Yale SOM Video Essay Questions 2024 - 2025

In addition to two written essay prompts and one short career interests answer, Yale SOM requires MBA applicants to submit video essays after you submit your application and pay the application fee. 

Yale SOM provides the following guidance for their video essays:

The video questions are not a substitute for the interview. Instead, they provide a unique way for us to assess your communication and English language skills, and enable us to create a more dynamic, multi-dimensional portrait of your candidacy.

To complete the video questions, you will receive a set of three previously recorded questions asked by admissions team members. The questions are similar to typical interview questions. There are no “trick questions;” we’re not trying to stump you…The responses do not require any specific knowledge or preparation beyond the practice tool you can use before answering the questions, and your responses will be used with a “light touch,” as we say – they won’t make or break your application.

According to Assistant Dean Bruce Delmonico, the video essay questions were initially used to assess English language ability. But they evolved into a way to get a better sense of the applicant as a person and view them more three dimensionally beyond their written application. 

Through these video essays, Yale SOM wants to see how you think on your feet and adapt to these pre-recorded prompts. Delmonico emphasises that the school isn’t trying to trick you or throw curveballs, and the questions are such that you should be able to answer them without any specific preparation. Importantly, have fun with it!

Note that the school also has an AI policy when it comes to the video questions. While the school doesn’t recommend or prohibit it, they advise against using AI to write your answers to the video questions. They want to hear from you directly, and the responses don’t need to be perfect. 

Yale SOM MBA Video Interview Structure 

You will need to answer 3 video essay questions. 

Question 1 is typically the same for every applicant: Why an MBA, and why now?

Question 2 & 3 are randomized. These are behavioral questions that generally focus on your past actions and how you would behave in a given situation to assess your abilities and strengths.

When you start your video recording, you’ll be given 20-30 seconds to prepare for each question, and 60-90 seconds to record your response. 

Yale advises applicants to familiarize themselves with the 60-90 second time frame for delivering their responses, so they don’t feel rushed or run out of time getting to the meat of their answer.  

Video Question 1

Why an MBA, and why now?

This question may be asked slightly differently, but the theme remains consistent for every applicant: your motivation for doing an MBA. Given that you can prepare for it well in advance, think of it as an opportunity to add value to your candidacy by focusing on a part of your profile you haven’t been able to highlight elsewhere in your written application. 

Refer back to your career goals essay, reflect, and be honest with yourself about why you’re applying to Yale. 

Video Questions 2 & 3

The Yale MBA Video Interview Questions 2 & 3 will be randomized, behavioral interview style questions. 

Typically, you will be given 30 seconds to prepare and 90 seconds to answer Question 2. 

For Question 3, you will be given 20 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds to answer.

Here are some examples:

1. Tell me about a time you had more tasks than you could possibly handle. How did it go? 

2. Yale has two famous art galleries. What piece of art is significant to you and why?

3. Describe a time when you had too much to do and could not possibly complete it all, and how you handled that situation.

4. What is a piece of entertainment - theater, movie, or music - that holds particular significance for you?

5. Tell me about a time you and your team overcame a challenge.

6. What's your favorite part of the natural world and why is it important to you?

7. What green energy system in your country do you find most compelling?

8. Tell us about a problem you solved.

9. Describe a time you completed a task without much supervision.

10. What is a book that is significant to you?

11. Describe a time at work that you prevented a problem from occurring.

12. What's your favorite tradition that you've been a part of?

13. Tell us about a time when you worked on a project that had vague instructions and what did you do?

14. New Haven has several drama theaters, art museums etc, what is significant to you among art, theater and music and why?

15. What is the liveability aspect of your current city that you like the most?

16. Talk about a time when you and your team faced a major obstacle. How did you overcome it?

17. "Some people say that investors have a big say in defining the company strategy and can often shadow the opinion of internal stakeholders." What are your views on this?

18. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Globalization makes it necessary to understand business competitors.

Many of the questions you’ll encounter will be fairly direct (e.g., "Tell us about a time when..."). But although Yale says they don’t want to throw you any curveballs, some of the questions you’ll be asked will be about current affairs and your general knowledge of your city/New Haven. 

For questions that are focused on current affairs, our advice is to do your research! Get familiar with Yale’s traditions, the city of New Haven, and current business issues, and give your honest opinion. But remember, it’s not your knowledge that’s being tested here; it’s your ability to think on your feet, structure your answer, and communicate clearly. 

Speak to the Yale community, demonstrate that you’ve had conversations with Yale students and alumni. 

Visit the campus if you can. Keep a clear structure when it comes to long-winded questions. For example, pro and con (investors question). 

Common Structure 1: Pros, Cons, Conclusion

To prepare for behavioral questions, our advice is to have several stories in place that center around key themes like teamwork, leadership, or diversity, among others. Resist the urge to memorize fixed responses for specific questions. Instead, focus on developing a few adaptable story themes. For example, Yale may ask you to talk about a challenge your team faced, or a time management issue. Prepare a handful of stories about work challenges and how you tackled them (with quantifiable impact to show for it) that you can tailor depending on how the question is framed.

A helpful tool for structuring your responses is the SCAR framework (Situation, Challenge, Action, Result). This method organizes your story into clear sections, ensures your personal role is well defined, and helps you stay concise, which is important to keep your answer within a 60-second limit.

Common Structure 2: SCAR

Situation: Set the scene by explaining the key details needed to understand the context.

Challenge: Identify the specific obstacle or problem you had to solve.

Action: Outline the actions you personally took to address the challenge.

Result: Share the outcome, ideally with quantifiable or qualitative evidence of your impact.

In each story, highlight the traits, skills, and values that reflect your personal narrative and the brand you’ve built throughout your application. Remember that your responses should always be grounded in real examples when it comes to the behavioral questions above.

For more insights on how to answer behavioral questions in an interview, click here.

Want feedback on your Yale SOM video essays? Book a chat.