Business Schools Pound the Pavement for MBA Job Seekers

Recently the Yale Daily News ran an article about how the Yale SOM alumni network has matured to the point where current students benefit from the wide variety of Yale alumni across industries. This is notable since the school has only been around since 1976 -- making it a spring chicken compared to most top MBA programs.

However, as good as that news is for Yale students, what we found even more impressive is how the school's own administration -- all the way up to Dean Sharon Oster -- hasn't hesitated to make personal appeals to the school's alumni and supporters, in the name of helping students find jobs in a tough economy.

According to the Yale Daily News:

In an e-mail to all SOM alumni, Oster called on the school's graduates to step up and help current students, recent graduates and even other alumni seeking jobs and internships.

"Although the economy seems to be showing signs of improvement, most of my faculty colleagues agree that we're not out of the woods yet," Oster wrote in the e-mail. "The strength of the SOM community is most visible in times of adversity, and so I am writing to you now to tap into some of that strength."

Within a few hours, Oster had received hundreds of responses.

We love this kind of commitment to helping Yale students find jobs. After all, as important as a student's two years in the classroom are, at least as important are the professional opportunities that an MBA opens up for that student. Some schools were a little slow to remember this (in our opinion) as the economy started to sink in 2008, but it's great to see that this is not the case in 2010.

Of course, when Yale SOM makes news, our co-founders (both Yale SOM '02) are always happy to weigh in! Veritas Prep co-founder Chad Troutwine was quoted in the article, and he cheered Oster's actions:

Chad Troutwine SOM '02, the co-founder and owner of test operations and admissions consulting company Veritas Prep, said he was glad to receive Oster's message.

"I'm always impressed with a dean who rolls up her sleeves and dives in to perform what is perhaps her most important function —- and that is doing everything in her power to help graduates or first-year students to land jobs," he said.

For more advice on your own candidacy for Yale SOM or any other top business school, call the business school admissions experts at Veritas Prep at (800) 925-7737, and we'll gladly give you an initial assessment of your candidacy!

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Yale SOM Names Edward A. Snyder New Dean

This morning the Yale School of Management announced that Edward A. Snyder, currently Dean and George Shultz Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has agreed to become the next Dean of the Yale School of Management. Snyder, who last fall announced his decision to step down from the role of Dean at Chicago Booth on June 30, 2010, won't actually begin his term immediately. He will take a year off, and then step into the Dean's office at Yale SOM on July 1, 2011. Current Yale SOM Dean Sharon Oster will continue on in her current role until then.

When Snyder announced that he was leaving Chicago Booth, it made a lot of waves in the education space, since he had put together one of the most successful tenures of any business school dean in recent memory. Under his leadership, Chicago Booth almost doubled its number of endowed professorships and more than tripled its scholarship assistance to MBA students. He transformed Chicago Booth by overseeing the move to the school's new Hyde Park campus and establishing a new campus in London. The school is now expanding its presence in Singapore and is playing a significant role in the University’s involvement in China.

And, the name says it all: In 2008, he announced a $300 million gift from Chicago alumnus David Booth and his family, which was the largest donation in the history of the University of Chicago and the largest gift to any business school in the world. In recognition of this gift, the school was renamed in Booth's honor.

This move marks the end of a long run in Hyde Park for Snyder, punctuated by stints in the public and private sector. He received both his M.A. in public policy, in 1978, and Ph.D. in economics, in 1984, from Chicago. He first started his professional career Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served for four years. He then moved on to academia at the business school of the University of Michigan, where he also served as Senior Associate Dean and founding director of the Davidson Institute, which focuses on emerging markets.

Before taking over as Dean of Chicago Booth (then called Chicago GSB) in 2001, Snyder was the Dean at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business from 1998 to 2001. At Darden, he directed an expansion of the school's MBA program, worked to improve the diversity of the student body, significantly increased the school's executive education offerings, and led highly successful fundraising efforts, including a record gift from a single donor.

