{"id":53258,"date":"2021-10-17T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-17T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=53258"},"modified":"2021-10-17T03:34:49","modified_gmt":"2021-10-17T10:34:49","slug":"how-to-get-into-uva-darden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/how-to-get-into-uva-darden\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Into UVA Darden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Get to know UVA Darden\u2019s thoughtful application process [Show summary]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dawna Clarke, Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions at Darden School of Business explores the program\u2019s unique case method and recounts how the school proactively adapted during COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes UVA Darden unique? A choice-rich MBA experience and a close-knit student community [Show notes]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the 439th episode of Admissions Straight Talk<\/em>, thanks for tuning in. Are you ready to apply to your dream business schools? Are you competitive at your target program? Accepted\u2019s MBA Admissions Calculator<\/a> can give you a quick reality check, just go to accepted.com\/mbaquiz, complete the quiz and you not only get an assessment, but also tips on how to improve your chances of acceptance. Plus it\u2019s all free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gives me great pleasure to have on Admissions Straight Talk<\/em> Dawna Clarke, Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions at UVA Darden. Dawna is one of the most experienced and respected MBA admission directors I\u2019ve had the privilege of knowing. She started her career in MBA admissions at UNC Kenan-Flagler, then moved to Darden (which is where we first met) and served for 15 years as director of admissions, and then served in the same role at Tuck and even spent a short period as an MBA admissions consultant. She returned to Darden in 2017. In all her positions and roles in MBA admissions, Dawna is known for running an applicant-friendly admissions process while attracting great candidates to the schools that she has been associated with. Dawna, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk<\/em><\/a> and congratulations again on your new title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can we start with a basic overview of the Darden MBA program for listeners who are not that familiar with it, focusing on its more distinctive elements? [2:18]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sure, absolutely. I\u2019m happy to give an overview of Darden<\/a>. Darden is a two-year, full-time, general management program. Assuming we\u2019re primarily talking about the full-time format, we do offer other formats as well, but I will focus on the full-time format. I will say one of the most distinctive elements of Darden is that it is primarily a case method school. Over the years, our faculty has revisited the curriculum and asked whether a case method is the most relevant teaching method. To date, since the school was founded in the 1950s, they continue to commit to the case method. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The philosophy is that the best way to learn how to make business decisions is to start making them. At Darden, we\u2019re trying to cultivate a variety of skills, leadership skills, team skills \u2014 it\u2019s a general management program. So people are going to get accounting skills, financial skills, global skills, but one of the most relevant skills that we\u2019re trying to cultivate are strong business decision-making skills. The philosophy is that the best way to start to cultivate those skills is to practice. Students do over 500 cases while they\u2019re at Darden. So there\u2019s a lot of practice. It\u2019s very practical and relevant. One of the benefits of the case method that a lot of people don\u2019t know about is that it exposes you to a lot of industries. So for students who are coming to Darden, a lot of people know that they want to transition into a business career, but they may not know what functional area. Through the general management program, you\u2019re going to get a lot of exposure to all the functional areas of business like accounting and economics and finance. But because it\u2019s a case method school, every case is set within an industry. So in your two years at Darden, a student is going to get exposed to almost 70 different industries. Even if you don\u2019t go into energy, knowing a little bit about energy may be really valuable to you if you have a client in the future, who\u2019s from the energy industry. You\u2019re going to have cases from transportation, hospitality, financial services, consulting, startups, petrochemical companies. I love the phrase, \u201cWe don\u2019t know what we don\u2019t know.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The average age for entering MBA students to the full-time format tends to be 27 or 28, and I\u2019ve just seen so many examples of people who were not sure what they wanted to do come through our program. I can think of one woman who was never previously exposed to the airline industry. She hadn\u2019t even thought about pursuing a career in the airline industry. In her first year, she did about three or four cases in the airline industry, and it really resonated with her. She did an internship with American Airlines, got a full-time job offer and ended up rising the ranks of American Airlines to a C-Suite position. That is the beauty of the case method. You get to experiment and learn a lot about different industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darden is also known for its sense of community. There are a multitude of things you can get involved in at Darden. There are affinity