Is Yale School of Management your dream B-school?
Yale School of Management, the business school of Yale University, recently saw a 25% increase in application volume while only 3 more students were accepted to the program.
Read that statement twice. This is the competition you will be facing when you apply to Yale SOM. Now, before you begin getting discouraged and forage through multiple google pages looking for a new dream school, stop and realize that there is a very good chance for you to still make it to the school’s MBA class.
Yale SOM isn’t looking for a single perfect candidate. They are looking for a diverse range of individuals who have the potential to use the culture, and education at their MBA programs to create success in their choice of industry.
Your potential employability is what really matters. It can be converted into a simpler equation:
Past + Yale MBA = Short Term + Long term Goals
But how do you know this without knowing what MBA Programs Yale SOM offers?
Thus, knowing what Yale has to offer, can truly help you in convincing the admissions committee of why Yale is the perfect school for you.
Types of MBA Programs at Yale SOM
Although Yale SOM does not offer a wide range of programs like some of its Ivy League competitors, it makes up for the flexibility in electives. The school introduces flexibility into its programs by allowing students to take electives all across Yale University.
Thus, if you wish to pair your MBA with another subject like Real estate development, you would be allowed to take classes at a Yale University college specializing in that subject.
The two variations of MBA programs that the business school provides is as below.
Full-time MBA Program
The Full-time MBA Program at Yale SOM is aimed at applicants with some form of Full-time work experience. Although the range of work experience goes from 0 years to over a decade, the average work experience of the class stays around 5 years.
It is a two-year traditional MBA Program and is aimed at applicants who wish to switch careers post their MBA degree. The program includes leadership and team exercises along-with weeklong trips to other business schools for a Global Study exercise.
MBA for executives
The MBA for executives at Yale SOM is aimed at working professionals who wish to continue fulfilling their professional obligations, i.e. keeping a job, as they receive an MBA education. It is mostly a non-residential program but does contain a two-week-long residential stint at the beginning of the program.
A leadership program is integrated into the corecurriculum to help individuals develop an acumen for leading global projects and change.
The MBA for executives program runs for a duration of 22 months and has classes every other weekend.
Cost of attendance Yale SOM
The tuition at Yale SOM is undoubtedly high. while there can’t truly be an accurate numeric value to the expensive one would incur during the course, due to variables such as room and board, and other personal expenses, the table below will give you a rough idea of what a year at Yale SOM might cost you.
| Expense | Cost in USD |
| Tuition | $72,350 |
| Program Fee | $2,210 |
| Room, Board and misc. | $22,214 |
| Course material | $1,000 |
| Health insurance | $2,500 |
| Total | $100,274 |
If the final amount in the table above disheartens you, I have some good news for you. You might not have to pay the whole amount or even take out loans for the same. Around half of the Yale SOM class receives scholarships every year. in addition to that, around 30 students also receive full-tuition scholarships from the school. Thus, if your pockets aren’t deep enough to finance a Yale SOM education, you can lean back on scholarships to help get you through business school.
Scholarships at Yale SOM
While an applicant can apply to external scholarships to help fund their MBA dream, Yale also provides merit-based scholarships to its incoming class. These scholarships are decided upon during the MBA admissions process and do not require a separate application.
The school’s website has an exhaustive list of the merit-based scholarships that Yale SOM offers. However, here are a few scholarships for reference.
