YSE SOM Joint Degree Program
Program Overview
Yale’s signature Joint Degree program offers a three-year, dual master’s degree in business administration and environmental management or forestry. The Yale Center for Business and the Environment serves as the platform for this internationally recognized program and a hub for all of its activities.
As a joint-degree student, you will be able to take advantage of opportunities across one of the world’s most respected universities, tailoring your education to fit a personal learning journey. And with three years available, you will be able to become both intimately familiar with chosen topic areas and well-versed in what it takes to translate this knowledge into concrete and effective action.
Academic coursework is enriched by professional opportunities like school-year externships and the summer internship program. The former is a great way to build hard skills while in a classroom setting. The latter gives students two chances to try out radically different career paths and expand professional networks.
While the work of sustainability professionals is often described as lonely, the joint-degree program challenges this notion—a lodestone for 50 to 60 like-minded peers who will push you to articulate and refine the work that you’ve set out to do. Graduates from the joint-degree program remain a close-knit community of leaders characterized by a shared ethos of change.
We hope you’ll join us in our effort to redefine leadership for future generations. We encourage prospective students to read more about admissions at Yale's School of the Environment and School of Management. Additionally, current joint degree students are available to give you insights into the process and answer questions about the experience.
Pathways explanation
Prospective students can gain admission to the joint degree program in two ways:
- By applying to both SOM and YSE in the same year;
- By enrolling in SOM or YSE and applying to the other school during their first year at Yale.
We strongly encourage students who wish to enroll in the joint degree program to apply to both schools at the same time. Though this does not necessarily increase an applicant’s chance of admission, it does provide a student admitted to only one school the chance to reapply to the other.
Choosing the Joint Degree
Hear current Yale SOM & YSE joint degree students discuss their journeys to the joint degree. Moderated by the Yale Center for Business and the Environment's Executive Director, Stuart DeCew, they explore questions such as:
- Why did you apply to the joint degree program?
- How has your time at Yale has shaped your professional and personal goals?
- What are the strengths of both schools?
- How can you take advantage of and adapt to the culture/network of both?
- How can you experiment during an extra year at Yale?
- How can you take advantage of two summer internships?