Yale

presents
mbaMission’s Insider’s Guide

Yale School of Management
Yale University
New Haven, CT
2016–2017
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mbaMission Insider’s Guide: Yale School of Management · 2016–2017
Introduction
After more than a decade helping MBA applicants Over the past six years, Poets&Quants has become
get into top business schools, we have learned what the foremost authority on the top business schools.
can compel an admissions committee to send that Our mission has always been to help young profes-
cov¬eted letter of acceptance. Selecting the right MBA sionals with one of the most important—and po-
program for your needs and developing a true un- tentially most expensive—decisions of their lives:
derstanding of and familiarity with that program are whether to pursue an MBA.
crucial in crafting a successful application. We have
therefore invested hundreds of hours into research- This Insider’s Guide is part of a new editorial part-
ing and examining the leading business schools—in- nership between Poets&Quants and mbaMission,
cluding speaking with students, alumni, and other the world’s leading MBA admissions consulting firm.
representatives—to construct these guides, with the We closely evaluated all such guides currently on the
express goal of helping applicants like you make in- market, and I am confident that you will not find a
formed decisions about this important step in your more thorough analysis of an MBA program than
education and career. mbaMission’s. These in-depth reports are well re-
searched and well written, offering the detail and
We hope you enjoy this guide and encourage you to examination applicants need to really understand
visit us at www.mbamission.com for complete and a school’s culture, offerings, and outcomes. We are
detailed analysis of the leading schools’ essay ques- thrilled to offer these guides to our readers for free,
tions, weekly essay-writing tips, MBA news and trends, thanks to our new partnership.
and other valuable free information and resources.
And for any advice you may need on applying to busi- Moreover, the guides are a great complement to the
ness school, please contact us for a free 30-minute daily coverage of MBA news, students, programs,
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every oppor-tunity that might increase their chances ultimately attend. We will continue to provide the
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Jeremy Shinewald path from school selection to career advancement.
info@mbamission.com
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5
The following guides are also available from mbaMission (online at https://shop.mbamission.com/collections/
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mbaMission Fundamentals of an MBA Candidacy Guide
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mbaMission Waitlist Guide
Insider’s Guides
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Columbia Business School
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Harvard Business School
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the MIT Sloan School of Management
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Stanford Graduate School of Business
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the UCLA Anderson School of Management
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business Administration
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Yale School of Management
6
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mbaMission Dartmouth Tuck Interview Primer
mbaMission Duke Fuqua Interview Primer
mbaMission Haas School of Business Interview Primer
mbaMission Michigan Ross Interview Primer
mbaMission MIT Sloan School of Management Interview Primer
mbaMission Northwestern Kellogg Interview Primer
mbaMission NYU Stern School of Business Interview Primer
mbaMission Stanford GSB Interview Primer
mbaMission Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Interview Primer
mbaMission UCLA Anderson Interview Primer
mbaMission UVA Darden Interview Primer
mbaMission Yale School of Management Interview Primer
7
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8
Table of Contents
10 The MBA Program in Context: Choosing Yale
11 Location: Urban Campus Versus College Town
14 Class Size: Smaller Versus Larger
17 Curriculum: Flexible Versus Mandatory Core
20 Pedagogy: Lecture Versus Case Method
23 Academic Specializations/Recruitment Focus: Resources and Employers
25 Alumni Base: Opportunities to Engage
27 Facilities: Shaping the Academic/Social Experience
29 Rankings and Reputation: Important Metrics or Arbitrary Measures?
35 The Yale School of Management

35 Summary
36 The Dean
37 Professional Specializations
37 Consulting
39 Entrepreneurship, Private Equity, and Venture Capital
42 Finance
43 General Management
44 Health Care and Biotechnology
46 International Business
49 Marketing
50 Nonprofit/Social Entrepreneurship
53 Real Estate
54 Notable Professors and Unsung Heroes
57 Social/Community Life
58 Academic Summary
60 Admissions Basics
63 Yale School of Management Essay Analysis, 2015–2016
65 mbaMission’s Exclusive Interview with Yale School of Management’s Admissions Director
Bruce DelMonico
73 Appendix: Yale Facts and Figures

73 Basics
73 Class Profile (Class of 2017)
74 Employment Statistics (Class of 2015)
76 Bibliography
The MBA Program in Context:
Choosing Yale
Over the years, we have met many aspiring MBA students who have tried to You may not find a
identify their target schools and quickly become overwhelmed, wondering, single program that
“How are the top MBA programs really different?” and “How do I choose the meets all your needs
one that is right for me?” and preferences, but
you should be able to
Frustrated, some applicants ultimately choose schools based simply on identify ones that fulfill
rankings or the opinions of friends or alumni. Although these inputs have a the factors that are
place in your evaluative process, you should also do the necessary research most important to you.
to find the program that is truly best for your personality and professional
needs. In doing so, you will find significant differences between, for exam-
ple, programs that have a class size in the low 200s and those that have classes of more than 900 students. As you
are undoubtedly already aware, an MBA is a significant investment in the short term and a lifetime connection to
an institution in the long term. We therefore strongly encourage you to take time now to think long and hard about
this decision and thoroughly consider your options. We hope this guide will prove helpful to you in doing just that.
At mbaMission, we advise candidates evaluating their potential target schools to consider the following eight
specific characteristics (in no particular order) that shape MBA programs:
1. Location: Urban Campus Versus College Town
2. Class Size: Smaller Versus Larger
3. Curriculum: Flexible Versus Mandatory Core
4. Pedagogy: Lecture Versus Case Method
5. Academic Specializations/Recruitment Focus: Resources and Employers
6. Alumni Base: Opportunities to Engage
7. Facilities: Shaping the Academic/Social Experience
8. Rankings and Reputation: Important Metrics or Arbitrary Measures?
You will not likely find a single MBA program that meets all your needs and preferences across these eight criteria,
but you should be able to identify schools that fulfill the factors that are most important to you. Although this
guide is intended to familiarize you on a deeper level with this particular school, nothing will prove more valuable
in your decision making than visiting the programs that appeal to you and experiencing them firsthand. Inevitably,
no matter what your research may reveal, some schools will simply “click” with you, and others will not.
10
Note: The authors and editors at mbaMission have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the
information included in this guide. However, some discrepancies may exist or develop over time between what is
presented here and what appears in the school’s official materials, as well as what may be offered by other content
providers in print or online. For the most up-to-date information, always check with your target school directly. The
opinions expressed by the people interviewed are those of the attributed individuals only and may not necessarily
represent the opinion of mbaMission or any of its affiliates.
We also wish to thank the students, alumni, faculty members, and administrators who gave generously of their time
to provide valuable input for this guide.
1. Location: Urban Campus Versus College Town
Pursuing an MBA can be quite intense, and the environment and community The environment
surrounding the campus can profoundly affect and even shape your MBA and community
experience. For example, imagine stepping out of a class at New York Univer- surrounding your
sity’s (NYU’s) Stern School of Business and into the energetic bustle of New chosen school can
York City’s West Village. Now imagine walking outside after a course at the profoundly affect and
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and being surrounded by the tranquil- shape your MBA
ity and natural beauty of New Hampshire’s Upper Valley. Neither scenario is experience.
necessarily “better” than the other, but one might appeal to you more.
An urban campus can undoubtedly offer social and cultural opportunities that a college town simply cannot match.
This is not to suggest, however, that college towns are devoid of culture—indeed, intense intellectual and cultural
programs exist in college towns precisely because the academic institution is at the core of the community.
While schools in college towns tout their close-knit atmosphere and the tight bonds classmates form in such a
setting, this environment can be welcoming for some students and overwhelming for others. In contrast, urban
campuses are more decentralized, with students often living in various parts of a city and even in the surrounding
suburbs. Someone who has a greater need for privacy or personal space might therefore prefer an urban environ-
ment. In addition, in major urban centers, some students—particularly those who lived in the city before enrolling
Urban Campus Schools Urban/College Hybrid Schools College Town Schools
Chicago Booth Northwestern Kellogg Cornell Johnson

Columbia Business School Stanford GSB Dartmouth Tuck
Harvard Business School UC Berkeley Haas Duke Fuqua
MIT Sloan Yale SOM Michigan Ross
NYU Stern UVA Darden
UCLA Anderson
UPenn Wharton
11
in business school—may already have well-developed social groups, and this scenario may again be better for
those who find an academically and socially all-encompassing environment less attractive.
One aspect of the MBA experience that candidates often fail to consider when evaluating their school options is
weather. Although factoring climate into your school choice may initially seem superficial, if you know you cannot
comfortably manage frigid conditions or soaring temperatures, certain programs should be stricken from your
list. We encounter many applicants each year who wisely stave off a potentially miserable experience by choosing
to not apply to certain schools in locations they just do not feel are “livable” for them.
In addition, housing costs are one expense that many applicants do not stop to consider before choosing a school
to target. By researching real estate prices at the top programs, we found that the cost differential between rent-
ing a one-bedroom apartment in a Midwestern college town and renting one in New York City, for example, can
be quite significant—adding up to tens of thousands of dollars on a cumulative basis across two years. This is an
important factor to include as you weigh your options and calculate your projected budget.
In summary, a college town can be appealing for some candidates because its smaller size tends to create strong
bonds within the business school’s community, though for others, the lack of privacy could be undesired or over-
whelming. Furthermore, some find a slower pace of life calming and comfortable, whereas others crave the energy
and bustle of a city. If you strongly prefer one or the other, you should be able to quickly eliminate certain schools
from your list.
Average Monthly Rent for a One-Bedroom Apartment
NYU Stern New York, NY $3,508 within .06 mile radius of campus
Columbia Business School New York, NY $2,399 within .20 mile radius of campus
Stanford GSB Stanford, CA $2,396 within .88 mile radius of campus
MIT Sloan Cambridge, MA $2,231 within .34 mile radius of campus
Harvard Business School Cambridge, MA $2,220 within .16 mile radius of campus
UCLA Anderson Los Angeles, CA $1,629 within .39 mile radius of campus
Chicago Booth Chicago, IL $1,612 within .17 mile radius of campus
UC Berkeley Haas Berkeley, CA $1,303 within .34 mile radius of campus
UPenn Wharton Philadelphia, PA $1,173 within .31 mile radius of campus
Northwestern Kellogg Evanston, IL $1,138 within .88 mile radius of campus
Michigan Ross Ann Arbor, MI $1,126 within .14 mile radius of campus
Yale SOM New Haven, CT $1,107 within .18 mile radius of campus
Dartmouth Tuck Hanover, NH $1,013 within 1.54 mile radius of campus
Cornell Johnson Ithaca, NY $888 within .20 mile radius of campus
UVA Darden Charlottesville, VA $844 within .67 mile radius of campus
Duke Fuqua Durham, NC $686 within .72 mile radius of campus
According to Rentometer.com, accessed May 2016.
12
The city of New Haven, Connecticut, is home to Yale University, which is both the city’s largest employer
(approximately 12,000 people) and biggest tourist attraction, reportedly drawing more than 550,000 visi-
tors a year. Located approximately 80 miles from New York City (a trip of approximately an hour and 45
minutes to two hours via the Metropolitan Transportation Authority) and 135 miles from Boston (an ap-
proximately two and a half hour trip on Acela Express), New Haven is well situated for accessing the attrac-
tions of either vibrant urban environment.
This city of roughly 130,200 residents can be considered dynamic in its own right, however, offering both
natural and cultural diversions. The Yale University Art Gallery features masterpieces from artists such as
Van Gogh and Rubens, and regional theater is prominent in New Haven. The Chapel Street Historic District,
a bustling area several blocks south of the Yale School of Management (SOM), is home to shops and restau-
rants and adjacent to the New Haven Green. Outdoor enthusiasts have many opportunities to enjoy nature
in and around New Haven: picnic in New Haven Green, hike the summit in East Rock Park for views of Long
Island Sound, or travel further afield to the White Mountains of New Hampshire to mountain bike or hike in
summer or ski in winter. The beach is only 15 minutes away, perfect for a clambake on a sunny day.
New Haven has an active nightlife, with SOM students frequenting bars and restaurants along Chapel
Street or meeting up at Gryphon’s Pub, a social club where a small annual fee can eliminate the nightly
cover charge. (See more about Gryphon’s in the Social/Community Life section.) Yale students also have
many ethnic varieties of food from which to choose in New Haven, from French to Indian, Korean, and Cu-
ban. However, “Yalies” appear to take pizza most seriously. Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, known simply
as Pepe’s, has two locations in New Haven, has earned a reputation as one of the country’s top pizzerias,
and, in 2013, was recognized by Zagat for having Connecticut’s best pizza. Still, other options are also
available throughout New Haven, including Pepe’s longtime rival Sally’s, as well as Est, Est, Est and Modern
Apizza, all close to the SOM.
“New Haven gets a bad rap,” said a first-year student with whom mbaMission spoke, “but I love it! It’s a
great college town with plenty going on. It’s close-knit; you see your classmates on the street. You can get
to the beach or hiking. It’s my favorite place I’ve ever lived.”
Although graduate student housing is available, the majority of SOM students (an estimated 95%, ac-
cording to a first year we interviewed) live off campus in the neighborhoods surrounding the university.
East Rock, also known as “graduate student ghetto” or “Grad Haven,” is on the Yale Shuttle line and has
rents averaging approximately $1,400 per month for a two-bedroom apartment. A first-year student told
mbaMission that another neighborhood popular with SOM students is Mansfield, which is a block from
campus and less than five minutes from the school. Some students do have cars, and others walk, but New
Haven is generally not considered bike-friendly, in part because of its harsh winters.
13
2. Class Size: Smaller Versus Larger
Another element that affects the character of a school’s MBA experience is class size. You might want to reflect on
your high school, college, and work environments to help you determine whether you would be more comfortable in
a larger class or a smaller one—or whether this is even a consideration for you at all.
Students at smaller schools (which we define as having approximately 350 Reflect on your past
students or fewer per class) tend to interact with most of their peers and academic and work
professors at some point during the typical two-year MBA period. Thus, the environments to
smaller schools are generally considered more “knowable,” and their commu- determine whether
nities tend to be quite closely knit. Also, consider that assuming a leadership you would be more
position is easier in a smaller environment, because, for example, the Finance comfortable in a larger
Club may have only one president at both a small school and a large school, or smaller class—or
but competition for such a position would obviously be greater in the larger whether this is a
program. consideration for you
at all.
Some individuals might prefer to be at a larger school where they can better
maintain their anonymity if they so choose. A student at a school with close
to 900 people or more in each class will not likely get to know each and every one of his/her classmates by the end
of the program, and some people might prefer this. Further, advocates of larger classes tout the advantage of being
able to interact with more people during one’s MBA ex-
perience—and to thereby develop a broader and more Class Size
robust network of peers. Note that many schools di- 900 to 1,000 Harvard Business School
vide students into smaller groups—called “sections,” 800 to 900 UPenn Wharton
“clusters,” “cohorts,” or even “oceans”—in which ap- 700 to 800 Columbia Business School1
proximately 60–90 students take certain classes to-
500 to 600 Chicago Booth
gether, and this approach can help foster a stronger
400 to 500 Northwestern Kellogg
sense of community within the larger programs. Duke Fuqua
Michigan Ross
Stanford GSB
The Yale SOM is on the smaller side for a busi- NYU Stern
ness school, admitting only 326 students in MIT Sloan
its 2017 class. However, this number has been 300 to 400 UCLA Anderson
UVA Darden
rising over the past few years from a histori-
Yale SOM
cal figure of approximately 230, with 249 for
200 to 300 Dartmouth Tuck
the Class of 2014, 291 for the Class of 2015, Cornell Johnson
and 323 for the Class of 2016. “While other UC Berkeley Haas
business schools have been stagnant or de- Schools are listed in order from largest class to smallest within
clining in applications, SOM has enjoyed a each category.
steady growth over recent years,” remarked 1

Includes J-Term students
14
Year-Over-Year Class Profile Class of Class of Class of Class of Class of Class of
Data: Yale SOM 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Class Size 326 323 291 249 228 231
Median GMAT 720 720 714 717 719 722
GMAT Range (Middle 80%) 690–760 680–760 690–740 660–760 680–770 680–770
Median GPA 3.63 3.56 3.57 3.55 3.51 3.52
GPA Range (Middle 80%) 3.28–3.88 3.17–3.87 3.36–3.80 3.18–3.87 3.08–3.87 3.12–3.95
Female Students 40% 37% 39% 35% 36% 37%
U.S. Minorities 22% 25% 22% 25% 25% 20%
U.S. Underrepresented 10% 10% 11% NA NA NA

Minorities
International Students 40% 32% 27% 32% 26% 26%
an associate dean of the school in a January 2014 Yale Daily News article. Despite its comparatively smaller
size, the SOM boasts a diverse student body, which for the Class of 2017 includes 40% women, 40% inter-
national students, and 22% U.S. minority students (10% U.S. underrepresented minorities).
At orientation, the incoming first-year class is divided into cohorts of approximately 70 students each
(named after colors: blue, green, silver, and gold). The multiday event allows incoming students to bond
with the other students in their cohort via a number of social events, which in recent years have included
a Chili Cookoff competition and the Cohort Cup competition. During the Cohort Cup, students compete in
such events as tug-of-war and a dizzy bat race to “determine which cohort reigns supreme,” wrote a first-
year student on the SOM community blog. “The cohort experience at SOM reaches far beyond the class-
room in its ability to shape the larger Yale SOM experience,” commented another first year on the school’s
Web site.
Students take all core courses with their cohort throughout the first year, and each student is assigned to a
seven- or eight-person learning team. Learning teams are designed to be diverse, both professionally and
personally. “On my own learning team, there are students from Brazil, China, Turkey, and the West and East
Coasts of the [United States] with backgrounds in consulting, nonprofit, engineering, education, finance,
and government,” noted a first-year student on the school’s Web site, adding, “We spend time together
outside of class working on assignments, but every now and then we get together for dinner to relax and
learn more about one another outside the classroom.”
From what we learned in our research for this guide, the environment at the Yale SOM is intimate and close-
knit. Many students seem to choose the school for just this reason, citing the smaller community and wel-
coming environment. A first-year student told mbaMission that the “advantages of the small class, the brand
name, and how close it [the school] is to New York City” numbered among his top reasons for choosing the
15
School Women International Minorities
Chicago Booth 42% 34% 23%1
Columbia Business School 36% 42% 35%1
Cornell Johnson 26% 35% 26%
Dartmouth Tuck 42% 32% 20%1
Duke Fuqua2 35% 40% 21%
Harvard Business School 41% 34% 25%1
Michigan Ross 32% 35% 25%
MIT Sloan 41% 38% NA
Northwestern Kellogg 43% 40% 23%1
NYU Stern 36% 37%4 26%
Stanford GSB 40% 40%3,4 19%1
UC Berkeley Haas 41% 40% 36%1
UCLA Anderson 30% 33% 27%
UPenn Wharton 43% 32% 30%1
UVA Darden 35% 38% 17%1
Yale SOM 40% 40% 22%1
Bolding indicates highest figure in each category.
1
Specified as U.S. minorities.
2
Fuqua had released no official figures for the Class of 2017 by the publication of this guide but offers statistics on its site to represent a
“typical” class.
3
Includes permanent residents.
4
Includes dual citizens.
SOM. Students generally get to know everyone on campus. Small class size does not necessarily translate
into limited opportunities, however. With nearly 50 clubs available, prospects for leadership are numerous.
In addition, smaller class size typically translates to professor availability. The Yale SOM has more than 140
faculty members, and such a low student-to-teacher ratio typically means that professors are readily ac-
cessible. A second-year student we interviewed described the school’s professors as “very approachable.”
Coinciding with the 2014 inauguration of a larger building (see the Facilities section for details on this
development), the SOM announced plans to increase its class size to approximately 300 students by 2017.
With the most recent incoming class numbering 326, the program has clearly attained this goal already.
