An experience with Yale SOM adcom
Yes, I am "another one of those engineers." A software engineer, to be exact. It was interesting when I attended the Yale SOM reception in San Francisco last year. After the presentation a group of aggressive candidates approached Yale's adcom with our multitude of questions. One guy, I remember, started off, "I am an engineer. What are my chances at Yale?"
SOM adcom rep: "Our admissions has this internal joke where we see another application from India and we think to ourselves, 'oh, probably another one of those engineers...'"
Me: "What?! Are you saying that because we're engineers we have a lower chance of getting accepted??"
SOM adcom rep: "No, that's not what I'm saying at all. It's just, umm, our own internal joke..."
I'm not sure if that adcom rep should have told us about her "joke," but (though I'm not Indian) being an engineer I was already a bit miffed over her stereotyping a group of people. I did not think this was the right attitude for adcom to have. (Or at least, she could have kept it to herself in a setting like that??)
Anyway, for having the strongest program in the social sector, I decided to overlook this one rep's comment and focus on Yale's strength that drew me to the school in the first place: Yale's ongoing commitment to its social responsibility to the community. Fortunately, the SOM adcom rep I met at the Forte Foundation San Francisco forum this year was awesome and reinforced my original thoughts on the school.
Yale SOM: Still a candidate in the running.
posted by i_will_make_it at 11:53 PM
3 Comments:
Hmmm. I was at that event in SF last year (at McKinsey, no?) and I don't recall the conversation happening quite that way. But, whatever. Your point is well-taken.
All business schools are biased against engineers. It stinks but it has to be. I mean, how can we plebes be expected to compete with your killer quant scores? LOL.
I'm sorry you decided against Yale. But you've got some great programs on your list. Best of luck.
Don't they think: ooooh, one of those bankers again?
These are people. They tend to be subjective. It was an example of joking with a group of strangers. I don't think, there's anything bad with that :)
And, yes, I consider myself "one of those" too ;) But different. We are all different.
Jerry, thanks for the insight! Perhaps I was biased and just happened to remember the convo that way. :-) But you and rusgirl are totally right in that most of us, whether engineer, I-bankers, consultants, etc. fall into the "huge pool" out there.
So thanks to both of you, for giving me a diff perspective on the yale comment. I should have taken the comment more lightly. All these applications are just overwhelming, you know? Makes a person tense. hehe.
So good luck to you at Yale, jerry! Hope you're thoroughly enjoying it there! And good luck on your apps as well, rusgirl!
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