Bruce DelMonico, Assistant Dean for Admissions at the Yale School of Management, is back for another installment of our MBA Admissions Director Q&A series.
Bruce joined Yale SOM in October 2004 and has led the Admissions Office since November 2006. Before joining Yale, Bruce was an attorney focused on First Amendment, white collar, and commercial litigation. Bruce holds a BA in Honors English from Brown University, an MA in Literature from the University of Texas at Austin, and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Read our Q&A below for Bruce’s insights into the MBA application process, what the admission teams is looking for, and highlights of the program.
Clear Admit: What is the one aspect of your program that you wish applicants knew more about?
Bruce DelMonico: One thing I think people don’t appreciate as much as I think they could is our deep connection to and integration with the broader Yale community. In addition to having joint degree programs with just about every other professional school at Yale – our most recent one is with the School of Engineering and Applied Science – every student at Yale SOM is able to take as many of their electives as they like outside of the School of Management, without limit. So the entire University is open to you as a Yale SOM student, which is really powerful in tailoring your MBA to suit your specific interests. I would add that outside the classroom, SOM students can engage their peers at other schools (and Yale College) through various University-wide centers and programs, as well as socially at Gryphon’s Pub, the graduate and professional student bar, and elsewhere throughout campus such as at the Schwarzman Center.
CA: Walk us through the life of an application in your office from an operational standpoint. What happens between the time an applicant clicks “submit” and the time the committee offers a final decision?
BD: After the deadline passes (and as an aside, we don’t begin reviewing until the deadline has passed), the first thing we do is to sit down as a committee – there are roughly 15 of us – to do a quick pass through the entire pool to level-set. We then begin reading files and sending out interview invitations almost immediately. Applications are reviewed by at least two different members of the admissions committee. Members of the committee meet early in the round to make interview decisions and then later in the round to make admission decisions on candidates who have been interviewed. Candidates can take different paths through the process – we try to make sure we’re moving people through the review process as expeditiously as possible, which means we at times have parallel processes at work to enable that to happen. Everyone receives a thorough review, and we actually have some redundancies built into the process to ensure that we’re being fair, consistent, and well-calibrated in our evaluation and decisions.
CA: How does your team approach the essay portion of the application specifically? What are you looking for as you read an essay? Are there common mistakes that applicants should try to avoid? What is one key thing they should keep in mind as they sit down to write?
BD: Our essay prompt gives applicants the choice to write about one of three possible topics: (1) the biggest commitment you’ve made; (2) the community that has been most meaningful to you; or (3) the most significant challenge you have faced. We give you a choice of prompts because we want to know what matters to you and this choice helps ensure you’re able to write about something important to you.
My first piece of advice is to choose the prompt that speaks most strongly to you and about which you have the most enthusiasm. In answering the prompt – whichever one it is – you should think about the life experiences most meaningful to you and that you most want to communicate to the committee. Pick the question that will best allow you to express that aspect of yourself.
Regardless of what topic you choose, the most important aspect of the essay to us is that you describe in detail the behaviors that demonstrate support for that topic. We care most about how you’ve approached this thing that matters deeply to you.
Remember, the goal is not to stand out or be unique. The goal is to be genuine and sincere. We find that the most compelling essays are the ones that share what is truly most important to you, so use that as your guide in choosing what to write about. Don’t try to guess what we’re looking for or what you think we want to hear.
I would also note that you do not need to connect your essay to the MBA degree – you don’t need to explain how the topic you choose supports why you want to get an MBA, either in general or at Yale. We ask those questions elsewhere in the application process, so don’t spend your limited words on those areas here. And of course, as always, remember to proofread!
CA: Could you tell us about your interview process? Approximately how many applicants do you interview? Who conducts the interview and what is the nature of the interview? Will your admissions interviews be in-person or virtual for the 2025-2026 admissions season?
BD: Depending on the year, we interview roughly a quarter to a third of the applicant pool. Interviews are conducted primarily by trained second-year students and recent alumni who were interviewers as students, although members of the Admissions Committee do conduct some as well. Our interviews are “blind,” meaning that the interviewer has reviewed your resume, but has not seen the rest of your application. The idea is for this input to be as independent of the other reviews as possible. The interviews themselves are 30 minutes in length and structured in format – every interviewee receives the same questions in the same order. Research consistently shows that structured interviews are far more predictive than unstructured ones, which is why we adopted this format many years ago. Interviewers also use a highly structured rubric in evaluating candidates, to heighten inter-rater consistency, decrease bias, and increase the fairness of the process.
