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Yale School of Management

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CLASS SIZE 339
Women 40%
Median GMAT 720
Median GPA 3.64

The Yale School of Management (SOM) is located near the center of Yale University’s campus in New Haven, Connecticut. While Yale has made concerted efforts to expand its class size in recent years, it is still one of the smaller leading MBA programs; hallmarks of Yale SOM include its close-knit student body and multidisciplinary approach to business education. In addition, students at the school benefit from a high degree of integration with Yale University as a whole and have the ability to take elective courses across the university. 

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FAQ

What is the tuition for Yale SOM's MBA program?

The tuition for Yale SOM’s MBA program is $82,200 per year. The total cost of the Yale SOM MBA program is $114,860 per year; this includes budgeted living expenses.

How hard is it to get into Yale SOM’s MBA program?

The acceptance rate for Yale SOM is 23.7% It is important to consider the acceptance rate in the context of the student profile of those who are admitted. For example, the median GMAT score is 720.

What is the average GMAT score for admission to Yale SOM’s MBA program?

The median GMAT score for the incoming class at Yale SOM is 720.

Does the Yale SOM MBA program accept the GRE?

Yes. The Yale SOM MBA program has accepted the GRE for a few years now.

What is the average GRE score for admission to Yale SOM’s MBA program?

The median GRE scores for the incoming class at Yale SOM are 164 Verbal and 166 Quant.

What is the minimum number of years of work experience required for admission to Yale SOM’s MBA program?

Yale SOM does not state a minimum requirement for years of work experience.

What is the average number of years of work experience for admission to Yale SOM’s MBA program?

The average number of years of work experience among students in Yale SOM’s MBA program is 5.1.

What is the median starting salary for graduates of the Yale SOM MBA program?

The median starting salary for Yale SOM MBA graduates is $175,000 with a median of $30,000 in signing bonuses. The salary will vary by industry, with consulting and finance jobs generally commanding the higher salaries.

What are the application deadlines for Yale SOM’s MBA program?

The Round 1 MBA application deadline is September 12, 2023. The Round 2 application deadline is January 4, 2024. The Round 3 deadline is April 9, 2024.

What percent of Yale SOM MBA students are women?

The percentage of the class at Yale SOM that are women is 40%.

What type of interview does Yale SOM use for MBA admissions?

Yale SOM offers interviews by invitation. The interviews are resume-based. This means the interviewer has not had access to the application materials, except for their resume.

Videos

Celebrating Women at Yale: Pioneering Yale SOM Alumnae

Celebrating Women at Yale: Pioneering Yale SOM Alumnae

The Student POV: Chloe Yang ’24

The Student POV: Chloe Yang ’24

Admissions

Yale SOM Class Profile

There are 339 students in Yale SOM’s Class of 2025. The median GMAT score of this class is 720 and for those who chose to take the GRE, median scores landed at 164 Verbal and 166 Quant. Their median undergraduate GPA came in at 3.60. Thirty-five percent earned a degree in a STEM discipline during their undergraduate years. A quarter of the class had pursued humanities, with 22% holding business degrees and 18% a degree in economics.

Women make up 40% percent of the Class of 2025. Half of the class hold passports for a country other than the U.S. and represent 46 different countries altogether. Forty-eight percent of U.S. students identify as U.S. students of color and 18% identify as a U.S. underrepresented minority.

Yale SOM’s MBA students average 5.1 years of work experience. Financial services topped the pre-MBA industry experience at 24 percent. Eighteen percent had been working in consulting before matriculating. Another 12% came from the tech industry, followed by 11% from government service, and nine percent from nonprofit.

Application Procedures

Applicants can apply to Yale SOM during one of three rounds of admission; these typically occur in mid-September, early January and mid-April. The admissions committee requires that applicants submit a completed online application form covering personal and biographical information, a résumé, two letters of recommendation, a video response, and transcripts from all academic institutions attended. Applicants must also submit a GMAT or GRE score report, and typically a $250 application fee.  Application fees are priced on a sliding scale depending on the applicant’s income. Interviews are conducted by invitation only and are required for admission to the MBA program. Applicants may be interviewed by members of the Yale SOM admissions committee or trained second-year students.

Applicants who have displayed commitment to encouraging diversity in American businesses may also apply to Yale through the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. 

