Four hundred students with diverse skills and backgrounds come together at Yale SOM to form a tight-knit, collaborative, and enthusiastic community. The Class of 2009, for example, includes a Scrabble master, a Purple Heart recipient, a fixed-wing glider pilot, a lobster-eating champion, a policy advisor in the Bush White House, an inventor with a patent for the "Compact Dual Cyclone Combustor," a former university mascot, and a novelist. They came from cities ranging from Arlington to Astoria, Beijing to Brooklyn, Dalian (China) to Denver, Los Angeles to Louisville, Mexico City to Miami, Philadelphia to Plovdiv (Bulgaria), and Seoul to San Jose.

Class of 2009