groups that you can become involved in. There are professional organizations, there are things like the choir and social organizations. I also think our location is an asset. Darden is part of the University of Virginia. UVA has nine professional schools where Darden students can cross register and take up to two electives in the second year at any of those nine schools, as long as they\u2019re a graduate level class. I always encourage students to tap into some joy and just get lost on the UVA website as well as the Darden website. I also think our location in Charlottesville, just in terms of a place to spend two years of your life, is an asset. I think if I didn\u2019t work for Darden, I\u2019d work for the Charlottesville tourism department. It\u2019s rated the number one foodie town in the country by Rand McNally, has 41 vineyards, lots of breweries, and lots of history so I do encourage people as they\u2019re looking at Darden to take advantage of the opportunities that are at the University of Virginia, as well as Darden and the opportunities to try a different area of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also have Amtrak right here. If I have to go to New York City for work, I hop on the Amtrak. It\u2019s a five hour trip. I can take Amtrak up to DC. I would prefer to be on the train rather than driving, but we also have a decent airport here with direct flights to Atlanta, New York and Chicago. It\u2019s a little bit more accessible than some people think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What COVID adaptations does Darden intend to keep in its MBA program and admissions moving forward? [8:24]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m really glad that you asked this question because I think the manner in which the school has navigated COVID says a lot about the school, and I could not be more proud of the way that Darden navigated COVID. I\u2019m going to give everybody a little bit of an overview of how we navigated it so you have some context about how I think that\u2019s going to carry forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, I think it starts from the top down. I\u2019m on the Dean\u2019s leadership team, and the mantra from the beginning was really to navigate COVID with a great deal of compassion, obviously a high level of commitment to the safety and health of our entire community, but to do so with a great level of compassion. When COVID struck in March, you may remember that a lot of students who were applying to business schools in Round 3 could not take a GMAT or GRE because test centers were closed worldwide. Again, the guiding mantra was to really be compassionate. Imagine what it would be like if you were a student and you wanted to apply to business school and you couldn\u2019t take one of the entrance exams. So Darden immediately went to a model of test flexibility to help accommodate students. During COVID we granted 94 deferrals of students who could not get here last year to this year. In a 35-year career in the industry, I have never been in a position to have to grant so many deferrals, but it was the right thing to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darden is the only top business school that introduced the option to start in January. Say you\u2019re an international student from around the world, I think that they felt really cared for because they could defer their enrollment for a full year. Any of our admitted students also had the option to start in January and that was a heavy lift on the part of the faculty and staff to have two starts. I think that says a lot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darden also has a lockstep first year, is that right? [10:42]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Yes, we do. They condensed it so that if you didn\u2019t start in August, you start on January 4th and finish on July 4th. They condensed the entire first year into that six month period of time. That is what we call Section J. They are incredibly close. I mean, they were kind of in this bubble of about 56 of them together and they were virtual. But I think that that is a good example of the lengths that Darden went through to accommodate students<\/a> who were navigating and trying to get here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were one of the only schools that did not have to shut down last year. The protocols that were in place were really top notch. I was fortunate to be on the COVID-19 committee. They had epidemiologists from UVA on our committee to help guide us. At no point did we have to completely shut down. There was a virtual hybrid rotation that was going on, but we did not have to shut down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school was very concerned about the sense of community, we\u2019re really known for our sense of community. So what the school did was provide free lunch for all the first year students and provided permanent tents outside and places where they could eat safely together to foster a sense of community. Darden was named by Poets & Quants<\/em> the school that navigated COVID with the most flexibility and compassion, and I\u2019m really proud to have been a part of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think some of these things are self-perpetuating. You do it because it\u2019s the right thing to do, you get positive feedback and then there\u2019s more of that, that is done. I think that what will go forward is a good reinforcement of how important flexibility and compassion are to each other in these times and also generosity. I think it was amazing that the school provided free lunch for the whole year for students to foster a sense of community at a time when that sense of community was really vulnerable, because people were virtual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did