At Menlo Coaching, we’re fans of the Yale School of Management. Our co-founder, David White, sat down with Bruce DelMonico, the business school’s Assistant Dean of Admissions to discuss the application process, Yale culture, and what MBA candidates can expect after graduation. In this article, we’ll focus on the Yale SOM ranking, post-MBA employment, and its global presence.
You can watch more from David and Bruce, with videos covering How Yale SOM’s MBA Curriculum Can Boost Your Career and Why Apply to Yale SOM?
If you’re interested in an MBA from Yale SOM, you’re probably wondering about the ROI on this decision. An MBA is an investment after all. Yale’s post-MBA employment data suggests that this investment is likely to pay off. A reported 91.4% of the 275 students seeking employment in the Yale SOM class of 2019 accepted job offers within three months of graduation.
Another strong suit of Yale’s employment record is the balance between the variety of careers students choose, as well as a robust representation in the popular post-MBA fields such as Consulting and Investment Banking. A whopping 37.2% of MBA graduates were placed in the consulting industry. When looking into the kinds of roles students took on post-graduation, you’ll find that 48.9% of graduates went into external and internal consulting roles and 21.9% went into Finance or Accounting.
Yale’s employment report also has some intriguing data about international placement. As of the most recent ranking, it places 20.1% of its students in international markets compared with 13% at HBS and only 11% at Wharton. This can be traced to a number of factors. One is that Yale accepts more international students than other institutions. About half of its class is made up of students who have a non-US passport— this can skew the statistics towards more international interest. Yale SOM thinks of itself as the most global US business school and numbers like these help to back up that statement.
But beyond recruiting international students, the Yale SOM Career Development Office has resources that are dedicated to sourcing global opportunities for current MBAs. This means that, even if you are not an international student with in-roads that help you get recruited to a global position, Yale SOM can be a useful place to focus on global work.
It is not just a matter of global opportunities being available. Yale SOM’s international reputation is quite good overseas. When comparing Yale to say the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, the two schools are known quantities of high quality in the US. But in China, Yale is very well known, whereas Tuck does not have that kind of reputation. If you are considering an international job, you may have, more than mere opportunity, a marked advantage when applying for international work.
Another aspect of the business school our clients often consider when deciding where to pursue their MBA are the school’s rankings. Yale SOM is currently ranked #9 in US News business school ranking. It is also ranked #10 by Poets and Quants in their 2020-2021 ranking. However, as DelMonico points out, some of Yale’s principles and goals may result in a rank that’s slightly less than the business school’s caliber.
Yale SOM’s US News ranking is always slightly lower when it comes to things like average starting salary. Many applicants look at that and assume a poor relationship with high caliber employers. In this particular case, however, it is worth looking at some of the factors involved in this seeming disparity.
DelMonico insists that when you compare apples-to-apples in isolated industries, such as consulting, Yale SOM gets all the same recruiters that other top programs get. Yale’s recruitment profile is solid at home, as well as excellent abroad.
We mentioned Yale SOM’s consistent MBA placement in the non-profit sector, but we would also like to elaborate on Yale’s efforts to prepare students to make a social impact in their careers. To this end, Yale offers seven areas of focus within this realm:
As part of the curriculum, you can take electives focusing on social impact such as Global Social Entrepreneurship and Urban Poverty and Economic development. Moreover, at Yale, you can be part of the Net Impact group that will connect you to other socially conscious students and relevant events and conferences.
