Most business school faculty find it more interesting and challenging to teach students who have "real world" work experience. Discussions among students and within study groups are usually as important as what takes place in the classroom. Indeed, at a good school, students often learn as much from one another as they do from their teachers. Generally, older students with more work experience have more to teach.
For ranking purposes, schools with older, more experienced students are given higher rank positions. The term "work experience" means at least one year for the Accelerated program type, and at least three years for other program types.
This is a help page for a Search & Rank option on the Official MBA Guide.