Yale vs Stern vs Ross

Question

Hi everyone,

I have been accepted at Yale, Stern and Ross for the full-time MBA programs
I am a technology professional with 8+ years of experience. Looking to explore the intersection of social impact and technology post MBA.

Do help me with the decision. Thanks

bb10 · Answer

If you are an international student - then Ross has a great deal of support for internationals - career services, mentoring and treks to companies.

If you have work authorization, then Stern will give you a whole host of organic opportunities which neither Yale nor Ross (or any other small town school) will be able to provide.

Yale is a bit over-rated but the brand carries well. I can tell you that Yale does very poorly with Tech recruitment - students will openly admit this. This is a cultural hang up.

Wilch · Answer

I don't think Yale stacks up to Haas or Sloan in tech recruiting, but to say it does poorly far fetched. I'm an international student with no work experience in tech or a country whose first or even second language is English - I managed to switch region (US), industry (tech), and function (not finance) without too much trouble. As far as I know, my friends from the class of '18 who came to Yale to recruit for tech all found what they were looking for. FWIW, I was a leader of the tech club and know almost every single student in my year who primarily recruited for tech. Even those who's attempt at banking or consulting didn't pan out and used tech as a plan B or C did pretty well. If your reference points for the statement in bold are anecdotes from Yalies who graduated 4-5 years ago, it might be true. It certainly isn't true now.

You're perhaps thinking of impact investing or CSR at tech firms. I personally know someone from the class of '18 who went to Facebook to do sustainability related work for her internship. I have to admit I know little about this intersection you're interested in, but you won't be alone here since social impact is something of great interest at Yale SOM.

As to tech in general, your background is in tech. Most tech firms, as far as I know, are quite ranking agnostic. If your background matches what they're looking for, you will likely get an interview. With that said, it's important to find out which companies recruit and for what position at each school.

Yale SOM, for example, sends a ton of students to Amazon (like most top schools), but we recruited mostly heavily for the product management, technical product management, retail leadership development, and finance leadership development programs. Some schools may send a ton of students to Amazon, but it may be into program management or Pathways. Our hiring for Apple and Facebook this year has spiked up significantly (internship/full time). Google has remained about the same - their hiring process is a real black box so they're harder to gauge, but they do always hire at least a couple handful of people.

In terms of non-FAANG companies, we're also doing pretty well. The recruitment cycle isn't quite over yet, but I know (based on self-reporting of our classmates from the class of '19), there are people going to SpaceX, LinkedIn, Tesla, Twitter, Samsung, Salesforce, and Blizzard.

red989 · Answer

Wilch

It would be better if you can substantiate your claim with statistics rather than one off "my friend got xyz" story.

Please let us know how many students got into firms such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Salesforce and Amazon. Also, how mahy of them come from non-tech backgrounds (i.e. changed industries to tech).

As the "leader of the tech club" this information should be readily available to you. Yale does not publish specific numbers in its employment report i'm afraid.

I received my information from current 2nd year SOM MBAs.

Wilch · Answer

It would be better, but if the school doesn't make these information public, I don't think I'm at liberty to make these information. I share these anecdotes because they're about as far as I can go without compromising people's privacy and the school's preference with regards to confidentiality.

I will say of the companies you mentioned, around 20 people from the class of '18 are going to those firms for full time.

Another thing I can say that the leadership team from the class of '18, only 25% came from tech, the rest came from other industries. Everyone except one of the leaders went to a tech firm - and that one person was deciding between multiple offers from different industries, including an offer from a top tech firm. Everyone switched industry and/or function.

As to the 2nd year MBA who spoke to you - I suppose everyone's mileage varies. For example, I've had a fabulous experience with my learning team - but there's also a very small minority that didn't gel well with their team and had a sub-par experience. Likewise, I had a lot of luck recruiting for internships, perhaps things didn't play out well for certain people and I'm not privy to it.

At the end of the day, if the poster above was telling me Stanford, Haas, and Sloan offer superior tech placement and recruiting support for their students, you will not find me disagreeing. If statements such as vague "Yale is overrated" or "Yale does very poorly with tech recruitment" are being tossed around in a thread comparing Yale SOM to schools who perhaps offer comparable level of access to tech careers, I'd like to hear more evidence - be it anecdotal or statistical - to back those statements up.

MyAppMBA1 · Answer

I would recommend Ross - their recruiting numbers for technology has been very impressive. Companies like Amazon do a lot of recruiting at Ross.

bb · Answer

What about grammar skills? If you are going to post a one-liner, at least put some effort into it.

Yale vs Stern vs Ross

Yale vs Stern vs Ross

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