SOM Dean Edward “Ted” Snyder described the intended changes to the class size in a March 2012 Yale
Daily News article, noting that the SOM planned to preserve the intimate feel it is known for by increasing
faculty size along with the class size. Moreover, the experience of the first-year core curriculum would not
change, because the school planned to simply add a section rather than adding more students to existing
16
Most Common Undergraduate Major for Incoming Students (Class of 2017)
Chicago Booth Business 32%
Columbia Business School Social Science 38%
Cornell Johnson NA NA
Dartmouth Tuck Humanities, Social Science, Economics 53%
Duke Fuqua1 Engineering/Natural Sciences 29%
Harvard Business School Economics and Business 43%
Michigan Ross Humanities 40%
MIT Sloan Engineering 33%
Northwestern Kellogg Economics/Business 40%
NYU Stern Business and Commerce 23%
Stanford GSB Humanities or Social Sciences 48%
UC Berkeley Haas Business 26%
UCLA Anderson Engineering 23%
UPenn Wharton Humanities 42%
UVA Darden NA NA
Yale SOM Humanities and Social Sciences 31.7%
1
Fuqua had released no official figures for the Class of 2017 by the publication of this guide but offers statistics on its site to represent a
“typical” class.
sections. Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions Bruce DelMonico explained in a February 2012 SOM
News article, “This increase will help in a number of areas, such as making the school even more attractive
to recruiters and expanding [students’] future network, but it is small enough to preserve the culture and
connectivity that make the Yale MBA experience distinctive.”
3. Curriculum: Flexible Versus Mandatory Core
Many business schools have a “core” curriculum—a standard series of courses that all students must take. How-
ever, these core requirements can vary tremendously from one program to the next. For example, one school may
teach its required curriculum for the entire first year, meaning that students will not take any elective courses
until their second year, whereas another MBA program may stipulate only one or two required courses.
The rigidity or flexibility of a school’s required curriculum affects students’ education and socialization. Regard-
less of their professional experience, students at a school with a rigid core curriculum must all take the same
classes. At some schools, for example, even CPAs must take the required foundational accounting course, whereas
at others, students can waive selected classes if they can prove a certain level of proficiency. Again, both ap-
proaches have pros and cons, and what those are depends on your perspective.
17
Proponents of a rigid core curriculum would argue that academics understand what skills students need to be-
come true managers and that when students “overspecialize” in one area, their overall business education can
ultimately suffer. A significant body of academic writing has been devoted to critiquing programs that give stu-
dents a narrow view of business, notably Henry Mintzberg’s Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice
of Managing and Management Development (Berrett-Koehler, 2004) and Rakesh Khurana’s From Higher Aims to
Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management
as a Profession (Princeton University Press, 2007).
Advocates of the core curriculum approach would also argue that having all
students take the same classes creates a common language and discussion The rigidity or
among the classmates because of the shared experience. In addition, propo- flexibility of a school’s
nents contend that a rigid core curriculum facilitates learning, because stu- first-year curriculum
dents who have applicable direct experience bring that knowledge and in- affects students’
sight into the classroom and can thereby help teach others. Finally, schools education and
with mandatory cores generally keep students together in their sections for socialization.
several months, if not an entire academic year, and students who interact
every day in this way ultimately forge strong bonds. This sustained contact
and connection can create a deep sense of community among the students.
In contrast, those who would ar-
gue in favor of a more flexible cur- Can Waive/ Cannot Waive/

Test Out of Classes Test Out of Classes
riculum feel that students benefit
Chicago Booth Cornell Johnson
from the opportunity to specialize
Columbia Harvard Business School
immediately—that time is short, Dartmouth Tuck MIT Sloan
and students need power and Duke Fuqua Stanford GSB
Michigan Ross UVA Darden
choice in preparing for their de- Northwestern Kellogg Yale SOM
sired careers. So if, for example, NYU Stern
UC Berkeley Haas
a student intended to enter the
UCLA Anderson
world of finance, an advocate of UPenn Wharton
flexibility would argue that the
student should be able to study finance in depth throughout the MBA program, possibly even from day one, so
as to gain as much experience as possible in this area—especially before interviewing for a summer internship.
Furthermore, proponents for flexible curricula caution that experienced students could end up “wasting” hours
taking courses in subjects in which they already have expertise. Finally, they would assert that a flexible schedule
allows students the opportunity to meet a greater number and wider variety of their classmates.
In 2006, the Yale SOM completely revamped its MBA curriculum. The revised curriculum, as Assistant Dean
and Director of Admissions Bruce DelMonico stated in a 2009 Bloomberg Businessweek online interview, “re-
imagined what an MBA education is all about. We replaced the traditional functionally discrete silo courses
18
with a more multidisciplinary integrated MBA program.” And in a 2011 article on the Yale SOM News Web page
(“Ten Questions from Prospective Students”), DelMonico further describes the SOM’s integrated curriculum
as “designed to help [students] see whole problems and draw on all the resources necessary to solve them.
The perspectives-based approach prepares Yale SOM students to look across functions within a particular
organization, as well as across organizations, industries, and sectors, when making strategic decisions.”
First-year students at the Yale SOM take a series of core courses over four seven-week quarters, which
are designated as Fall 1 and 2 and Spring 1 and 2. The first years gain a common framework and language
for their MBA experience in the Orientation to Management series during the Fall 1 quarter. Among the
seven total courses in this series are “Basics of Economics,” “Introduction to Negotiation,” and “Managing
Groups and Teams.” Orientation to Management introduces concepts that will be broadly explored in sub-
sequent courses. In addition, students begin to explore their career goals during this time.
In Fall 2, students reach what the SOM refers to in its published materials as “the heart of the first-year
curriculum” with the Organizational Perspectives series. This series of ten multidisciplinary courses is
designed to explore internal and external managerial roles as they interact rather than as discrete func-
tions, such as finance or strategy. Among the courses offered during Organizational Perspectives is “Inves-
tor,” in which students explore the impact of behavioral research on the general comprehension of mar-
ket dynamics. Within the series, students examine the inner workings and external aspects of businesses
through courses such as “Innovator,” “The Global Macroeconomy,” “Competitor,” and “State and Society.”
(See the Academic Summary section for a full listing of all core courses.)
The Leadership Development Program, which all students are required to take part in, runs through the
length of the entire program, beginning at orientation. The program features classes and guest speakers
and “[gives students] a maximum opportunity to build the knowledge and experience [they] need to lead
teams and organizations,” according to the school’s Web site.
With the implementation of the SOM’s integrated curriculum in 2006, students were no longer permitted
to waive core courses. DelMonico explained this decision to mbaMission, saying, “We want everyone to go
through the same shared experience here at Yale SOM. If people are able to pick and choose which courses
they take from the outset—as they can at other schools—then that detracts from the community-building
nature of the experience; it just devolves into a bunch of people on their own tracks doing their own things.
And that’s not what we’re about.”
In addition, DelMonico pointed out that given that the Organizational Perspectives series is built on the
common knowledge students gain in Orientation to Management, “having everyone take all the core class-
es ensures that everyone is on the same page as we go into the Organizational Perspectives classes, which
rely on common understanding and shared knowledge to be effective. It really amplifies the learning.” The
added benefit, DelMonico noted, is that the required core “sets the tone for the peer-to-peer learning that
19
we expect will take place throughout people’s time here at Yale and beyond as they move through their
post-MBA careers.”
Students begin taking electives in Spring 1 of the first year and can either choose exclusively from SOM
course offerings or look further afield to the university’s law, architecture, environmental studies, and oth-
er departments to expand their knowledge base. A second-year student stressed to mbaMission that the
value of these opportunities could not be overstated, noting, “almost everybody takes advantage of the
large resource available in Yale University.” In the second half of the first year (Spring 1 and Spring 2), stu-
dents take four units of electives, and the second year of the MBA program is made up entirely of electives.
The 2006 curriculum restructuring also added an international component, so the school now specifies
international travel as a requirement of graduation—and was the first MBA program in the United States to
do so. Called the Global Studies Requirement, this facet of the school’s integrated curriculum is intended,
explains the SOM’s site, to help students “learn to think about the growing effect of global commerce on
organizations.” (Learn more about this component of the integrated curriculum in the International Busi-
ness section under Professional Specializations.)
4. Pedagogy: Lecture Versus Case Method
Students will likely encounter multiple styles of learning while in business school—including participating in simu-
lations, listening to guest speakers, and partaking in hands-on projects—but the two most common MBA learning
styles are case method and lecture.
Pioneered by HBS, the case method, or case-based learning, requires stu- Students will
dents to read the story (called a “case”) of either a hypothetical or a real encounter many
protagonist who is facing a managerial dilemma. As the student reads, he/ different styles of
she explores the protagonist’s dilemma and has access to various quantita- learning during their
tive and qualitative data points meant to facilitate further analysis. (Cases time at business
can vary in length but are typically 10–20 pages long.) After reading and school, but the two
studying the entire case, the student generally understands the profundity most common are case
of the problem and is typically asked a simple question: “What would you method and lecture.
do?” In other words, how would the student act or react if he/she were in the
protagonist’s place? What decision(s) would the student make?
After completing his/her independent analysis of the case, the student typically meets with the members of his/
her study group or learning team (if the school in question assigns such teams) for further evaluation. Together,
the group/team members explore and critique one another’s ideas and help those students who may have had
difficulty understanding particular aspects of the issue or progressing as far on their own. Often, though not al-
20
Top Three Teaching Methods
School Case Study Lectures Team Project Experiential Simulation

Learning
Columbia Business School 40% 38% 15% ― ―
Dartmouth Tuck 35% 20% 20% ― ―
Duke Fuqua 33% 33% 24% ―
Harvard Business School 80% ― 10% 5% ―
Michigan Ross 25% ― ― 20% 20%
MIT Sloan 33% 20% ― 22% ―
Northwestern Kellogg 30% 28% 25% ― ―
NYU Stern 25% 25% 25% ― ―
Stanford GSB 40% 20% ― 15% ―
UC Berkeley Haas 50% 25% ― 20% ―
UCLA Anderson 30% 40% 15% ― ―
UPenn Wharton 40% 30% ― 10% ―
UVA Darden 75% ― 10% 15% ―
Yale SOM 40% 33% ― 10% ―
According to each school’s Bloomberg Businessweek rankings profile, accessed March 2016 (as of publication of this guide, however, these
data are no longer listed on the Bloomberg Businessweek Web site). Figures were not available for Chicago Booth or Cornell Johnson.
ways, the team will establish a consensus regarding the actions they would take in the protagonist’s place. Then,
in class, the professor acts as facilitator and manages a discussion of the case. Class discussions can often be-
come quite lively, and the professor will guide students toward resolving the dilemma. Sometimes, the professor
will ultimately reveal the protagonist’s decision and the subsequent results—or even bring the actual protagonist
into the classroom to share and discuss the case’s progression and outcomes in person.
In short, the case method focuses primarily on the analytical process and illustrates that the problems presented
have no clear-cut right or wrong responses. For a student to disagree with the protagonist’s chosen path—even
after it has proved to be successful—is not unusual. After all, another approach (or even inaction) may have pro-
duced an even better result.
Note that case-based learning is not specific to one academic discipline. Cases are available in finance, strategy,
operations, accounting, marketing, and still other areas. Further, many cases are interdisciplinary, meaning that
they address more than one area at a time, such as requiring students to think about how a financial decision
might affect the operations of a manufacturing company or the ways in which a marketing decision might involve
significant financial considerations. Importantly, students in case environments are often graded on their “con-
tribution” to the class discussion (measured by the level of one’s participation in discussions and analysis, not on
the frequency with which one offers “correct” answers), so the case method is not for those who are uncomfort-
21
able speaking in class. However, it can be incredibly helpful for Average GPA of Incoming Students
those who want or need to practice and build confidence speak- (Class of 2017)
ing publicly. Stanford GSB 3.75
Harvard Business School 3.66

Lecture is the method of learning that is familiar to most peo- UC Berkeley Haas 3.66
ple—the professor stands in front of the class and explores a Yale SOM1 3.63
theory or event, facilitating discussion and emphasizing and ex-
MIT Sloan 3.6
plaining key learning points. Often, students have read chapters
Chicago Booth 3.6
of a textbook beforehand and have come to class with a founda-
Northwestern Kellogg 3.6
tion in the specific area to be examined that day. Although the
NYU Stern 3.51
case method gives students a context for a problem, those who
Columbia Business School 3.5
favor lecture tend to believe that the case method is too situ-
Dartmouth Tuck 3.5
ation specific and therefore prefer a methodical exploration of
UVA Darden 3.5
theory that they feel can be broadly applied across situations. In
Cornell Johnson1 3.37
lecture classes, the professor and his/her research or theory are
Duke Fuqua NA
technically paramount, though students still participate, chal-
Michigan Ross NA
lenge ideas, and debate issues.
UCLA Anderson NA
Note that at some schools, professors may alternate between UPenn Wharton NA
cases and lectures within a single semester of classes. 1

Median GPA listed.
Bloomberg Businessweek’s most recent profile of the Yale SOM reports that the top three teaching meth-
ods used at the school are case study (40%), lecture (33%), and experiential (10%). The school makes much
on its Web site of its development of the “raw” case method—versus traditional “cooked” cases. Cooked
cases are “short documents that present a business problem in a neatly packaged, single point of view
narrative with a sure answer,” explained a 2008 Yale Daily News article. In contrast, the SOM’s raw cases
are delivered via the Internet, using such sources as media reports, 10-K filings, expert analysis, and fac-
ulty notes.
The school further differentiates its raw case format from cooked cases by noting on its Web site that
while the latter involves “boiling a complex situation down to a ten-page narrative and a single decision
point, raw cases present you with extensive data about a real situation, often including video interviews
with some of the key actors.” The school’s raw format culls from original documents to look at multiple
points of view. Notes are available alongside—rather than separate from—the data. In addition, instead of
the approximately six-month lag that is typically required to bring a cooked case from event to production,
the Yale SOM’s cases are presented in real time.
In looking at SEC documents and interviews with company principles, with information sometimes reach-
ing into the thousands of pages of raw data, students must not only work through complicated organi-
zational perspectives but also develop the time management skills to do so effectively and efficiently. A
22
second-year student we interviewed felt that the raw format worked especially well with the integrated
curriculum at the SOM, stating, “Done in isolation, it may not work as well.” This student went on to say that
despite the downsides of working in the raw format (“It takes lots of time, and you can’t do it alone”), he
felt that this approach better prepared him to face real-life business issues.
5. Academic Specializations/Recruitment Focus: Resources and Employers
Schools’ brands and reputations develop over time and tend to endure, even when the programs make efforts
to change them. For example, many applicants still feel that Kellogg is only a marketing school and that Chicago
Booth is only for people interested in finance, even though both programs boast strengths in many other areas.
Indeed, this is the exact reason mbaMission started producing these guides in 2008—we wanted applicants to see
beyond these superficial “market” perceptions. Make sure you are not merely accepting stereotypes but are truly
considering the breadth and depth of resources available at each school.
We have dedicated the majority of this guide to exploring the principal pro- Do not merely accept
fessional specializations for which resources are available at this particular stereotypes but truly
school, and we encourage you to fully consider whether the MBA program consider the breadth
meets your personal academic needs by supplementing the information and depth of resources
here with additional context from the school’s career services office, by con- available at each
necting with the heads of relevant clubs on campus, and perhaps even by school.
reaching out to alumni in your target industry.
Top Industries: Yale SOM 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
Consulting 29.3% 26.0% 22.0% 25.6% 23.0% 16.0%
Finance 24.5% 25.5% 25.4% 25.0% 39.0% 30.0%
Technology 14.2% 10.4% 16.8% 8.9% 7.0% 9.0%
Consumer Packaged Goods/Retail 1

8.9% 9.4% 8.7% 11.3% 6.0% 7.0%
Nonprofit 4.4% 5.7% 7.5% 5.4% 9.0% 11.0%
Energy 3.1% 6.3% 1.7% 3.6% 2.0% 8.0%
1
In 2015, the SOM reported Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail (previously listed as “Consumer Products/Retail”) separately. We combine
the 2015 data here in order to allow for year-to-year comparisons.
The school’s innovative, integrated curriculum is “carefully planned to build [students’] understanding of
the whole organization, eventually building to big questions of business’s impact on society,” claims the
SOM Web site. Rather than focusing on a particular set of skills, this comprehensive approach to studying
business is meant to fulfill the school’s founding mission of “educating leaders for business and society.”
23
School Top Industry for 2015 Graduates % Entering the Industry
Chicago Booth Financial Services 35.2%
Columbia Business School Financial Services 37.1%
Cornell Johnson Financial Services 34.0%
Dartmouth Tuck Consulting 34.0%
Duke Fuqua Consulting 32.0%
Harvard Business School Financial Services 31.0%
Michigan Ross Consulting 30.9%
MIT Sloan Consulting 32.1%
Northwestern Kellogg Consulting 34.6%
NYU Stern Consulting 29.0%
Stanford GSB Finance 31.0%
UC Berkeley Haas Technology/Telecom 37.8%
UCLA Anderson Technology 31.1%
UPenn Wharton Financial Services 36.9%
UVA Darden Financial Services 30.0%
Yale SOM Consulting 29.3%
A large percentage of 2015 SOM graduates entered positions in the finance industry (24.5%), and 30.4%
entered jobs with a finance/accounting function. A significant portion of the graduating class entered con-
sulting (37.1% by function, 29.3% by industry), and the technology industry claimed 14.2% of the school’s
2015 MBAs. Applicants in the business school chat rooms still seem to consider the Yale SOM primarily a
“finance” school, though, and the employment statistics typically appear to support this perception de-
spite consulting getting higher numbers in three out of the last five years. Overall, the median starting
salary for SOM graduates in 2015 was $120,000 domestically, $115,189 abroad.
The school’s mission—“Educating leaders for business and society”—seems to hint that ethics is a sig-
nificant area of focus at the SOM. The 2017 U.S. News & World Report specialty rankings of the country’s
MBA programs place the SOM number one in the nation for nonprofit. In addition, a first-year student told
mbaMission, “Ethics [is] integrated into every class” and claimed that many Yale SOM students consider
nonprofit when deciding on their career goals.
In fact, 4.4% of the SOM’s Class of 2014 joined a nonprofit after graduation (5.7% in 2014, 7.5% in 2013, and
5.4% in 2012), and 9.4% of the Class of 2016 chose to join a nonprofit organization for their summer internship.
The SOM’s Internship Fund is designed to encourage students to consider low- or non-paying internships
(such as those with nonprofits) during the summer between their first and second years. (Learn more about
the Internship Fund in the Nonprofit/Social Entrepreneurship section under Professional Specializations.)
24
The school’s Career Development Office (CDO) works closely with SOM students to help them define and
meet their career goals. Relationship Managers within the office assist students in navigating the job and
internship placement process. For the past four years (2015, 2014, 2013, 2012), The Economist has ranked
the SOM number one in the world for “diversity of recruiters.”
Part of the SOM’s placement success can likely be attributed to the broader alumni base of Yale University.
A first-year student reported to mbaMission that SOM graduates often leverage Yale University alumni for
positions, especially those in finance firms, noting, for example, that through alumni connections, “anyone
who wants IB [investment banking] will pretty much get IB.” SOM alumni seeking a new job can also take
advantage of CDO resources to assist them in their search.
In 2012, the SOM hired a new director for its CDO—a former director of operations at Chicago Booth with
experience in career management at that school’s international campuses in London and Singapore. In a
Yale Daily News article about the new appointment, Dean Snyder explained that given the SOM’s focus on
increasing its connections with international business schools, going forward, the CDO would concentrate
on improving those partnerships and expanding further into the nonprofit and government sectors.
6. Alumni Base: Opportunities to Engage
The size and depth of a school’s alumni base may be important to you as you seek to break into a specific field
or region/country. Some MBA programs have had large classes for many years and can therefore boast sizeable
alumni networks, whereas other schools may have pockets of strength in particular parts of the world or in cer-
tain industries—or can claim a smaller but tighter-knit and more dedicated alumni network overall. For example,
Dartmouth Tuck has a smaller absolute number of alumni than most top U.S. schools but has repeatedly been
touted as having the highest rate of annual alumni giving, thanks to its very dedicated graduates.
