Darden vs Yale SOM

I hope this thread can maintain a positive and constructive atmosphere and no one is immature enough to turn this into a pissing contest with unnecessary attacks... I go to Yale SOM btw.

With respect to Yale vs Darden, I think both are great schools that deserve a personal visit. Ultimately, both schools are going to be similar since they represent more intimate environments, located a bit away from major cities. I think given your interests, you are probably going to get a better classroom education at Darden since everything is taught on the foundation of case-method analyses. At Yale, the classes are probably a good mix with some lectures and some case methods...

In terms of recruiting, Darden might be a better fit for you since that school probably places more people into consulting than Yale SOM. Nonetheless, we were pretty strong in consulting last year too. Out of 235 students first-year students, we had 7 offers for Bain, 6 for BCG and 3 McKinsey. All three are back on campus for full-time recruiting too. We also had a bunch go to other firms ranging from A.T. Kearney to PwC. Yale SOM's comparative strength is probably finance. Out of those 235 first-years, we had 40 students go for investment banking internships and 30 of them went to bulge-bracket banks. On a percentage of student basis, our finance placement was good as any other school. Yale SOM's strength is its small class size, which provided (based on unofficial sources) the most recent class with a 100% internship placement rate!

One of the things I was surprised about was also our placement into great private equity and hedge funds. Some seconds years went directly to the buyside through a strong commitment from Yale College alums. I think ultimately that is going to be perhaps our greatest strength. Dean Snyder wants Yale SOM to be the business school that is the most plugged in to the bedrock of its home university. There are some many powerhouse Yale brands ranging from the Law School to the Forestry School that can provide students here with many more perspectives and alumni networks. Although we currently can take a lot of cross-listed courses, the next year or two will see a lot more collaboration develop. If you are applying this year, you will also be among the first class to use the new campus. The new building is being built right now and it is literally breathtaking. If you do attend, I will be very very jealous of the building-factor alone...