A First Look at the MBA Class of 2028

As the Class of 2028 settles into life at Yale SOM, I wanted to give you an early glimpse of the remarkable group we just welcomed to New Haven. We’ll share the full class profile—including more information about the class’s size and composition—once it is finalized. For now, I thought I’d start with a few details the official profile is unlikely to capture. For example, one student is working to perfect her tiramisu recipe, a goal I think we can all support.

The class includes a three-time U.S. national ballroom dance champion, a professional squash player, and a U.S. Figure Skating competitor who was part of two intercollegiate national championship teams. One student co-produced Gangs of Lagos, Amazon’s first African original film, while another was a contestant on HBO Max’s Ellen’s Next Great Designer. One member of the class has written five original musicals and more than 125 copyrighted songs; another is an inventor with more than 20 granted patents.

They are also adventurous (and eclectic). Class members have summitted Pico do Fogo, Mount Kenya, and Kilimanjaro; couch surfed through 34 countries; and placed third in the Canadian Improv Games (for two consecutive years!). One can solve more than 20 kinds of Rubiks cubes. Another runs a Messi fan page with 500,000 followers. Their hobbies include fermenting hot sauces, hunting for shark teeth, collecting rubber ducks, and metal detecting—an interest that led one student to discover a Civil War-era belt buckle and silver coins.

As I said, this is just a small window into the Class of 2028, but I hope these details reflect the range of experiences and talents its members bring to Yale SOM. I hope you’ll join me at What’s New in Admissions on Thursday, September 24 at 12:00 p.m. ET, where I’ll share more about this extraordinary class, the MBA admissions landscape, and some new developments in the admissions department.