Although acquiring detailed breakdowns of a school’s alumni base is some- Some schools boast
times difficult, you may want to consider whether the school you are target- sizeable alumni
ing has alumni clubs in your chosen professional area (i.e., some schools networks, while
have industry-specific alumni groups) or preferred post-MBA location. Fur- others have pockets of
thermore, if you are determined to live in a particular city/country/region strength in particular
after graduating, then earning your MBA in or near that area, if possible, regions or industries.
may be a good idea, so that you can more easily connect with local alumni
while you are in school—particularly if you want to pursue a niche profes-
sional area and do not expect to participate in on-grounds recruiting. Of course, technological developments have
greatly facilitated outreach, meaning that alumni are no longer a flight or long drive away, but are now just a phone
call, email, text, or even Skype session away.
25
Alumni Base
Schools are listed in order from largest alumni base to smallest within each category.
NYU Stern, UPenn Wharton, Harvard Business School 75,000 to 100,000
Northwestern Kellogg 50,000 to 75,000
Chicago Booth, Michigan Ross, Columbia

25,000 to 50,000
UC Berkeley Haas, UCLA Anderson, Stanford GSB
MIT Sloan, Duke Fuqua

10,000 to 25,000
UVA Darden, Cornell Johnson
Tuck 10,000
Yale SOM or fewer
0 25,000 50,000 75,000 100,000
Note: Some schools include MBA program graduates only in their alumni total; other schools may also include alumni from their part-time,
executive, doctoral, and/or other programs, so totals may not be directly comparable.
Considering that the SOM is just 40 years old and that for many years, the school’s average class size hov-
ered in the 200s, the school’s alumni base is understandably small. At just over 6,000, the living alumni base
for the school—known as the SOM Alumni Association (SOMAA)—should not be compared with that of much
larger schools.
SOMAA has regional chapters in 16 cities in the United States (plus state clubs in Colorado, Connecticut,
Minnesota, and Oregon) and more than 30 international chapter locations, including Greater China, Beijing,
Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mexico, Israel, Japan, the Middle East, North Africa, and the United Kingdom. Gradu-
ates are automatically enrolled in a chapter if one is located near their place of work. Regional chapters are
both social and professional outlets and may feature a happy hour meet-up one week and a book discus-
sion the next. SOMAA events can focus on careers and networking, such as a conversation with the Surgeon
General of the United States, an alumnae breakfast in New York City, an evening with Dean Snyder in Mexico
City, and a happy hour in DC; or on sports, with events ranging from a Harvard versus Yale hockey game at
Madison Square Garden to an alumni ski day. A list of upcoming SOMAA events can be found on the alumni
Web site at http://alumni.som.yale.edu/events.
26
Yale Insights (formerly known as Qn) is an official Yale SOM Web publication that poses questions exploring
significant business and societal issues. In addition, the Yale Insights Web site features webinars with SOM
alumni and faculty. Webinars have covered such topics as “Where Will Health Innovation Come From?”; “How
Do Leaders Advance Sustainability in Complex Organizations?”; and “Can We Have Economically Secure Re-
tirements?”
Another factor to consider is the much larger and broader Yale University alumni network. Students with
whom mbaMission spoke felt that the “Yale brand” alone will open doors with regard to recruiting (both
nationally and internationally) as well as personal and professional networking. A first year we interviewed
remarked, “Many of my classmates have reached out to Yale College alumni.”
7. Facilities: Shaping the Academic/Social Experience
When contemplating an MBA program, do not overlook the school’s facili- If a school has not
ties. Renovations, upgrades, and new construction are all regular occurrenc- made updates to its
es on school campuses these days, as some programs increase their square facilities in recent
footage while others unify disparate areas or refresh existing spaces. Some years, perhaps none
schools boast on-campus housing or elite athletic facilities, others have es- were needed or the
tablished new green spaces and meeting rooms, and still others have refur- school has invested
bished or added classrooms, theaters, libraries, and other such resources. in other aspects of its
Keep in mind, though, that just because a school has not updated or added program instead.
to its facilities in recent years, this does not mean that its offerings are out-
dated or subpar; the lack of updates may simply be because none have been
needed or the school has invested in other aspects of its program instead. A campus visit is always the best way to
evaluate firsthand what a school has to offer, but we nonetheless dedicate this space to a discussion of the facili-
ties available at this particular program.
After two years of construction and several years of planning, the SOM opened the doors to its brand new,
glass-clad facility—Edward P. Evans Hall—in January 2014. The need for a new building appears to have
been among the school’s top priorities over the past several years, as Dean Snyder suggested to the Yale
Daily News in January 2010: “SOM is competing against the world’s best business schools. And all of the
world’s best business schools have great facilities.” Previously housed in a complex consisting of both
modern buildings and 19th century Gothic mansions at the center of the Yale University campus, the SOM’s
inside spaces did not, as former Yale University President Richard Levin noted in an August 2010 Bloom-
berg Businessweek article, “look and feel like a business school.” The decision to build the new facility was
also informed by pedagogical needs. Former Yale University Provost (and current university President)
Peter Salovey stated in a September 2010 Yale Daily News article, “The future of our School of Management
really depends on the fact that that building will allow us to teach the curriculum.”
27
Despite what turned out to be the poor timing of the SOM’s original proposal to construct a new facility—
which took shape in 2006, just two years before the economic downturn—the school managed to raise an
initial $110M from various alumni and donors. These fundraising efforts were followed by a series of record
contributions, including $8,888,888 from Lei Zhang (MBA ’02) in January 2010 (its largest gift ever from an
SOM alumnus), $10M from Wilbur Ross (YC ’59) in November 2010, and $50M from the facility’s eponymous
donor, the late Edward “Ned” P. Evans (YC ’64), in December 2010. The total cost of the new campus—which
had originally been estimated at $190M—ultimately rose to $243M, affording the addition of such techno-
logical amenities as cutting-edge classroom computers and high-definition video conferencing.
Designed by Lord Norman Foster, a 1962 graduate of Yale’s School of Architecture and a Pritzker Architec-
ture Prize Laureate, the 242,000-square-foot Evans Hall is intended to be a physical manifestation of the
school’s integrated curriculum. Foster + Partners developed four main functions for the complex: class-
room interaction, teamwork, flexible study environments, and community events. From the open layout
to the lounge areas outside classrooms to collaborative “Huddle” study rooms, specific features of the
planned space are designed to encourage interaction among students and faculty and to optimize spon-
taneous social encounters between classes. Evans Hall also incorporates sustainable materials and con-
struction practices, making use of water-efficient plumbing, repurposed steel and concrete, high-perfor-
mance windows, and native vegetation. The overall design is intended to place the SOM campus on a level
with that of other top business schools while preserving the university’s architectural history.
Evans Hall’s design is perhaps most notable, however, for its glass façade, which wraps around a sprawling
central courtyard and lends transparency to the entire layout. “One of the things that Dean Snyder talks
about is that managers need an extended line of sight,” remarked SOM Senior Associate Dean David Bach
in a 2014 Yale Daily News article, adding, “The building actually has an extended line of sight. You can actu-
ally see [in] the building through glass.” While the transparent layout creates “a unifying effect, a sense
that activities throughout the building are interconnected,” the campus courtyard “acts as the heart of the
school, providing outdoor space to study and socialize,” explains the SOM site.
The new campus also features 16 classrooms, a student gym, a library, a 350-seat auditorium, an out-
door terrace lecture hall/entertainment space, a coffee shop, a landscaped garden, and a dining commons
where professors and students can share meals together. In July 2014, Architectural Digest chose Evans
Hall as one of the nine best university buildings in the world. That same year, the building received the
Connecticut AIA Design Award, the New York Design Award for Digital Signage and Data Visualization, and
the Global Design Award.
“I think of this as a high point event in the school’s history,” said Dean Snyder in the aforementioned Yale
Daily News article, referring to the construction of the new facility. “High point events give an institution a
sense of what it is and what it can be.”
28
8. Rankings and Reputation: Important Metrics or Arbitrary Measures?
MBA rankings should always be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism, given that they can fluctuate dramati-
cally from year to year and from publication to publication. For example, if you had relied on the Financial Times’
rankings to choose the Yale School of Management as your business school in 2011 because of the program’s posi-
tion at number seven, you probably would have been disappointed to see the school then slide down to number 12
just one year later before rebounding to number nine the following year. Similarly, if you had selected UC-Berkeley
Haas in 2004, when it was number 17 in Bloomberg Businessweek’s ranking, you would have been delighted to see
the program rise to number eight in 2010 before it slipped out of the top ten again to number 13 in 2012.
Can an MBA program—which is made up of so many moving parts—really
change so much in just one or two years? Furthermore, how can one recon- The various surveys
cile that UVA Darden is in the second position (among U.S. programs) in The should and will
Economist’s rankings but is 11th in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, provide some context
12th in the Bloomberg Businessweek survey, and 14th in the Financial Times’ for your decision, but
ratings—all at the same time? Or that Stanford GSB holds the 11th position resist the temptation to
on The Economist’s list but is seventh in the Bloomberg Businessweek rank- choose a school based
ings, third in the Financial Times’ survey, and second in the U.S. News rank- on rankings alone.
ings? Or that UPenn Wharton is number two in the Financial Times’ rankings,
number four according to U.S. News, and number five in Bloomberg Business-
week but is only number eight in The Economist’s survey?
An MBA ranking that appears to be gaining in popularity, according to feedback we have received from candidates
in recent years, is from Poets&Quants, which aggregates what it considers the top five MBA surveys (from Bloom-
berg Businessweek, The Economist, the Financial Times, U.S. News & World Report, and Forbes) to create a kind of
composite ranking. Of course, the various surveys should and likely will provide some context for your decision,
but resist the temptation to choose a school based on rankings alone, because rankings may ultimately betray
you—possibly even before you graduate.
One thing to keep in mind, particularly for international students, is that a school’s reputation domestically can
be quite different from its reputation abroad. Years ago, mbaMission worked with an international candidate who
was accepted into the MBA programs at Cornell Johnson and Dartmouth Tuck. When this individual shared the
good news with his manager, his manager said, “I thought you would have gone to an Ivy League school like Princ-
eton!” Of course, Dartmouth and Cornell are in fact Ivy League institutions, and Princeton does not even have an
MBA program—the manager’s reaction illustrates how possible misconceptions can arise. So, after considering an
MBA program’s strengths, you might factor in that some schools have greater brand power in certain parts of the
world, especially if you plan to live and work abroad after you complete your studies.
29
We advise you to consider your MBA a long-term investment that will pay dividends throughout your life, and such
an investment should be based on more than a one-time ranking. In fact, most MBAs who are five to ten years out
of school are not even aware what their school is now ranked. Perhaps more importantly, if you were to ask one
whether the school’s position in the rankings has any effect on his/her career, the response would certainly be an
impassioned “No!”
U.S. Ranking: Yale SOM 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009
Poets&Quants NA NA 10 12 17 15 14 14 NA
U.S. News & World Report 8 13 13 13 10 10 11 10 NA
Bloomberg Businessweek 1 NA NA 11 6 [21] 21 [21] 21 NA
Financial Times NA 9 9 7 9 12 7 9 9
The Economist NA NA 13 14 17 17 16 14 NA
1
Until 2015, Bloomberg Businessweek released rankings every two years (in November), so numbers in brackets represent carryover from
the previous year’s ranking.
Given Dean Snyder’s success in terms of both fundraising and rankings when he was dean of Chicago Booth
(the school was number ten in the Bloomberg Businessweek rankings when Snyder first took over the dean-
ship in 2001; the school subsequently rose in 2002 to the number two spot, and then in 2006 to the number
one position, where it stood throughout his deanship), his hiring as the SOM’s dean seems to suggest that
this small and relatively young business school takes its challenges in both areas seriously. Though the
SOM has traditionally found the top ten a tough nut to crack in many of the more popular MBA rankings, a
2012 article in the Yale Daily News reported that a goal of Snyder’s is “to have SOM rank consistently in the
top 10 business schools within the next four years, and in the top five within the next decade.”
Although the rankings have revealed only limited upward momentum in the school’s standings just yet,
the SOM made a notable leap in the 2014 Bloomberg Businessweek survey, surging from 21st among U.S.
programs to sixth, before dropping slightly in 2015 to the eleventh spot. The program stood unchanged at
number nine domestically in the Financial Times’ 2016 survey and shifted from 17th to 18th internationally.
Finally, the SOM came in at 10th in the 2015 Poets&Quants ranking, slightly higher than its 12th position
in 2014.
After a notable rise in The Economist’s 2014 rankings, where the SOM moved from 17th to 14th place within
the United States and from 28th to 19th internationally, the school gained steady ground within the United
States in the 2015 rankings, coming in at the 13th spot, and staying at the 19th place internationally. And in
U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 rankings, the school rose from 13th to 8th in the country, though it shares
the spot with the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. The SOM also appears on several of U.S.
News’ specialty rankings lists, where it is ranked number one in the Nonprofit category. In addition, the
30
Princeton Review’s 2016 evaluation of MBA programs named the SOM second (out of 295 schools) for Best
Green MBA and Best Classroom Experience, and number nine for Best Professors.
Snyder, who assumed his responsibilities as dean in the summer of 2011, told the Wall Street Journal in
2010 that he wants the business school to be perceived as “rigorous, well-regarded, and highly ranked.”
Later, in July 2011, he expressed his general opinion of rankings on his personal Web site, saying, “The
question of business school rankings often yields long and tortured answers from business school Deans.
The short answer from me is (a) rankings are an important part of the competitive landscape, and (b) mov-
ing up is more fun than moving down.”
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Poets&Quants (2015)
1 Harvard Business School
2 Stanford GSB
3 Chicago Booth
4 UPenn Wharton
5 Northwestern Kellogg
6 Columbia Business School
7 MIT Sloan
8 UC-Berkeley Haas
9 Dartmouth Tuck
10 Yale SOM
11 Duke Fuqua
12 UVA Darden
13 Michigan Ross
14 UCLA Anderson (tie)
14 Cornell Johnson (tie)
16 NYU Stern
17 UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler
18 UT Austin McCombs
19 Carnegie Mellon Tepper
20 Emory Goizueta
32
U.S. News & World Report (2017) Bloomberg Businessweek (2015)
1 Harvard Business School 1 Harvard Business School
2 Stanford GSB (tie) 2 Chicago Booth
2 Chicago Booth (tie) 3 Northwestern Kellogg
4 UPenn Wharton 4 MIT Sloan
5 MIT Sloan (tie) 5 UPenn Wharton
5 Northwestern Kellogg (tie) 6 Columbia Business School
7 UC-Berkeley Haas 7 Stanford GSB
8 Dartmouth Tuck (tie) 8 Duke Fuqua
8 Yale SOM (tie) 9 UC-Berkeley Haas
10 Columbia Business School 10 Michigan Ross
11 UVA Darden 11 Yale SOM
12 Duke Fuqua (tie) 12 UVA Darden
12 Michigan Ross (tie) 13 UCLA Anderson
14 Cornell Johnson 14 Dartmouth Tuck
15 UCLA Anderson 15 Emory Goizueta
16 UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler (tie) 16 Cornell Johnson
16 UT Austin McCombs (tie) 17 UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler
18 Carnegie Mellon Tepper 18 Carnegie Mellon Tepper
19 Emory Goizueta 19 Rice Jones
20 NYU Stern 20 UW Foster
33
Financial Times (2016)1,2 The Economist (2015)1,3
1 Harvard Business School 1 Chicago Booth
2 UPenn Wharton 2 UVA Darden
3 Stanford GSB 3 Dartmouth Tuck
4 Columbia Business School 4 Harvard Business School
5 UC-Berkeley Haas 5 UC-Berkeley Haas
6 Chicago Booth 6 Northwestern Kellogg
7 MIT Sloan 7 UCLA Anderson
8 Northwestern Kellogg 8 UPenn Wharton
9 Yale SOM 9 NYU Stern
10 NYU Stern 10 Columbia Business School
11 Michigan Ross 11 Stanford GSB
12 Duke Fuqua 12 MIT Sloan
13 Dartmouth Tuck 13 Yale SOM
14 UVA Darden 14 Duke Fuqua
15 Cornell Johnson 15 Cornell Johnson
16 Carnegie Mellon Tepper 16 Emory Goizueta
17 UCLA Anderson 17 Michigan Ross
18 UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler 18 IU Kelley
19 Georgetown McDonough 19 Carnegie Mellon Tepper
20 UT Austin McCombs 20 OSU Fisher
1
Excludes international schools and reranks only U.S. schools.
3
The Financial Times ranks Yale SOM 18 internationally.
4
The Economist ranks Yale SOM 19 internationally.
34
Yale University
The Yale School of Management
Summary
Founded in 1974, with its first students entering in 1976, the Yale SOM is not only the youngest of Yale University’s
ten professional schools but also the youngest business school among the Ivies. The MBA school has an intimate,
collegial, and family-like atmosphere, and although the class size has been growing in recent years, classmates
seem able to easily get to know one another in addition to many people across campus. Like all Yale University
students, SOM students are called “Yalies” or “Elis” (after Elihu Yale), and given that they are permitted to take
electives from throughout Yale University, the two-year experience at this school appears to be as much about
being part of Yale University as about being simply an MBA candidate at the SOM. A second-year student told
mbaMission that the opportunity for his spouse to also take courses at the university or to drop by a Master’s Tea
on campus “turned Yale [SOM] into a college environment” (offered by Yale College, Master’s Teas are intimate
gatherings with notable men and women, such as politicians and journalists).
With the unveiling of the Yale SOM’s revised curriculum in 2006, the school seemed to completely change the way
it approached its MBA program. Wanting to move away from the “silo effect” of having students study marketing,
strategy, or finance as standalone concepts or functions, the SOM created an innovative integrated curriculum.
The first year of the MBA program at the school concentrates on students’ required core courses (described in
more detail in the Curriculum: Flexible Versus Mandatory Core section). This cohesive approach, which views man-
agement issues from both internal and external perspectives, “is unique in how it ties together the pieces of a
business school education into a meaningful whole,” asserts the school’s Web site.
The school’s use of the “raw” case format (discussed more fully in the Pedagogy: Lecture Versus Case Format sec-
tion) appears to be at the heart of the Yale SOM experience. By having students use original materials, source in-
formation on cases, and real-time data, the SOM faculty feel that their aspiring MBAs learn to effectively process
“messy” information in the way they will need to as future managers.
With its stated mission of “Educating leaders for business and society,” the Yale SOM seeks to expose students to
leadership models and experiences both inside and outside the classroom. One way it works to accomplish this
goal is through its Leaders Forum Lecture Series, which brings industry experts to campus to discuss topics of
global importance. In 2015–2016, the series invited such speakers as the surgeon general of the United States, a
senior adviser to the president, the chairman of Virgin Group, the president and CEO of MasterCard, the president
of Tokyo Electric Power Company, and the director emerita of the Seattle Art Museum.
35
The Yale SOM was the first business school in the United States to require an international component for gradu-
ation, and many first-year students travel abroad between Spring 1 and Spring 2 on an International Experience
course to fulfill the school’s Global Studies Requirement (see the International Business section). In addition to
completing their regular course work, students prepare intensely for this trip in the preceding fall by researching
their destinations and learning from experts on the region. After returning, the students make a presentation
about their travels. Among the International Experiences offered in 2016 was a trip to China, where students
toured the offices of the New Development Bank and had a One on One chat with the founder and CEO of Green
Apple Health. In 2015, one of the destinations offered was Japan, where students visited such companies as Pana-
sonic Corporation and Nissan Motor Company. One group of students visited Switzerland in 2014 to attend the St.
