A few months ago admissions officers from 10 of the top US business schools gave presentations in four US cities to managers considering an MBA. What was different about these potential applicants in New York, Atlanta, Palo Alto and Los Angeles was that they were not the usual managers in their late twenties. Instead they were managers just one to three years out of their undergraduate programmes: a few may even have been still studying for their first degrees.

The presentations were the result of the Early Careers Initiative, instigated by Harvard Business School but now being closely studied by many top schools because they are concerned that they are missing out on some of the best MBA students. This is the result of a myth that has grown up in the marketplace that potential MBAs, unlike lawyers in the US, need to have several years' work experience before applying to graduate school.

Brit Dewey, managing director of admissions at Harvard, points out that Harvard has never had a formal requirement for work experience. "We really need to get this message out to the applicant pool."

Admissions directors from other top schools echo her remarks. Ann McGill, deputy dean for full-time programmes at the University of Chicago, believes that age can be a red herring. "We're not strictly looking at age, but sufficient quality so they [the MBA students] can benefit from the work and contribute in the classroom."

Conventional wisdom
The conventional wisdom has meant that people are 27 or 28 before they start business school but just how this conventional wisdom has become established is, in itself, a bit of a mystery. One reason could be that applicants see the average student age published by business schools and think they are too young, says Rosemaria Martinelli, director for MBA admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. "People fixate on the averages and think that that is the minimum."

The late twenties is a problematic age for many. In a growing economy, the sort of applicant whom any of the 10 schools would hope to attract - the 10 giving the presentations were the Anderson school at UCLA, Columbia, Chicago, Darden at the University of Virginia, Harvard, Kellogg at Northwestern, MIT, Stanford, the Tuck school at Dartmouth and Wharton - would also be managers whom global companies would want to retain and so would promote to secure their talent. So, in the bull market of the past few years, many missed out on business school altogether because the opportunity cost of leaving employment at the age of 27 was so high.

Moreover, anecdotally at least, a significant number of people kick their heels while waiting to be old enough to apply to business school, says Prof McGill. "The last thing we want is people killing time waiting to apply to a good school."

Perhaps more important for business schools, encouraging younger people to apply might persuade more women to consider business school: 27 or 28 is often a difficult age for women to invest in an expensive two-year programme.

Attracting women
The top US business schools have been notoriously bad at attracting women. In MBA2001, the Financial Times annual rankings of full-time MBA programmes, only Stanford of the top 10 US schools had more than 40 per cent of women students. Columbia had 35 per cent, Harvard 32 per cent, Wharton 28 per cent, Dartmouth 31 per cent and Chicago just 26 per cent. "I hope this [early careers initiative] brings in more women who now say, 'heck, I'll be a lawyer'," says Prof McGill.

She also believes there could be more serious implications in the increase in the age of business school applicants over the past 10 years. What does it mean for businesses and the economy more generally, she asks, if they are taking managers out of the workplace for two years in their late twenties rather than nearer to the beginning of their careers?

She also argues that managers closer to the start of their careers will find educational demands easier to handle. "It's very hard to come back to school aged 28, to study again."

The initiative is not just about bringing in younger students but about ensuring that managers of all ages can benefit, says Prof McGill. "We need to think about what is the appropriate age. It turns out that all ages are appropriate."

So, if not necessarily maturity, just what are the top business schools looking for from their applicants? Harvard, according to Ms Dewey, is looking for three things: academic ability; leadership experience (formal or informal); and personal qualities.

Wharton wants applicants who can demonstrate "a real accelerated pace through their life", says Ms Martinelli, people "with fire in their belly". Their experience should be "qualitative" rather than "quantitative", she says. "We all grow at very different rates."

Even though Harvard is in the second year of the initiative Ms Dewey says it is too soon to tell what the implications are. "We are in this market for the long term," she says. The age of this year's incoming class is "just south of 27", marginally down on last year.

Cautiously optimistic
Whatever the success of the early careers initiative in the longer term, business schools are cautiously optimistic that in the economic downturn applications will remain at a high level.

According to Ms Dewey, "Demand for information is very high." So, too, Ms Martinelli says, initial applications at Wharton "are very, very strong". Prof McGill is even more optimistic. Chicago has doubled the number of admissions receptions it runs from 36 to 78 and the numbers at each reception are often up fivefold. "We're seeing numbers at these receptions that we've never seen."

At the Kellogg School at North-western University first round applications are up 68 per cent, says Michele Rogers, assistant dean and director of admissions. She does not believe this increase will hold throughout the applications process but says the school is seeing the real effect of a softening economy and the fall-out from the dotcom era.

That goes to show that the doom and gloom for many may prove a lucrative boon to some - in this case to business schools.