Yale SOM 2013 - Calling All Applicants

This post has links to the ground transportation options that Yale suggests:

yale-som-2013-calling-all-applicants-135398-160.html?hilit=haven#p1133692

I had a great experience with GO Airport Shuttle, even in a nasty storm. I've also heard that the Taxi service can do door to door for about the same price, and you don't have to risk driving all over Connecticut for pick ups and drop offs. 203 777-7777

I had my interview on-campus yesterday. Again, SOM has not let me down - every student/alum I have met have all been more than enthusiastic to help, take time out of their day to talk about the school, or just offer advice. (Great meeting you MAJMMM!)

My interview started off fairly formulaic but towards the end things were a bit more loose and relaxed (probably a common wavelength for many MBA interviews). The interviewer was super friendly, and none of the questions were really anything you shouldn't otherwise be already prepared for. He did emphasize though that the interview was only one component of the entire application picture; basically, a weak interview won't necessarily ding you but acing the interview still doesn't mean you're going to get that acceptance letter! (The latter of which is kind of a bummer, since a great interview can create a lot of real positive momentum, all of which can be deflated in an instant with a ding).

anyways, best of luck everyone!

A little over 2 weeks until the big day!

Had my interview earlier this week and enjoyed spending the day at SOM learning about the atmosphere inside and outside the classroom. I had two questions that I didn't get a chance to ask and didn't know if others had insights:

- The "raw cases": I understand these are web-based but am still having trouble understanding how they fit into the overall curriculum. The class I attended didn't seem to incorporate any raw cases - the professor did solicit some feedback for the last five minutes on cases, but this was literally it. Not sure if there is any actual class time devoted to discussing these cases or if it was purely an extracurricular exercise.

- The interview: I was under the impression that almost all interviews were conducted by second-years. Every other prospective candidate that was in attendance that day seemed to have experienced an interview with second-years; however, my interview was with an AdCom. Perhaps I'm just reading too much into this and it was just a matter of availability but was curious if anyone else had this experience.

I understand that SOM matches interviewers to the candidates in terms of career interests (ie: consulting track MBA student interviews applicant with career goals in consulting). Maybe there wasn't a good match available during your slot?

The raw cases (as opposed to the "cooked" cases that HBS and Darden put out) are awesome. I have really like what we have done with them so far. They are quite labor-intensive to make, so we haven't done a ton of them, (our other cases have largely been HBS and pre-"raw" SOM, with a few Darden and INSEAD), but I've been thoroughly impressed by how the raw case mimics today's research experience. They basically give you a prompt for discussion, and then more data than you and your team could EVER CONSUME in the amount of time you have. You have to divide and conquer, sift through financials, press, research papers, and expert testimony, (including a lot of varied media: video, podcasts, schematics, etc.), in order to find the best answers possible by the time class rolls around. This is usually within 48-72 hours, btw. It's actually really fun, and makes me really excited for the Global Network for Advanced Management expanding on this practice. They also continually update the cases each year, and none of them have been fully resolved, so the Zynga case that we did this year in Competitor will likely be completely different by this time next year.

Hope that helps!

My interview was with a second-year whose background and career goals are completely different from mine. I didn't think about it too much or wonder why they weren't matching me better - I still felt that it went well. I wouldn't read into it too much.

This is helpful. Thx.

Had my interview on campus earlier this week. Definitely a great group of people and everyone came off as extremely helpful and smart. The only point of concern I had leaving Yale was that if you're interested in going the finance/PE route the school doesn't seem to have many students interested in that track. I probably could have figured that from looking at employment data, but it definitely hit me while I was there.

Overall great experience and, similar to everyone else on this forum, I'm very anxious to hear back in two week.s

A finance person who interviewed on the same day as me felt the same way. Though, if you're in finance/PE and are okay with a more diverse student body (or at least one that's not a majority finance students), then Yale might be a better place for you.

Chupacabra, aren't you bound to CBS ED anyways?

Perhaps there is somewhat of a silver lining - maybe it could work in your favor, assuming that if finance/PE firms are recruiting on campus at Yale, then you'll have less "competition" to fill those limited internship slots

Hm... I would venture to guess that at least a third of our class comes from, or is looking to go into finance/PE/VC or some sort of Impact Investing. I would note, however, that there's probably not a lot of cross-pollination between them and the folks who are working on Admissions stuff. This is likely due to the fact that the timelines for Finance recruiting are so quick that it makes it hard for these folks to participate in leading tours, talking to prospectives, and attending admissions receptions. Once the Winter Break socials are posted, you'll probably find a bunch of the finance folks hosting socials throughout the break in cities across the country and globally.

Yale also has a private equity conference each year. https://pe.som.yale.edu/2012/index.html

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Hi everyone,

It looks like Yale posted their Winter Social calendar. I'm guessing more updates will probably come in the next few weeks, too. Hope everyone has a chance to meet with some cool SOM-ers

https://mba.yale.edu/MBA/admissions/events.asp

the final countdown. sort of scary that SOM is probably finalizing a list this coming week (or maybe even last week?)

In less than a fortnight we shall know where we stand...

I'm curious: is anyone still scheduled for an interview these next twelve days? Or is the admissions committee in the middle of deliberations/decisions now?