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Sapphire14
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 04 Oct 2011, 10:16
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Has it occured to anyone that there isn't really any space to address the 'Why Darden' and 'Why MBA' questions in the Darden application?

I just realized this, as I was looking over yet another draft of my essays. With the stringent word limits, I am barely able to answer the question asked, let alone mention why I love Darden.

In which part of the application are you showing the love for Darden? Any thoughts?
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washingtondc627
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants Updated on: 05 Jan 2012, 12:15
Originally posted by washingtondc627 on 04 Oct 2011, 10:21.
Last edited by washingtondc627 on 05 Jan 2012, 12:15, edited 1 time in total.
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Sapphire14
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 04 Oct 2011, 10:31
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WashingtonDC - Ideally, yes - one should be able to address that in the essays. But the questions and word limits don't leave much scope for answering in such a fashion, at least to me. :(

I do address why MBA to a certain extent, but I'm totally stumped as to how to work in Why Darden.

Looks like you've had much more success in that department than me though. I'd love to know how you went about it, if you don't mind sharing.
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washingtondc627
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants Updated on: 05 Jan 2012, 12:25
Originally posted by washingtondc627 on 04 Oct 2011, 11:00.
Last edited by washingtondc627 on 05 Jan 2012, 12:25, edited 1 time in total.
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Sapphire14
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 04 Oct 2011, 11:54
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Thanks.

I did more or less the same thing as you, except that I didn't really know how I'd segue into why I want to go to Darden at the end of the essay. Need to look into that some more.

Keep it high level, that's key. My first drafts were chock full of details and way over the word limit. Now it's somewhat more acceptable, though it's still 20-30 words wordier than what it should be in its final form.

Well, back to work....
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 05 Oct 2011, 11:14
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Apply to participate in Darden's diversity open house!

DISCOVER DARDEN
Thursday and Friday, November 3-4, 2011
Social activities scheduled Thursday and Friday evenings

The Darden School of Business
100 Darden Blvd
Charlottesville, VA 22903


Discover Darden is an open house event designed specifically to attract prospective students in traditionally underrepresented populations as well as those planning to apply via the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. The event will include a class visit, and presentations by
Admissions, Career Development, Financial Aid and Faculty. There are opportunities for
admissions interviews and social activities with current students and alumni.

For more information and to apply, please access the Discover Darden webpage:
https://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/MBA/ ... er-Darden/


Application deadline: October 21
For questions, contact: [email protected]
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 07 Oct 2011, 07:51
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Guys, anybody have the reccomendation questions for Darden??

In for R1 as well...
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 08 Oct 2011, 10:49
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Guys,
Are you requesting GMAC to send across your official GMAT score reports to Darden by the R1 deadline?

I found this interesting piece in the FAQs on Darden's website...
"..We do not require official test scores in order to process your application and get it to the committee for review. You may self-report the scores directly into your online application. If offered admission, you will need to send official documents. However, offers of admission are not binding until official scores are received. If discrepancies are found between self-reported and official scores, the offer of admission will be withdrawn."

Unless my interpretation skills are failing me, I guess I don't need to send an official score report until I am offered admission, is that correct?

Thoughts? Suggestions??
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 08 Oct 2011, 11:10
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scorpionz
Guys,
Are you requesting GMAC to send across your official GMAT score reports to Darden by the R1 deadline?

I found this interesting piece in the FAQs on Darden's website...
"..We do not require official test scores in order to process your application and get it to the committee for review. You may self-report the scores directly into your online application. If offered admission, you will need to send official documents. However, offers of admission are not binding until official scores are received. If discrepancies are found between self-reported and official scores, the offer of admission will be withdrawn."

Unless my interpretation skills are failing me, I guess I don't need to send an official score report until I am offered admission, is that correct?

Thoughts? Suggestions??
Show more

Your interpretation is correct. You do not need to send the official one right now. Simply self-report your score on the Simplicity website and that's fine. When Darden does decide to extend an offer to you, you can then send the official GMAT score by requesting an official score report sent to Darden (should you want to matriculate).
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 08 Oct 2011, 11:17
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bakfed
scorpionz
Guys,
Are you requesting GMAC to send across your official GMAT score reports to Darden by the R1 deadline?

Your interpretation is correct. You do not need to send the official one right now. Simply self-report your score on the Simplicity website and that's fine. When Darden does decide to extend an offer to you, you can then send the official GMAT score by requesting an official score report sent to Darden (should you want to matriculate).
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Thanks bakfed!!
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SOMguy
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 09 Oct 2011, 09:05
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@bakfed (and others who could offer input/advice)

I didn't get too involved into ECs while *in* college (apart from the student government), so that section of the application looks embarrassingly blank ("List your extracurricular activities while in college, including any positions held and honors or awards received."). However, I did take 1+ years off to go overseas and get down and dirty in social enterprise, full-time. Would this somehow "compensate" for the lack of ECs in college?

