Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants

I'd love to crash if that's what it takes to get that email *playing crash into me by dave mathews band in my head*

And perhaps they wouldve read the 800 word app by all R1 applicants too. So, if I dont have an interview invite yet, I cant even justify to myself that they havent gotten down to reading my app yet, like how im consoling myself for other schools.

Losin it!

I feel your pain....I am on the same boat. I am going paranoid -I keep refreshing my mailbox every minute.

I can certainly feel for you guys having been in the same boat just a couple days ago. As soon as I stopped looking at email and just accepted that they weren't going to ask me to interview, I got the request. That's probably not much consolation though.

I actually live in Charlottesville and part of me thought Well, they're just making me wait because they know I don't have to make travel arrangements to get to campus. To a certain extent, international candidates are in a similar position. ADCOM can wait toward the end and send out a skype interview request knowing that you're not going to travel to campus. At least, that's how I would rationalize it to myself.

I went through a period of enormous frustration where I got really upset. I kept thinking, If they'd given me more than one essay and two short response prompts I could have at least shown off my Darden-specific knowledge. Are they just turning this into a stats contest? This might be the only time in life I've asked for a chance to write more

Congratulations on the invite! We have recently put a podcast on MBA interviews. Listen to what you need to ace that MBA Interview -

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Hope it helps!

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Just received an i/v invite. Very excited !! Hang in there guys. I am pleasantly surprised as I lost all hope.

Does anyone have an idea what % of applicants are invited to interview? Or what percent of those interviewed are accepted? I know Wharton interviews 40% and accepts 40% of those interviewed. Didn't know if that was the standard across the board or if it was different at Darden.

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I do not know the exact numbers, but from what I have heard for most schools is that the interview invites are to about approx 30% of the applicants with an average of 50% getting accepted. This is across schools so some may be higher and some may be lower for either number. But its a good gauge. I say if you get an interview you have at worst a 1 - 2 chance of getting in.

This translates to a 15% acceptance rate. Darden's is 25%.

Posted from my mobile device

I was chatting with a current student who suggested that her sense was 40% invited to interview, and 60% acceptances from those interviewed.

There you go, roughly 24%.

Although they say that the application is read thoroughly and the admission process is holistic, it looks to me that among the good candidates, the interview invites first go to ones having higher GMAT. This is not to contest that they don't look at other components. They do. But when I visited the school earlier this year, I spoke with one of the admissions committee staff members, and she told me that they typically suggest students with less than 700 to retake GMAT, if possible, to improve the chances of admission.
Again, not sure how much we could take it at face value, but just shared my thoughts.
Anybody less than 700 GMAT here received an interview invite from Darden?

Agree, I get the same vibe. Perhaps because of Darden's extremely strong academic focus. However, this is surprising, especially since their mean GMAT is 701. a good lot has to be in the late 600s.

any Darden interview R1 invites yesterday?

Looks like the interview invites have dried up. I'm losing some hope for Darden and shifting my gears to other schools of my interest...
Good luck for interviews to those who received invites and good luck to those who are eagerly waiting for invites like me.

I have a 650 GMAT and I got my invitation to interview on Nov 1. So I'm not sure they go by only GMAT for early invites.. If so, there is NO reason I should've gotten one early on in the game!

Just finished my interview on campus yesterday. Have to say it was a slightly offbeat experience. I was interviewed by a member of the Ad Com and she was pleasant enough. It was extremely casual and I interviewed in her office sitting on a couch. She asked everything she wanted to know upfront - a little about where I grew up, my family, my undergrad experience and then a bit about my internships, professional experience and why Darden specifically. Was extremely conversational - she took no notes, did not want to see my resume - just wanted to chat. So I told her my story and she interjected with a lot of questions.

You probably think from what you've read so far that it was going well so far and why I said the experience was offbeat in the beginning. Here's why. Talking about your entire life experience in 40 minutes, we definitely covered a lot of breadth, but not depth. I feel if someone was to go ask her if she got a real sense for who I was - I'm not sure she would be able to give them a proper response. The interview was so unstructured that it makes me uncomfortable .. Can anyone relate to what I feel?

I felt the opposite. I like that it wasn't structured and it was genuinely a conversation about my life, dreams and goal. Wharton's interview, on the other hand, was completely structured and I felt like they couldn't get a feel of who I am at all.

I guess it depends on your personality. Some people like to open up about their lives, others don't.

I know somebody with a 650 GMAT and a GPA lower than Darden's average who was invited over two weeks ago as well. This applicant is located in China too... if that helps at all.