What Yale SOM Is Known For
Intersection of business and society. If you asked people knowledgeable about MBA programs one thing they knew about Yale School of Management, they’d probably say, “Nonprofit.” The school is known for its strength in the nonprofit sector and has taken a very different approach to management education than most business schools. Although the school’s stated mission remains “to educate leaders for business and society,” half the number of graduates entered nonprofits upon graduation compared to last year (4% vs. 8%). Historically, the school has sent about one in 10 graduates into the field. This year, Stanford took over Yale’s top spot for sending the highest percentage of its graduates to nonprofits (6%).
Dean Ted Snyder is known for finding strategies to raise a school’s ranking, and we believe it’s possible that the school may be intentionally reducing the number of admitted candidates targeting nonprofits in an effort to increase post-graduation salaries (a factor in some rankings). Nonetheless, it remains a fantastic target school for those candidates who wish to enter the public sector, nonprofits, or social ventures.
Small class size. Even though its MBA classes have grown since moving into a new facility, Yale’s MBA program remains one of the smallest among the top tier. The total class size grew by 41% in just three years, from 229 students in the Class of 2013 to 323 in the Class of 2016. The Class of 2017 is SOM’s largest class ever, but at 326 students, it is just three students larger than last year’s. There’s still plenty of room in the 350-seat Zhang Auditorium for the new-student orientation activities, and admissions statistics have remained essentially unchanged. Class size is expected to remain just more than 300 students for the foreseeable future, so we expect the program to continue to maintain its intimate, tight-knit feel. Among top-15 U.S. MBA programs, only Berkeley (Haas), Dartmouth (Tuck), and Texas (McCombs) have smaller classes.
Global brand. Opening its doors in 1976, SOM is the youngest of top-tier U.S. business schools. However, it burst onto the business school scene bolstered by the cachet of its parent institution, Yale University, and has shot up through the rankings. Now, one of Dean Ted Snyder’s key initiatives is to leverage the school’s brand advantage by further integrating SOM with Yale University.
