Calling All Fall 2011 Yale SOM Applicants

Hey everyone ... congrats to those who made it and all the best to those who are still waiting ... I got in - Im a Silver Scholar (will be matriculating straight from undergrad) ... keep the hope alive!

Ding for me. Congrats to the all the admits.

I'm not giving up hope. Took the weekend to lick my wounds, but I'm committed to Yale.

Just got the continuing waitlist status update. That settles it for me, I'm going to Johnson. I've withdrawn from the SOM waitlist.

Good luck to everyone!

For All New Students:

I thought every one knew about these videos and etc on the YSOM website but I guess they can be hard to find.

I keep getting PMs from various people about orientation and what to expect once the school starts, etc.

I can write back to PMs but I think these resources do much better job ~

Orientation and Getting Started for School
Orientation Video
First Yr International Experience
Starting Classes
Finance Bootcamp
Summer Internships

ETC
Investor Trading Game
Student Consulting Projects
Finance: Visit to Paulson & Co
Class of 2010 and 2011

1st Yr Core Curriculum and Study Group - Videos
Study Group
Customer
Integrated Leadership
Competitor

I believe that scholarship offers would have been given with the admissions decision (I didn't receive one, so can't say with 100% certainty).

I understand your apprehension - now that the initial euphoria of the admit has subdued, I've turned my thoughts to the question of how I'm going to pay for this thing. Rates on Grad PLUS loans are 7.9% with a pretty hefty origination fee. Based on some quick math, if you borrow the full cost of tuition (call it $100k) and commit to repay in 5 years, you're looking at a monthly payment in the range of $2,000. Yikes.

No wonder so many b-school students compete for the highest paying jobs. I'm currently in investment banking, and was planning to move into a lower-paying field after b-school - my fear is that the weight of my student debt will seriously constrain my freedom to change career paths.

Current students: can you comment on the availability of TA positions? I'd imagine that these are reserved for the highest performers, but are they an otherwise viable option and do they pay well?

In addition to TAing undergrad courses, it's also possible to TA the core first year SOM courses (Macro, Micro, Accounting, etc. etc.) as a second year student, provided you achieve a grade of "Distinction" (reserved for the top 10% of each class).

Yes, adcom confirmed to me that international students qualify. The salary limit per year is equal to the average salary of the graduating class. If your salary is below this, your entire loan commitment for the year is taken care of. If your salary is above this, a part of your loan repayment is given by Yale. You would need to apply every year for the loan forgiveness program and you can avail it for a maximum of 10 years.

Just to throw that out there - all these were fully booked as of last week. And all the B&Bs in the area too. Bulldog days!

Make sure your internet connection is stable. One time I went on a business trip to India and the rented cellphone did not have coverage in the area. Had to go to a hotel and rent their conference video/call facility and it cost me a fortune. (well, it cost my company a fortune) But the quality of the call and the video was not too good.

Also, dress properly. Prepare for the interview like you are prepared for an actual in person interview.

I'm on the waitlist from R2 and here's what I've done so far:

- Contacted someone I work with who taught at Yale (not SOM) for some years to write a brief recommendation letter. She wasn't one of my original two recommenders.
- Contacted a current SOM student I know to write a note of support.
- Contacted the waitlist manager to reiterate interest and ask for feedback. She gave me a couple of areas of weakness to address.

I'm now drafting my update letter and will send it in soon. To be honest, I'm struggling to keep it succinct and punchy. Given that the feedback was that my weaknesses from the application were lack of clarity of goals and ambiguity around work history/choices made in the past, it seems like a tough job to address that honestly and clearly while keeping it short and sweet. Still, I will try.

Any thoughts on any aspect of this, particularly what would be an approximate acceptable length for the letter, would be greatly appreciated.

Also, out of curiosity is it completely unheard of for someone taken off the WL late on in the process to be offered a scholarship? I know Yale isn't exactly throwing scholarships around anyway compared to some schools (presumably they divert a lot of their finaid resources into the loan forgiveness) and coming from the WL it would seem like a very big ask, especially given that they state openly that the money starts to dry up after R2. The waitlist FAQs say that it's still a possibility to get one, but I was wondering if there were any real examples?

Thanks in advance for any help

Guys and gals - have a great time during Welcome Weekend. Ask lots of questions, meet your future classmates, and explore everything that the school has to offer. And if presented with the dilemma of partying late (even though you'll have stuff to do early Saturday morning) or going to bed early, please make the right choice

Had my interview with adcom over Skype. Adcom was cordial. Lasted 25 minutes.


Hope this helps. Good luck!

Just Finished my video interview.

Procedure:

1 - Follow the link in your email. This will take you to the interviewstream website where you will complete your questions.
2 - Read the details, watch the instruction vid, nothing complicated.
3 - When you click start you'll test your equipment and be offered a test question. Take it, it will give you a feel for the real q's.
4 - Click continue and you'll be given an introduction the the interview by the head of admissions, for me this was actually quite calming and gave me a couple of seconds to breath. The intro implies that not all applicants are given the opportunity to interview and that they are using the system to help reduce carbon footprint. The reputation of Yale for social responsibility leads me to believe that this is probably true, however I'm sure that there is a cost benefit as well so expect other schools to adopt this in the future, particularly for international students.
5 - When you click start the question is both read out by the head of admissions and written on the screen. I read fast so, I got a couple of extra seconds to think about my answer before the recording started.
6 - When the head of admissions finished talking there is a 3, 2, 1, countdown and the recording begins. You'll see a progress bar and a countdown clock. This helped me to frame my answer in the required sixty seconds but made the interview feel frantic and perhaps a bit rushed.
7 - Rinse and repeat for the other two questions.
8 - Click submit, you'll have no opportunity to redo any questions you mess up on so be prepared to give it your best shot first time round.

Thoughts...

I generally approve of this, It's a good way to get some face time with the adcom if visiting is somewhat difficult. The questions are as others have described but with some minor differences so best strategy is to prepare as you would for any other interview but frame your answers in sixty seconds or less.

If anyone still has their interview to complete I hope this helps.

Good luck.

RHB

I just received a call R1 waitlister and accepted to the SOM class of 2013!

Wooohoo!

Nink, I've been out of the country the past three weeks and during that time decided to matriculate at YSOM this fall. Update the roll call! I'll change my font to blue when I figure out how to do that next. Thanks for the help and advice you've provided all of us this application season.

Hi all, i'm considering applying to Yale for Fall 2011. All best!