Turning down Yale SOM

So far this week I have talked about quite possibly matriculating at Kenan-Flagler, being on the wait list at Darden, and having been rejected after having been wait listed at one other school (which I will not identify). I also mentioned on Tuesday that I was accepted at one school other than Kenan-Flalger.

That other school is the Yale School of Management. I had my interview in New Haven in February. It was the best interview I have done throughout this whole process, compared to the worst interview I had, which took place at the school that rejected me this week.  Me and a second year student spent half an hour talking about the advantages of Yale. I mentioned that I am a big fan of behavioral economics and look forward to taking classes with Robert Schiller, the author of Irrational Exuberance. I then talked about a recent Wall Street Journal article which talked about Richard Thaler and Eugene Fama, both economists at the University of Chicago who stand on opposite ends of the behavioral economics debate. She then smiled and said she is familiar with the article because it was discussed in Schiller's class last semester. Needless to say, I walked out of that interview feeling pretty good.

I was wait listed by the school on March 31 and about a month ago it moved me into the accepted column. Several factors made me want to go to Yale - mostly a top notch Ivy League faculty and the Yale name. But the school also has other factors which I am concerned about - mostly its reputation as focusing on students who come from and/or want to go into the non-profit sector. This was exactly how the program was described to me nine years ago when a woman at the company (a non-profit firm) I was interning at left to go to Yale. Sometime ago (around 1997) Yale changed the name of the school from Yale School of Public Management to Yale School of Management and the degree offered went from a Masters in Public Management to a Masters in Business Administration.  But very little else changed over the past nine years. They just announced the installation of Joel M. Podolny as the new dean.  Mr. Podolny is a sociology professor with no experience outside of academia. His only business experience is having taught for eleven years at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Yale has given me until tomorrow to make up my decision but I have already informed the office that I am not interested. I wish this frees up a spot for another student who will benefit more from the program than I will.  

Having said that, I don't want to be counted as a Yale SOM basher. The program certainly has its appeals, especially to those who want to work in the non-profit or government sector. Even if you are planning to work in the private sector, it's still an excellent program and you will learn much from it. I just feel that it represents too much of a risk for me, especially since I am already older than the average MBA student at many programs and I want to make sure I get exactly what I want to get out of my two years.