What about people who are 35 years old and who really want to do a full
time program?
Again, that would be determined case by case. We certainly don’t
discriminate by age. Every year we have a pretty wide range of ages in
the MBA classroom. We have to figure out what they expect from the program
and what it will do for them.
An executive MBA program probably does make sense for most
people who have lots of years of work experience. We are now starting an
executive MBA program for professionals in health care. We just started it a
couple of weeks ago, so it is brand new. It is a class of over 20 people,
consisting of doctors, nurses, and executives who have 10 to 15 or more
years of work experience. They have an opportunity to really learn from each
other at that level.
What area of work experience should applicants most heavily emphasize in
their application?
We want to hear about measurable accomplishments within their realm, within
their area of responsibility. For instance, where have they been innovative?
Where have they led? Where have they made a difference? How have they made
an impact? We want to see passion and excitement for what they do, and we
want to see that they strive to do their best in everything that they do.
The most important thing is to be honest. People get laid off, people lose
their jobs due to reorganization. That’s fine. We understand that, as we
have all had experiences like these in our lives. We don’t want to see
people hiding things or misrepresenting them. A significant portion of
people who are denied admission are denied because something is not quite
accurate.
What pre-MBA industries do you think are an easier fit, given your
recruiters?
We really like to see a variety. Certainly a higher percentage of our
graduates go into finance. As for someone who wants to go into management
consulting -- the consulting firms tend not to care so much about which
industries you worked in before. They just want smart, hard-working people.
We
really look at the individual to see what they want to do and compare it to
what have they done so far. We don’t have any quotas per industry. We select
from a very wide range, from finance to consumer goods to non-profit
management.
The Yale School of Management’s MBA has many distinguishing
characteristics, including its renowned faculty, its integration with the
university, and its convenient location between New York and Boston. But
what would you cite as the most important distinguishing characteristic upon
which accepted candidates base their decision to attend Yale over other
schools?
We have a new dean who just started in July, Joel Podolny. He’s terrific and
really understands what is going on in the MBA marketplace. Right now there
is a certain amount of skepticism out there about the value and relevance of
an MBA. In general, MBAs are people who do want more out of life. We think
that the Yale School of Management is the place for them. He sees SOM as an
opportunity for us to establish ourselves as a model for raising the
standard of accountability that is expected of the business world -- not
just for the sake of results or shareholders, but out of a concern by
businesses for the communities in which they operate.
Our mission is educating leaders for business in society.
That has always been a mission of our school. That mission is stronger now
than ever. Accountability has to be not just to quarterly profits, but also
to a meaningful life consistent with values. That is something that
continues to be integral to the School’s mission, and you can see many
examples of it. If you look at who is rebuilding ground zero after 9/11,
there are a disproportionate number of Yalies.
Yale offers students the opportunity to enroll in eight different dual
degree programs including the MBA/JD, MBA/MPH, and MBA/MFA. Approximately
how many students per MBA class are enrolled in such programs?
It is a small number, and it is hard to count them because they are in two
programs. Probably the biggest numbers are with the environmental school. We
tend to have five to seven there every year. About three percent of our
students are doing joint degrees with the environmental school. We tend to
have over 20 students altogether at any one time who are somewhere in the three
years of that program. Then we always have a couple of students from Yale
Law School, and we always have several from the medical school.
What is the best advice you would offer a candidate preparing for an
admissions interview at Yale?
We don’t play tricks. We have a very straightforward, 30-minute interview. We spend most of that time asking the candidate to walk us through his
or her résumé. We take lots of notes so we can report back to the people who
didn’t have the pleasure of meeting that candidate.
We are really looking for two things. One thing we are looking for
is actual information of substance and content. You can look at a résumé and
not always understand it, so we ask a lot about transitions [from one job to
another].
The other thing we are looking for is communication ability.
Obviously, it is very important that the candidate know how to market himself
or herself. So we are really looking at communication ability and thinking
about how this person will contribute in our classroom and how they will
appear in front of our recruiters.
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