Gallen Symposium, while another met with public officials and business leaders in Brazil. Other past trips have
involved visits to Chile, Brazil, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, China, South Korea, Japan, Indone-
sia, Bangladesh/Vietnam, Hungary/Russia, India, Israel, and Japan.
The Dean
When Edward “Ted” Snyder was appointed dean of the SOM in July 2011, he faced both great challenges and great
expectations. Transforming a school to contend with the nation’s most rigorous and highly ranked institutions is
not an unfamiliar goal for Snyder. He is often considered, as a 2012 Poets&Quants article states, “something of
a business school physician” for having “worked magic” in his previous appointments. After successful tenures
at both the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of
Business Administration, in addition to serving as an associate dean at the University of Michigan Ross School
of Business, Snyder has earned an incontestable reputation for his leadership skills. Under Snyder’s guidance,
Chicago Booth received a $300M gift—the largest in business school history—and saw its position in the Bloom-
berg Businessweek rankings jump from tenth to first in just five years. Richard C. Levin, who was president of Yale
University at the time, stated in a 2010 Yale news article, “Ted Snyder is widely regarded as the most successful
business school dean in the nation.”
Upon replacing Sharon M. Oster as the SOM’s dean, Snyder made a statement highlighting the school’s potential
going forward, saying, “I first became interested in coming to the Yale School of Management because I think this
school is phenomenally well positioned to train the kinds of leaders the world needs for the balance of this cen-
tury.” Snyder also identified what he saw as some of the defining characteristics of this potential, adding that the
integrated curriculum, introduced in 2006, “has been refined and made more robust. … The sense of community
has never been stronger.”
Snyder has also expressed interest in highlighting the global aspects of the SOM’s program. In a 2014 Fortune ar-
ticle, he described the SOM as “the most distinctively global U.S. business school” and expressed a hope that pro-
spective students would be drawn to the program for that reason. Similarly, a 2014 Yale Daily News article touched
on Snyder’s ambitious strategy concerning the Global Network for Advanced Management, an international part-
36
nership of management programs, noting that Snyder hoped to meet with 1,000 people during the fall of 2014—in-
cluding staff, faculty members, students, and alumni—to discuss ways of possibly expanding the network.
In a 2011 interview with the Financial Times conducted shortly after his appointment, Snyder described his overall
vision for the school, saying, “We want Yale SOM to be the most connected, the most involved with the university
[of any business school]. I think it’s important who you attract. If we get the positioning right, we’ll get these ex-
traordinarily bright people who are slightly different from the usual draw. … There are a lot of enterprises who
will look and say ‘this is exactly the kind of [MBA] profile that I want’.” While Snyder’s ambitions are not without
obstacles—Poets&Quants reports Snyder as saying the school is “under-funded and under-marketed”—he report-
edly hopes to enhance the school’s brand and the scale of its educational experience by improving the SOM’s
global outreach, drawing on the larger university network, and slightly increasing the student-to-faculty ratio
while maintaining the school’s intimate culture.
After Poets&Quants chose Snyder as Dean of the Year in late 2015, the publication highlighted the recent notable
boost in the school’s application volume—nearly 25% in 2014 and 29% in 2015—as one of his biggest accomplish-
ments. “What’s driving the increase is the clarity of our strategy, the new building, better rankings and job place-
ment, but also the activation of the global network,” Snyder commented in the article.
Although changes are anticipated at the SOM under his deanship, the school assured incoming students on its
Web site, “Dean Snyder is arguably the most experienced and successful business school dean in the world, and
he will no doubt put his stamp on the school. … But there are some key ways in which Dean Snyder’s arrival will
not change the school. Yale SOM’s mission has always been to educate leaders for business and society, and it
has drawn a community of people who take this mission very seriously.” In the comments section of the 2012
Poets&Quants article, a student in the Class of 2014 stated, “I can say that there is a real sense that the school is
on the up-and-up. … There is a palpable sense of this on campus,” and another from the same class wrote, “Aside
from just moving up the rankings, I really believe that Yale is on the verge of revolutionizing the MBA experience.”
In the 2015 Poets&Quants article highlighting Snyder as dean of the year, one comment read, “I am a proud [mem-
ber of the Class of] 2015. Can’t find words to thank Mr. Snyder’s and David Bach’s hard work and commitment,
building one of the strongest [business schools] in the world. A strong mission, a clear strategy and a true passion
for excellence are paying off.”
Professional Specializations
Consulting
Drawing on the broad professional skills taught in the school’s integrated curriculum, along with career support
offered by the Consulting Club, many SOM graduates choose to enter the field of consulting. In fact, consulting
services was the most common industry that SOM graduates entered in 2015, with 29.3% of the school’s MBAs ac-
37
cepting positions in the field, and the second most common industry (after finance) that SOM graduates entered
in 2014, with 18.0%.
Given that consulting typically involves an emphasis on strategy and management, those aspiring to this profes-
sion might be drawn to such SOM courses as “Strategic Market Measurement” and “Problem Framing.” In “Strate-
gic Market Measurement,” students gain a better understanding of strategy consulting via a hands-on approach in
which students use a statistical analysis program throughout the course. In “Problem Framing,” students explore
the importance of anticipating and properly approaching management problems.
The Consulting Club organizes events throughout the year that focus on students interested in this industry and
their unique needs. According to our research for this guide, the high point for first years looking toward a career
in consulting has traditionally been the annual Yale SOM Net Impact Case Competition. Jointly sponsored by the
Consulting Club, the Human Capital Club, and the school’s Net Impact chapter, this event is an opportunity for
first years to gain experience both in a consulting case competition and with business problems related to social
responsibility. A first year involved in planning the competition told mbaMission that the clubs’ goal is to create
an inclusive competition that’s easy for everyone to be part of. “It’s a fun night,” he said. “We want to make it part
of SOM culture.”
Deloitte Human Capital Consulting Services has sponsored the event in recent years, while The Boston Consult-
ing Group has sponsored previous events. Teams compete in a case concerning human capital and social impact,
while Deloitte representatives acted as judges, and the winners received cash prizes. Participating teams are
given a case, which they work on for a set period of time, then submit a PowerPoint presentation of their initial
recommendations to a panel of judges. The case used in the competition always involves a social element, and
first prize is awarded based on both the content and the quality of a team’s PowerPoint presentation. Because
the competition is geared toward first years and takes place relatively early in the academic year, the first-year
student with whom we spoke noted that everyone who participates in it has a chance to “meet new people and
work with people you may not have worked with before.”
In 2013, the SOM launched the first annual Integrated Leadership Case Competition, another opportunity that
might interest prospective consultants. According to a school press release, the student-run competition is “in-
spired by Yale SOM’s integrated curriculum and Leadership Development Program” and requires student teams
with members from various disciplines and backgrounds to collaborate on an interactive “raw” case, which for
the inaugural event involved business ethics. Teams from the SOM, NYU’s Stern School of Business, Penn State’s
Smeal College of Business, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania presented their case strate-
gies to a panel of expert judges, and the team from Wharton ultimately claimed first place. The SOM’s 2012–2013
Student Government president is quoted in the press release as saying, “This competition encompasses many of
the key components we love about Yale SOM: small group work, data-rich raw cases, and complex problems that
require comprehensive, creative solutions.”
38
In 2015, teams from 15 schools and nine countries came to campus to compete, with a team from Hong Kong Univer-
sity of Science and Technology claiming the first place prize of $3,000, and a group from South Korea’s Yonsei Uni-
versity School of Business placing second. The 2014 competition featured 12 participating business schools, includ-
ing teams from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, the National Singapore Business School,
the Graduate School of Strategy at Hitotsubashi University, and the School of Business at Renmin University of
China. A team from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper Business School took home that year’s first-place prize.
“Business is no longer U.S.-only,” remarked a second-year student and organizer of the event in a 2014 Yale SOM
news article. “You have to interact with different players. Competitors come from around the world, and just having
different teams with different ideas and approaches helps us to realize that we live in a more competitive world.”
Accenture; A.T. Kearney, Inc.; McKinsey & Company; Bain & Company, Inc.; Booz Allen Hamilton; the Boston Con-
sulting Group; PriceWaterhouseCoopers; Ernst & Young; Parthenon-EY; and Deloitte LLP number among the firms
that hired Yale SOM students for internships and full-time consulting positions in 2015.
Entrepreneurship, Private Equity, and Venture Capital
Within the Yale SOM core, first years all take the “Innovator” course, which builds students’ skills as creative
managers while teaching them to work in innovative environments. According to the description on the school’s
Web site, the course “focuses on issues of idea generation, idea evaluation and development, creative projects,
and fostering and sustaining innovation in organizations.” Electives that center on entrepreneurship include “In-
ternational Entrepreneurship,” “Entrepreneurial and New Ventures,” “Programming and Entrepreneurship,” and
“Entrepreneurial Finance.”
The importance of innovation to the entrepreneurial spirit is a concept seen in many of the SOM’s entrepreneur-
ship electives. Jonathan Feinstein, the John G. Searle Professor of Economics and Management who teaches such
courses as “Design and Innovation” and “Creativity and Innovation,” notes on the SOM Web site that innovation
involves a process. “Most people think of an idea as a light bulb moment,” he says, “but that moment of insight
is just the beginning. An idea has to work in the marketplace—otherwise, even the best idea will fall flat. So it’s
crucial to learn to play around.”
Many resources outside the classroom are also available for SOM students interested in entrepreneurship. The
school’s Entrepreneurship Club is grounded in the belief that all MBA students, even those who do not intend to be
entrepreneurs, can benefit from the skills they learn from entrepreneurial thinkers, and the club has student and
alumni leaders as well as faculty advisors. The club describes its mission on its Web site as four-fold: “[to] create
opportunities for SOM to interact with entrepreneurs; uncover professional opportunities for SOM students; work
closely with Yale Entrepreneurial Society (YES); and integrate with related [clubs].” Members of the Entrepreneur-
ship Club participate in several business plan competitions each year.
39
Offered by the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale is the Sabin Sustainable Venture Prize (formerly
the Sabin Environmental Venture Prize), which has been awarded since 2009 and “supports student and faculty
efforts to start an environmentally oriented for-profit business through cash prizes totaling $25,000,” states the
center’s Web site. Competition for the Sabin Prize is open to any Yale student or faculty member, as an individual
or as part of a team. No restriction is placed on the number of members a team may have, so long as at least one
person on the team is affiliated with Yale University (not just the SOM).
Competition for the Sabin Sustainable Venture Prize begins in January, when participants have the option of sub-
mitting a mentorship application to the center that includes, in addition to the name of the proposed venture, a
description of the environmental problem to be addressed, a description of the submitted idea, and an overview
of the market. In March, teams/individuals submit an application and an entry agreement outlining the status and
stage of the venture, another assessment of the market, next steps to be taken in the venture, and a budget for
one year. In addition, participants are required to submit a canvas describing the business model, and a link to a
three-minute YouTube or Vimeo video of the pitch. The judging panel—known as “The Bulldog’s Den,” after the Yale
mascot—evaluates the submitted ventures based on criteria such as market assessment, environmental benefit,
financials, and feasibility. Finalists are revealed later in the spring, and winners are announced at an awards cer-
emony in April. The Sabin Prize competition also includes workshops throughout to assist contestants, covering
such topics as “Market Research,” “Accounting and Financial Modeling,” and “Business Writing and Presentations.”
A speaker series is offered in conjunction with the competition, and in 2016, the series was themed “Bright Lights,
Green Sights,” featuring such speakers as the founder of an artisanal tofu supplier, the founder of an environmen-
tally conscious fashion brand, and the founder of a beauty product company selling homemade products. In 2015,
speakers included the co-founder and CEO of Green Coast Enterprises, who discussed establishing a sustainable
real estate company in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
The April 2015 Sabin Prize involved four teams in the finals. The winner was Poda Foods, which offers a perhaps
surprising source of protein in bar form: crickets. The other finalists were Grovio, a crop surveillance drone intend-
ed to reduce fertilizer use; Tuckerman & Co, which produces organic and sustainable clothing; and homE, which
created a sustainable battery backup alternative to diesel generators. Of the 12 teams that competed for the 2014
Sabin Prize, four advanced to the final round, with Alpha-Screen, a portable device that detects contaminants in
water, ultimately claiming the top spot. Other finalist ventures that year were Chive, a fast-casual Chinese food
restaurant; Sage, a smartphone application that encourages users to make healthier food choices; and SOL Hydra-
tion, an organic sports drink.
According to a program coordinator with whom we spoke, the Office of Cooperative Research (Yale’s technology
transfer office) originally formed the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI) in 2007 as a ten-week summer program
in response to demands for such an offering from students interested in entrepreneurial endeavors. YEI has since
expanded into a year-round university department focused on student business ventures. Projects can be “in the
works,” meaning the ventures are in the initial phases of investment conversations, or “in business,” meaning they
40
have already raised initial capital or drawn customers. An administrator mbaMission interviewed noted that SOM
students typically participate via a summer fellowship program or as academic-year associates.
Offering such resources as a summer fellowship, a mentor program, and affordable office space for qualified stu-
dent start-ups (through its incubator program), the YEI works to foster innovation and encourage entrepreneur-
ship among Yale SOM students. Live ventures that have received assistance through the YEI include Prepwork,
a personal research assistant for meetings founded by a member of the Class of 2013 (and later acquired by
HubSpot); Ancera, a technology venture for pathogen diagnosis co-founded by a Class of 2012 graduate; Checked
Twice, an online gift exchange organizer founded by a Class of 2011 MBA; and The Green Bride Guide, a premier
directory for eco-conscious weddings, co-founded by a SOM graduate from the Class of 2008.
Of the 24.5% of 2015 SOM graduates who accepted roles in the finance industry after graduation, 2.2% went into
private equity and venture capital (3.1% in 2014, 3.5% in 2013, and 1.8% in 2012). Students can choose electives
specific to careers in these areas, such as “Venture Capital and Private Equity Investments,” which is open to sec-
ond years only. Incorporating a variety of teaching methods, the four-unit (i.e., four-credit) course spans the Fall
2 and Spring 1 quarters and relies heavily on case analysis, teamwork, presentations, lectures, and role-playing.
The Private Equity & Venture Capital Club at the SOM claims the dual mission of gaining exposure for the school
within the private equity field and offering students opportunities to interact with professionals. In April 2015,
the club sponsored the 16th Annual Private Equity and Venture Capital Symposium, which welcomed as keynote
speakers the founder and managing partner of Greycoft Partners and a managing partner of Leonard Green &
Partners.
Four discussion panels were offered, covering the topics “Debt in Private Equity,” “Future of FINTECH,” “Impact
Venture Investing,” and “Emerging Markets: Private Equity.” In addition, a Venture Capital Pitch Competition,
based on the television show Shark Tank, allowed participants to present venture ideas to practicing entrepre-
neurs and professionals in the venture capital space. The 2015 event featured as keynote speakers the chairman of
Aurora Capital Group and the former CEO of AlliedSignal (now Honeywell). Panel discussions explored such themes
as “Private Equity: The Dealmaking Environment,” “Venture Capital: Are VCs Investing in the Wrong Stuff?,” and
“Treatment of Carried Interest: A VC, PE, and Hedge Fund Debate.” The event concluded with a pitch competition
and a networking reception.
The Yale SOM has roughly five electives devoted to entrepreneurship, private equity, and venture capital and the
school’s Web site lists approximately 10 faculty members who have expertise in these areas. Firms that hired 2015
SOM students for internships and full-time positions in the areas of private equity, entrepreneurship, and venture
capital include DBL Investors: Double Bottom Line Venture Capital, Fenox Venture Capital, Inspiring Capital, and
Line Venture Capital. In addition, the school’s 2015 employment report notes that 15 graduates started their own
businesses rather than joining an outside firm.
41
Finance
In an interview with mbaMission, Director of Admissions Bruce DelMonico identified the caliber of the school’s
faculty as a reason for the SOM’s strong reputation in finance, saying, “Pound for pound, I think we have among the
top finance faculty anywhere in the United States.” The school has approximately 20 faculty members associated
with its finance department, including Nicholas Barberis (specialist in behavioral finance), Gary Gorton (banking),
and Andrew Metrick (regulation of the financial system).
The Yale SOM offers more than 40 finance-related electives, including “Corporate Finance,” “Behavioral and Intu-
itional Economics,” “Investment Management,” and “Successful Investing.” The “World Financial History” elective,
taught by William Goetzmann—the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies and director
of the International Center for Finance at the Yale SOM (described later in this section)—examines finance and
capitalism from antiquity to modern times. The course initially focuses on finance in Babylon, Athens, Egypt,
China, and Rome and the origins of money before shifting to early European banking, modern corporations, and
globalization. Robert Shiller (see the Notable Professors and Unsung Heroes section) teaches “Behavioral and
Institutional Economics,” which explores such topics as herd behavior, poverty, involuntary unemployment, at-
titudes toward risk, and risk management.
Students can get an early overview of the world of finance through “Accounting and Finance Boot Camp,” which
first launched in 2008 and is sponsored in part by the school’s Finance Club. This 90-minute lecture reportedly
draws both first- and second-year students. According to a 2010 Yale SOM News article, the boot camp is a fast-
paced “tour of the world of finance,” and Frank Fabozzi, a former Yale SOM professor who originally developed the
boot camp, notes, “Even for students who may have worked in one layer of the industry, this [lecture] gives them
a broad perspective and a sense of where the opportunities are and how to match skill sets, course work, and
personalities with those areas.”
Also central to the study of finance at the Yale SOM is the International Center for Finance, which was established
in 1999 to support research in the area of finance. In 2016, the center presented its eleventh annual Behavioral
Science Conference. In the past, the conference has featured professors from the University of London, Union Col-
lege, Harvard University, and the University of California, San Diego. “While there are other academic conferences
that focus only on behavioral decision-making, or only on behavioral finance, or only on behavioral economics,”
the center’s Web site notes, “the unique feature of this conference is that it brings together researchers from all
three fields.”
The Behavioral Science Conference is held in conjunction with the annual Whitebox Advisors Graduate Student
Conference, at which doctoral students in the fields of behavioral economics, behavioral finance, and behavioral
marketing present research on a variety of topics. The 2015 event offered 13 research paper presentations, among
them “Reference Points, Subjective Impact, and the Dynamic Effects of Goal Specificity,” “Cognitive Reflection and
(the Limits of) Strategic Thinking in a Market Choice Game,” and “Excusing Selfishness in Charitable Giving: The
42
Role of Risk.” In 2014, topics explored via the conference included “Does the Early Bird Catch the Worm? Firstborns
and Their Financial Decisions,” “Bribery: Greed Versus Reciprocity,” and “Favorites Fall Faster: Greater Liking Leads
to Greater Satiation.”
In addition, weekly center-sponsored seminars have hosted speakers such as business professors from Colum-
bia Business School, economics professors from Harvard University, and professors of finance from the Chicago
Booth School of Business, the Kellogg School of Management, and the UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business.
The virtual Museum of Money and Financial Institutions is an offshoot of the center. The museum states on its site
that its primary goal is “to increase economic literacy for people of all ages,” and it offers virtual exhibits such as
“Silver Slippers on a Golden Road,” “A Brief History of Money and Religion,” and “The IFC Collection of Historical
Securities.”
However, DelMonico emphasized in his interview with mbaMission that finance is just one of the school’s strengths,
saying, “Our finance expertise is one piece in a larger educational puzzle at SOM.” Similarly, when we asked a sec-
ond-year student we interviewed what had drawn him to the Yale SOM, he explained, “I was looking for a school
that was strong in finance and strong in leadership. At HBS, with 900 grads, you can’t all be leaders. I want to go to
business school where I learn leadership and finance. At Yale, I get that.”
As noted, in 2015, 24.5% of the Yale SOM’s graduates entered positions in the financial services industry, compa-
rable to the 25.5% and 25.4% who did so in 2014 and 2013, respectively. Firms in this industry that hired SOM stu-
dents for internships and full-time positions in 2015 include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, Morgan Stanley,
Barclays PLC, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Credit Suisse Group, UBS AG, Wells Fargo, Vanguard, and the Goldman Sachs
Group, Inc.
