The Yale School of Management (SOM) offers a two-year, full-time program leading to the degree of Master of Business Administration. A Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, or equivalent undergraduate degree is requisite for admission to the M.B.A. program. The program requires two years of full-time study in residence and comprises both course work and non-course activities.

In the first year, students devote the majority of their time to the core courses and are also required to participate in the orientation curriculum, required pre-term work, and other degree requirements. In the summer following the first year, students continue their management training through internships or other appropriate activity, in fulfillment of the M.B.A. Internship Requirement. In the second year, elective courses complete requirements for the degree. See M.B.A. Degree Requirements in this chapter.

Yale SOM also offers a twenty-two-month M.B.A. program for working professionals; see the chapter M.B.A. for Executives Program for requirements and procedures specific to that program.

The Core Curriculum

Traditional functional management disciplines are integrated in an innovative core curriculum designed to reflect the contexts encountered by today’s leaders and to better prepare students to navigate the increasingly complex global economy. Courses in the first-year curriculum are taught in two segments: Orientation to Management and Organizational Perspectives.

Orientation to Management

The Orientation to Management segment introduces students to essential concepts and skills. Courses include Managing Groups and Teams, Basics of Accounting, Probability Modeling and Statistics, Basics of Economics, Modeling Managerial Decisions, and Introduction to Negotiation. A student may be granted exemption from Probability Modeling and Statistics, Basics of Economics, and/or Basics of Accounting by taking an exam designed and evaluated by the instructor of the course. Each exam will be offered only once, before the start of the fall term. Students must score the equivalent of Honors (H) or High Honors (HH) on the exam to qualify for exemption from the respective course.

Organizational Perspectives

The heart of the first-year curriculum is a series of multidisciplinary, team-taught courses called Organizational Perspectives that teach students to draw on a broad range of information, tools, and skills to develop creative solutions and make strategic decisions. These courses include Competitor, Customer, Investor, State and Society, The Workforce, Operations Engine, Sourcing and Managing Funds, Innovator, and The Global Macroeconomy.

Fundamental frameworks and concepts are often taught through multimedia “raw” cases and group assignments on topics drawn directly from real-world challenges facing business, government, and nonprofit organizations.

The final Organizational Perspectives course, The Executive, presents students with a series of complex, interdisciplinary case studies, many of them involving cross-national or global business challenges. These cases require students to draw on the subject matter learned in the other Organizational Perspectives courses.

Leadership Distribution Requirement

M.B.A. students are required to complete the Leadership Distribution Requirement before they graduate. The requirement is met by completing, at any time before graduation, at least one course from an approved list of leadership electives. These courses supplement the individual and team focus on leadership in our core courses with a focus on leadership at the organizational and global level. The options are listed on the SOM internal website. Students who wish to request that an additional course be considered for fulfillment of the requirement should contact Academic Affairs and Student Life to initiate a review by the director of core curriculum.

Global Studies Requirement

M.B.A. students are required to complete the Global Studies Requirement (GSR) before they graduate. The requirement is met by completing, at any time before graduation, at least one of the following:

• An International Experience course
• A Global Network Week
• A Global Network course
• A Global Social Entrepreneurship course
• A term-long international exchange with a partner school

International Experience

The International Experience (IE) is a faculty-led course that bears 4 units of academic credit and includes, in addition to in-class lectures and seminars, travel to a country or region of the world to meet with business, government, and nonprofit leaders. Enrollment in the IE is facilitated via the regular course auction used for electives.

Students who withdraw from enrollment in an IE course will be responsible for assuming any associated nonrecoverable costs incurred by SOM and will lose the associated Global Studies Account (GSA) funding. All requests for modification to these cancellation charges must be approved by the assistant dean on a case-by-case basis. SOM will not reimburse students for any expenses incurred related to travel arrangements.

Global Network Week

Global Network Weeks (GNW) are weeklong courses at Global Network schools around the world that bear 1.5 units of academic credit—gaining from the regional and subject matter expertise of Global Network faculty. Learning happens both in the classroom and in the relationships that students build with peers from other countries, regions, and industries.

Enrollment in GNWs is facilitated via the regular course auction used for electives. Students who withdraw from enrollment in a GNW course will be responsible for assuming any associated nonrecoverable costs and will lose the associated GSA funding. All requests for modification to these cancellation charges must be approved by the dean of students on a case-by-case basis.

