The Class of 2009 — Who Are They?

As the Class of 2009 settles in and the fall semester gets underway, the Admissions Office would like to thank all of our alumni who have given so generously of their time and assistance this past year to help bring another exemplary group of MBA students to Yale SOM.

This year’s class of 178 students is an exceptional group of individuals. Not only are they academically strong, with an average GMAT of 700 and an average GPA of 3.5, but they are also tremendously diverse. More than a third are women, eleven percent are U.S. underrepresented minorities, and twenty-one percent come from abroad. They hail from fourteen different countries and speak nearly 25 languages, including Mandarin, Swahili, Polish, Thai, Haitian Creole, Arabic, and Hebrew.

Our students also bring a wide range of interests, achievements, and experiences with them to New Haven. They are novelists, bankers, artists, athletes, musicians, teachers, and scientists. They are Fulbright Scholars, valedictorians, black belts, purple heart recipients, and class presidents. Several have served their country in the armed forces and volunteered their time through nonprofits and the Peace Corps. They are politically active, representing viewpoints from both sides of the aisle. They come from organizations such as Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Cambridge Associates, Teach for America, and General Electric. And they have achieved success in a number of different competitive endeavors, some (e.g., Scrabble) more impressive than others (e.g., lobster eating).

While they come from different backgrounds, the members of the Class of 2009 share a common passion to contribute to society. We want to thank you again for your help this past year and look forward to working with you to recruit the Class of 2010.

If you are interested in volunteer opportunities in the admissions office, please contact Wendy Chang.