Yale School of Management

-Three things really standout about Yale SOM. 1. Small size with incredible diversity of student interests. You are forced to interact with people who look at the world differently than you do which is an enriching experience. 2. Connection with Yale University. There is no limit on the number on courses you can take at other Yale schools. I've taken courses in Econ, Political Science, International Relations, Law, Divinity, and History. 3. The integrated core with raw cases. Focuses on the interconnections in business and society and the raw cases make you search for the data that's relevant.

-Frankly, Yale SOM is still a relatively young, and historically small, business school. This has meant the alumni pool is understandably smaller. A growing class size and close integration with the broader Yale community was very helpful in my search, and continued emphasis needs to be maintained in future years.

-The program is unique because it offers the opportunity to get to work with bright students in a collaborative environment. The environment is helped by the absence of a formal grading system. Faculty is also very helpful and willing to advise students - particularly in light of the small size of the program. However, the most unique aspect of the school is the international components. In particular, the International Experience and the Global Social Entrepreneurship Course. The mandatory experience is a truly unique program because it takes the classroom experience to the real world in an overseas environment. It is backed by School and led by a Professor unlike the programs at many other institutes. Through the university's contacts, students are able to meet top leaders in business, non profits, and government in an international setting. The global social entrepreneurship project is also an incredible opportunity. You work with talented classmates to help an overseas NGO develop a new initiative or roll out a business plan - and you have the opportunity to travel to the country with your classmates to present the recommendations. It integrates your coursework and provides you a practical real-life work experience as nothing else can. Hopefully, this aspect is not changed as the School adapts its vision with the arrival of the new Dean and the construction of a new building.

-The new $300 million campus will make it look amazing, and that will have a strong impact on yield. Teacher quality in the Core (1st year) curriculum) would be helpful, but that will come in time with our new dean. I feel lucky to be in on what could be considered the IPO of Yale SOM.

-It's small, so the community is very close, and the students tend to be hyper-engaged in the program due to the enormous range of classes and very professional extra-curricular groups (e.g. nationally renowned 700+ person Education Leadership Conference).

-Our small size makes formal recruitment relationships more difficult than larger schools. We need to either cultivate stronger relationships or find other recruitment avenues for a wider variety of top firms.

-Yale looks for opportunities where strong business ethics and optimal business performance can overlap. The school has a mission to make international business healthier and stronger by challenging the student to look at what isn't working, and how we can improve both the operations of a business and the framework in which it exists.

-The program could be stronger if Career Services was improved. Hopefully, this will be achieved with a new Career Services Director who seems very capable. In addition, the program should lay greater emphasis on construction of financial models. Nobody should graduate from business school without being able to build a robust financial model. Students learned the basic principles but were never tested on their capability to do this.

-Most MBA programs do not encourage critical thinking in the way that Yale's program does. Yale's are not your run-of-the-mill MBAs. They hold deep convictions, they care about process, debate, and sound reasoning, they have callings, they invest deeply in community. They have integrity. Yale accepts superior students, and it also provides a curriculum that is truly integrated. The first semester of its core curriculum requires ample individual work. This ensures that *everyone*, not just the former analysts and engineers, builds solid analytical capabilities.

-I think the facilities need to be upgraded, which is taking place. I think there needs to be less turnover in the Career Development Office, which is hopefully stopped since the new dean has brought a new director with him from Booth.

-The integrated core curriculum is provides a comprehensive, progressive education in the fundamentals of business. The students are brilliant and offer demographic diversity and diversity of experiences and perspectives. The small size fosters a close-knit, supportive community. The faculty is good at teaching and includes preeminent scholars. We have access to the resources and intellectual community of Yale University.

-The Career Office needs to be revamped, the Finance program needs to be beefed up, and the school needs to find ways to give back to its own students while they are at school (in the form of scholarships, internship opportunities, etc.).

-Practically every major employer has slots for Yale MBAs and our class size is small and our interests are so diverse that becoming the person who gets that slot in a given field is a lot easier than one would think. Our access to the rest of Yale's classes, professors and networks is truly unique. The speakers who could to lecture in our classes are second to none in both quality and quantity.

-The program could be more inclusive on an administrative level; students are basically encouraged to belong to cliques from which administration will make a representative member for functions. And, it could be more inclusive of entrepreneurs: the student population was largely people who were successful at large corporations, but lacked the hands on skills acquired with working at start-ups.

-SOM is not a business school that takes in financial analysts and spits out i-bankers. SOM brings together an amazing, diverse group of students spanning the public and private sectors who care deeply about the world. My classmates are impressive--broad-minded--intellectually curious--multi-talented. These qualities are hard to capture in statistics, but are obvious once you come here.