Application Checklist

  • Data Forms
  • GMAT/GRE score(s)
  • Academic Transcripts
  • Résumé
  • Essays
  • Recommendation Letters
  • Application fee
  • Video Questions
  • Behavioral Assessment

Essay Topic Analysis

Need help with your essays? Get our experts' advice.

Interview Reports

Yale-som Q&As

Yale SOM LiveWire and DecisionWire

MBA LiveWire

March 27, 2024 12:14pm ET
Accepted to Yale SOM
Round: Round 2
Received via email on March 26, 2024
GPA: 3.8
GMAT: 750
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career Name: Finance
March 27, 2024 11:40am ET
Rejected at Yale SOM
Round: Round 2
Received via phone on March 26, 2024
GPA: 3.5
GMAT: 740
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Application Location: US
March 27, 2024 10:32am ET
Waitlisted at Yale SOM
Round: Round 2
Received via portal on March 26, 2024
GPA: 3.7
GMAT: 690
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career Name: Finance
Application Location: Mtn West
Note:

WL, no interview

March 27, 2024 8:21am ET
Waitlisted at Yale SOM
Round: Round 2
Received via portal on March 26, 2024
GPA: 3.48
GMAT: 720
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career Name: Consulting
Application Location: NYC
Note:

Waitlisted after interview. Did not receive any update via email - just had to log into portal.

March 27, 2024 6:30am ET
Rejected at Yale SOM
Round: Round 2
Received via portal March 27, 2024
GPA: 3.4
GMAT: 610
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career Name: General Management
Application Location: US
Note:

Mil. Rejected. No interview.

March 26, 2024 11:58pm ET
Accepted to Yale SOM
Round: Round 2
Received via phone on March 26, 2024
GMAT: 760
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career Name: Entrepreneurship
Application Location: India
Note:

Got a phone call at around 7am EST!!

March 26, 2024 11:39pm ET
Waitlisted at Yale SOM
Round: Round 2
Received via portal March 26, 2024
GPA: 3.9
GRE: 314
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Application Location: US
Note:

Waitlisted after interview. Super bummed but holding hope to possibly get off the waitlist. Please drop me some tips if you have any!

March 26, 2024 8:49pm ET
Accepted to Yale SOM
Round: Round 2
Received via email March 26, 2024
GPA: 3.66
GMAT: 760
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Application Location: NJ
Note:

Consortium fellowship, full tuition covered.

MBA DecisionWire

?
March 28, 2024 3:34pm ET
Enrolled: Undecided
Admitted: U. Chicago Booth $
$76000
,
Columbia , Northwestern / Kellogg $
$90000
,
NYU Stern $
$179340
,
UPenn / Wharton $
$100000
Applied: U. Chicago Booth, Columbia, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, Stanford GSB, UPenn / Wharton
Entering Year: 2024
Post MBA Career: Consulting, Non Profit/SI Companies: BCG, Deloitte, McKinsey
GMAT: 750
Notes:

Money is not too much of a factor - but want to do management consulting and eventually specialize in social impact. Not too much of a partier. Considerations: ranking, don't want to be too far from NYC, and want to eventually come back to NYC. Would love your thoughts!

?
March 28, 2024 1:11pm ET
Enrolled: Undecided
Admitted: Columbia , Dartmouth / Tuck
Applied: UPenn / Wharton, NYU Stern, Duke / Fuqua, Dartmouth / Tuck, Columbia, U. Chicago Booth
Entering Year: 2024
Post MBA Career: Private Equity, Entrepreneurship
GRE: 325
GPA: 3.6
Location: NYC
Notes:

I'm currently based in NYC and would like to go back into investing post-MBA (currently in PE). The choice between CBS and Tuck seems to be a clear CBS for me but welcome any opinions on this. Both such different experiences but unique in their own right.

?
March 28, 2024 12:38pm ET
Enrolled: Undecided
Admitted: U. Chicago Booth $
$40000
,
Columbia , Harvard Business School , Yale SOM $
$40000
Applied: Columbia, None, Yale SOM, UPenn / Wharton, Northwestern / Kellogg, MIT Sloan, Harvard Business School, U. Chicago Booth
Entering Year: 2024
Post MBA Career: MF, Auto, Aerospace
GMAT: 750
GPA: 3.55
Location: Midwest
Notes:

Most likely heading to HBS, waiting to see if Booth or CBS give a full ride as that is what it would take.