General Management
Through the foundational management courses of its integrated curriculum, the Yale SOM “teaches you the skills
and language you will need in any career in business and management,” asserts the school’s Web site. Beginning
with the integrated core curriculum, which is designed to develop leadership skills as they relate to various or-
ganizational roles rather than to discrete disciplinary topics, the SOM provides an overall general management
education. Indeed, 8.0% of the school’s graduates entered positions with a general management function in 2015;
11.0% did so in 2014, and 11.6% in 2013, though these recent figures represent a significant drop from previous
years, such as in 2011 and 2010, when the numbers were 22.0% and 27.0%, respectively. Still, consulting, finance/
accounting, and marketing/sales were the only functional areas to claim higher percentages of the class (37.1%,
30.4%, and 13.4%, respectively).
With courses such as “Modeling Managerial Decisions” and “Managing Groups and Teams,” the initial seven-week
core series Orientation to Management provides a foundation of concepts and problem-solving skills as well as
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interpersonal communication strategies within groups that will prove necessary for students not only throughout
the rest of the SOM curriculum but also as they move into their post-MBA careers. General management skills are
further honed in the core during the ten-course Organizational Perspectives series. Each of the Organizational
Perspectives courses, which all begin in Fall 2, “look at how organizations really work with their many constituen-
cies. Drawing on expertise from all the traditional business school disciplines, these courses teach you what you
need to know to lead a thriving organization,” explains the school’s site.
Beyond the core, approximately 20 electives with a general management focus are available. Examples include
“Strategic Communication: Delivering Effective Presentations,” where students work on their presentation skills
both in teams and individually, and “Leading Business and Society,” a half-term course that examines common
leadership issues.
The school has more than 20 faculty members focused on management who draw from such disciplines as opera-
tions, organizational behavior, strategy, finance, and consulting to provide students with a broad grounding in the
various aspects involved in management. “Yale SOM graduates take on management challenges with a nuanced
understanding of how markets, organizations, and the global economy work,” says Dean Snyder on the school’s
Web site. “With this elevated understanding of leadership, they anticipate change and drive innovation, make
decisions empirically, and constantly seek opportunity. In short, they lead and manage people to create value for
their organizations and for society.” And DelMonico described the Yale SOM to mbaMission as “very much a gen-
eral management school,” adding, “All our students have broad interests and take classes in a range of areas—not
just a single discipline.”
Companies known to hire for general management positions that employed SOM students and graduates in 2015
include Liberty Mutual, Sears Holding Corporation, and General Motors Company.
Health Care and Biotechnology
Six faculty members with specific expertise in health care are listed on the SOM Web site, and even though the
school offers just five elective courses in this study area per academic year, the SOM’s flexible elective policy al-
lows students to pursue their health care interests at other schools within the university system as well, such as
the School of Public Health.
Health care electives at the SOM include “Healthcare Operations,” “Health Care Strategy,” and “Healthcare Policy,
Finance, and Economics.” In addition, a “Healthcare Management Colloquium” is offered to joint degree candi-
dates, physicians, and other interested students, with the consent of the course director. “Healthcare Opera-
tions,” which focuses on ways to improve implementation, involves a group project as well as a visit to a New
Haven emergency room. In “Healthcare Strategy,” students approach the health care field from a strategic stand-
point, focusing on such issues as the medical device market, competition in health care, and the efficiency of the
U.S. health care system within a global context.
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In 2010, the school’s Healthcare Club and the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Society merged to form the
greater university’s interdisciplinary Yale Healthcare and Life Sciences Club (YHLC), which boasts more than 1,200
members. The YHLC works to increase students’ exposure to the fields of health care and life sciences while also
assisting with job searches in these areas. Benefits of club membership include opportunities to attend confer-
ences and programs, access to industry-specific job listings, and a resume database. In addition, the club hosts
an annual health care conference, a pharmaceutical case competition, a health care networking night, health care
panels, and other networking events.
Inaugurated in 2001 and hosted by the YHLC, the Yale Healthcare Conference is held each spring. This combined
venture between the SOM and the university’s health-related professional schools (such as the School of Public
Health and the School of Medicine) reportedly draws more than 450 participants, including academics, students,
and members of the health care profession. The April 2016 conference was titled “Creating Value and Sustaining
Gains: The Next Decade in Healthcare” and featured the president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic and the president
and CEO of the Leapfrog Group as keynote speakers. Two breakout panel sessions covered a range of discussion
topics, from “Predictive Analytics in Population Health” and “Specialty Pharmaceuticals and Biosimilars” to “The
Comprehensive Care Riddle: Knitting Together Social Services With Acute Patient Care” and “Evolving Scope of
Practice: Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, Pharmacists.” Two networking opportunities were also offered.
The 2015 conference, which was themed “Optimizing Healthcare Outcomes,” welcomed the CEO and president of
Cigna and a cardiologist and health care researcher as keynotes. The conference offered breakout sessions on
such topics as “Building on Bedrock or Quicksand? How Payment Models Are Shifting Post ACA,” “From Palm Read-
ing to Watson: How Big Data Is Enabling Predictive Medicine,” “Innovation Through Collaboration: The Next 100
Years in Public Health,” and “Can You Hear Me Now? Giving Power to the Voices of Patients.” A networking cocktail
session concluded the day’s activities.
YHLC also hosts the Healthcare Case Competition (formerly the Pharmaceutical Case Competition), which is open
to teams of postdoctoral fellows, undergraduates, and graduate students who collectively present their solu-
tion to a pharmaceutical case—typically either marketing or finance based—before a panel of judges made up of
industry experts and academics. The 2016 competition took place in February and was sponsored by The Jackson
Laboratory. The theme of the competition was Next-Generation Sequencing, and the challenge case centered on
developing a marketable microbiome diagnostic technology designed to advance the screening of respiratory dis-
eases. A team called NYC G’Gnomes from Columbia Business School claimed the grand prize of $2,500.
The event was not held in 2015. However, at the February 2014 event, where the central case concentrated on
patenting the use of an organic compound for the treatment of the initial stages of schizophrenia, a team called
Healthcare Analytics claimed the top prize of $2,000. Although we were unable to obtain details about the January
2013 competition, the 2012 event—which involved 115 students comprising 20 teams competing for a $2,500 grand
prize—was sponsored by Covidien, McKinsey & Company, TechAtlasGroup, and the Yale Center for Customer In-
45
sights. At these events, the winning team is announced at a dinner reception held after the competition, at which
the teams can network and mingle with their competitors, the judges, and sponsor representatives.
A course that stood out to us at mbaMission as possibly having particular appeal for students with both an inter-
est in health care and an entrepreneurial drive is a three-day, noncredit seminar offered through the YHLC called
“Business of Biotechnology.” Taught by Yale MBA Constance McKee (’86), this program covers the key components
of starting a biotech company, from developing business plans to identifying financing strategies.
In addition, the Yale SOM offers both a joint MBA/MPH (Master’s of Public Health) degree with the Yale School of
Public Health and a joint MBA/MD with the Yale School of Medicine. Students in the three-year MBA/MPH program
must complete the entire set of core graduation requirements for both schools. After spending the first two years
of the program within either the SOM or the School of Public Health (first one, then the other, in either order), stu-
dents use the third year to complete a mix of electives from both schools. The joint MBA/MD program spans five
years—three and a half are spent in the School of Medicine, and a full year plus one semester are spent at the SOM.
At the culmination of the five years, students receive both an MBA and a Doctor of Medicine degree.
In 2015, 4.9% of the SOM’s graduates accepted jobs in the health care/pharmaceuticals industry areas (3.6% in
2014, 5.2% in 2013, and 3.6% in 2012). Biogen, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer Inc., Kaiser Permanente, CIGNA Corp.,
Medtronic, and athenahealth, Inc. are listed as having hired SOM students for internships and full-time positions
in this field in 2015.
International Business
“Yale’s MBA program requires students to gain a meaningful exposure to complex issues facing business and soci-
ety in different regions of the world,” declares the SOM on its site. Five professors in the SOM faculty directory are
identified as having expertise in some form of international business (including globalization and international
trade), and the school offers approximately 10 electives in this study area. When the school’s revised integrated
curriculum launched in 2006, the SOM became the first U.S. business school to stipulate an international element
as a requirement for graduation, called the Global Studies Requirement. All students must therefore participate in
one of the following international opportunities during their two years in the program:
• Global Network Courses
• Global Network Weeks
• “Global Social Enterprise”
• “Global Social Entrepreneurship”
• International Experience
• Semester-long international exchange with a partner school
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In the International Experience, first-year SOM students take a two-week trip to an international location—such as
Chile, India, Israel, or Japan—to visit corporations, business leaders, nongovernmental organizations, and politi-
cians while experiencing the area’s culture. The trips are led by faculty members and typically involve groups of
20 students.
In the fall of their first year, students prepare for their International Experience trip by studying area industries,
attending lectures given by experts on the regions the students will visit, and preparing presentations on their
destination. Students rank their destination preferences from one to ten, and according to a first year we inter-
viewed, “You should get one of your top three.” Trips in 2015–2016 involved such destinations as Indonesia, South
Africa, and Serbia/Croatia. Students on the Indonesia trip visited nonprofit and for-profit companies, governmen-
tal institutions, and NGOs, all the while learning about the local culture. Those who traveled to Serbia and Croatia
were able to meet with high-level Serbian government representatives, in addition to visiting the offices of a
Croatian social media and advertising company.
Trip destinations in 2014 included Switzerland, Brazil, and Japan. In 2013, students traveled to Japan, South Africa,
Indonesia, Brazil, South Korea, Myanmar, and South Africa. A first year who went on the Japan trip—led by Profes-
sor Arthur Swersey—described his tour of the JFE Steel plant on the school’s Web site by saying, “It was one of the
coolest experience I’ve ever had … [it] helped me reframe my world view to see supply chain and manufacturing
in a new light.”
Upon their return, participating students write and present a research paper about the experience as part of the
spring core course “State and Society.” Each trip “serves as a case study in learning about the complexities of a
business environment from a leader’s point of view,” asserts the school’s site, adding, “You’ll return from the In-
ternational Experience with an enhanced ability to think globally that will be valuable for the rest of your time at
Yale and beyond.” The cost of students’ International Experience trips is included in tuition.
The SOM is a founding member of the Global Network for Advanced Management, a worldwide educational con-
sortium of 28 business schools in 25 countries. Member institutions include Fudan University School of Manage-
ment in China, the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in India, the National University of Singapore Busi-
ness School, INSEAD in both France and Singapore, HEC Paris in France, and Renmin University of China School
of Business. Students have the option of fulfilling the Global Studies Requirement by participating in one of the
school’s Global Network Weeks, which take place in the fall, spring, and summer. In its fourth year in 2015–2016,
this program places SOM students in weeklong mini courses hosted by other network schools, thereby giving the
students the opportunity to “attend classes, tour local businesses, and meet with experts focused on current
business problems,” explains the network’s Web site. In 2016, host schools included the Fudan University School
of Management in Shanghai, China; the UCD Smurfit in Dublin, Ireland; and the Indian Institute of Management in
Bangalore, India.
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In addition, several SOM electives focus on international business, such as “The Future of Global Finance,” “Inter-
national Entrepreneurship,” “Global Corporations,” “Managing Global Catastrophes,” and “Behavioral Strategies
for Selling New Products in Emerging Markets.”
The class “Managing Global Catastrophes” examines such crises as the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the 2011 Japanese
nuclear disaster, and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to help students develop an understanding of crisis manage-
ment in difficult and intense circumstances. Class speakers include representatives from the Red Cross, United
Nations, and World Health Organization.
Through the SOM’s International Exchange Program, students can spend the fall of their second year at one of five
partner schools outside the United States:
• HEC Paris, France
• IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain
• London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
• National University of Singapore Business School, Singapore
• Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, Beijing, China
By doing so, these students can fulfill their Global Studies Requirement, but for students who want to meet this
requirement without venturing abroad, the school offers Global Network Courses. These small, virtual courses
connect student teams from across seven Global Network member institutions to “take advantage of the global
nature of the student body to enhance lessons and deepen cross-cultural understanding, a key to succeeding in
21st century business,” explains the school’s site. Global Network Courses offered in recent years include “In-
ternational Management and Organizational Structures,” “Analysis of Competition Law and Enforcement Across
Countries,” “Natural Capital: Risks and Opportunities in Global Resource Systems,” and “Mobile Banking Opportu-
nities Across Countries.” These online courses are designed to provide students the experience of working across
time zones and cultural barriers.
In addition, students can choose from among several clubs that focus on international business and the cultures
of other countries, such as the Greater China Club, the Japan Club, the Korea Club, the Latino Leadership Associa-
tion, and the South Asian Business Forum.
In 2015, 14.2% of the SOM’s graduates accepted international positions (8.9% in 2014, 13.4% in 2013, and 10.3% in
2012) with such firms as Promecap SA de CV, BNP Baripas, China Culture Industrial Investment Fund, AXA Equitable,
and Progression Capital Africa.
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Marketing
Marketing education at the SOM begins in the core with a course called “Customer,” one of the nine Organizational
Perspective classes. Approximately 20 SOM electives emphasize marketing, including “Customer Insights and Ap-
plications,” “Pricing Strategy,” “Mastering Influence & Persuasion,” “Internet Marketing & Social Media Analytics,”
“Listening to the Customer,” “Digital Strategy,” “Strategic Market Measurement,” and “Behavioral and Institutional
Economics.” In the project-based “Customer Insights and Applications,” taught by Ravi Dhar, the George Rogers
Clark Professor of Management and Marketing, students work in teams to solve real marketing challenges that
affiliates of the school’s Center for Customer Insights (described later in this section) face. Dhar, who is one of 13
marketing professors at the SOM, is director of the center and a professor of psychology at Yale University, as well
as an expert in consumer behavior. The fall course “Mastering Influence and Persuasion” is described on the SOM
Web site as teaching students to “connect more authentically, communicate persuasively, employ principles of
motivation, and better understand how people make decisions.”
The mission of the Marketing Club at the SOM is both internal and external. Internally, the club encourages mar-
keting as an educational option to students and seeks to offer professional development opportunities to those
interested in pursuing a career in the field. The club’s mission, as stated on the school’s Web site, is to “enhance
the overall reputation of SOM marketing students and to provide a forum for interaction between marketing stu-
dents, faculty, alumni, and marketing professionals.” Resources offered by the club include resume swaps, talks
by second years on their internship experiences in the field of marketing, and workshops to assist students in
preparing for job interviews.
The Yale Center for Customer Insights (YCCI), founded in 2005, works closely with the Marketing Club and explores
consumer behavior and marketing in depth, focusing primarily on research designed to provide insight into cus-
tomers’ mind-sets. Through academic research, programs with corporations, conferences, and other events, the
center targets the three main areas of behavioral economics, predictive analytics, and social media. The center
organizes various conferences and seminars throughout the academic year.
As part of its Leadership Series, the YCCI hosts presentations by top executives across a variety of industries.
Seminar speakers the center has brought to the SOM in recent years include the president of Hasbro Brands, who
spoke about transforming his company into a global “Branded Play” organization; a partner and managing direc-
tor with the Boston Consulting Group, who discussed marketing leadership; and the retired chairman and CEO of
the Procter and Gamble Company, who reviewed his 40-year career with the company.
The center’s May 2016 Customer Insights Conference offered panel sessions with such topics as “Millenials Grow-
ing Up, Gen Z Coming Up,” “Experience, Not Things,” and “Harnessing the Power of Story.” Speakers included the
chief marketing officer of Johnson & Johnson, the chief creative officer of REI, and the director of global brand
strategy at Spotify.
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The 2015 conference involved such speakers as the chief marketing officer of Istation, the senior director of Visa
Inc., and the director of global agency development at Facebook. Panel sessions covered themes such as “Sustain-
ing Relevance in Physical + Virtual Worlds,” “Advertising & Promotions,” “Marketing Strategy,” and “Driving Growth
Through Customer Understanding.” The conference also featured a number of networking events, including a
cocktail reception.
The SOM’s employment statistics show that 13.4% of the school’s 2015 graduates chose to enter positions with a
marketing/sales function, up from 11.4% in 2014 and 8.7% in 2013. Students accepted internships or full-time posi-
tions in 2015 with companies such as Amazon.com, PepsiCo, Philips, Estée Lauder, and eBay Inc.
Nonprofit/Social Entrepreneurship
The Yale SOM’s nonprofit management program has been consistently ranked number one among business schools
in the U.S. News & World Report survey since 2011. In 2015, 4.4% of the school’s graduates began their post-MBA
careers in the nonprofit industry, from 10.3% in 2014, 7.5% in 2013, and 5.4% in 2012.
Yale SOM students interested in nonprofit have roughly 10 electives in this study area from which to choose.
Through a combination of lecture and team projects, “Global Social Entrepreneurship,” for example, introduces
students to the complexities facing socially driven entrepreneurs. The course combines academic content with
practical application and connects Yale SOM students, working in teams, with social enterprises in Ghana. At the
culmination of the course, students issue recommendations to their assigned social enterprise based on a set of
challenges identified during the class.
“Introduction to Not-for-Profit Accounting” deals with the financial aspects of organizations such as colleges,
hospitals, and charities. Other elective opportunities for students interested in nonprofit include “Strategic Man-
agement of Nonprofit Organizations,” “Managing Social Enterprises,” and “Nonprofit Organizations Clinic.”
The Program on Social Enterprise (PSE) at Yale, under the direction of Fredric D. Wolfe Professor of Management
and Entrepreneurship (and former SOM dean) Sharon Oster and Executive Director Tony Sheldon, combines cours-
es, conferences, and research to explore what the program’s Web site claims are “the ways in which business skills
and market disciplines can be harnessed to most effectively and efficiently achieve social objectives.” Electives
offered through the program include the aforementioned “Global Social Entrepreneurship” and “Strategic Man-
agement of Nonprofit Organizations,” in addition to “Introduction to Responsible Business” and “Urban Poverty
and Economic Development.”
In addition, the PSE manages the Program on NonProfit Organizations. Known as PONPO, this program has been
part of the school for more than 25 years and serves those “interested in exploring the ways in which business
skills and market disciplines can be harnessed to most effectively and efficiently achieve social objectives,” as-
serts the program’s site.
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The Net Impact Club at the SOM states on its site that its mission is to foster a “community of like-minded stu-
dents, faculty, and alumni, educating that community on current topics and events related to social impact, and
advocating for curriculum, admissions, and career development support.” By meeting certain criteria—such as
holding a minimum number of events a year and maintaining a certain number of dues-paying members—the SOM
Chapter of Net Impact has achieved Gold Chapter status. Benefits of Gold Chapter status include special logos and
conference discounts. Working with other clubs that share its mission, such as SOM Outreach Nonprofit Consult-
ing Club and the Business and the Environment Club, Net Impact focuses on seven specific issue areas: Corporate
Social Responsibility, Philanthropy and Social Investing, Public Sector, Social Enterprise/Nonprofit Management,
Economic Development, Financial Services, and Agriculture/Food Systems.
Two years in a row (2009 and 2010), the SOM Chapter of Net Impact won an award for sending the largest delega-
tion of club members to the annual Net Impact National Conference, and in 2011, the club was nominated for
Chapter of the Year. The club plans various events on campus, including career development sessions (e.g., cover
letter review), social sector networking nights, and a Q&A with representatives from the Career Development Of-
fice. In recent years, the Social Sector Speaker Series has featured such participants as the executive director of
Doctors Without Borders USA, the president of the Climate Civics Institute, the director of the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation, and the director of marketing for PETA. The club also hosts a Philanthropy Conference and has
cosponsored the First Year Case Competition with the Consulting Club (see the Consulting section under Profes-
sional Specializations).
