Yale Class of 2016 Calling all applicants!

An online "application tips" chat led by Bruce DelMonico took place at noon today. They'll be posting the presentation on the website soon (if you're on the prospective student newsletter, you'll get a head's up), but I'll summarize some of the points I found most interesting from the presentation and the Q&A chat (which won't be archived).

Quant Skills
There was a lot of focus on this. Admissions will be looking through your undergraduate transcript and your work experience for quant-skills indicators, so if you don't have any, they recommend building an alternative transcript. It doesn't matter where you take the classes, as long as you're performing well. Your GMAT quant scores could also be used.

The five core quant competencies they're looking for are calculus, statistics, macroeconomics, accounting, and another one that I didn't catch. Stats and macroeconomics are especially key. They recommend that every student have a foundational understanding of each of those before they begin at SOM.

Although there are no formal cut-offs, for the GMAT, you should aim to be above the 60th percentile for quant. Bruce said that scores in the 70th percentile and higher would "put you in a stronger position." SOM admits/students skew higher on verbal.


GMAT/GRE Advice
Bruce says that it's not worth retaking the GMAT if you can't reasonably expect to score 40+ points higher.

A significant portion of current SOM students took the GMATs more than once. However, admissions thinks there are diminishing returns after 2-3 tests.

They are not going to look at IR scores very closely, or possibly at all. Since this portion of the test is so new, they're not sure how to evaluate it. (Woohoo!)

They do not weigh the GREs differently from the GMATs. There is no difference in rates of admissions for candidates submitting one or the other. However, Rebekah from admissions says that, "The only time we may suggest a GMAT over a GRE is if you have no quantitative familiarity at all (work experience, study, etc), as it may help us feel more comfortable with your quantitative skills."


General Application Advice
For the video answers, they're looking to see how well you communicate verbally and how articulate you are. However, they're not expecting perfection; they understand that with no opportunities to prepare for the questions (you'll get three, drawn from a randomized pool), your thoughts will not be fully formed. Two of the questions will be straightforward behaviorial questions, similar to what you would be asked at a job interview; the third will be a thought question, similar to the AWA section of the GMATs or the GRE writing sample. You should wear business casual.

Unless you have a huge amount of work experience and accomplishments, your resume should be one page. However, don't worry if the uploader splits it into two pages when you submit. Your resume should focus on full-time work experience. Use the activities portion of the application to discuss extracurricular involvements.

Bruce strongly recommends that you do not share your essays with your recommenders because if there is similar language in your essays and your recommendations, admissions will assume the worst (i.e., that you wrote your own recommendations).

They reduced the number of essays this year for two reasons: 1) to make room for the video answers; and 2) to encourage applicants to weigh essays equally with other application elements. Still, they recommend paying attention to your essays.

Don't hide your weaknesses; they will see them regardless. It's important to incorporate or contextualize them in your application, though; just be sure that you aren't leading with them.