I did the whole process without any paid consultants, spending $250 total on gmat prep. Doing it again I would have considered paying for mock interviews as I know that’s what went wrong at Kellogg and Wharton.

?
March 28, 2024 10:15am ET
Enrolled: Undecided
Admitted: U. Chicago Booth $
$40000
,
Columbia , UPenn / Wharton
Applied: Columbia, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, NYU Stern, UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM, U. Chicago Booth
Entering Year: 2024
Post MBA Career: Technology, Entrepreneurship, Non Profit/SI
GRE: 320
GPA: 3.9
Location: New York
Notes:

I am trying to go into the startup impact fintech space and am struggling on the decision (esp $ side of things since I likely won’t be making much after). CBS is obvs ideal for startups and located in the hub for fintech and startups. Wharton is known for fintech and has the brand if I need to pivot careers. Chi seems to have decent impact centers

Academics

Faculty

Across its seven disciplinary groups, the school employs more than 100 full-time professors, in addition to approximately 70 affiliates and visiting professors. These professors help manage the school’s five research centers, which cover topics ranging from business and the environment to corporate governance and performance.

Curriculum

Yale SOM’s MBA program is designed to be completed over four semesters of 12 weeks each, with students completing an internship during the summer between the first and sec­ond years. Each semester is divided into two six-week quarters; while the majority of electives last an entire semester, all core courses and some electives last only one quarter. Professors at Yale SOM use the “Raw Case” approach, which challenges small teams of students to analyze real-world case studies using data, news reports, and interviews.

Typically, first-year students have a week and a half of orientation, then begin the core curriculum in late August; second-year students commence classes a few days later. The fall semester ends in mid-December. Classes resume in mid-January and run until early May, with commencement occurring later that month.

All first-year students are required to complete Yale’s core curriculum, which is made up of two segments. The first segment, Orientation to Management, lasts for seven weeks and teaches students the basics of business disciplines such as economics, accounting, management, data analysis and decision-making. Rather than focusing on disciplinary topics, the next segment, Organizational Perspectives, is team-taught and designed to help students look at the business world in an integrated manner by examining different internal and external roles. Organizational Perspectives runs for two quarters and is comprised of 10 courses. During spring break, each first-year student fulfills an international experience requirement by going on one of several faculty-led fieldtrips to various international destinations.

In order to graduate, each MBA student must earn 72 units of coursework.  Thirty-two and a half of these are achieved by completing the core curriculum; the remaining 39.5 are fulfilled through elective courses.  First-year students take four units of electives in the spring semester, and the second-year curriculum is comprised entirely of electives. In addition to the wide variety of electives offered through Yale SOM, MBA students may fulfill their elective requirement by cross-registering for courses offered at other schools within Yale University. Students may also study abroad at one of Yale SOM’s international exchange partner schools during the fall or spring semester of their second year.

Other MBA Degree Options

In addition to its two-year full-time MBA program, Yale SOM offers an Executive MBA program for leaders in the asset management, healthcare, or sustainability sectors. The school has joined with Yale Law School to offer three-year and four-year MBA/JD programs. There are nine other joint degree options available, through which students can earn their MBA as well as a degree from another Yale graduate school. These include, among others, an MBA/MPH with the Yale School of Public Health, an MBA/MD with the Yale School of Medicine, and an MBA/MA in Global Affairs with the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

Core Courses at Yale SOM

Orientation to Management

  • Basics of Economics
  • Basics of Accounting
  • Introduction to Negotiation
  • Modeling Managerial Decisions
  • Probability Modeling and Statistics
  • Managing Groups and Teams
  • Global Virtual Teams

Organizational Perspectives

  • Competitor
  • Customer
  • Investor
  • Power and Politics
  • The Global Macroeconomy
  • Sourcing and Managing Funds
  • State and Society
  • Workforce
  • Innovator
  • The Executive
  • Operations Engine

Degree Offerings at Yale SOM

Full-time MBA Program
https://som.yale.edu/programs/mba

Executive MBA Program
MBA for Executives: Leadership in Asset Management, Healthcare, or Sustainability
https://som.yale.edu/programs/emba

