Earlier this month, the Yale School of Management (SOM) invited prospective applicants to campus for a two-day event called “Explore Diversity” designed to provide an in-depth look at the Yale MBA program.
Prospective students arrived on campus on November 7th for two full days of programming, including an admissions presentation, a panel discussion about campus life led by current students, a welcome address by Dean Sharon Oster and a chance to share cocktails and conversation with faculty and students.
“Embracing diversity isn’t an add-on for us,” Dean Oster said in her welcome address. “It’s central to our education process,” she continued, adding that diversity is critical to the school’s mission of educating leaders for business and society.
As part of the Explore Diversity event, prospective applicants also have the opportunity to sit in on mock classes, listen to alumni share their experiences both at Yale SOM and after graduation and learn about career opportunities for SOM students.
One of the main goals of the two-day event is to give prospective students informal opportunities to interact with one another and with current Yale SOM students. To this end, several casual events are planned for the evening between the two days of more formal programming. Current students and faculty go out to dinner with visiting prospective and even offer them a sample of New Haven’s nightlife.
Yale SOM Professor Shyam Sunder, who teaches accounting, economics and finance, went to dinner with four candidates – an Atlanta-based attorney, a marketer for a Kenyan coffee enterprise, a consultant from New York and Chinese college student. Sunder says he came away from the evening quite impressed. “It was such a pleasure to converse with them.”
Following this night of informal get-togethers with current students and faculty, Explore Diversity attendees heard from the Career Development Office, sat in on a mock class session taught by Rodrigo Canales, assistant professor of organizational behavior, learned more about Yale SOM’s integrated MBA curriculum and had a chance to tour the Yale campus.
According to Chris Grey, associate director of admissions and student services, several prospective students who participated in Explore Diversity have been in touch with the Admissions Office to say that the experience solidified Yale SOM as their first choice. “Our aim with Explore Diversity was to expose prospective applicants to Yale SOM’s learning and social environments, career resources and the MBA application process, while highlighting the many aspects of diversity at Yale SOM that makes our MBA program and community unique,” Grey said. “The initial responses thus far have given us the impression that we accomplished this goal.”
To learn more about Yale SOM’s annual Explore Diversity event for prospective students, click here.
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