The Yale SOM alumni here at Veritas Prep HQ are celebrating the announcement, while the Kellogg alumnus here is disappointed since he was hoping that Snyder might take over from Dipak Jain, who stepped down as the Dean at Kellogg last September.

For advice on getting into Yale download our free Yale SOM Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools, available on our site. If you're ready to start building your own application for Wharton or other top MBA programs, call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today!

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In a Rough Job Market, Some Business Schools Fare Better than Others

Last week BusinessWeek ran an article titled "MBAs Confront a Savage Job Market," which painted a pretty rough picture for many grads of top MBA programs. At some top business schools, as many as 20% of grads were still unemployed three months after graduation. Furthermore, according to BusinessWeek, 16.5% of job-seeking students from the top 30 MBA programs did not get even one offer within three months of graduation (compared to 5% for the Class of 2008).

Salary numbers also suggested that the job market for MBAs isn't great: Starting pay was down from about $98,000 in 2008 to $96,500 this year. For many of the top-30 business schools, this is the first time since the the dot-com crash that salaries haven't increased, adding to the evidence that this is truly a once-in-a-generation (or once-in-a-decade?) downturn.

Fortunately for some grads, though, the world of top-30 business schools is not universally gloomy. Some schools' career offices have been able to direct their students into more stable industries, such as government, health care, energy, and the non-profit sector. While becoming a mid-level government bureaucrat may not quite hold the same appeal as being a six-figure-making banker, many grads have opened their eyes and realized that these sectors are where the jobs are right now, and are taking these jobs when they can.

In other cases, hiring did happen, although it happened later than it normally does. The Kellogg School of Management, for instance, reported that 85% of of its grads received at least one offer, although many students received offers late in the spring -- months later than they normally would. (To learn more about the Kellogg School of Management, download our free Veritas Prep Kellogg Annual Report.)

Other top schools have also been able to weather the storm pretty well. BusinessWeek ranked the schools in terms of how well they've held up job-wise in the recession, with Yale, Washington University, HBS, Stanford, and MIT Sloan coming out on top. At Yale, for example, only 8% of grads were without any job offers three months after graduation, just two percentage points higher than a year ago. While not all of these placed grads ended up in the careers they envisioned when they first applied to business school, you can be sure that they're glad to have jobs at all.

If you're just now starting to research business schools, download our 15 free Veritas Prep Annual Reports. If you're ready to craft your own winning application, call us at 800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today!

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Yale SOM Application Essays and Deadlines for 2009-2010

Yale SOM Director of Admissions Bruce DelMonico was kind enough to reach out recently and let us know that Yale has posted it application essays and deadlines for the coming season. It looks like Yale has significantly overhauled its essays for the coming year, going with shorter essays that will require brevity and focus.

Key information is below, followed by our comments, in italics:

Yale SOM Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 8, 2009
Round 2: January 7, 2010
Round 3: March 10, 2010

(Note that, like other top MBA programs, Yale will release its Round 1 admissions decisions in December, before the holidays. This is a tremendous help if Yale is your top choice, and you want to know your status with Yale before deciding to dive into a whole batch of Round 2 applications over the holidays. We expect this trend of earlier decision notifications will continue among the top programs.)

Yale SOM Application Essays
Please answer each of the four questions below with a short paragraph of no more than 150 words. This is an opportunity to distill your core ideas, values, goals and motivations into a set of snapshots that help tell us who you are, where you are headed, and why. (600 words total)

1. What are your professional goals immediately after you receive your MBA?


2. What are your long-term career aspirations?


3. Why are you choosing to pursue an MBA and why now? (If you plan to use your MBA experience to make a significant change in the field or nature of your career, please tell us what you have done to prepare for this transition.)


4. What attracts you specifically to the Yale School of Management’s MBA program?

(Wow, 150 each! This will really challenge you to be succinct and get right to the point in answering the school's questions. But, don't despair. We think this is a good thing. Each of these "micro-essay" questions covers a topic that you should be well prepared to answer by now. Yale is just asking you to cut the fat and get right to it, so the best thing you can do is answer these questions head-on. Career switchers should take special note of the additional instruction in Question #3. In this economic climate, Yale, like all schools, is especially interested to know how well you will do in the post-MBA job market. Career switching is fine, and is even a great reason for pursuing an MBA, but you need to show that you've done your homework and are realistic about your intended career.)


