Meet Yale SOM’s MBA Class Of 2024

A CLASS PROFILE

This year’s full-time class features 347 MBA students. Like most programs during the 2021-2022 cycle, Yale SOM saw applications fall – 16.5% in the case, though the school’s acceptance rate only rose four points along the way. True to form, Yale SOM’s average GMAT slipped two points to 723 from the previous class, while its 329 GRE average also represented a one-point dip. The class’s 3.65 undergraduate GPA was nearly identical to the previous year.

That said, the student demographics shifted to an extent. The percentage of international students climbed from 44% to 48% over the past year, while underrepresented minorities also experienced a 4-point surge (20% to 24%). Still, the percentage of women held steady at 43%. As a whole, there are 48 countries represented this year, up 10 countries from the Class of 2024.

As undergraduates, 25% of the class majored in business-related disciplines. However, that number is overshadowed by the 38% share who hold degrees in STEM-related fields. Economics majors account for 18% of the class, while Humanities and Social Sciences majors make up another 19% share. Overall, the percentage of STEM majors improved by 11%. Much of the difference absorbed by the Humanities and Social Sciences which saw a 9% decrease from the previous year. In terms of professional experience, the Financial Services sector composes 20% of the class, which is followed by Consulting (19%), Non-Profit (12%), Technology (12%), Government (9%), and Healthcare (7%).

Among popular tidbits about the class, they speak 50 languages. In fact, three-quarters of the class speak two or more languages – and 30% have mastered three or more. The class could potentially comprise an orchestra, with class members playing instruments like the flute, trumpet, piano, bassoon, guitar, and drums. You’ll even find a bagpiper in the mix, along with Bollywood, salsa, ballet, and ballroom dancers. In addition, the class has worked for over 200 employers, including Alibaba, Boston Consulting Group, Clinton Health Access Initiative, Goldman Sachs, Google, and Samsung – plus the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and the Los Angeles Chargers.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STRUCTURE

In the latest Financial Times alumni survey, Yale SOM posted the 10th-best score for Alumni Recommendation. On a 10-point scale, the school notched an impressive 9.32 average in Overall Satisfaction from alumni. At the same time, MBA directors and deans surveyed by U.S. News ranked SOM as the top program for the Nonprofit sector (and #6 for management). Thanks to SOM’s strength in the former, the school is sometimes described as a “social impact school.” True, students are highly engaged in issues ranging from climate change to impact investing to racial equity, says ’22 alum Alice Yuan. However, just 1.2% of the Class of 2021 ended up in the nonprofit sector – with the leaders being consulting (34.2%) and investment banking (13.8%).

“SOM always had the reputation of being the soft, nonprofit-focused school,” admits ’22 alum Kelechi Umoga. “I found this to be false, since the school attracts people from literally every sphere and space — from the highly technical to the socially-oriented. Every kind of person will be found at Yale SOM.”

However, Yale SOM’s “Business and Society” perspective is integrated across its curriculum. That starts with its core, which is unlike any business school programming. Traditionally, business schools teach core subjects like corporate finance, analytics, marketing, leadership, and economics as separate courses. While this approach helps first-years nail down fundamentals in fall semester, these siloes don’t necessarily show how these disciplines are interconnected – let alone reflect their impact across the larger organization or society. That’s where Yale SOM’s interdisciplinary approach comes into play. The core teaches according to stakeholder experiences, such as Executives, Competitors, Innovators, Customers, Investors, and Employees.  For example, the Investor course teaches MBAs concepts like risk and valuation in the larger context of psychology and economics.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF CASE STUDY

As a result, SOM MBAs tend to view concepts and issues in a more interdisciplinary fashion. “I was attracted to the integrated curriculum that pushes you to look at a problem or decision point from multiple perspectives and underscores the importance of breaking down silos,” explains Joe Calafiore. “In all my conversations with students, faculty, and alumni, it was clear to me that through this approach, and throughout the program as a whole, Yale SOM trains empathic leaders ready to tackle real world problems.”

What’s more, the Executive course acts as a capstone, with each class bringing in a new professor and ‘raw’ case study that draws on the concepts students previously learned. By raw, Yale SOM means that students will receive cases that are supplemented with resources like videos and source materials. Hence, the cases are messier, with students spending time beyond the case outline to determine pertinent facts and data to factor into their solutions. In other words, the raw cases better reflect the demands and limits that students will face once they graduate.