Global Network Courses

Global Network Courses are Small Network Online Courses (SNOCs) taught by a Global Network faculty member with expertise in a particular subject. The courses bear 2 or 4 units of credit and are open to students from across the Global Network. Students log in through an online platform and participate in video conferencing for synchronous lectures and discussions. Students collaborate on team projects, developing virtual teamwork skills, and benefit from cross-cultural perspectives in lectures and discussions.

Enrollment in SNOCs is facilitated via the regular course auction used for electives, but there is a selection process by the faculty member leading the course.

Global Social Entrepreneurship

The Global Social Entrepreneurship (GSE) courses introduce students to issues faced by mission-driven entrepreneurs, linking teams of Yale students with social enterprises (SEs) in emerging economies. Student/SE teams work together to address specific management challenges faced by the SEs, culminating with the development of an analysis and set of recommendations (operational, financial, or otherwise) to meet the identified challenges.

GSE India runs Fall2–Spring1 and is composed mainly of second-year students; Spring GSE (alternating between Kenya, Brazil, and Indonesia) runs Spring1–Spring2 and is composed mainly of first-year M.B.A. students. Both courses include fieldwork midway through the course (for GSE India: two weeks in January; for Spring GSE: one week in March).

Students who withdraw from enrollment in a GSE course will be responsible for assuming any associated nonrecoverable costs incurred by SOM and will lose the associated GSA funding. All requests for modification to these cancellation charges must be approved by the dean of students on a case-by-case basis. SOM will not reimburse students for any expenses incurred related to travel arrangements.

International Exchange

The International Exchange allows students to spend one term studying abroad as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M.B.A. degree. Specifically, Yale SOM students are permitted to spend the fall or spring term of the second year studying at an approved academic institution. A list of exchange partners and details about the application process are available from Academic Affairs and Student Life or on the SOM internal website. Students can petition on an ad hoc basis for an exchange with any Global Network partner.

While abroad, students will be evaluated on the exchange partner’s grading scale. Courses completed successfully will appear on the SOM transcript with an indication that the credits were completed abroad. Students will not be assigned grades based on the SOM grading scale. Students are required to speak with the SOM registrar regarding their specific course schedule and course load while abroad to ensure they meet all SOM requirements.

Students selected to participate in the exchange program are expected to attend the exchange program in its entirety and participate fully. Students who withdraw from the International Exchange program after they have accepted a place in it will lose the GSA funding associated with the exchange.

Exchange participants are expected to be ambassadors for SOM and to represent the school well. While abroad, students are expected to uphold the highest standards of professional behavior. Student conduct while abroad remains subject to the SOM Honor Code.

For additional information, see Global Studies Financial Support in the chapter Tuition and Fees.

M.B.A. Internship Requirement

Between the first and second years of the program, all M.B.A. students are required to further their management education through an internship in an organizational setting. The internship, which must be related to the student’s major area of study, is an integral part of the M.B.A. academic program. This required internship must be completed prior to re-enrollment in second-year course work. Silver Scholars fulfill this requirement during their mandatory internship year.

Off-Campus Employment during the academic year

The M.B.A. program requires four semesters of full-time study. Students complement academic pursuits with various co-curricular activities, which also demand considerable time. For most students, this leaves little time for off-campus employment during the four semesters. During the second year of the program, however, students may pursue off-campus employment to a limited extent. Such employment must be arranged directly by the student and is not facilitated by the Career Development Office. International students on visas must comply with regulations pertaining to their visa status. Total employment during the academic year, off-campus and on-campus combined, may not exceed twenty hours a week.

It may be possible to pursue off-campus employment during the third and the fourth semesters of the M.B.A. program in conjunction with the course Navigating through Workplace Culture. This course may enable international students on F-1 visas who have completed at least two semesters of full-time study to be authorized under prevailing regulations for Curricular Practical Training (CPT) pursuant to enrollment in this course, provided they meet the relevant eligibility and procedural requirements. Specific requirements for enrolling in the course and earning academic credit are described in the course syllabus.

Elective Courses

Elective courses, chosen from the offerings listed in the chapter Courses for 2025–2026 or from the approved offerings in other Yale schools and departments, complete the course requirement for the M.B.A. degree unless an extended internship is approved by the dean of students as a leave of absence.