The Yale School of Management, or Yale SOM, as it is known to its students, has a mission of “educating leaders for business and society.” The program focuses on preparing leaders who will have an impact in areas at the intersection of business and society, including sustainability, asset management, health care, education, financial stability, the role of women in business, and global leadership.
Yale SOM achieves its mission through its comprehensive, integrated curriculum, designed for MBA students to understand the whole organization. Yale relies on an innovative case study method that includes “cooked” and “raw” case studies. Cooked case studies are the kind typically seen in the traditional case study approach that several top MBA programs use. Yale School of Management also pioneered the raw case study method, in which information is presented from various angles and in multimedia formats, and students must identify what elements are actually relevant to the case—much like in real life. Among top business schools, Yale SOM is the most connected to its parent university, which is also a draw for many candidates. Compared with peer institutions, Yale School of Management has a much higher percentage of joint degree students, specializing in such areas as forestry, environmental management, law, global affairs, and public health while also working toward their MBA.
Although the Yale School of Management was previously thought of primarily as a “finance school,” the largest proportion of graduates tend to enter positions with a consulting function. Of the Class of 2022, 53.6% did so, while 24.0% accepted finance function roles, 11.4% marketing/sales, and 4.2% general management.
The Yale School of Management Insider’s Guide
After consulting with Yale School of Management students, admissions committee members, and alumni about their experiences, we have prepared our Insider’s Guide to the Yale School of Management. We take an in-depth look at life at Yale SOM, highlighting how the school’s location, class size, curriculum, teaching methods, facilities, alumni involvement, and rankings all affect its culture and MBA experience. Then we delve into Yale SOM’s faculty and professional student clubs, revealing how they facilitate the careers of Yale SOM students. Through our guide, you will learn more about the Yale School of Management’s integrated curriculum and raw case format, as well as hands-on experiences such as the Net Impact Case Competition and the Integrated Leadership Case Competition. Yale’s high-caliber finance faculty offers more than 40 courses, and the International Center for Finance supports research in this area. As one of the first top MBA programs to require an international component for graduation, Yale SOM offers exceptional resources in international business and general management, and in other areas, such as marketing and health care.
Yale SOM Essay Analysis, 2023–2024
The Yale School of Management (SOM) is one of the few top business schools that give candidates just one required application essay with which to make their desired impression on the admissions committee. The Yale SOM requires applicants to expound on a significant commitment and its underlying impetus and meaning. The essay has a 500-word maximum, so you need to be clear, direct, and rather succinct in your response, without much preamble or extraneous text. If you feel the required essay’s topic does not allow you to share a particularly important or compelling aspect of your profile, or if you have an issue in your candidacy that would benefit from further explication, you can use the “optional information” space to fill in the blanks. The program asserts that this is “not an additional essay,” however, and that “most candidates do not need to complete this section.” Also, the submission is limited to 200 words, so you must again be concise in conveying the necessary details.
Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made. (500 words maximum)
The question evolved from a conversation with Professor of Organizational Behavior Amy Wrzesniewski, who noted, “Reading about future plans is helpful, but actions speak louder than words.” In your response, we are looking to learn about how you have approached a particular commitment, whether personal or professional, and the behaviors that support it. You should be less concerned about what we want to hear and instead focus on being honest with yourself in selecting and describing the commitment that has been most significant to you.
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Yale SOM Deadlines (2023–2024)
Round 1 Application Deadline
September 12, 2023
Round 1 Decisions
December 5, 2023
Round 2 Application Deadline
January 4, 2024
Round 2 Decisions
March 26, 2024
Round 3 Application Deadline
April 9, 2024
Round 3 Decisions
May 16, 2024