Personal Statement 1

Describe an accomplishment that exhibits your leadership style. The description should include evidence of your leadership skills, the actions you took, and the impact you had on your organization. (500 words)
(This is almost exactly the same as last year's question, with one notable omission: Last year's question asked for a professional accomplishment, but this question asks for any achievement that demonstrates your leadership style. Think broadly about a time when your being there made something happen -- something that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for you. Yale especially wants to learn how you did it, and what impact you ultimately had on the group.)

Personal Statement 2

Choose one of the following topics and answer it in essay form. Please indicate the topic number at the beginning of your essay. (500 words)

1. A central premise of our teaching about leadership at the Yale School of Management is that true leadership—leadership that helps to address a significant problem in a new way—is necessarily personal. It is only when personal passion aligns with meaningful aspirations that individuals are able to inspire others to act in support of an important goal or cause. What are you most passionate about, and how have you demonstrated a commitment to this passion?


2. What achievement are you most proud of and why?


3. What is the most difficult feedback you have received from another person or the most significant weakness you have perceived in yourself? What steps have you taken to address it and how will business school contribute to this process?


4. Describe a situation in which you devised and implemented a creative or unique solution to a difficult problem. What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?


5. Required for reapplicants: What steps have you taken to improve your candidacy since your last application?

(Some of these questions carry over from last year. Along the lines of the removal of "professional" from Personal Statement 1, in Question #2 here the school has changed it from "what personal achievement" to "what achievement are you most proud of." This is another example of the school wanting you to think broadly about your answers here. Of all of the questions, we still really like Question #1: "What are you passionate about?" Giving a standout answer to this -- including concrete examples of your passion -- is a great way for you to stand out vs. other applicants.

It's interesting to note that Yale has removed its "SOM Story" and "What unique attributes will you bring to Yale?" questions... These must not have been giving the Yale admissions team enough in terms of what it needs to distinguish applicants from one another.)

Additional Information (Optional)

If any aspect of your candidacy needs further explanation, please provide any additional information that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider. (250 words)

(As always, only use this essay if absolutely necessary. If there's a weakness that you feel you must address, then do so succinctly and then move on. Do not make this a catch-all bucket for excuses about holes in your candidacy!)

For more information and advice on applying to Yale, visit Veritas Prep's Yale SOM information page. For even more advice on applying to Yale SOM, download our FREE Veritas Prep Annual Reports! Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter!

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Yale Adds Three-Year JD/MBA Program

Big news coming out of New Haven, Connecticut, as Yale has announced the addition of a three-year JD/MBA program to its graduate school options.

The official name of the program is the "Accelerated Integrated JD-MBA Program," which is certainly a literal title, as well as a mouthful. It is focused on students interested in "business law," which sounds specific, but lends itself to all of the careers we typically see from a JD/MBA track, including transactional law, corporate governance, regulatory law, entrepreneurship, and a host of other professional paths. So the thrust of the program doesn't sound dramatically different from the other three-year programs that are already available at elite universities (Penn, Northwestern, Duke).

However, on closer inspection, there are two significant differences between Yale's program and the others mentioned above:

1. There is more focus on the law. At the other elite three-year JD/MBA programs, the emphasis is often on the management or finance aspects of the program. This is evident in the way the program is built, but even more so in the way the applications are set up. In particular, the application for the Northwestern three-year program is basically a minor deviation from the Kellogg application, and nearly all of the questions are about leadership, teammwork, work experience, and other "MBA" issues. In the case of Yale, it seems that the program is anchored more in the law school curriculum and I suspect that the application process will reflect that as well.