The eleventh annual Yale Philanthropy Conference was held in February 2016 with the theme “Fostering Ecosys-
tems of Change.” The morning keynote was delivered by the vice president of corporate citizenship/corporate
affairs at IBM and the president of the IBM International Foundation, while the president of the F.B. Heron Founda-
tion was the closing keynote speaker. The conference’s discussion panels and workshops were divided into three
session categories, titled “Thinking in Systems,” “Fostering Innovation from the Ground Up,” and “Embracing Or-
ganizational Evolution.” Individual workshops and panels explored such topics as “Creative Destruction and Exit
Strategies,” “Beyond Dollars: Leveraging Your Role to Convene, Educate, Stimulate, and Empower,” and “Encour-
aging Experimentation, Risk, and Failing Forward.” The daylong conference concluded with a closing reception.
With the theme “Reflect. Innovate. Impact,” the 2015 Yale SOM Philanthropy Conference featured a keynote speech
by the vice president of initiatives and strategy at The Rockefeller Foundation, and an afternoon keynote by a spe-
cial assistant to President Barak Obama who is also the senior director of cabinet affairs at My Brother’s Keeper.
Breakout panel discussions explored the overall event’s three primary topics: Reflect, Innovate, and Impact. The
Reflect panel examined the themes “Learning from Business Models,” while the Reflect workshop was titled “The
Art of Storytelling.” Similarly, the Innovate portion of the conference involved a discussion and a workshop, titled
“The Example of Incentives” and “How to Create a Culture of Change,” respectively. Two Impact discussions were
offered on the themes “Increasing Effectiveness Through Collaboration” and “Data-Driven Decision-Making.” In
addition, the founder and managing partner of DBL Investors hosted a fireside chat, and conference participants
enjoyed a networking lunch.
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Founded in 1986 as the Outreach Management Consulting Group and later called SOM Outreach, the student-run
group now called the Outreach Nonprofit Consulting Club provides consulting services to organizations in the New
Haven community. Working with public and private institutions as well as nonprofits, the Outreach Nonprofit Con-
sulting Club offers services free of charge to clients who could not otherwise afford consulting services. Teams of
four to six first-year students and a second year who acts as project manager devote approximately two hours per
week for a full semester to such projects as business plan development, marketing plan development, and studies
of organizational structure.
If needed, teams can also be connected with a faculty member who can assist with the specific nature of the
project, reported a second year we interviewed, who listed the following projects to which club members had
contributed: a revenue growth strategy for the New Haven Institute Library, a strategic budgeting model for the
Connecticut Veterans Legal Center, an affordable housing project for the Greater New Haven Help Alliance, and an
economic impact study for the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Other past projects include marketing strategy
recommendations for the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce, a strategic growth plan for Projects for a New Mil-
lennium, and a market assessment of electric trolley use for the city of New Haven.
Through alumni and other guest speakers, roundtable discussions, and similar activities, the Business and the
Environment Club strives to fulfill its mission of “support[ing] students interested in the intersection of competi-
tive business organization and sustainable environmental practice,” as the group states on its Web site. The club
also serves as a resource for other SOM organizations that include an environmental component in their activities.
Speaking about the opportunities available at the SOM for students interested in sustainability, a second-year
student told us, “One of the great advantages of being an MBA student at Yale who is interested in the intersec-
tion of business and the environment is that one has the opportunity to identify, invite, and host executive-level
leaders who have built successful businesses with sustainability at their core. It’s intellectually appealing and an
amazing opportunity to build a professional network.”
A second-year student explained to mbaMission, “At Yale, we believe that helping others improves ourselves. We
have a responsibility to help others.” In fact, 9.4% of the Class of 2016 spent their 2015 summer internship with a
company in the nonprofit industry (as did 10.3% of the Class of 2015 the previous year). To help financially level
the playing field, so to speak, for those students who opt for one of these frequently low- or even non-paying in-
ternships, the Yale SOM Internship Fund, established in 1979, provides financial support to those who spend their
summer working in the social enterprise, public, or nonprofit arena—thereby helping these organizations better
“afford” top MBA students while mitigating the comparative financial downside for students with an interest in
this area.
Primary fundraising activities for the Internship Fund include Student Fundraising Week—during which SOM stu-
dents are asked to pledge money to support their classmates—an auction, and a Star Search–style talent show.
“What drew me to the cause was that the Internship Fund exemplified the spirit of collaboration and support,
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which makes our community so distinctive,” one of the fund’s organizers wrote in a February 2015 blog post. “It is
truly phenomenal to see so many people dedicate their time and money to help their friends—with the end of fun-
draising week, the type of donations and support I’ve seen from my peers as a cohort rep have really amazed me.”
In 2014, for example, the fund hosted a silent online auction in addition to the semiformal “Night in Valhalla”
live auction. Auction items in recent years have included a weekend in a vacation home, a night’s stay at the Yale
Club, a month’s worth of free coffee at the school’s student-run café, lunch with Professor Robert Schiller, and a
round of golf with Dean Snyder. Also in 2014, the school opened a student-run gym—called Fit for Thought—which
donates all the membership dues it collects to the fund. A second year we interviewed explained, “The idea is
that people should pursue their passions with an internship and not just take the most lucrative offer. The school
comes together in a huge way … and usually raises close to $100,000 over the course of the year. This is a huge and
important tradition here.”
The SOM likewise supports its graduates who choose careers in nonprofit with a loan forgiveness program. Avail-
able to MBA and joint-degree graduates alike, the program helps cover the repayment of tuition and fees originally
funded via need-based loans, and eligible alumni can apply for this assistance anytime within ten years of gradu-
ation. The school’s loan forgiveness program, established in 1986, was the first of its kind (according to the SOM
Web site) and “has provided a model for similar programs at business schools” ever since.
Organizations that hired students from the SOM in 2015 for either internships or full-time positions in this field
include Achievement Network; B Lab; Lean In Foundation; Education Pioneers; New Sector Alliance; Special Olym-
pics, Inc.; Awethu Project; Newman’s Own Foundation; and the Reinvestment Fund.
Real Estate
Only 1.8% of the SOM’s 2015 graduates entered careers in real estate, slightly down from 2.1% in 2014, but up from
1.2% in 2013. The school has at least four electives, approximately four faculty members, and an active club that
focus specifically on this field. Electives in real estate include “Real Estate Finance,” “International Real Estate,”
and “Real Estate Finance for Institutional Investors.” “Real Estate” provides students with an introduction to
the field, with an emphasis on financing issues. The goals of the “Real Estate Finance for Institutional Investors”
course are to develop in students both a general knowledge of real estate investment and a level of excitement
for this unique area of business. Students are also encouraged to take advantage of real estate–related courses
offered by other Yale University graduate schools, such as Yale Law School, the School of Architecture, and the
School of Forestry.
The school’s Real Estate Club states on its site that it strives “to promote and increase awareness of the practice
of, and professional development opportunities in, real estate, including development, financing, management,
and commercial brokering aspects.” Club activities—which include guest speakers, alumni events, real estate run
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breakfasts, and compiling a resume book—bring SOM students together with today’s real estate practitioners
and with students and faculty members from other professional schools at Yale who have an interest in this field.
In addition, the school has brought speakers to campus to discuss topics pertaining to real estate. For example,
the principals of the award-winning documentary Dream Builders: The Partnership of Peter M. Lehrer and Gene
McGovern previously spoke on the film and their New York City construction business (the pair is credited with
renovating the Statue of Liberty, EuroDisney, Ellis Island, and Canary Wharf, among other well-known sites). And
as part of the Gordon Grand Fellowship lecture series, the chairman and CEO of Tishman Speyer (a multinational
real estate development company—one of the world’s largest) spoke at the school about the future of commercial
real estate, expressing his personal sense of optimism about what lies ahead.
Several SOM faculty members include the topic of real estate in their research, thereby expanding the school’s
collective knowledge base on the industry. For one, famed economics professor Robert Shiller writes extensively
on real estate matters. (See more on Professor Shiller in the Notable Professors and Unsung Heroes section.) In
addition, William Goetzmann, who is the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies as well
as director of the International Center for Finance at the school, has received attention for his studies in the area
of real estate: a 2010 New York Times article highlighted Goetzmann’s research on real estate securitization in
the 1920s, for which he had used documents from Yale’s History of Finance Collection to show parallels between
modern markets and historical real estate securities.
Firms that hired SOM students for internships or full-time positions in real estate in 2015 include Starwood Capital
Group, EDENS, the LCP Group, the Hudson Valley Property Group, and Thor Equities.
Notable Professors and Unsung Heroes
Nicholas Barberis (som.yale.edu/nicholas-c-barberis): The Stephen and Camille Schramm Professor of Finance
since 2006, Nicholas Barberis received his BA from Cambridge University in 1991 and his PhD from Harvard Univer-
sity in 1996. He is a three-time recipient of the Yale SOM Alumni Association Teaching Award (2006, 2009, and 2013).
Barberis’s research focus is on behavioral economics, and he uses psychology to better understand trading be-
havior. In the core course “Investor,” which is primarily lecture based, he educates aspiring managers about asset
allocation, valuation, futures and options, and returns and risk in markets. Through the course, students explore
risk and reward in investment through the themes of economics, psychology, and organizational behavior. Speak-
ing of the course in a 2012 SOM News article, Barberis said, “Psychology … can be helpful in understanding what
goes on in markets. … Real-world finance is much more than just crunching numbers.” A 12-minute video excerpt
from Barberis’s “Investor” course is available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0qf3ZH5Gac.
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Ravi Dhar (som.yale.edu/ravi-dhar): An expert in consumer behavior, Ravi Dhar is the George Rogers Clark Pro-
fessor of Management and Marketing at the SOM and the founding director of the school’s Center for Customer
Insights. Dhar joined the SOM in 1992 after receiving his MBA and his PhD from the Haas School of Business at UC
Berkeley. He also holds an affiliated appointment in Yale University’s department of psychology. Dhar’s research
explores how consumers form preferences for certain items and the subsequent prediction of consumer behavior
in the marketplace. He also consults with companies such as IBM, PepsiCo, and Visa and has had his work refer-
enced in Bloomberg Businessweek, the New York Times, The Economist, and USA Today. In 2012, second-year stu-
dents chose Dhar as the outstanding teacher of an elective course as part of the Yale School of Management Alum-
ni Association’s Outstanding Teaching Awards, and in 2013, the Society for Consumer Psychology presented Dhar
with the Distinguished Scientific Accomplishment Award, honoring his research in the field of consumer behavior.
Gary B. Gorton (som.yale.edu/gary-b-gorton): Gary Gorton has been the Frederick Frank Class of 1954 Professor
of Management and Finance at the SOM since 2008, before which he taught at the Wharton School of Business at
the University of Pennsylvania. Gorton is formerly a director of the research program on banks and the economy
for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and a senior economist at the Federal Reserve in Philadelphia, and
his research focuses on such topics as the role of stock markets, banks, and bank regulation. His books Misunder-
standing Financial Crises: Why We Don’t See Them Coming (Oxford University Press, USA, 2012) and Slapped by the
Invisible Hand: The Panic of 2007 (Oxford University Press, USA, 2010) offer in-depth analysis and discussion of the
recent financial crisis. Gorton, who wrote his PhD dissertation on bank crises while studying at the University of
Rochester in 1983, notes on his Web site, “When I wrote it, I never dreamed I would live through one.”
The “Capital Markets” course Gorton teaches likewise focuses on the 2007 financial crisis, particularly as it related
to capital markets. In it, he uses a mixture of case studies and lectures that touch on current financial events, and
he expects students to keep up with the latest developments on the finance scene by reading the business sec-
tions of the New York Times, the Financial Times, Bloomberg News, and the Wall Street Journal.
Andrew Metrick (som.yale.edu/andrew-metrick): Twice distinguished with Excellence in Teaching awards during
his time at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Yale undergrad alumnus Andrew Metrick (’89) first
joined the Yale SOM faculty in 2008 as a professor of finance. In 2009, he was named the Theodore Nierenberg Pro-
fessor of Corporate Governance and made faculty director of the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance. Then,
in 2010, he became deputy dean for faculty development and the Michael H. Jordan Professor of Finance and Man-
agement. Metrick’s interest in venture capital reportedly began when he volunteered to take over a course in the
study area while at Wharton and led to the eventual publication of his textbook Venture Capital and the Finance of
Innovation (with Ayako Yasuda; Wiley, 2010). His work now focuses on financial stability.
In his biography on the Yale SOM site, Metrick states, “The recent financial crisis made clear large gaps in our
understanding of the modern financial system and the role it plays in the economy.” He also notes in his faculty
bio that the financial crisis triggered something of a career shift for him, which “led to a complete change in my
teaching, with all my courses now relating in some way to the functions and regulation of the financial system,
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especially when that system goes awry.” Metrick stepped away from the Yale SOM briefly in 2009–2010 to serve as
an economist on President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors.
Barry Nalebuff (som.yale.edu/barry-nalebuff): Perhaps best known as one of the founders of Honest Tea, for
which he is now chairman, Barry Nalebuff is the Milton Steinbach Professor of Management at the Yale SOM. An
expert in game theory and strategy, Nalebuff has been a professor at the SOM since 1989. A second year told
mbaMission that in the classroom, Nalebuff “is a favorite for his sharp wit and insights.” His book The Art of Strat-
egy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life (W.W. Norton & Co., 2008) explores how almost all
interactions, business and personal alike, have a game theory component. Nalebuff and Adam Brandenburger, a
professor of business economics and strategy at NYU’s Stern School of Business, developed the concept of a new
business strategy called co-opetition, which they write about in a book of the same name: Co-Opetition: A Revolu-
tionary Mindset That Combines Competition and Cooperation: The Game Theory Strategy That’s Changing the Game
of Business (Crown Business, 1997).
The book describes co-opetition as “a revolutionary method that combines competition and cooperation.” A first
year noted in a 2010 Yale SOM Community Blog post, “Prof. Nalebuff never misses an opportunity to illustrate the
ways in which companies can cooperate to grow the PIE (potential industry earnings). Of course, he then always
reminds us that these same companies should compete aggressively to secure the biggest piece of that newly
expanded PIE.”
Sharon Oster (som.yale.edu/sharon-m-oster): A second-year student we interviewed remarked that former SOM
dean Sharon Oster “loves teaching almost more than [she loved] being dean!” Oster is the Frederic D. Wolfe Pro-
fessor of Management and Entrepreneurship and has taught “Basics of Economics,” part of the first-year core—for
a while giving everyone, as one second year told mbaMission, “a chance to get cold-called by their dean!” Os-
ter’s expertise lies in economics and nonprofit management. She is the author of several widely used business
school textbooks, including Modern Competitive Analysis (Oxford University Press, third edition, 1999), and has
co-authored introductory economics texts such as Principles of Microeconomics (with Karl E. Case and Ray C. Fair;
Prentice Hall, tenth edition, 2011) and Principles of Economics (with Karl E. Case and Ray C. Fair; Prentice Hall,
tenth edition, 2011). In addition, Oster is an expert in nonprofit management. Her text Strategic Management for
Nonprofit Organizations: Theory and Cases (Oxford University Press, 1995) is used in the SOM course “Non-Profit
Management,” which a second year described to mbaMission as “always heavily oversubscribed.”
Oster came to the SOM from Yale University in 1982 and was the first woman to receive tenure in 1983. She was also
the first recipient of the Yale SOM Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1988, which she received a second time in
2008. In addition, she was recognized with the Yale SOM Alumni Association Teaching Award in 2013 and featured
among Poets&Quants’ “World’s 50 Best Business School Professors” in October 2012. Oster’s tenure as dean be-
gan in 2008 with the unexpected departure of previous dean Joel M. Podolny. When announcing the appointment
of Ted Snyder as the SOM’s incoming dean, Yale University President Richard Levin praised Oster, saying, “Sharon
stepped up without hesitation to the dean’s role last year when my unexpected call came. She has served the SOM
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community with a steady hand and unwavering commitment, and I am truly grateful she has agreed to stay on as
dean until Ted Snyder’s arrival in 2011.”
Robert Shiller (som.yale.edu/robert-shiller): Even those not considering pursuing an MBA degree may be familiar
with Robert Shiller, thanks to the famed Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. In fact, Shiller’s con-
tributions to the field of behavioral finance won him the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Science (with Lars Peter
Hansen and Eugene F. Fama). Currently the Sterling Professor of Economics at the SOM, Shiller has been at Yale
since 1982.
The SOM Web site notes that Shiller has written about “financial markets, behavioral economics, macroeconom-
ics, real estate, statistical methods, and public attitudes, opinions, and moral judgments regarding markets.” And
according to Treasury & Risk magazine, which named Shiller one of the 100 most influential economists of 2009,
he “is credited with predicting the 2007 housing market peak and the subsequent plunge of global markets.” SOM
students appear to hold Shiller, who often uses games to explain ideas, in high regard. “He’s awesome,” a second
year told mbaMission, with a “very nice, easy manner.” Another second-year student we interviewed said, “You
come out [of his class] pretty convinced of the things he says.” In addition, Shiller writes regular columns for both
the New York Times and Project Syndicate.
Social/Community Life
Closing Bell: SOM’s weekly happy hour, Closing Bell, takes place on Thursday nights. Given that students have no
classes on Fridays, Closing Bell kicks off the weekend. Generally held at an off-campus location, this event is at-
tended by students and their partners as well as by faculty and staff and sometimes carries a theme—a Fall 2015
Closing Bell, for example, celebrated the Asian Mid-Autumn Festival. According to a second year we interviewed,
“It’s a great chance to catch up with friends after a busy week and to make plans for the evening, which often in-
cludes a trip to GPSCY [the Graduate & Professional Student Center at Yale, aka Gryphon’s Pub, described later in
this section] or other popular watering holes like Mory’s, or quieter dinners and gatherings.”
Gartska Cup: For some, life in the Northeast would not be complete without ice hockey. The hockey club at the
SOM is reportedly one of the largest at the school, attracting student players of all abilities. Said a second-year
student we interviewed, “Playing hockey or attending as a spectator is a blast, especially since we use Ingalls Rink,
an amazing facility where the currently top-ranked Yale hockey team plays its matches.” Referring to the Stanley
Gartska Cup, he added, “The season culminates with a first-year versus second-year game in April, named after
our deputy dean, whose first name is Stanley—get it?” Speaking of the event in a February 2013 video on the SOM
community blog, a first year said, “It’s just a great way to relax, unwind, but have some good, clean, competitive
fun,” adding that a “requisite amount of trash talking on the ice” goes on between the first and second years.
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Gryphon’s Pub at GPSCY: Located in a Gothic-style building on York Street in the heart of Old Campus, Gryphon’s
Pub has been run by the Graduate & Professional Student Center at Yale since the 1970s. This members-only club
is managed by Yale graduate students and features several lounges, a big-screen TV, pool tables, and nightly
drink specials. Membership dues, which were $20 in 2015–2016, are considered a bargain, given the $2–$5 cover
charge (which members are not required to pay) and the frequency with which students tend to find themselves
at Gryphon’s!
Harvard-Yale Football Game: Students we interviewed reported that “Bulldog” football is a key component of
autumn on the Yale University campus, and the Harvard-Yale rivalry (known as “The Game”) is considered one of
the most important face-offs on each season’s schedule. Since 1875, The Game has been played nearly every No-
vember at the end of the football season. Because the event alternates between the Harvard and Yale venues each
year, SOM students will have the opportunity to attend The Game at the Yale Bowl at least once during their time
at the school. However, given the two schools’ proximity to each other, we expect that travelling to Cambridge,
Massachusetts, to attend The Game at Harvard is worth considering.
Graduate students pay student pricing for most athletic events and sit in the student section. The Yale Bowl is only
about a mile and a half from campus, and students often walk to the event together in “caravans” after tailgating
in the parking lot. The Game brings both the universities and their business schools together. One second-year
student told mbaMission, “When we host, we have a weekend of events, including a dance party at GPSCY [the
Graduate and Professional Student Center at Yale] and a tailgate the morning of the game. Both of my years, we
organized a mixer with HBS, as it’s a great opportunity to mingle with other business school students.”
