The Yale School of Management, a long neglected professional program with the unfortunate disadvantage of youth in a crowd of older, more prestigious competitors,is now hitting its stride.

By persuading first-rate faculty members like the sought-after economist Judy Chevalier ’89 to teach at SOM while schools like Stanford and MIT are left disappointed, the school has successfully focused on faculty development.

Boosting its reputation and its selectivity, SOM has risen from 16 to 12 in U.S. News and World Report’s business school rankings this year. While the notion of easy, newsstand-ready rankings are somewhat laughable, statistics like GMAT averages and acceptance rates over the last year tell the story of rapid improvement in Yale’s reputation and attractiveness.

This has already helped Yale land top-notch academic talent. The school has added senior faculty in accounting, marketing and finance, and the search for more heads has not slowed. In a self-propelled wave, SOM can use strong hires on the senior level to attract younger professors, raising eyebrows among both recruiters and prospective students.