(Note: This makes sense on an intuitive level, since Yale's law school is the top ranked law school in the country and is quite a bit more prestigious -- relatively speaking -- than the School of Management. Certainly, the pairing of Yale Law and Yale SOM represents the greatest disparity in relative ranking strength. In fact, in the case of Penn and Wharton, it is the business school that enjoys the greater ranking prestige relative to its peers. From this, one could surmise that the law school will also be driving the admissions decisions.)

2. No summer classes. I'm not sure how Yale is going to pull this magic trick off (early indications are the complete elimination of electives and "non essential" coursework), but the three-year program is truly three academic years (six semester). In other words, no summer course work. This is a huge deal, because it should reduce tuition costs (for more on the tuition considerations of a JD/MBA, see here), while freeing up both the first and second summers to seek out either legal or business employment experiences.

All told this is a major addition to the three-year JD/MBA options currently available to interested candidates and yet another sign (coming on the heels of Penn announcing its own program last fall) that this degree is enjoying an increase in both popularity and accessibility.

For those interested in learning more about JD/MBA programs, exploring whether the degree might be a good fit, or looking for assistance with a JD/MBA application, please explore our JD/MBA admissions consulting services.

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MBA Admissions Tips from Yale

Recently the Yale School of Management admissions office posted some admissions tips for those applicant who are working on their Round Two deadlines. Among the tips that they offered:

• Review Your Essays -- Before you submit your application, it's important to review your essays to be sure your goals are well articulated and you've covered all the points you want to convey. You may also want to have a friend or family member proofread them because it's always helpful to have a second pair of eyes to catch things you may have missed. Just remember essays should be entirely your own work.


• Send Your Official Test Score Reports -- If you haven't already, designate Yale SOM to receive your score reports electronically. If we don't receive your report close to the admissions deadline, the review of your application may be delayed.


• Make Your Resume Stand Out -- Instead of just listing your job responsibilities, be sure you've highlighted special projects and new initiatives that have contributed to the success of your office.

Also, the Yale admissions office reports that they have sent out about two-thirds of the total candidates whom they plan on interviewing from Round One. So, if you haven't yet heard anything from Yale about an admissions interview yet, don't worry -- they may just not have reviewed you application yet. And, they may keep sending out interview invitations right up until the decision deadline, so there's still plenty of time to hear from Yale!

Just a reminder that Yale SOM's Round Two deadline is January 7, 2009. If you would like some last-minute help on your Yale essays, take a look at Veritas Prep's MBA essay editing services.

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Yale SOM Applications Rise 4% in Round One

Take Yale Daily news reported on Thursday that Round One applications to Yale SOM increased by 4% vs. Round One last year.

According to Yale SOM Director of Admissions Bruce DelMonico, the school received 928 applications by its October deadline, compared to 894 received in October, 2007. That puts Yale on pace to pace to receive more than 3,000 applications in the 2008-2009 MBA admissions season.

On top of the growing numbers, DelMonino also reports that the admissions office is "seeing not only greater numbers, but also greater quality." As one indicator of this quality, the average GMAT score of Yale's Round One applicants was 698, two points higher than last year's average.

Yale SOM's Round 1 pool also included 78 applicants from The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, reflecting the results of a push by the school to attarct more minority candidates. And while Yale has actually been shrinking its class size recently, the school has publicly stated that it may take on a few more students to increase tuition revenues to offset declining returns from Yale's endowment. DelMonico expects next year's class to have up to 200 students, up from 193 students this year.

For more information on applying to Yale, visit the Veritas Prep Yale SOM information page. And if you're working Yale essays now, see Veritas Prep's sample MBA essays.

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Yale Dean Joel Podolny to Step Down

Big news at Yale... Yesterday the Yale School of Management announced that Joel Podolny will leave his post as dean of the school to join Apple as vice president and dean of the company's coming Apple University. Effective November 1, Professor Sharon Oster will take the reins as interim dean while the school conducts a search for Podolny's permanent replacement.