- Togbe Afede XIV ’89 MPPM Alumni Fund Scholarship
- John F. Riddell (Ph.B. 1913) Memorial Fellowship
- Richard A. Robertson III (Ph.B. 1921) Fellowship
- Frederick and Florence Roe Scholarship
- Matt Rogers ’89 MBA Alumni Fund Scholarship
- Rebecca Vitas Schamis ’00 MBA and David I. Schamis ’95 B.A. Scholarship
- Phyllis and Fenmore Seton ’38 B.A. Alumni Fund MBA Scholarship
- John R. Shrewsberry ’92 MPPM Scholarship
- Sim Family Foundation Scholarship
- David and Karen Sobotka Scholarship
- Sproul/Molloy Scholarship in Honor of Juliet C. Sproul
- Gillian and Stuart W. Staley ’95 MPPM/MES Scholarship
- Jane Sun and John Wu Scholarship
- Jane Sun and John Wu Scholarship
- Sheldon L. Sussman Family Scholarship
- Samuel B. Sutphin (Ph.B. 1899) Fellowship
- Teach For America Scholarship
- G. Harold Welch Scholarship
- Martin Werner Fellowship
- West Point Memorandum of Agreement
- Yale Accelerated MBA/J.D. Program Scholarship
- Yale-Africa Impact Scholarships
- Yale Global Executive Leadership Program Class of 2017 MBA Scholarship
- Yale-Reaching OUT LGBT MBA Fellowship
- Yale SOM Master of Advanced Management Class of 2016 Scholarship
- Yale SOM MBA for Executives Class of 2016 Scholarship
- Yale SOM Scholarship for Students from Mexico
- Yale – Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) London Scholarship
- Kevin Ye MBA Scholarship
- Harry and Heesun You Fellowship
- YQ Scholarship
- Paolo Zannoni Scholarship
- Kevin Y. Zhang Scholarship
Application Process for Yale SOM Full-Time MBA Program
An application is only considered completed once an application fee of $250 is paid.
More importantly, Yale SOM does have a very different, if not completely new, way of evaluating its candidates. With a behavioral assessment added to the application process, Yale SOM has started focusing on the Emotional Quotient of its applicants as well as the academic and professional backgrounds.
The school also gives a lot of wiggle room to non-native English speakers as it does not demand a language proficiency test.
Here is a detailed version of what the Yale SOM MBA application process looks like.
| Application section | Approach |
|---|---|
| Personal information | This section is completely optional. However, it gives the admissions committee an insight into your personal background and is recommended. |
| Test scores | An applicant is required to submit their two highest GMAT/GRE scores, which are valid on the date of submissions of your profile. An official transcript must be sent to the following codes. GMAT code: 3TJ-BX-45 GRE code: 3986 The school does not demand a TOEFL, PTE or IELTS score for non-native English speakers. |
| Resume | A one-page resume must be attached to your MBA application. the resume should be up to date till the day you finally submit your application. |
| Recommendations | The school asks for two letters of recommendation from sources that can speak about the applicant in a professional capacity. In an effort to be more inclusive, the school has started allowing recommendations in Spanish and Mandarin form non-English speaking recommenders. |
| Essay | The school poses only one essay question. This year’s question is, ‘Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made.’ |
| Optional information | The optional information session is an open space for applicants to address any shortcomings or gaps in their profile. While most applicants do not fill in this section, it is highly recommended that any concerning areas of your profile be discussed here rather than saved for the essays or the interviews. |
| Behavioral assessment | This is a new component and does not need any specific prep. The behavioral assessment of the interpersonal and intrapersonal competence of an applicant. |
Once the application is submitted, an applicant receives access to the video questions section of the Yale SOM MBA application process.
The section consists of three questions which allow an applicant 20-30 seconds to understand the question and 60-90 seconds to elicit a response. These are random questions selected from an existing pool of recorded questions and are used as an extension of the interviews.The interviews for the program are only on an invitation basis and are conducted on-campus, and virtually. The interviewer, however, only has a candidate’s resume to use as a resource for the interview.
Application deadlines for Yale SOM Full-time MBA Program
The first and foremost tip that I have for you is to not send in a half-cooked application. you can easily guess how detrimental an incomplete application could be during MBA admissions. Well, an application that has been sent hastily just to fit into a particular round can be equally bad.
So rather than trying to meet the deadlines for Round 1 or Round 2, try to take an ample amount of time out to make an application you’re satisfied with and proud of. An application that shows your potential employability and success at the MBA Program that Yale has to offer.
Applying in a later round won’t degrade your chances of getting into Yale as much as a half-cooked application would.