not replicate the January section this year. We\u2019re going to study the January section and see what they have to say about it and then how they do in terms of recruitment as second years. But it went well. One of the silver linings is that they are such a close cohort and they just came back. They started today as the second year class and it\u2019s kind of fun because they\u2019re meeting some of their classmates for the first time. Again, I\u2019m very, very, very proud to be part of a school that handled COVID so well and I think that kind of sensitivity to human beings and a sense of being accommodating is really something to be proud of.Are you ready to apply? Take the MBA Admissions Quiz<\/strong> >><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did most of the deferrals go to Section J or were they deferred a full year? [14:05]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s interesting because about 55 started in January and then an additional 94 were deferred to this class. Some of that, we also have the future year scholars program. So I think 16 of the 94 were future year scholars and 81 of the 94 actually matriculated last week. They really stuck with us. I think, again, these things are self-perpetuating. I think students really appreciated the accommodation. They had a dream. They wanted to be here last year and in some cases just couldn\u2019t get here because of COVID or visas or both. They were very loyal to us. So 81 out of the 94 deferrals showed up to Darden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did the deferrals mean that you had to accept fewer people from the applicant pool last year? [14:57]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It was more competitive last year. This year it\u2019s back to a normal level of deferrals because fortunately most of the students were able to get here. Their orientation started last week. It\u2019s a really excellent class in terms of objective measures like the average GMAT and the record high GPA. We\u2019re also really proud that it\u2019s the most diverse class<\/a> in Darden\u2019s history, across multiple dimensions: 40% international students, 40% women, highest percentage of underrepresented minorities, highest percentage of total minority students, highest percentage of first generation college students, highest percent that identify as LGBTQ+, highest percentage of dual degree students and numbers with an advanced degree. We\u2019re really excited for this class. It\u2019s such a stellar class and really, really diverse which is nice because the previous year in many business schools, it was hard to get the same representation that we normally have of international students because of COVID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You mentioned Darden has made test waivers requests available to applicants. Who should seek them and who shouldn\u2019t? [16:21]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Great question, Linda. Thanks for asking that. The philosophy behind offering a test waiver<\/a> really stems from our belief that not all stellar applicants are stellar test-takers. I\u2019m sure that you, as a very experienced, highly reputable admissions consultant have interacted with lots of those students \u2013 people who are incredible and have so much to offer a business school and will be high impact leaders that they can\u2019t master to the extent that they wish they could in a three and a half hour exam. Our philosophy is that it\u2019s 2021, it\u2019s not 1950 anymore. We have great respect for the GMAT and GRE. The validity studies that we participated in the past do show that they\u2019re valuable instruments, but we did a lot of data analytics in advance of this policy shift to see what other factors correlate with academic success at Darden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been a couple phases of those studies. For example, we found that the interview correlates more with academic success than we would have thought. We found that the verbal GMAT is a better predictor than the quantitative GMAT. The GPA is a better predictor than the test scores. We\u2019re going through analysis right now and looking to see if there is a correlation if you have a CFA, if you have a CPA, if you\u2019ve done some Darden Coursera classes, if you have a master\u2019s degree in a relevant area, if you have a quantitatively oriented job, etc. We\u2019re continuously looking at data to help guide our policies but to answer your question about who should apply, I would recommend the test waiver process for candidates who have strong alternative evidence that they can do well academically. Maybe a candidate has a strong undergraduate GPA in a relevant field. Maybe he or she has earned a master\u2019s in a relevant field. Maybe they have a very quantitatively oriented job, maybe they have earned a CFA or CPA, maybe they\u2019ve taken some post-bacc classes. I would say the test waiver is not for someone who has no alternative evidence. It is really for people who maybe struggle a little bit with a standardized test, but perform really well in a class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a big fan of HBx CORe, which is now HBS online. I\u2019ve seen hundreds of applicants who have taken that class. My own son took that class as a liberal arts major, and I heard such great things about it. We have Coursera classes at Darden people can take. Wharton has Business Fundamentals. There\u2019re a lot of certification programs out there, but ultimately we\u2019re looking for high impact leaders, and we believe that the GMAT was carrying too much. There\u2019s too much emphasis on GMAT scores when in this day and age there\u2019s so many alternative ways that somebody can prove that they\u2019re academically ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n