Yale May Expand Silver Scholar Admits

The new home of Yale University’s School of Management: Evans Hall. Photo by Chris Choi

Yale University’s School of Management is actively considering increasing the number admits to its MBA program direct for undergraduate college. The program–dubbed Silver Scholars–grant admission to college seniors who agree to take a one-year work internship between the first and second years of Yale’s MBA program.

Launched in 2001, it is a competitive alternative to Harvard Business School’s 2+2 program and Stanford University’s deferred admissions policies. Only current seniors in college are allowed to apply as Silver Scholars who have typically composed just a handful of the annual intake at SOM. But the number of admits has risen in each of the past two years to seven last year and a record 15 in the latest incoming class.  SOM also enrolled a record class this year, some 323 students compared to 291 a year earlier.

Just how many Silver Scholars SOM accepts, of course, is entirely dependent on the school’s applicant pool. MBA applications were up 10% in the first round which is why the school believes further expansion of the program is possible. Thus far, applications for the Silver Scholars Program are at a record high, with more than half of the applications from students outside of the United States, according to a report by the Yale Daily News.

ONE-YEAR INTERNSHIPS HAVE BEEN SPONSORED BY MANY TOP FIRMS

“A decision is not yet final, but a lot of the discussions point in the direction of a larger class moving forward,” Associate Dean Anjani Jain told the Yale Daily News. The program is designed to attract younger talent to SOM, students who may otherwise go to either law or med school.

Silver Scholars have secured internships at organizations such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Boston Consulting Group, CARE, Coca-Cola, Dow Jones, Motorola, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Pfizer, Time Inc., the U.S. State Department, and Vanguard. Graduates of the Silver Scholars Program have gone on to full-time positions at Barclays Capital, Boston Consulting Group, British Petroleum, Citigroup, Google, Kimberly-Clark, Mercy Corps, Nationwide Insurance, the New York Times Company, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the U.S. Treasury.

Barry Nalebuff, an SOM professor and advisor to the Silver Scholars’ program, told the News that the program appeals to undergrads because it fills the void created by an education that is not finance-based. “I’m a huge fan of a liberal arts education,” Nalebuff said. “But when you graduate Yale [College] and think about getting a job, you don’t have a lot of the skills a lot of jobs want. And, as a result, the jobs they give you reflect your lack of knowledge.”