the workplace, why not in a business school?”

Of course, admitting students a few years shy of collecting social security comes with inherent risks. For one, their careers may have stalled, or the degree may simply be a diversion – hardly, the type of students top-tier programs want to attract. Then, there’s the question of whether or not they’ll bond with younger classmates.

Desiderio insists that date of birth is a moot point. “It’s not just about their age – it’s about their work experience and whether they have something interesting in their background,” he says. For Schmitz, fears of a generational disconnect with his 52 classmates proved unfounded. “I sort of came here as an old guy thinking, ‘Oh my God, these guys are just going to blow me off and think you need to go to the old folks home,’ but it almost brings a tear to my eye to tell you that I’m dumbfounded by the way my entire class just embraced me in their lives.”

Since completing the program in December 2013, Schmitz has made his home in London and spends his time advising health tech startups. He’s holding out for a CEO role with a biotech company and doesn’t seem perturbed about starting a job search in his 60s. “I truly live life right now one day at a time. I get out of bed, I respond to email and proposals – I’ve got a half dozen startups I’m working with, so every day brings something new, and it’s unbelievable.”

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DON’T MISS: Sloan Fellows: A Breed Apart At MIT, Stanford & London or Our 2013 Ranking Of The Best EMBA Programs

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