It's an understatement to say that Podolny has made a big impact on Yale in his three and a half years there. The number of applications to Yale has increased by 50% over the past five years and the school's full-time faculty has grown by 20% (even as the school has deliberately reduced its class size). And while a school is so much more than its building, Yale SOM's new campus (scheduled for completion in 2011) will stand as a testament to Podolny's last impact on the school.

In an email to the Yale SOM community, Podolny expressed his bittersweet feelings about leaving behind Yale for Apple:

So even as I am excited about this new chapter in my life, I am very sad to be leaving SOM. However, I can state unequivocally that I would not consider leaving if I did not feel that the school was on a strong footing. As a school, we know who we are. We have embraced our distinct mission, and are singularly and fundamentally focused on cultivating a distinct model of leadership, a model that can and should be applied across industry and sector. We know we will soon have a spectacular new campus that will support and sustain our educational model. As a community of faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends, we know what we must do to execute on the unique and necessary MBA curriculum that we have pioneered.

Podolny won't actually join Apple until early 2009, and will stay on the Yale faculty and will continue to teach until then. He and the school are doing the right thing by getting the transition started now.

While we at Veritas Prep were mainly asking "What does this mean for Yale?" when we first heard the news, it also makes us wonder about Apple and its education initiatives. The company has in some ways returned to its education roots by embracing how colleges use its iPod and iTunes system to allow students to access a library of course lectures. While many in the press have speculated that the company's Apple University will be a training program for employees, we wonder if it's actually a much broader digital education play that Apple may make in the next couple of years.

For more advice about applying to Yale, visit the Veritas Prep Yale School of Management information page.

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Yale SOM Application Essays and Deadlines for 2008-2009

The Yale School of Management recently released its application essays and deadlines for the 2008-2009 admissions season. Our comments are in italics:

Yale SOM Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 22, 2008
Round 2: January 7, 2009
Round 3: March 18. 2009

Yale SOM Application Essays

1. Why a Yale MBA?
   
   What is the impact that you wish to have on the world? How will your previous experiences and a Yale MBA enhance your ability, in the short-term and long-term, to pursue a career that will allow you to achieve this impact? (500 words maximum)
   
   (This is very different from last year's more standard "Why an MBA?" question. Like many other top schools, Yale seems to be moving away from that common question and trying to dig deeper. But don't reach too far here... Be honest about what impact you see yourself having on the world. Yale does not expect to fill its class with a couple of hundred people who will stop global warming and end famine. Be honest about what you think an MBA will help you achieve, and why this is so. In that respect, this question is still the same as last year's. We think Yale is simply looking for a more personal introspective bent, beyond just your career goals.)
   



2. Leadership Example
   
   Describe a professional accomplishment that exhibits your leadership style. The accomplishment should include evidence of your leadership skills, a description of the actions you took, as well as the impact you had on your organization. (500 words maximum)


(This is reworded from last year's question, but the substance is very similar. You need to describe a time when your being there made something happen -- something that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for you.)


3. Personal Statement 1
   
   Choose one of the following topics and answer it in essay form. Please indicate the topic number at the beginning of your essay. (500 words maximum)
   
   (1) A central premise of our teaching about leadership at the Yale School of Management is that true leadership – leadership that helps to address a significant problem in a new way – is necessarily personal. It is only when personal passion aligns with meaningful aspirations that individuals are able to inspire others to act in support of an important goal or cause. What are you most passionate about, and how have you demonstrated a commitment to this passion?
   
   (2) What personal achievement are you most proud of and why?
   
   (3) Describe a situation in which your values were challenged. How did you respond to the situation and what did you learn from it?
   
   (4) A phrase often heard among SOM graduates is that they aspire to lead a life that is an “SOM Story” – that of a broadly engaged, values-based leader who owns and solves hard problems that matter. How will you create your own SOM Story? Describe a situation in which you devised and implemented a creative or innovative solution to a difficult problem. What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?
   
   (5) The Yale School of Management is a community of individuals with diverse backgrounds and interests. What unique attributes would you bring to the Class of 2011?
   
