Welcome to this week’s edition of Wiki Wednesdays, where we highlight new and informative interview reports posted to the Clear Admit Wiki. This week, we’re setting the spotlight on the Yale School of Management. Yale requires an interview for admission to the program, and interviews applicants by invitation only. Applicants may receive an interview invitation by email at any point up to the final notification date of the round in which they applied. While Yale prefers that candidates meet with an adcom member or a second-year student on campus, they allow interviews with a local alumnus or alumna. Should an applicant be unable to travel to the U.S. or if there are no local alumni, the SOM does sometimes arrange for the candidate to travel to a nearby city for an interview with an SOM graduate.
While the Yale SOM interview could be considered rather standard with questions such as “why MBA” and “why Yale,” a closer look reveals a rigorous consideration of an applicant’s resume. As one Yale candidate noted,
- “In the “walk me through your resume” part of the interview, the interviewer started by asking why I took the particular job that I took coming out of college, and then we went through in depth each job I’ve had in my six years of work experience.”
Another applicant reports:
- “The interviewer really drilled down into almost every aspect of my resume including individual line items on my resume…I’m an entrepreneur. She asked me how many clients I had, she asked me about a line on my resume where I mentioned optimizing my organizational structure, she asked what the business would do while I was gone, etc.”
Given these queries, applicants should enter the interview with a thorough grasp on the information presented in their resume. Of course, while these prompts may create a sense of pressure to memorize one’s bulleted resume points, it’s important to go beyond simply reciting the details of one’s professional progress. Candidates should be ready to offer in depth explanations and background information because the resume is just a starting point for the interview.
The Yale SOM adcom also likes to probe outside of the “Work Experience” section of one’s resume. Other questions based on candidates’ resumes included:
- Why did you choose your college?
- Tell me about [a certain extracurricular activity on my resume]
While the Yale adcom tends to use an applicant’s resume to structure the interview, questions unrelated to this document can also come up. For instance, a Yale SOM applicant who was interviewed in Europe was asked, “Have you visited the school?” Other candidates reported the questions, “What do you do in your free time?” and “How would you contribute to Yale?” So, applicants should be ready to round out their career comments with notes on their other interests and an eye towards how those interests could relate to activities at Yale.
That wraps up this week’s edition of Wiki Wednesdays. Thanks for joining us on this exploration of the Yale SOM interview process! We also extend our gratitude to those who have posted in the Clear Admit Wiki over the past few weeks – from Sloan, Stern, Yale, Kellogg to CBS! If you would like to add your experience to the Clear Admit Wiki, simply create an account or send your reports to wiki@clearadmit.com. Remember to check out the Clear Admit School Guides as well as our Interview Guides for key points on preparation. Best of luck to those gearing up for Round Two interviews!
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