The questions themselves are largely behavioral in nature – we ask about past experiences and how you handled certain situations, as well as about your MBA aspirations. The goal, as with the rest of our application, is to elicit the information that is most helpful at that time and in that format, and that complements the rest of the application. I would note that although the interview is the last thing you will do as an applicant, that does not mean that it is the most important aspect of your candidacy or that it will determine the outcome of your application. It is just one more data point, and the one piece of advice I would give to applicants is not to put too much emphasis on it, as you shouldn’t any single element of your application – nothing by itself will decide your candidacy.
In terms of in-person versus virtual, applicants have the option to come to campus to interview in person or to interview virtually. There is no difference between the two in terms of your chances of being admitted, it’s really just a matter of your preference.
CA: If your application features an impromptu video interview/video essay, how does it differ from the main interview? What should applicants know about this step in the process?
BD: The Video Question portion of the application – or “VQs,” as we call them – happens after you hit the “Submit” button. After you do so, you will get access to our VQ platform, through which you will receive two randomly selected, previously recorded questions asked by members of the admissions committee. You will have 60 seconds to respond to each question, after which your responses will be added to your file and included in our review process. The VQs are part of our initial review of your application. They do not replace the main admissions interview, which happens later in the process.
In terms of what candidates should know about the VQs, I would note that the questions are meant to be similar to typical interview questions. There are no “trick questions” – we’re not trying to stump you – and the responses do not require any specific knowledge or preparation beyond the practice tool you can use before answering the questions. The total time to complete them, including practice time, is generally around 20 minutes. And we use them with a “light touch,” as we say – they won’t make or break your candidacy, so try not to feel anxious about them. And please, do not use ChatGPT or another AI tool in responding; we’d much rather get an imperfect but genuine response than a stiff, scripted one.
CA: Is there anything in particular international students should keep in mind during the admissions process?
BD: The application process is the same for everyone; there is nothing separate or different that international candidates need to do or should keep in mind during the application process. In fact, one of the reasons for creating the VQs, which we require of every applicant, is so that we could eliminate the English language requirement for non-native speakers, so we do not require the TOEFL or IELTS or any other English language test and truly do not have any separate requirements for international students. I would also note that we have a very experienced admissions team that has reviewed thousands of applications from around the world over many years. We are very familiar with the grading scales and work trajectories in different countries (and at different schools within those countries), so that is not something applicants should be concerned about.
I would also note that we have a very international community here at SOM – roughly 40% of our MBA students are from outside the United States – and we value the global perspectives that these students bring to Yale. I know that there is currently a lot of uncertainty surrounding studying in the United States, but I would take a moment to reiterate how much we value our international students and how committed we are to their being part of our community. We work with our partners throughout Yale, including especially the Office of International Students and Scholars, to support our international students in their transition to Yale and this past year we went so far as to retain an immigration attorney to help our incoming students through the visa process. So we take this commitment very seriously.
CA: What is your favorite spot on campus?
BD: There are so many! Yale’s campus is truly magical and really a wonderful place to study and work. If I can take liberties and choose two favorites, I would start with the Beinecke Rare Book Library, which is in the heart of Old Campus and is a beautiful marble structure that houses the most valuable volumes in the University’s collection. They have a Guttenberg Bible on permanent display, which is always fun to see. And the really wonderful thing is that the marble walls of the building are translucent, so they let the light in even though they’re solid, and they glow when it’s sunny out.
The other spot I would mention is Commons, which is the main dining hall on campus. It’s not far from the Beinecke Rare Book Library and it looks like it’s straight out of Harry Potter – impossibly high ceiling, dark wood everywhere. It’s open to all students and staff, so I like going every so often to have lunch in an iconic Yale setting. (They also have really good food at even better prices, which isn’t bad, either!)
CA: Is there anything else you’d like to highlight about your MBA program or admissions process?
BD: I would just add that we know applying to business school is a long process and that a lot of time and energy goes into it. Just know that we put as much care and attention into evaluating your application as you put into preparing it. We’re rooting for you and are hoping to help you take this next step in your professional journey. I truly believe in the transformative value of the MBA and its ability to help you unlock your personal and professional potential, and we’re excited for students to take that journey here at Yale.