“Unlike “cooked” cases at other schools, where the relevant material is boiled down for you to a 10-12 page document that eliminates all extraneous facts, raw cases present all the primary source material you would encounter in your actual professional life,” observes Bruce DelMonico assistant dean for admissions in a 2020 interview with P&Q. “The idea is that it is a skill – and a crucial one at that – to wade through this material and be able to understand what’s relevant and resolve inconsistent or incomplete information. This is a real-world skill that it takes time and effort to develop, and we enable you to do so through our curricular structure. I think that raw cases exemplify the thoughtfulness of what we do at Yale and how we’re trying to help our students develop practical skills – even in the classroom setting – that will prepare them to be more effective leaders after they graduate than they otherwise would be.”

AN INTERIEW WITH BRUCE DELMONICO

DelMonico has plenty more to say about the distinct programming available to MBAs at the Yale School of Management. This fall, P&Q reached out to DelMonico to learn more about the program’s newest developments and most valuable experiences. Here are his thoughts on the state of the SOM:

P&Q: What are the two most exciting developments at your program in the past year and how will they enrich the MBA experience for current and future MBAs?

DelMonico: “I would start by saying that the school has spent the past year doing a full review of the entire core curriculum. Ever since we first introduced our unique Integrated Curriculum, we have constantly been evolving the curriculum – adding courses, adjusting sequences, developing new raw cases – to meet the needs of our students. The current review is accelerating this typically more incremental evolution. Coming during the pandemic – which, admittedly, is a coincidence – I think could help bake some of the pedagogical learnings from the pandemic into the classroom experience.

I would also mention the efforts of Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld regarding Ukraine. Professor Sonnenfeld is one most prominent and well-known faculty members at the school; he leads our Chief Executive Leadership Institute (CELI) and CEO Summit, among other things. He also has led the global corporate withdrawal from Russia in the wake of the Ukraine invasion. I don’t know that this is a specific development of the program, but rather I think it’s an example of the kind of mission-oriented work that happens at the school outside of the classroom and on which students can work jointly with faculty – as, I believe, has been the case here with Professor Sonnenfeld. These kinds of opportunities are constantly arising, less because of a specific programmatic change and more because they are baked into the DNA of the school.”

P&Q: If you were giving a campus tour, what is the first place you’d take an MBA applicant? Why is that so important to the MBA experience?

DelMonico: “I would definitely take them to the Evans Hall Café for coffee because, of course, coffee. But also because these kind of shared spaces in Evans Hall are integral to the Yale SOM experience. In our previous building, we had what we called the “Hall of Mirrors,” which was a corridor that everyone had to walk through to get from class-to-class. It was horrible from a design perspective, but it was much beloved because it fostered the kind of serendipitous interactions that can be incredibly meaningful. When our current campus was being designed, the one constant piece of feedback the architects received was to keep something similar to the Hall of Mirrors. Sir Norman Foster, in designing Evans Hall, has tried to create these kinds of nodes of interaction – without the annoying pedestrian bottlenecks.”

P&Q: What is the most innovative thing you have introduced into the MBA program in recent years? How has it been a game changer for your program?

DelMonico: “I’ve mentioned these programs before, but I would highlight the new Broad Center at Yale SOM and the new Master’s Degree in Asset Management. What I think is notable about these two programs is how they so neatly exemplify our founding mission of educating leaders for business and society. You would be hard-pressed to find another business school where such disparate disciplines could so comfortably coexist. But that’s what’s unique about Yale SOM.

Another important aspect of this defining mission is not just how it encompasses diverse fields such as education and asset management, but how it shapes and transforms them as well. It brings heart to a field such as investment management that could otherwise tend toward the technical and impersonal, training leaders who understand the impact their investment decisions have and who steward that responsibility with thought and care. And it allows educators who are passionate and purposeful about their work to approach it with heightened rigor, amplifying the impact they can have in their classrooms and communities. So these two new programs are emblematic of Yale SOM’s special mission and values on multiple levels.

Beyond the influence these two programs will have on SOM generally, they will enrich the MBA experience specifically by enhancing the research, programming, and course offerings available to MBA students in these fields, up to and including the option to pursue a joint degree with the MBA. So these two programs can have very real and direct influence on the MBA experience here at Yale SOM.”

Next Page: Profiles of 12 Yale SOM First-Years