Joint Degrees
MBA/JD, MBA/MEM or MF, MBA/MPH, MBA/MPP, MBA/MD, MBA/MARCH, MBA/MFA, MBA/MDIV or MAR, MBA/MA, MBA/PhD
https://som.yale.edu/programs/joint-degrees

Campus Life

Clubs, Conferences & Competitions

Students at Yale SOM have ample opportunities for extracurricular involvement. The school has over 50 student-run clubs, which vary in focus from professional to social. On the professional side, the Consulting Club helps students learn about the consulting industry and recruiting process through weekly club meetings, interview workshops and case study practice sessions. In addition, each year the Consulting Club coordinates with Net Impact, another student group, to organize a case competition for first-year students. SOM students also have the opportunity to participate in other competitions including the annual Yale Healthcare Case Competition, which is run by the Yale Healthcare Club.

Yale SOM’s student clubs host a variety of conferences each year, such as the Private Equity Club’s Private Equity & Venture Capital Symposium. There is also the student-run Philanthropy Conference, as well as the annual Yale Healthcare Conference, run by Yale SOM and the Health Professional Schools at Yale University.

Campus Space

Yale SOM is situated in the center of Yale University’s campus in New Haven, Connecticut. The business school campus is housed in Edward P. Evans Hall, a 240,000 square foot facility that opened in January 2014 and includes a 350-seat Zhang Auditorium, the Ross Library, a dining commons and coffee shop, 16 state-of-the-art classrooms and the Beinecke Terrace Room.

While the Graduate Housing Office does offer dormitories and apartments to graduate students and their families, the school notes that most graduate students opt to live off campus in the residential neighborhoods of New Haven. Students can learn more about how to pursue off-campus housing options through Yale SOM’s Office of Student Affairs.

MBA Careers

Career Services

Yale SOM’s Career Development Office (CDO) provides students with a wide range of career counseling services, such as speakers, workshops and individual advising appointments. In addition, the CDO boasts a large library where students can find information about preparing for interviews, guides to writing cover letters, and other career development resources. The CDO also organizes a variety of recruiting events throughout the year to enable students to meet potential employers. These include corporate presentations, industry-specific networking nights, and trips to visit companies on site. Moreover, the CDO oversees a busy schedule of on-campus interviews; second-year students begin interviewing for full-time positions in late September, and first-year students begin interviewing for summer internships in mid-January.

Career Statistics

Upon graduation, the median starting salary for Yale SOM’s Class of 2023 was $175,000, with a median of $30,000 in signing bonuses.

Consulting was the most popular industry choice for 2023 graduates, with 44.1% of the class entering this industry. Roughly 22% percent of students went into finance and 10% into technology. Members of the Class of 2023 also found positions in retail and healthcare, among other industries.

As often occurs at business schools, Yale SOM placed a large proportion, 55.1%, of its graduates in the region where the school is located: the Northeastern U.S. Fifteen percent of the Class of 2023 found jobs in the Western U.S., while 5% went to the Southwest and 10% to the Mid-Atlantic. Nearly nine percent of students took jobs outside of the United States.

Financing

The tuition and program fees for the 2023-2024 academic year total $82,200; however, with additional expenses such as living expenses and textbooks, Yale SOM estimates that students will pay $114,860. A large number of merit-based scholarships are available through the school to help students pay for their education. Every applicant is automatically considered for these scholarships, with no separate application necessary. Students are also encouraged to pursue scholarships from outside sources. For additional sources of financial aid, students can apply for a variety of loans. These include federal loans for U.S. citizens and permanent residents, as well as the loans through Prodigy Finance and Quorum Federal Credit Union, both of which do not require a co-signer and are open to all international students at Yale SOM. Alumni who pursue post-MBA careers in the public or nonprofit sectors within 10 years of graduation are eligible for extensive loan repayment support through the Yale SOM Loan Forgiveness Program.

Two-Year Program Tuition

  • Tuition $82,200
  • Program Fee $500
  • Room, Board, and Personal Expenses $28,266
  • Textbooks and Photocopies $1,000
  • Health Insurance $2,894
  • Total $114,860

Contact

Mailing Address:
Admissions Office
Yale School of Management
Box 208200
New Haven, CT 06520-8200
Phone: 203-432-5635
Fax: 203-436-8901
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://som.yale.edu/
Blog: https://som.yale.edu/programs/mba/blog
Twitter: @YaleSOM