Hi Guys,
I'll be attending Darden this fall along with many others that have military backgrounds. Please feel free to reach out with any questions that you have.
I was accepted at two schools (one public, one private) during last year's application cycles and selected Darden for the following reasons:
1. Former military officers and enlisted make up about ~8% of each class so I knew that I would have plenty of vets in the alumni database that would be willing to help.
2. The core curriculum is rather robust, which is something that appealed to me considering that I didn’t have a professional business background or exposure to business courses during undergrad.
3. The class size is smaller (a little over 300), which I thought would make it easier to develop meaningful relationships with a greater portion of the class.
4. Charlottesville is a pretty awesome place if you like the outdoors, being in a college town, and/or dislike the idea of shoveling snow (<--that last one should be a big selling point to those of you that have ever spent a winter at Ft. Drum or in RC-North/East).
5. My GI Bill went further here because Virginia’s a public school; additionally, the state allows all transitioning military personnel to claim in-state residency, thereby lowering the price tag a small amount.
6. I respected the fact that they only made me write one 500 word essay
. There is only one question this year as well.
Darden is having several summer visit days commonly referred to as “Fridays in July” on 13, 20, and 27 JUL. I attended one of these and it was an invaluable way to not only communicate my interest in the school, but also to hear first-hand from students, faculty, and admissions about their various experiences.
Best of luck and please let me know if you have any questions or plan to visit.