From the Director of Admissions: Going Global

One of the guiding aspirations of the Yale School of Management is to be the most distinctively global U.S. business school, and we continue to pursue new ways of engaging across borders, cultures, and economies. Several years ago we were the first major business school to require an international study trip as part of the first-year core curriculum. We have since expanded our international offerings greatly, and there are now a number of ways to satisfy the Global Studies Requirement.

One of them, Global Network Week, stems from our participation in the Global Network for Advanced Management, which connects 27 top business schools around the world. During spring break this month, more than 150 Yale SOM students traveled to one of 17 Global Network schools around the world to experience and learn in a different cultural context. At the same time, about the same number of students from other Global Network schools were here in New Haven to participate in the Global Network Week courses offered at Yale.

Another part of this aspiration is to make our community here at Yale SOM a truly global one. We recruit and select students from all continents; roughly 40% of the current first-year class are non-U.S. citizens, the highest percentage in the school’s history. We have also made efforts to make the application process fairer and more accessible for all applicants. For example, last year we dropped the English language test requirement from the application, which eliminated a barrier to applying and made the application experience consistent for native and non-native English speakers. This year, we created a sliding-scale application fee structure, recognizing that we receive many applications from individuals who work in countries with salaries that do not pay on a U.S. scale. We are considering other changes that will make the process even more consistent across the entire applicant pool; we’ll have more updates in this regard soon. 

All of these efforts are intended to prepare MBA students for the complex and rapidly changing landscape of a globalized business world.