While you look at the application deadlines below, make sure to set apart one month, at the very least, to work on your Yale SOM MBA Application.
| Round | Submissions deadline | Decision date |
|---|---|---|
| Round 1 | September 10, 2019 | December 4, 2019 |
| Round 2 | January 7, 2020 | March 24, 2020 |
| Round 3 | April 14, 2020 | May 19, 2020 |
Salaries post a Yale SOM MBA
Before talking about the compensation at Yale SOM, let’s look at a small portion of Yale SOM’s employment report for the graduating MBA Class of 2018.
| Function | Median Salary | Median other guaranteed compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Consulting | $140,000 | $33,000 |
| Finance/Accounting | $125,000 | $60,000 |
| General Management | $125,000 | $39,200 |
| Marketing/Sales | $117,500 | $35,000 |
| Operations/Logistics | $135,000 | $49,542 |
| Other | $120,000 | NA |
Although the numbers in the table above might seem on brand for Yale SOM, there is a positive hidden in them isn’t easy to recognize. Simply looking at the numbers above, one won’t be able to guess that the school saw a significant increase in post-MBA compensations in the year 2018.
The majority of the Yale 2018 MBA class, 34.9%, took up roles in the consulting industry with giants like Ernst & Young and Bain & Company. This was also the highest-paid function for graduates of the Yale SOM Full-time MBA Program and saw a rise of $8,000 in total median compensation from the employment report of 2017.
How to crack Yale SOM MBA admissions?
Cracking the code of any top business school’s MBA admissions is not an easy job. Even you think you have the perfect formula; you might end up getting a ding. That’s just the unpredictability that an applicant has to face during MBA admissions.
What you can do however is present your narrative per the values that the school resonates with. For example, if a Yale places focus on leadership, mention events that showcase you having that skill. If another school focuses on team-work, use incidents from your professional and personal life that emphasize on team-work as a skill.
Through this section, I want to promote the emphasis on creating the right narrative rather than creating a perfect profile as the former improves your chances of getting in by far. Read on to know what narrative places favorably with the Yale admissions committee.
Emphasis on growth
The admissions committee at Yale SOM places a special emphasis on growth. Growth for them doesn’t only signify career growth or educational growth but more of a holistic approach of having a growth mindset. The admissions committee suggests students to look at themselves as products of Yale SOM rather than customers. Thus, improving with every day they spend at the institution.
A growth mindset can be portrayed by simple things. Recently I asked a friend of mine, “how will you get a scuba certification when you can’t even swim?’. He smiled at me and added, “yet”. While I had portrayed a fixed mindset by stating my limitation, he had portrayed a growth mindset by stating that the gap was fixable. All it took for him was one word.
Similarly, you don’t need to write a separate essay or add a whole new incident to explain to Yale SOM that you share their idea about the growth mindset. The way you choose to formulate your sentences could easily make your growth mindset evident.
Show emotional intelligence<
It is a rather bizarre skill to have for MBA admissions, right? Emotional intelligence is only for your personal relationships and not the professional environment. Well, not really. The importance of Emotional Intelligence in a professional capacity has gained popularity in the past decade.
Organizations were the first ones to crack the code of why a high Emotional Quotient was as important as a high Intelligence Quotient. However, business schools caught up pretty quick.
Yale SOM recently integrated the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) in their first-year curriculum. They have now figured out the best way to integrate the same into MBA admissions for the school through a Behavioral assessment.
That should be enough convincing for why you should showcase your emotional intelligence through your essays while submitting your MBA application to Yale SOM.
Have recommenders that know you well
Many applicants give more value to who their recommender is than what picture can their recommender paint of them. Even if you got the prime minister of India to write a recommendation for you, but the recommendation could not speak much about you in a professional capacity, the Yale SOM admissions committee won’t be too impressed.
A recommendation, coming from an immediate supervisor who can elaborate on all your professional and inter-personal skills would add much more credibility and value to your application than by a vague recommendation by a world leader.
This only further proves how important it is to choose your recommenders carefully.
Explain any gaps in your profile
If you think you would have the chance to explain any seemingly inconsequential shortcomings in your profile once you get an interview call, think again. Any unexplained gaps in your Yale SOM profile might result in you never receiving an interview call.
Thus, Yale admissions committee members suggest explaining away any possible gaps in your profile during your MBA applications.
While sometimes an application stunt can help you differentiate your application amongst the large applicant pool, make sure you don’t end up messing major decision areas of your application.
