Yale: Career Outcomes Hurt School’s Ranking

Yale School of Management will move into its new home–Evans Hall–in January of 2014

Dean Edward “Ted” Snyder

Yale School of Management Dean Edward “Ted” Snyder told the school’s allumni today (Sept. 11) that his school ranks in the top five based on the quality of its students but lags peer schools on career outcomes for its graduating MBAs.

With the school’s move to a new building just four months away, Snyder held a Webinar for SOM alumni to give a dean’s report on the school. In a one-hour session, Snyder candidly fielded a wide array of questions, from the amount of scholarship support the school offers MBA candidates to his reaction over a couple of recent New York Times’ stories on gender inequality and class divisiveness at Harvard Business School.

He said those stories, which described what Harvard initiative to close a gap in academic performance between men and women, caused Yale to run its own numbers. The school found that women at SOM earn 35% of the distinctions in each of its classes–exactly the same percentage of women in Yale’s full-time MBA population.

‘I DON’T WANT TO SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT HARVARD’

“It’s a tremendously positive contrast between what has been revealed to be the case at Harvard,” said Snyder. “I don’t understand what accounts for it or what is the difference in the environment. I have a lot of respect for Harvard Business School. I don’t want to say bad things about Harvard. But I just want to say this is a very positive contrast for the Yale School of Management.”

The academic gender gap to which he was referring at Harvard, however, existed several years ago. In the latest graduating class at HBS, a record 38% of women earned Baker Scholar distinction, roughly equal to their 39% percent representation in the Class of 2013.

Snyder also commented on what he called “the rather ugly stories at Harvard” involving a secret society of ultra-wealthy, mostly male and international MBA students known for their decadent booze-filled parties and lavish travel (see Section X: Harvard’s Secret Society). “With respect to the idea of the shadow section of high end socioeconomic students, I don’t see anything like that at Yale School of Management,” he said. “The students here are together. They are unified. When it comes to the internship fund, for example, all the students pitch in. There is a real willingness in supporting each other at the School of Management, and I do think that reflects something also within the broader Yale community. If one person wins, it’s not at the expense of others. It’s something that others join in celebrating.”

YALE RANKS AMONG TOP FIVE IN STUDENT QUALITY SAYS DEAN

A Class of 1987 alum asked Snyder what he intended to do to improve Yale SOM’s ranking and make it “one of the top five business schools in the country.” Poets&Quants currently ranks Yale SOM 15th among the best U.S. business schools. Replied the dean, who came to Yale two years ago after a highly successful deanship at the University of Chicago’s Booth School: “if you look at our student quality, we’re in the top five objectively on GMAT and GPA. We’ve got a very deep applicant pool. So i agree with him when he says, “i felt that the rankings do not reflect accurately on the quality of the school or the caliber of the students.’

Snyder said he thought the school lagged partly due to the career outcomes of SOM students. The Class of 2012, for example, reported median base salaries of only $100,000–$20,000 less than either Harvard or Wharton. One reason for the lower class median has to do with the percentage of SOM students who take jobs in the non-profit and government sectors. About 9% of the Class of 2012 went into those lower-paying sectors compared with less than 1% at Wharton and just 5% at Harvard. And SOM students report lower base pay in non-profit jobs than Harvard MBAs as well: $70,000 versus $90,000 at Harvard.