The Yale MBA: What You Need To Know
Yale’s motto is “Educating leaders for business and society,” and quite evident is a growing focus on changing the world for the better through ethical and sustainable business practices.
A fundamental belief at Yale is the need to leverage connections across boundaries of function, industry, and region, which is quite feasible considering Yale SOM’s internationalism. Yale founded the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM), a network of 31 leading business schools from diverse regions and countries, and MBA candidates are encouraged to develop global perspectives by traveling to these partner schools for courses. Students have visited IE Business School in Madrid for a course on the euro crisis, and Renmin University Business School in China to learn about entrepreneurship in emerging markets. If they like, they can take courses in languages or international relations.
When it comes to electives, Yale SOM students have the amazing opportunity — rare, even in business schools that are embedded in world-class universities — to take as many as they like from other university schools and departments. MBA candidates have taken perspective-broadening courses such as Native American Art & Architecture and Faith & Globalization. Assistant Dean for Admissions Bruce DelMonico says roughly 15% of SOM students are pursuing a joint degree with another Yale school.
Yale welcomed a truly diverse class of 350 students for the class of 2023 this year, and they wasted no time kicking off the 21-month program. Yale has moved well beyond the conventional case-based style of teaching, employing a whole team of people both at the university and in the wider Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM) network of over 30 international schools to put together its unique “raw” cases. Rather than tidy, paper-based cases, students are presented with a mass of information in a number of media such as video, news reports, interviews, and data. There is by design too much for any individual to absorb, meaning that students are forced to work in teams to create a coherent analysis all completed in 72 credit units or 624 instruction hours. The point, of course, is to mimic the way information presents itself, and the way people make decisions, in the real world.
Of course, leadership is also central to this MBA. At Yale SOM, they look at developing leadership in four dimensions: individual, which involves developing skills and knowledge, but also understanding your own strengths and limitations and ways to persuade and influence others; working in, and leading, teams; seeing an organization as a whole, rather than broken down by geography or function; and being aware of global challenges such as inequality and climate change.
Students are required to complete a summer internship between their first and second year. As for co-curricular activities, the SOM hosts student-led conferences and case competitions at the school annually. The SOM also houses multiple research and learning centers where students can get involved, such as the Center for Customer Insights, the Program on Social Enterprise, the International Center for Finance, the Center for Business and the Environment, the Program on Entrepreneurship, and many more.
Assistant Dean DelMonico speaks regarding new additions to the School of Management. “Two relatively recent developments at the school are the launch of a one-year master’s degree in Asset Management and Yale SOM becoming the new home for the Broad Center. Both of these developments stem from our multi-sector mission to educate leaders for business and society and are greatly expanding the opportunities available to incoming MBA students. The MMS in Asset Management leverages Yale SOM’s top-tier finance faculty and engages the Yale Investments Office to provide an unparalleled education to students who wish to go into the field of asset management—including pensions, hedge funds, and endowments. The late, legendary Yale CIO was an integral part of planning and designing the MMS in Asset Management, and his legacy and values will continue to guide and shape the program.”
Yale MBA Rankings Data
Yale MBA Employment Stats
Yale SOM does not publish in its employment report its top employers, preferring to list all of the firms that hired the school’s graduates.
MBA Program Consideration Set:
Stretch Schools: Columbia, Dartmouth, Northwestern’s Kellogg School, MIT Sloan, Berkeley
Match Schools: New York University, Virginia, Duke, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon
Safe Schools: UCLA, North Carolina, Texas at Austin, Emory
Note: MBA Program Consideration Set: If you believe you’re a close match to this school–based on your GMAT and GPA scores, your age and work experience, you should look at these other competitive full-time MBA programs as well. We list them by stretch, match, and safety. These options are presented on the basis of brand image and ranking status as a general guideline.
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