   (6) What is the most difficult feedback you have received and how did you address it? Looking forward, what skills are you most eager to build or improve upon in business school?
   
   (7) Required for reapplicants: What steps have you taken to improve your candidacy since your last application?


(Last year Yale asked for a personal statement and let the applicant choose the topic, which they still do this year, in the next question. The fact that they now give you a menu of questions is a strong hint that they're looking for at least some of the above traits and experiences in your application.)


4. Personal Statement 2
   
   Choose one of the topics listed in Essay 3, or create a topic of your own about a subject that is meaningful to you, and answer it in essay form. Please indicate the topic number (or state the topic if it is not one of the ones listed) at the beginning of your essay. (500 words maximum)


(You still have this chance to exercise your own creativity. It's completely fine to use one of the above questions if you don't have a more interesting topic of your own. Ideally your choice here will allow you to touch on a dimension of your application that you haven't fully covered with the above questions.)

For more advice on applying to Yale, visit the Veritas Prep Yale SOM information page.

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Tony Blair to Teach at Yale

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was recently appointed the 2008-2009 Howland Distinguished Fellow at Yale. He will lead a seminar on faith and globalization, which is going to be a joint effort between Yale's School of Management and the Yale Divinity School.

You can read the full post from Yale here.

And if you're planning to apply to Yale for the 2008-2009 school year, visit our Yale School of Management information page.

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Going GREEN

In the interest of being environmentally aware, both Harvard and Yale have announced new plans for LEED-certified buildings. Harvard has been working with a German company to develop a new science center that will be gold-certified and twice as clean in regards to greenhouse gases as other similar research facilities. Yale has been working with a London-based company, developing a new building for their School of Management, which will triple the size of their business school.

Perhaps some environmentally-savvy businesspeople were behind this?

Source: Harvard & Yale Go Green

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Congratulations to Yale

Congratulations to the Yale School of Management, for winning CNBC's "Fast Money MBA Challenge". The four Yale contestants beat out the team from Texas in the finals, and are now a (combined) $200,000 richer.

For those who missed the show (it was only 4 episodes long), here's how it went down:



Source: CNBC

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Business School Showdown!

It’s a rather well-known fact that sports do wonders for increasing a school’s national visibility. However, athletic events are tied to the main campus; they don’t ever really get tied the business schools. Enter CNBC and their “Fast Money MBA Challenge” game show.

This show will pit teams from eight business schools across the country against each other in a variety of rounds. As the teams answer questions correctly, they’ll get more money in their team’s “portfolio”. This virtual money is then “invested” (wagered) in subsequent rounds, with the most successful team being the overall winners. The winning team gets $200,000 to split amongst themselves, to pay for education costs.

When: Tonight @ 9:00pm
Participating Schools: UCLA, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, MIT, NYU, Chicago, and Texas

Source: 'Fast Money Challenge'

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New Plans

In an effort to reach the upper tier (or pantheon, as the article prefers) of business schools, the Yale School of Management hired Joel M. Podolny as their new dean. He has already reworked their entire curriculum to incorporate a more interdisciplinary approach. You can read all about him and his new changes here.

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Yale Goes Global

The Yale School of Management is, quite literally, thinking globally with their new MBA program. This exciting new program for graduate students is intended to replace some of the “traditional” courses with more relevant ones. A major aspect of this new program is the requirement of studying abroad for a few weeks. But Yale is even approaching this differently, sending students to one of a variety of locations in faculty-led groups where they will, amongst other things, meet with business and or political leaders, and complete trip projects. The Dean of the Yale School of Management, Joel M. Podolny, sums up the need for such changes to management programs:

"Most business school curricula are based on a model that made sense in the past. But today, a successful manager must be able to identify and frame business problems and move across a variety of organizational, political, and geographic boundaries to solve those problems. Our new curriculum teaches the integrated skills contemporary managers need."

The idea is that such international awareness will bolster the traditional and revisited classroom learning under this new program.

Source: Yale's New MBA Curriculum

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