Calling Darden 2008 Applicants

Pats ..Here is the reply that I got today:


"Unfortunately, the Committee is still reviewing applications from the first round. And, yes, requests to interview are still going out and may continue to do so right up until the decision date itself. I’m afraid you will have to be a little more patient a little longer. Thank you!"

Just keeping fingers crossed ..

Thanks a lot.
One of my friend has also applied and has not yet heard.

This is really difficult to hold on...2 months is a very long period !

Anyways, all the best.

It happened to me at cornell as well, I got the interview invite some 3 days before the decision date ..the good
part is it saves the day long torture of "X people on BW/gclub/XYZ forum got calls and I haven't, it is (10/11/12/2/3 :15/30/45) am/pm already ..!!" ..
the bad part is you don't know if they will tell you the next day or 3 days after that, they will give a final decision day though
and surprise you anytime up until then ..
wow ...I'm speaking as if I know I'm getting an invite ... ..
when I think this is what isgoing on with my app -

I had my interview today. No real surprises and the campus beautiful. It was great getting face time with current students, faculty and adcom.

Hi all,

Does anyone have any insights about what % of the round 1 applicants are being interviewed and what % of the interviewed applicants are admitted? Also, what and how important of a role does the interview play? does the interviewer feedback consist of check-marking various attributes such as communication skills, maturity etc. or does the interviewer write a holistic and personalized feedback? Lastly, what is the post-interview review process?

I know it is purely speculative but from what I have read on this board so far, it seems that some people do have an exceptional understanding of the process. i am pretty new (this is my second post) so apologies for asking such silly questions.

j

When I interviewed, my interviewer told me that my application had been read by one reader (and she was not one of them), then she would put her notes from our interview into my file, and then it would get passed onto a 2nd reader. Finally, it would be read by the admissions director. So, it seems like 2 readers, plus an interviewer, plus the admissions director all read your application. As far as the weight of the interview, she did not say, but my interviewer talked a lot about how they need people to be comfortable speaking out in class and participating for the case method to work, so I have a feeling the interview will give them a lot of insight into that attribute.

Good luck everyone!

uvalove...thanks for your post. Hope your interview went well.

Did you interview with a student or admissions person?

I am a little confused about this process ; you said that the interviews are handed out after the first read and that the file will go for a second read along with interview notes and then finally the admissions director will read it. In this process I fail to see the value of the second reader. I mean, what exactly is the second reader gonna read for; after interview the usually scenerio would be that the director or the committee will either admit, deny or waitlist a candidate.

Also, I interviewed back in December and my understanding was that the invites were given out after atleast two readings. This process also makes intitutive sense because if every reviewer is allowed to invite people than there is no concensus or collaboration. the committee as a whole will not know who or what types of candidate they are interviewing. I might be off the mark but it would make more sense if two peole reviewed the file and then the committee as a together decided who to invite.

Anyway, this is a very interesting twist to the process does anyone know if Darden is going to wait till the deadline to release the decisions or will they start calling/informing people earlier?

Good luck to all

j

yeah, I don't know what to tell you, it was an adcom member who interviewed me and went over the process. I would think the same as you that 2 people would read the app before an interview, but she did mention that the reason for the 2nd read was to have as many eyes on the application as possible (2 readers, an interviewer and the director), so they could just go in a different order than other schools. She didn't get into any detail about "committee meetings" to discuss the candidates, so that could possibly happen as well (she was trying to breifly tell me about the process, so it makes sense that she didn't go into too much detail of 'what happens when readers disagree' or 'how many people read it before they deny without interview'- I'm sure they have a fair way of reviewing every application). I wouldn't worry too much about it, every school has a system that works for them, and it seems like a lot of people have a say in your app, so there is no one person that can make or break your app. I personally think it is great that the director of admissions reads every file personally, because they will have a good sense of the overall class.

In my intervirew packet, it included information that stated we would find out Feb. 1st and my interviewer said that date a couple of times, so I don't imagine we would find out early (none of the students indicated that they heard early either).

Overall, I was really impressed with the school and the students and how organized the day was. There were students there getting ready for interviews with companies and they still took the time to talk to candidates (if I was about to interview with Pepsi, I might not socialize with a prospective student!). The woman I met with was very nice, as was every person in the office I spoke to. Hopefully we will all hear good news on Feb. 1st!

I'm not 100% positive, but I believe that all interviews are conducted by admissions people - I don't believe any interviews are conducted by students. I will tell you from my own experience that the interview plays a big part in the decision because, as described in the prior few posts, the case method at Darden really rewards those that are able to communicate well in an interview setting. Other than that, I don't really know the inner workings of how decisions are made, but I can tell you that the interview is a big part of the process.

I was one of the people running around the last few days doing interviews! I personally spoke with several perspective candidates and I also noticed that many of my fellow classmates were stopping to answer any questions even as they nervously awaited their own job interviews. The admissions office and the career office share a waiting area at Darden, so most of the folks you saw were waiting for their IB interviews. Fun times, and good luck to everyone as decision day nears. BTW, I don't believe decisions were released before the deadline last year. I recall that personally, I logged on a few minutes after midnight EST to find out my result - I think some others might have received calls as well.

Pelihu...thanks for sharing your views.

Students do do interview, I was interviewed by a second year student (on campus). That's why i am a little concerned about the process. I have a decent profile but the guy who interviewed me was an overachiever and I am concerned that lacking experience and adequately extensive frame of reference, he probably evaluated me from the perspective of his preferences.

I have worked in internal consulting and currently working in strategic planning so communication is definitely one of my strongest attribute but i didn't click with the interviewer, there were some core value differences between us. I would have preferred an interview with the adcom but i guess that was my luck.

also, i looked at the last years threads and it seems that Darden did call some people before the deadline; atlest this was the case for ED applicants.

j

I interviewed in December too and clearly remember the adcom member telling me that each application is read by 3 people before decisions are announced on 1st Feb. I vaguely remember that the purpose of the second read was to decide on possible scholarship offers. The final read is by the admissions director.

Any predictions into what Darden's acceptance rate is going to be this year? I've never quite understood why it's hovered around the 40% mark recently? It doesn't seem like a school that attracts a particularly self-selecting pool of applicants.

I think the acceptance rate was around 29% last year. Also, given the increase in apps this year, the acceptance rate will probably come down couple more percentage points.

That's right, admit rates were tighter last year, and average GMAT score was about 690. The difference was that about 3-4 years ago, Darden expanded the class size from 240 to 300; this occurred right when the MBA applications hit their lowest levels so admit rates went up and average scores went down. Duke expanded around the same time, and experienced similar issues. Things became tougher last year, and supposedly applications are up again (I heard 35% but I have no confirmation), which should make things more selective yet this year.

I applied for R1. I have seen on Darden's website that the interview dates are from 7-18th Jan. Its 18th today and I haven't received an interview invite. Does that mean my application would get a deny?

Well, they say that the i/view invite can go out till the 31st, on the website as well as emails (see the one I posted above ?) ...
But then, who knows ..
though it is my last hope.. i've almost stopped thinking about it.
Comfortably numb - thats how I've become ...

Well...read on the BW forum that they have started making admit calls.

good luck to all