Academic Summary
Curriculum: Students must complete 72 units of credit, including 35 from core courses, to graduate. In addition,
students must fulfill the school’s Global Studies Requirement by participating in one of the following curricular
offerings:
• Global Network Course
• Global Network Week
• “Global Social Enterprise”
• “Global Social Entrepreneurship”
• International Experience course
• Semester-long international exchange with a partner school
In 2006, the SOM instituted its integrated curriculum, which consists of a series of core courses, the Global Studies
Requirement, and the “Integrated Management Perspectives” class that are all taken within the first year. The core
is divided into two sections: Orientation to Management, which takes place in the early fall, and Organizational Per-
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spectives, which takes place in late fall and continues throughout the remainder of students’ first year. The second
year consists entirely of electives, which students may select from and take at any of the schools at Yale University.
Integrated Core Courses
• “Basics of Accounting”
• “Basics of Economics”
• “Competitor”
• “Customer”
• “Employee”
• “The Executive”
• “The Global Macroeconomy”
• “Global Virtual Teams”
• “Innovator”
• “Introduction to Negotiation”
• “Investor”
• “Managing Groups and Teams”
• “Modeling Managerial Decisions”
• “Operations Engine”
• “Probability Modeling and Statistics”
• “Sourcing and Managing Funds”
• “State and Society”
Additional Elements
• Global Studies Requirement
• Leadership Development Program
Grade Disclosure Policy: The Yale SOM has a nondisclosure policy with regard to grades. The school does not
compute GPA or class rank.
Grading Policy: Grades at the SOM fall under five categories: high honors, honors, proficient, pass, and fail. High
honors are granted to 10% of each class.
Majors: The Yale SOM does not offer majors or special concentrations.
Research Centers and Initiatives:
• Center for Customer Insights
• Center for Business and the Environment
• Chief Executive Leadership Institute
• China India Insights Program
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• Initiative on Leadership and Organization
• International Center for Finance
• Program on Entrepreneurship
• Program on Financial Stability
• Program on Social Enterprise
• SOM Lab
• Yale Center Beijing
Teaching Method: The Yale SOM uses a diverse set of teaching methods, the top three being case study (40%),
lecture (33%), and experiential learning (10%) according to Bloomberg Businessweek’s most recent profile of the
school. The school is also known for having developed the “raw” case format, in which students use real-time data
rather than previously prepared cases.
Admissions Basics
Note: Any specifics discussed in this section related to application requirements were valid for the 2015–2016 admis-
sions season (unless otherwise noted). Be aware that requirements for any subsequent admissions cycles may differ.
Always check with the school directly to confirm all application details.
The Yale SOM allows applicants to join the school’s admissions community through newsletters, a student
blog, admissions discussion forums, and numerous admissions events. Admissions events are held in the Unit-
ed States and internationally and take place throughout the fall and early winter. The SOM Community Blog
(http://blogs.som.yale.edu) provides an inside look at life at the school from the perspective of both first- and
second-year students. The blog is updated regularly throughout the academic year and touches on such topics as
study groups, social life, and career aspirations.
Application Process: The Yale SOM has three application rounds and accepts only online applications. Applicants
can log in to their admissions profile and regularly check the status of their application. Applications are reviewed
by at least two members of the admissions committee and in random order. As a result, applications can be re-
viewed at any point in a round, rather than on a first come, first served basis. Most applications are brought in for
consideration by the full committee, and decisions are made as a group.
Interview requests are sent out throughout each admissions round, and no candidate is admitted without an in-
terview. Each admissions decision deadline falls approximately ten weeks after the round’s application deadline.
Admissions notifications are made throughout each round, and the latest an applicant would hear from the admis-
sions committee would be the date listed on the school’s Web site as the admissions decision deadline. Applicants
are initially notified of an acceptance via telephone, with electronic and hard-copy confirmation to follow. Denials
are sent out via email.
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Admissions Rounds: Like many business schools, the SOM has three admissions rounds, falling in the autumn,
winter, and early spring. Rounds 1 and 2 have no appreciable difference between them with regard to competitive
advantage, and the school’s general recommendation is for candidates to submit their application when they feel
it is at its best. Round 3 is more competitive simply because fewer open spots remain.
GMAT/GPA Cutoff and the GRE: The SOM stipulates no required minimum for a candidate’s GPA or GMAT score.
However, the 80% range for the GMAT for the Class of 2017 was 690–760 (690–760 for the Class of 2016, 690–740 for
the Class of 2015, and 660–760 for the Class of 2014). The average undergraduate GPA for the Class of 2017 was 3.63.
In 2010, the Yale SOM began accepting GRE scores, either in place of or in addition to GMAT scores.
TOEFL: The school does not require a TOEFL score for international applicants.
Word Limits: Although the admissions committee does not anticipate entirely strict adherence to word limits,
discretion is appreciated. As of 2015–2016, the school had reduced the number of required essays from four to
one and shortened applicant responses to a total word limit of 500. “We did so not because we’re trying to water
down the application but rather to focus on what we think matters most to us,” wrote Assistant Dean and Director
of Admissions Bruce DelMonico in a letter announcing the change, according to a July 2014 Poets&Quants article.
International Quotas: The Yale SOM has no quota for any kind of student, international or otherwise. International
students have traditionally made up roughly one-quarter or more of the SOM class from year to year, and this
proportion has been more than one-third for more recent classes (40% for the Class of 2017, 39% for the Class of
2016, and 32% for the Class of 2015).
Younger Candidates: The Silver Scholars program, which was created in 2001 to celebrate the Yale SOM’s 25th
anniversary, is a three-year MBA program designed specifically for college seniors. Applications are limited to
current college seniors, and candidates do not have to be U.S. citizens. “[The program provides the] unique op-
portunity for college seniors to earn an MBA directly after graduation and move more quickly toward their career
goals,” explains the school’s Web site. Silver Scholars spend their first year following the SOM core curriculum,
their second in a year-long internship, and then return to campus to complete their elective course work during
their third year of the program.
Recommendations: The SOM requires that applicants submit two recommendations, and at least one should come
from a person who has worked in a supervisory capacity with relation to the candidate in his or her latest position
and can therefore knowledgeably assess the candidate’s job performance.
Campus Visit: Although a campus visit is not a requirement for admission to the SOM, on its site, the school’s
admissions committee encourages applicants to make the trip to New Haven to get to know the school firsthand
and to spend some time exploring the town. A typical campus visit includes sitting in on a class, taking a tour led
by a student ambassador, and having lunch with students. The day concludes with an admissions question-and-
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answer session and may also include an admissions interview, if the candidate has been invited for one. Visits
begin in early September and are scheduled online for Monday through Thursday. The Admissions Office’s “Cam-
pus Visits” page (http://som.yale.edu/our-programs/full-time-mba/admissions/campus-visits) provides driving
directions to the school as well as information on train travel and lodging.
In an interview with mbaMission, Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions Bruce DelMonico stated, “We encourage
people to visit campus because we believe that it’s one of the best ways to get a sense of the SOM culture, commu-
nity, and classroom experience. It benefits the applicant from that perspective and can perhaps make them better
candidates in the sense that they can leverage this more sophisticated knowledge of Yale SOM in their application.”
Interviews: Interviews are by invitation only. Approximately 30% of SOM applicants are offered an interview, and
no candidate is offered admission without an interview. Offers for interviews come randomly via email throughout
each admissions round. Interviews are typically 30 minutes long and are most often conducted by trained second-
year students on campus. Some off-campus interviews may be conducted either with alumni or through Skype.
“The format of the interview is behavioral in nature,” DelMonico explained in a 2013 post on the school’s MBA Blog,
stating, “We will ask you questions about your past experiences and decisions to get a better sense of how you act
and think. The best way to prepare for an interview is to know your résumé, reread your application essays, and
have a good sense of what you have done well—and not so well—in the past, and why.”
Video Questions: In the 2013–2014 admissions season, the SOM introduced a new video question component to
its application. Candidates are presented with three brief prerecorded online question prompts and are then
required to record live responses of up to 90 seconds each via webcam. After viewing each question prompt, ap-
plicants are allotted 20 seconds to prepare their answer. The three video prompts consist of an open-ended ques-
tion inquiring into the candidate’s general background, a behavioral question that asks the candidate how he/she
would react in a hypothetical professional situation, and a “thought” question that asks the candidate to take a
position on a specific issue.
“The intent is that this new application element will be another opportunity for applicants to tell us more about
themselves than we would otherwise learn from things like essays and recommendations,” explained DelMonico
in a 2013 MBA Blog post. The video question is therefore supplementary to, and not a substitute for, the in-person
interview. “I would especially emphasize that we do not expect perfection with these questions,” DelMonico add-
ed in a 2014 MBA Blog post. “We know that they are unrehearsed, extemporaneous, in-the-moment responses. We
are more concerned about the thoughtfulness of your responses than the ‘polish’ of the presentation. (That said,
please do dress appropriately.)”
Waitlist: The Yale SOM encourages applicants to submit new materials during their time on the waitlist if they feel
that doing so will strengthen their application. The waitlist is not ranked; therefore, if a spot becomes available,
an offer is made after the entire list is reviewed. In addition, the Admissions Office is willing to offer feedback re-
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garding why an applicant was waitlisted. When an applicant is waitlisted, the Admissions Office directs candidates
to review the “Waitlist FAQs” (http://som.yale.edu/yale-som-waitlist), which offers insight into the process. Del-
Monico explained to mbaMission that this document “gives them guidance about what they should and shouldn’t
do, what to expect, etc. Anyone who is waitlisted is advised to review that document closely so they know what
to do next.”
Financial Aid: Bloomberg Businessweek’s full-time MBA profile of the SOM states that 65% of students receive
financial assistance, with the average scholarship amount being approximately $23,000. One hundred percent of
second-year students receive at least as much aid as they did in their first year of study. An in-house loan program
is available for international students that allows them to borrow up to the full cost of the MBA program at reason-
able rates. All financial aid matters are handled through a dedicated business office at the SOM. Every applicant
is automatically nominated for merit scholarships, and awards are announced in conjunction with the candidate’s
offer of admission.
Feedback: Applicants who are denied admission can receive feedback on their applications should they request it.
Unsuccessful applicants are asked to wait until the summer, after the admissions season is over, before request-
ing this feedback, however.
Reapplicants: If an applicant is reapplying within two years, he or she only needs to resubmit a new application
form with fee and write new essays. All other materials are kept on file. The candidate’s essays should explain how
the reapplicant has improved his or her candidacy since the original submission. In addition, new recommenda-
tions—though not required—may be similarly informative. The admission rate for reapplicants is reportedly the
same as that for first-time applicants. DelMonico explained to mbaMission, “We provide feedback to candidates
who aren’t admitted to the program, so first asking for and then addressing that feedback is the most important
thing a reapplicant can do.”
Yale School of Management Essay Analysis, 2015–2016
In a blog post announcing this year’s admissions essay question, Yale School of Management (SOM) Assistant Dean
and Director of Admissions Bruce DelMonico remarked that the school was pleased with the question it used last
year and would therefore be posing it to this season’s applicants as well.
Our essay analysis will likewise have few changes, for obvious reasons. As we noted last year, the Yale SOM’s single
essay approach is rather restrictive. So if you are thinking about applying, you had better make sure your resume
is clear and compelling, your recommendations are replete with examples and exhibit your distinctiveness, you
offer your best and most comprehensive self via your interview, and you carefully consider each of the school’s
short-answer questions. These are all important tasks with any application, of course, but they merit extra atten-
tion with respect to Yale, because 500 words is simply not enough room to reveal your diverse achievements. In
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writing your one essay, you have a very important choice to make, because those few words will shape much of
your initial qualitative impression. Our analysis follows…
Yale School of Management Essay 1: The Yale School of Management educates individuals who will have deep and
lasting impact on the organizations they lead. Describe how you have positively influenced an organization as an
employee, a member, or an outside constituent. (500 words maximum)
As we have noted, you are quite limited with the Yale SOM application essay, so you will have to think very carefully
about which experience to showcase. As the question makes clear, you must provide evidence of positive influ-
ence and enduring impact. This does not mean, however, that you must have reshaped an entire organization. If
you helped revamp your firm’s hiring function, thereby influencing future hiring, or shifted a key thinker’s strategy,
thereby triggering a ripple effect that yielded positive results, or added an important feature to a product, thereby
making it a revenue driver, then you have doubtlessly had an impact. In other words, Yale is not expecting CEO-level
influence from you, but it is expecting that you have made a mark of some kind within your sphere. Of course, if you
actually have led the overhaul of an entire organization, that is great—but, again, it is not a requirement.
To create a strong essay, put your reader in the middle of the action quickly. With just 500 words, you will not
have enough room to expound on your organization’s background and its failures or needs. Instead, launch im-
mediately into your narrative, presenting the problem you worked to solve or the opportunity you tried to seize.
Then focus on how you conducted yourself on your way to positively influencing affairs and making an enduring
impact—how you ultimately solved that problem or seized that opportunity. And, as regular readers of our essay
analyses know, you must show that the path to your victory was a bumpy one, because if the whole thing was a
slam dunk from the beginning, your story will lack dramatic tension—your reader will finish with a “big deal” shrug.
You must very clearly show “lasting impact,” which means you should not be afraid to carry your story through
to its end. For example, revamping a firm’s hiring can have many ripple effects in terms of attracting employees
who are better fits and leading to improved performance for both a team and the firm overall. Do not brag, but do
not be too modest, either. Be fair to yourself and present the full story of your accomplishment, all the way to its
logical conclusion. If your essay is humble (because of its narrative approach, it has to be!), your reader will gladly
follow you there.
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mbaMission’s Exclusive Interview with Yale School of Management’s Admissions Director Bruce
DelMonico
May 2016
The Yale School of Management’s (SOM’s) long-standing admissions director, Bruce DelMonico, recently took some
time to chat with us about the MBA program’s current admissions process and provide insight into a few issues that
are no doubt of interest to Yale SOM applicants. The following are just a few of the key topics DelMonico addressed:
• The steady increase in the school’s application numbers in recent years
• The admissions committee’s consensus approach to admit decisions
• How a candidate can avoid sounding inauthentic in the application
• The number one thing applicants should do when they find themselves on the waitlist
• His thoughts on the ubiquitous GMAT versus GRE question
• The inspiration behind Yale SOM’s video question
Read on for the full interview.
mbaMission: First, let me start by thanking you for talking with me today. We appreciate it. Some have been saying
that the Yale School of Management [SOM] is losing its reputation of being quirky and untraditional and instead
becoming more Wall Street, more corporate. Would you agree with this, and if so, does it change the kind of stu-
dent you’re trying to attract?
Bruce DelMonico: I’ve heard that over the past year or two—concerns about the culture changing or losing the
school’s character—but actually, I don’t agree with that assessment. From the admissions perspective, first of all,
it hasn’t changed anything in terms of what we’re doing or who we’re hoping to attract. I haven’t seen changes in
terms of the composition of the incoming students. I think if anything, in terms of that first job after graduation,
the shift may be a little bit more toward consulting. I think that’s probably consistent with what other schools are
seeing. I don’t think that’s a sign of anything large or any major deviation from our culture or mission, or from the
character of the school. I think that remains intact.
mbaMission: Great. The school has seen a pretty steady increase in application numbers over the past couple
years. What do you believe is driving this increase, and what effect has it had, if any, on how you evaluate candi-
dates? And what’s been the effect on selectivity?
BD: That’s a good question. I think you could even go back farther and say that over the past decade, there’s been
an increase. I’ve been at the school for 11 years now, and when I started, we received somewhere around 2,000
applications. Now we receive somewhere around 3,500. So, in my time, there’s been about a 70% increase in the
number of applications we receive, which is a big jump. And I think there are a number of things behind this. I’d
65
like to think that some of things we do in admissions have helped, but there have also been changes on a larger
scale—the introduction of the integrated curriculum, Dean [Ted] Snyder’s arrival—a lot of momentum that’s been
happening, so really sharpening our focus, deepening our integration with the university, expanding our global
presence and our global aspirations, really working to continue to refine our integrated curriculum, and then
things like Evans Hall, our new campus, have helped us or garnered attention. I think all those things have con-
tributed to the growth of our applicant pool. As for the selectivity, we’ve been roughly in the same range over the
past few years, because as we’ve grown the pool, we’ve also grown the class size. We used to be in the low 200s
in terms of the class, and now, we’re in the low 300s. So the class has grown to a large degree in parallel with the
applicant pool, and I think that’s held the selectivity consistent.
In terms of the evaluation process, we obviously have more files to go through. But we of course want to maintain
the quality of the process and not cut corners. We have more people reviewing, so that’s helped, but some of it is
just simply working a little harder. We definitely evaluate more files in a week than we had previously, but we don’t
want to devote any less time to them. We actually have a consensus-based process, which means we all sit down
as a committee and have to be in agreement on the outcome of the files, of the applicants. Naturally, that has
taken more time as the pool has grown, but we’ve been able to manage it. I’m a believer in that consensus model,
so that’s something we’ll stay with.
mbaMission: That does seem like it might slow the process down a bit, having a whole group making the final deci-
sions, rather than just one or two people.
BD: It does, but my belief is that it yields a richer outcome, and we make sure that we’re balancing, so that every-
body brings a different perspective. I think that’s an important part of the process.
mbaMission: Sure. With the increase in applications, do you feel you’ve also seen an increase in quality, for a lack
of better word, in the applicants you’re getting, or are you just getting a greater number of the same-level candi-
dates?
BD: My sense is that it’s more the latter than the former. We’ve always received really, really strong, high-quality
applications, and we continue to. So I don’t know that qualitatively, there’s been at the top end a huge increase
in the quality of the pool. What we’ve seen is that there have been more of those high-quality applicants, if that
makes sense. I don’t think the quality of the top end has gotten any stronger, but the depth maybe has gotten a
little bit deeper. I think that’s obviously a good thing for us.
mbaMission: Got it. You regularly offer applicants the advice of being themselves in their application, rather than
trying to be whatever they think you or the admissions committee wants them to be. How do you know when
someone is not being genuine in their application? Are there certain tells?
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BD: Maybe there are people who are so good at it we can’t tell! But we do tell people to be themselves, and I know
other schools do as well, and we do it for a good reason. We want to get a sense of who you really are. I’ve used
this analogy in the past, and hopefully, it’s a helpful one, but my professional background is that I’m a lawyer, so
I was a litigator. And when you’re preparing someone for a deposition or for trial, the first thing you tell them is to
tell the truth. And there are two reasons you do that: one is that it’s right thing to do, and then the second is that
it’s much easier to remember the truth.
And I think that applies in the application process as well. What we’re looking for as we’re evaluating candidates
is to make sure that everything kind of fits together, which isn’t to say that it has to be entirely consistent across
every element of the application, that it’s all uniform. But when you say one thing in your essay about what you’ve
done and what you’re interested in doing, and then your recommenders say something completely different, and
your academic record and professional background show something else, those are the things we see as potential
tells that you’re trying to present yourself as someone other than who you are.
So that will raise a red flag for us. By telling the truth and being yourself, you’re not presenting multiple selves to
different schools, and you don’t have to keep track of “What did I say to this school?” and “What did I say to that
school?” I think there’s a sense that some schools are finance schools or marketing schools or nonprofit schools
or operations schools, and therefore you need to be a finance person or a marketing person or a nonprofit person
or an operations person to each of these schools. I don’t know if that ever was the case in the past, but I know that
certainly at Yale and every other school, the admissions offices are looking to put together a very diverse class, so
you don’t have fit any one particular model or mold.
mbaMission: Right.
BD: But when you start to sort of shape your candidacy to fit the school—I mean obviously, you might highlight
certain aspects of yourself to different schools, based on what you think might resonate more with them—but if
you go too far in that direction, you start to seem insincere or not terribly genuine, and that’s where the red flags
come in. So, if you have always been in finance and now you want to go into nonprofit, well, did you ever volunteer?
