What do top business schools look for in selecting MBA students?

Further to the comments above, the schools you're applying for may have a significant pool of candidates from similar backgrounds. From what I understand, once you meet the pre-reqs (GMAT) the next questions asked is "What will this person add to the body of knowledge for the class?" Would you consider heading somewhere outside the US? Given your bluechip tech background you might find that somewhere like London Business School, INSEAD or MBS gives you some more credit for what you've accomplished so far as you can add significant diversity to their student base.

An MBA admit boils down to demonstrating three things: 1) Aptitude - Raw aptitude - in your case your scores demonstrate you have ample In addition,  you have to show clear career progression in your career and life (when I say life, it means you have interesting anecdotes that you have learned from in the past) 2) Clarity of goals - Knowing why you want to do an MBA. Every B-School is looking for people who have clear goals about their future. 3) Community involvement - B-schools want people who they know will make a difference not only in their own lives but lives of others. They want to have the maximum chance of having alumni who are well known and care about the community. If you care about the community, chances are you will care about the school in the future and make those donations or at least be a willing alumni to help out the next generation of B-School graduates

As a current business school student, I can help provide some of the possible reasons: 1) As a relatively old person and also a successful professional, you would be required to demonstrate how getting an MBA degree would add value to your future career ambitions. 2) Many people from Silicon Valley would be applying to bschools, so it up to you to demonstrate in what ways you are different from the others, and why they should select you instead of Tom, Dick or Jane. 3) Some schools require/skew towards a particular type of population. The common perception nowadays is Harvard & Stanford increasingly prefer people of younger age. Similarly, Wharton & Chicago might have their own admission criteria. Kellogg would not consider admitting anyone who is not going to be great team player and works well with others. So it is up to you to demonstrate the qualities individual schools are looking for, and to apply to schools in which you would be a better fit. 4) Don't rely too much on GMAT scores and previous work experience. Obviously they are important, but it is even more important to do well in the interviews and show the admission committee how those attributes of your profile is going to make you be successful at bschool and later on in your career. In other words, it is important to convey the story in the best possible manner both in your essays and interviews. 5) Demonstrate strong interest in the school. If there is a decision to be made between students of equal caliber and skill set, then the one who showed strong interest and passion towards the school is going to be picked for obvious reasons. 6) Simply a matter of supply and demand. If there are many people with the same skill set, and fixed number of positions, then it could be random process of who gets picked and who doesn't. (It could then be likened to the hiring process at Google, Facebook or Twitter or any other successful firm) Don't lose heart, and if going to bschool is definitely in your career plans, ask for honest feedback from current/past MBA students and the admission committee, and work on those details.

Your stats are inline with others in top MBA programs. It may have came down to fit/culture, and whether you conveyed it. Did you convey why you thought you were a good fit in your application? Did you write about how you've done X, want to do Y, and Z business school could help? (Background + MBA = Success)? Did you talk to alums and current students? Often times a short note to admissions from one of them can weigh in on the decision.

So I think there's a lot of art and science in an application. So at top bschools if I were to weight from friends and very little data outside of personal experience: 30% Work Experience 25% Essays 15% Interviews 15% LOR 10% GMAT 5% Grades From there, maybe start to think about this framework Stand out vs. Fit in. Every candidate needs to stand out from his / her peers as well as fit in to the school. So you're in silicon valley, you need to stand out. What did you do that's better or "stranger" than your peers. Few examples A poet is someone that stands out, but what can a poet do to fit in. If they're a published poet cited by the NYTimes that has passed the CFA Level 3 with a 770 GMAT - that poet is in to any school. Any school they want. If you're an investment banker then you fit in, so what can you do to stand out. So if you also started your own tech startup that was funded for more than 7 digits that does micro loans for people in Indonesia, with a 710 GMAT then you're in. Any school that you want with a possible exception of Stanford. Think of it from another perspective, they get 10,000 applications, how do you become memorable. If someone can refer to your application as, oh, the software engineer that was on America's Best Dance Crew. That's a story right there. Just think of people in cubicles and they have to shout a description of you, is it hard to become memorable? So a buddy of mine he was a prison guard supervisor. 710 GMAT. He's in at Kellogg. Another guy, he's a software engineer at Adobe. But he's black with a 700 GMAT. He's in. Probably anywhere he wants. In fact, you'd probably be hard pressed to find a black guy with a 700+ GMAT that gets rejected at any school. So why you might ask is it easier for the black guy. Because he has a different story. It's a unique story and something that we couldn't possibly understand.  This has nothing to do with affirmative action, but everything to do with the fact that by being black, he has a fundamentally different story. Bschools like having people with different stories. They like the friction when they divide you up into cohorts. So think of it like that. You obviously fit in to a top Bschool. But, if your stand out element isn't really something that makes you stand out, that's the reason you got rejected. So tougher stories to get in: 1. Asian American / Indian / Chinese - any background - just too many of them. 2. Software Engineers 3. Consultants 4. Bankers 5. Accountants

Now is the time to start preparing and strategizing for Round 1 MBA applications. If you plan to start an MBA program in the Fall of 2017, you will want to submit your applications before the first-round deadlines in September and October, which means you will spend this summer working on your essays and other materials. Before you can start, however, you need to decide where to apply.When strategizing your business school list, you should begin by looking at the top 50 schools as ranked by US News and World Report, The Economist, and Bloomberg Businessweek. For a summary on rankings, deadlines, average scores, application requirements, and information exclusively for international students, reference our Business School Application Planner.For further more details you might visit https://www.meetuniversity.com/blog/strategizing-your-business-school-list/#.VpkdPvl97IU

My short answer: Competition. Yes, you may have great credentials, but you seem to have not pointed out the competition-- there may be "better" candidates than you for the last accepted cohort. Don't take it the wrong way. Some candidates may have done better in the admission interviews or came of as better fit for that particular program.

First, you are not too old. With your stats and experience you will be not too old for another 3 to 4 years. In this page I saw several strategic advice. They are all good. Second, in case you want to reapply, I believe, you need to plan three tactical elements of the application process, 1. Timing of the application ( which round), 2. Your career goal story (You are at point A, you need to be in B. How will MBA help you map from A to B), and 3. what you can add to the class. Given your higher than average experience, second and third points are very important. For career goals, be conservative.None will hold on to your essay if you change career plan during MBA ( which 90%+ will), but it is prudent to talk about an immediate career goal that makes logical sense and can be mapped with your experience. Don't be afraid to be very specific. Remember, B schools also look for ease of placement for their incoming batch. Good luck.

I believe applicants rely too much on the comparable stats of potential MBAs (GMAT, WE, industry, names), when more subtle aspects really differentiate candidates. I counsel two things for the MBA candidates that I speak with these days: Show your career as a narrative arc, how all of the pieces contribute to this broad path, and how Bschool is the last preparatory piece of that path. Differentiate yourself. Be unique. Don't compete on the bases as your competitors/future classmates. Unique is good. And I think these two aspects of an application come across much better in essays and interviews - two media that can't really be compared quickly across candidates. GMAT is about ticking a box. In MBA-speak (:)), I think it's more a qualifier than a winner, and treating it as a winner distracts you from other important parts of the application. So the 'why not me?' questions aren't particularly useful. Of course big names help too. Google is one of them. Good luck, whatever you choose.