Did you ever do anything in the nonprofit space? Where is that interest coming from? Or if you have always been in
the nonprofit space and want to go into finance, where is that interest coming from? What’s behind that? If we see
a disconnect there, that’s where we question that aspect of the candidacy.
But even when we see that, that doesn’t automatically mean we’re not going to admit that person. Sometimes we’ll
see a candidate who says, “I have these goals,” but we’ll look at their profile and get the sense that they’re say-
ing that because they think that’s what they need to say. We might still admit them, and they might think they got
admitted because they said that, but actually, they got admitted despite having said it. We recognize that they’re
maybe being a little cute with the application, but we still find their application compelling, and we’re willing to
overlook that.
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mbaMission: Okay. So what would you say to someone who thinks, “I can’t just be who I am in my application be-
cause I’m too boring,” or, “I don’t have anything impressive to say, so they won’t notice me”? What advice would
you give someone like that?
BD: That’s a good question. I have to say that if your goal is to stick out and be unique, no one else will have the
same experiences you have, and even if you say, “I’m boring” or, “My career path has been too straightforward,”
the way to stand out is to discuss what you did there, how you distinguished yourself. We’re looking for people
who have a range of different backgrounds, but the thing that really makes them stand out is that they really sell
what they’ve done. So if you maybe have what you think is a traditional MBA background, and you don’t stick out
in terms of where you’ve been, the way to stick out is by focusing on what you’ve done. That’s really what will get
our attention.
mbaMission: Sure. If you were to speak to someone who had just decided to go for their MBA and hadn’t done any
research at all on any of the top schools, but you could tell them only one thing about Yale, what would be your
selling point?
BD: No pressure! Okay, I won’t be evasive and say, “Well, I couldn’t pick just one.” If I really could give only one
thing, I would say that we’re a school where the mission matters. Our mission is to educate leaders for business
and society, and we really care about that mission. We care about living up to that mission. It’s very broad, it’s very
multisector, and it’s the founding mission. It’s been the same since the school was founded back in 1970s. It very
much still guides what we do at the school. So, that is the one thing I would tell someone who is just coming to the
process and just learning about SOM.
mbaMission: Nicely done! What guidance can you give someone who finds him- or herself on the waitlist? And why
might someone end up on the waitlist in the first place?
BD: People can end up on the waitlist for a number of different reasons. We might really like their candidacy, but
there might be one thing we have a question about or one thing we feel they need to strengthen. It could be some-
thing very specific, or it could just be that it’s a very competitive applicant pool, and they’re strong, but we want
to have a better sense of how the pool and the class are going to shape up before we make a final decision. They
might be on the waitlist really just because of the competitiveness of the pool. We do also sometimes waitlist
people without interviewing them, and I think that sometimes freaks people out, so just to let people know, that’s
not the norm, but it’s not so uncommon that you should be concerned. If you didn’t get an interview but then find
yourself on the waitlist, sometimes that can be a sign that there might be one thing that we have a question about
or something we want to get a little more clarity on.
The advice I would give, I think the main thing is that if you find yourself on the waitlist, when you get the decision,
we will give you a list of FAQs that tells you, here are some next steps, here’s what you can do, and the first thing
we say is to reach out and ask for feedback. We have an email address you can use to request feedback, and it
68
surprises me the number of people I speak to on the waitlist, when I ask whether they asked for feedback, they say
no. In my mind, that should be the first thing you do. We’ll tell you why you’re on the waitlist. We’ll tell you what we
think you can do to improve your candidacy, to strengthen yourself and strengthen your chances of getting in. But
there are people who don’t take advantage of that opportunity.
So, the first thing is definitely ask us why you’re on the waitlist. It might be that it’s a very competitive year, and
that’s all we can say, or there might be something very specific we can tell you that will help. The other thing is to
continue to be in touch, but obviously, in appropriate ways and at appropriate times. If you have a major update,
let us know. If you want to just check in every so often, that’s fine, too. But there are some people who are in touch
several times a week. I would not suggest that; that’s what can distinguish you in a not-so-positive way. But every
two weeks or once a month, if you want to check in and see how things are going and just reiterate your interest,
that is always helpful to us. It’s always good for us to know that you remain interested, you want to continue to be
considered, and that could be a helpful thing just by itself.
mbaMission: Sure. Is there an end date for the Yale waitlist, or do you keep accepting candidates more or less up
until the last minute?
BD: It depends on the year. We can accept people sometimes up to the very last minute. We try to give people
some sense of what the time frame is, but it depends on how things evolve on our end. We try not to keep a huge
waitlist going into the summer, for example, just because it’s not fair to people to leave them in limbo for that long.
So we try to have a somewhat more targeted waitlist. And every so often, at various points, we’ll reach out to see if
you are still interested, so we know that if we get to the point where we’re thinking about making additional offers,
we have a current list of people who are still interested and people who aren’t anymore.
mbaMission: That makes sense. As you know best, Yale has accepted the GRE in addition to the GMAT for quite a
while now. How would you compare the two exams from an admissions perspective, and if you were to recommend
that an applicant take only one or the other, which one would you suggest?
BD: Right, we have accepted the GRE for a number of years, and I think at this point, roughly 20% of students in our
incoming class took the GRE as opposed to the GMAT, which I think is probably on the higher end among schools.
We have no preference for one or the other; we value them equally. I think it would be a little perverse for us to ac-
cept both but then weight one more heavily than the other. We wouldn’t want to disadvantage anybody either way.
In terms of recommending taking one or the other, I really think it’s a matter of personal preference, which one you
feel more comfortable with. We look at them the same, and we incorporate them into the process the same way.
There’s actually a concordance tool that ETS offers to help us better understand how the scores align. It’s a little
bit broad, but it’s narrowed since the first inception, so it gives us a decent sense of what the corresponding score
might be. We also have now a number of years of students who have come through and taken the GRE, so we’ve
done our own regressions and analyses and have a better sense of how to view the tests. So, I think from the appli-
69
cant perspective, it’s really just which one you feel more comfortable with. A lot of our applicants who have taken
the GRE are interested in perhaps a joint degree with another school—so forestry and environmental sciences, for
example, or public health—and they want to take just one test as opposed to two, and that’s fine. Or maybe they’re
thinking about other graduate schools, not just business school, maybe something like public policy school, and
the GRE has more flexibility in that regard. But it’s really a matter of personal preference.
mbaMission: Okay. What was your primary motivation for adding the video component to the Yale application, and
what information or insight do you feel you get from the video question that you don’t get from the other parts of
the application?
BD: We actually first piloted the video component in I think 2011, so it’s been several years since we first started
playing around with it. And it came about from a conversation we had internally. I was talking to a colleague who
has now moved on, and we were talking about how admissions offices really hadn’t incorporated technology in
what we thought was a very beneficial way, things like video essays or having applicants upload some sort of
multimedia presentation. We didn’t feel as though that was really taking advantage of the technology as much as
it could, and it wasn’t really leveraging the benefits of the technology. At the same time, we felt that some of the
formats might advantage people with more resources. They would be able to put together more impressive pack-
ages or have more advanced technology available to them. So we were thinking about what kind of technology
we could use that would level the playing field but also give us really good insights that we wouldn’t be getting in
other contexts. That’s where the video questions came about.
Again, I think we piloted it in 2011. We played around with different vendors and different formats to get to where
we are now, and I think it will continue to evolve. In terms of what we’re hoping to get out of it, at the basic level,
we want to get a sense of someone’s speaking ability, especially their English ability if they’re a nonnative speaker.
Actually, in tandem with incorporating the video questions, we eliminated the TOEFL and the IELTS requirements,
so no English language test, because we felt we could evaluate that directly ourselves. Beyond that, we wanted
to get a sense of how well someone can think in the moment, so that extemporaneous speaking ability, which is a
little bit beyond basic English ability and can show how well you think on your feet, because that is a skill that is
tested and needed in business school and beyond.
We do focus some of the video questions on certain different competencies that we think are important. We’re
still working on building that part in terms of really structuring the questions and coding the responses in a way
that we feel is helpful to us. That’s where I think a lot of the evolution will be. But we do feel that the video ques-
tion provides a perspective on the applicant that we can’t get just from the paper application. It provides a new
dimension, a new aspect to the candidacy, and I can say that we tend to view it almost invariably as a positive.
It’s very rare for the questions to be a negative in someone’s application. More often it’s the case that it will allow
us to see something new and maybe be even more interested in the candidate than we were before, so I think it’s
overall positive for the applicants.
70
mbaMission: I’m sure that will be very reassuring to any candidates who may be worried about the video component.
BD: I think that’s the thing that when I talk to people, they’re the most nervous and the most apprehensive about,
and the advice I tend to give people is, first of all, we don’t expect perfection—nobody does it perfectly—and sec-
ond, you invariably did better than you thought you did. I think people are just really nervous about it.
mbaMission: Absolutely. Do you recommend that candidates apply in any specific round? Is one better than the
other?
BD: We really don’t. We model to admit the same quality of students in each round, so it’s not as though there’s an
advantage to applying in one round versus another. We have three rounds, and we’re also part of the Consortium
for Graduate Study in Management, so we do receive applications that come in through the consortium and that
are referred to us. But in terms of our three direct application rounds, like a lot of schools, we counsel people that
if they can avoid the third round, they should try to do that. That’s not because it’s inherently any more difficult,
but just because it’s more variable. It depends on how many people have already been accepted into the class in
the first two rounds, so you just don’t know. It could be more than we were expecting, or it could be less. It’s that
uncertainty that can make it more challenging. The main piece of advice we give everybody is to apply when you
have your strongest application ready. Don’t rush to get it in earlier if it’s going to be less strong. And especially
between rounds one and two, as I said, we model so that the quality of people we’re admitting stays constant
throughout, so there’s no advantage in applying in one round versus another.
mbaMission: That’s helpful. What can reapplicants do to improve their chances the second time around? Those
people who don’t get into Yale this year, what advice would you give them about trying again next year or the year
after?
BD: This is similar to what we tell people in terms of the waitlist. People are not successful for different reasons, so
it’s not just one thing that each person can do; it’s really specific to an individual. And again, like with the waitlist,
we’ll give feedback to applicants who are not successful. We do it over the summer, after the admissions season
has wound down, in June, typically. We will provide feedback to anybody who was denied admission, and that’s
really where you can get a sense of what you need to do to strengthen your candidacy, whether we felt you needed
a little more professional experience, or we needed better evidence of your quantitative abilities, or any number
of other things. We can give you that feedback, and that can help guide you as you think about strengthening your
application for that reapplication. One other thing is that we run the numbers every year, and the admission rate
for reapplicants is actually the same as for first-time applicants, so it’s definitely not the case that we have any
sort of bias or prejudice against reapplicants. We definitely encourage them, and we definitely do admit people
who have reapplied.
mbaMission: That’s great. When you say you give feedback, what’s the format? Over the phone?
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BD: We’ve tried different formats, and right now, we do it by email. We find that’s the most helpful way to do it.
mbaMission: Okay, thanks. Can you share any stories of outstanding applications or interview performance from
the past couple years? What is something a candidate did or said that really stood out to you?
BD: That’s such a tough one for a few reasons. One, candidacies are so different, there’s no template for it—you
know, this person did this, so if you do that same thing, you’ll be successful. And I feel as though with things like
interviews, for example, a lot is based on the relationship, the give-and-take between the interviewer and the in-
terviewee, and that can vary from person to person, which I think makes the interview especially challenging. I can’t
think of any particular things or stories that stood out. One thing, and again it comes back to sincerity, is people
acknowledging weaknesses but then explaining them and what they’ve learned from them and what they’re hoping
to improve on. If you’ve done that well, it definitely stands out. I find that, if done well, it can be incredibly compel-
ling. So it’s not just constantly touting your successes and how great you are, but stepping back, having a little bit
of perspective, a little bit of self-awareness and incorporating that into your reason for wanting to get an MBA or
using it to show your growth and development. I find that I’m often drawn to and rooting for those candidates who
show that kind of self-awareness, that sense of humility, that desire to grow at business school and beyond.
mbaMission: That makes sense. What is a part of the application process that you would like to see applicants
spend a little more time on or maybe take a little more seriously?
BD: That’s another tough question, because every application is so different, and the weak points tend to differ
for each person. Obviously, we’re looking for lots of different qualities, and we’re looking for lots of different com-
petences as we evaluate candidates for the program. And this is an across-the-board kind of thing, but one thing
we do look at is quantitative ability. All business schools have some quantitative component in the course work,
and obviously, we’re ultimately looking to admit people with long-term professional success, but we also want to
make sure they’re able to keep up and do well in the more immediate term, during their two years in the program.
And one thing we see sometimes is applicants who maybe haven’t demonstrated that quantitative proficiency
through their course work, their testing, or their work experience, or some combination of the three. We look at all
those three together. And I think where people don’t take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen their profile
is by either not acknowledging that they might not have that exposure or as much exposure as they could, or by
acknowledging it but not doing something about it—telling us, for example, “If I’m admitted, I will take statistics
and microeconomics.” What we would like to see is you acknowledge it and then actually be proactive in taking
those courses to show you have the ability and the preparation to be able to keep up. That’s just one of a number
of different things I could point to, but that’s one I think we see probably more often than some others.
mbaMission: Got it. Thank you again for bringing us up to speed on the Yale program and admissions process.
BD: No problem! Happy to talk.
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Appendix:
Yale Facts and Figures
Note: Facts and figures in this section are prone to change. Occasionally, conflicts may exist between the school’s pub-
lications and its Web pages. Applicants are urged to recheck facts and figures for the most up-to-date information.
Basics
Year Established: 1976
Location: New Haven, CT
Dean: Edward A. Snyder (2011)
Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions: Bruce DelMonico (2006)
Programs:
• Executive Education
• Executive MBA
• Full-Time MBA
• Master of Advanced Management
• PhD
Joint Degrees:
• MBA/JD (School of Law)
• MBA/MEM or MF (School of Forestry)
• MBA/MPH (School of Public Health)
• MBA/MD (School of Medicine)
• MBA/MARCH (School of Architecture)
• MBA/MFA (School of Drama)
• MBA/MDIV or MAR (Divinity School)
• MBA/MA in Global Affairs (the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs)
• MBA/PhD (Graduate School of Arts & Sciences)
Class Profile (Class of 2017)
Enrollment: 326
Median GMAT: 720
GMAT Range (middle 80%): 690–760
Median GPA: 3.63
GPA Range (middle 80%): 3.28–3.88
Female Representation: 40%
U.S. Minority Representation: 22%
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U.S. Underrepresented Minority Representation: 10%
International Representation: 40%
Employment Statistics (Class of 2015)
Median Base Salary: $120,000
Median Other Guaranteed Compensation: $34,616
Graduates accepted positions in the following industries:
• Consulting: 29.3%
• Finance: 24.5%
Investment Banking: 11.6%
Diversified Financial Services: 5.8%
Investment Management: 4.9%
Private Equity/Venture Capital: 2.2%
• Technology: 14.2%
• Retail: 5.3%
eCommerce: 4.4%
Other Retail: 0.9%
• Health Care/Pharmaceuticals: 4.9%
• Nonprofit: 4.4%
• Manufacturing: 4.0%
• Consumer Packaged Goods: 3.6%
• Media/Entertainment: 3.6%
• Energy: 3.1%
• Real Estate: 1.8%
• Other: 1.3%
Graduates accepted positions in the following functions:
• Consulting: 37.1%
External Consulting: 28.6%
Internal Consulting/Strategy: 8.5%
• Finance/Accounting: 30.4%
• Marketing/Sales: 13.4%
• General Management: 8.0%
• Operations/Logistics: 5.8%
• Real Estate: 2.2%
• Other: 1.8%
• Law: 1.3%
74
Graduates accepted positions in the following locations (Note that the subsections listed under United States and
International represent percentages adding to 100% of each of these regions separately, rather than 100% of
the entire graduating class.):
• United States: 85.8%
Northeast: 59.1%
West: 23.3%
Midwest: 5.7%
Mid-Atlantic: 5.2%
Southwest: 3.6%
South: 3.1%
• International: 14.2%
Asia: 25.0%
Canada: 18.8%
Europe: 18.8%
South America: 15.6%
Central America: 12.5%
Middle East: 6.3%
Australia: 3.1%
Hiring Organizations: The school includes a comprehensive list of companies that hired SOM MBAs for both full-
time and internship positions in 2014–2015 here: http://som.yale.edu/our-programs/mba/careers/employ-
ment-report/hiring-organizations
75
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Web Sites
11th Annual Yale SOM Private Equity Conference: http://pe.som.yale.edu/2011/
The Art of Strategy: www.artofstrategy.net
Co-opetition Interactive: http://mayet.som.yale.edu/coopetition/
Entrepreneurship @ SOM: http://entrepreneurship.som.yale.edu/
Global Network for Advanced Management: http://advancedmanagement.net
The Museum of Money and Financial Institutions: http://museumofmoney.org
Origins of Value: A Virtual Museum of Money and Finance: http://media4.its.yale.edu/res/sites/originstest2/
Program on NonProfit Organizations at Yale University: http://ponpo.som.yale.edu
Yale Center for Business and the Environment: http://cbey.research.yale.edu
Yale Center for Customer Insights: www.cci.som.yale.edu
Yale Entrepreneurial Institute: http://yei.yale.edu
Yale Healthcare and Life Sciences Case Competition 2011: http://yhlc.yale.edu/2011CaseCompetition
Yale Healthcare and Life Sciences Club: http://sites.som.yale.edu/healthcare/about-us/
Yale School of Management: www.mba.yale.edu
Yale School of Management Admissions: http://mba.yale.edu/MBA/admissions/
Yale School of Management Community Blog: http://blogs.som.yale.edu
Yale School of Management Core Courses: http://mba.yale.edu/MBA/curriculum/core/
Yale School of Management Elective Courses: http://mba.yale.edu/MBA/curriculum/electives/ElectiveCourses.
shtml
Yale School of Management Health Care Conference 2012: www.yalehealthcare.com
Yale School of Management Hiring Organizations 2011: http://mba.yale.edu/MBA/careers/employment/hiring_
organizations.shtml
Yale School of Management International Center for Finance: http://icf.som.yale.edu
Yale School of Management Leader’s Forum Video Feature: http://mba.yale.edu/viewer/leaders_forum.shtml
Yale School of Management Net Impact: http://sites.som.yale.edu/net-impact
Yale School of Management Private Equity Club: http://pe.som.yale.edu/2011/
Yale School of Management Program on Social Enterprise: http://pse.som.yale.edu
Yale School of Management Real Estate Club: http://sites.som.yale.edu/real-estate/
81
Interviews and Other
Admissions Officer, Yale School of Management. Personal Interview. November 4, 2010.
Admissions Officer, Yale School of Management. Personal Interview. November 27, 2010.
Admissions Officer, Yale School of Management. Personal Interview. July 11, 2011.
Admissions Officer, Yale School of Management. Personal Interview. May, 2016.
mbaMission Student Survey. Online via SurveyMonkey.com. December 5, 2012.
Member, Yale School of Management Administration. Personal Interview. December 10, 2010.
Member, Yale School of Management Administration. Personal Interview. May 3, 2011.
Representative, Yale Center for Business and the Environment. Personal Interview. May 17, 2012.
Representative, Yale Center for Business and the Environment. Email exchange. April 10, 2013.
Admissions Officer, Yale School of Management. Personal Interview. September 10, 2010.
Yale School of Management First-Year Student. Personal Interview. October 19, 2010.
Yale School of Management First-Year Student. Personal Interview. April 28, 2011.
Yale School of Management Second-Year Student. Personal Interview. November 4, 2010.
Yale School of Management Second-Year Student. Personal Interview. November 22, 2010.
Yale School of Management Second-Year Student. Personal Interview. December 14, 2010.
Yale School of Management Second-Year Student. Personal Interview. January 21, 2011.
Yale School of Management Second-Year Student. Personal Interview. June 13, 2011.
Yale School of Management Second-Year Student. Personal Interview. March 20, 2012.
Yale School of Management Second-Year Student. Email Exchange. May 7, 2015.
82
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