Also, I wasn't sure if this was answered above, but does clicking on "Save" automatically send out the recommendation links to my supervisors? There is no indication that the recommendation questions have been sent to them.
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 09 Oct 2011, 11:07
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SOMguy
@bakfed (and others who could offer input/advice)

I didn't get too involved into ECs while *in* college (apart from the student government), so that section of the application looks embarrassingly blank ("List your extracurricular activities while in college, including any positions held and honors or awards received."). However, I did take 1+ years off to go overseas and get down and dirty in social enterprise, full-time. Would this somehow "compensate" for the lack of ECs in college?

Also, I wasn't sure if this was answered above, but does clicking on "Save" automatically send out the recommendation links to my supervisors? There is no indication that the recommendation questions have been sent to them.
Show more

I think that's a great question and one that I cannot answer easily; therefore, I won't try. But my opinion is that taking a year off from college is a much greater ordeal than doing some EC for 2 hours a week. So to say that it's simply an extracurricular activity seems to be a misnomer; however, I don't know the reasoning behind what you did and exactly what you did (and even if I do know), I don't know if EC is the best place for it. I would call AdCom and actually ask this question. Given what you said, I already have a couple of questions in my mind - why did you take a year off? why did you choose to do what you did? did this affect your grade? did this help you in any way, shape, or form (i.e. leadership ability)? So again, if you put it in the EC section, I don't know if you'll be able to concisely and tersely explain these.
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 09 Oct 2011, 11:54
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Excellent thread guys..I was planning to submit in R2 but know I feel like I can make up in R1...Fingers crossed...
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mba22
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 09 Oct 2011, 14:40
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in the essay -- is it better to focus on one leadership experience or multiple ? what do u think?
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 09 Oct 2011, 19:23
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mba22
in the essay -- is it better to focus on one leadership experience or multiple ? what do u think?
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I think this is a classic "it depends" question. If you think that you have one leadership experience that will overshadow all others, perhaps just this one will work. If you have several dips in several differnet organizations, then it's probably be good to talk about multiple. However, know that the keypoint is to get your point across. What I mean is you don't know want to start listing 7 different leadership experiences without doing some sort of "weaving". It's better to have one that is coherent than it is to have 7 scattered points.
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 10 Oct 2011, 09:00
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Lots of reasons as to why I did it (in hindsight, it was an incredible experience, leadership and everything-wise), but it's not easy trying to weave it all into the essay. I'm just a little worried that given the essay constraints + lack of college ECs, my application might look relatively weak, and not accurately depict what I've gone through. As you rightly said, being succinct is going to be tough, especially with Darden. Sigh.
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 10 Oct 2011, 12:28
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SOMguy
Lots of reasons as to why I did it (in hindsight, it was an incredible experience, leadership and everything-wise), but it's not easy trying to weave it all into the essay. I'm just a little worried that given the essay constraints + lack of college ECs, my application might look relatively weak, and not accurately depict what I've gone through. As you rightly said, being succinct is going to be tough, especially with Darden. Sigh.
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I really wouldn't stress out about this. Just do what you can and if anything, pick a couple out of your past experience and really hone in on those. Choose ones that can be indicative of your ability and just go with it. Afterall, a lot of people have a lot of interesting things they can share but are limited to the space given to you. Choose wisely and just go for it, then just let the chips fall where they fall.
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 10 Oct 2011, 13:29
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Guys, nobody has the rec questions??? I was wondering so I could do some bullet points for my reccomenders... Thanks in advance if anyone can help!
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 10 Oct 2011, 13:54
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mpg2011
Guys, nobody has the rec questions??? I was wondering so I could do some bullet points for my reccomenders... Thanks in advance if anyone can help!
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Just add yourself as a recommender for now. log into the recommendation system and pull out the information yourself. I was actually told to do this by an AD at another school just for the app in general so I understood what was being asked by my recommenders.

Some apps will let you have more then the required number of recommeders, so you can leave yourself there or just remove it once you are done.
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mpg2011
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Darden 2012 - Calling All Applicants 10 Oct 2011, 16:05
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mpg2011
Guys, nobody has the rec questions??? I was wondering so I could do some bullet points for my reccomenders... Thanks in advance if anyone can help!

Just add yourself as a recommender for now. log into the recommendation system and pull out the information yourself. I was actually told to do this by an AD at another school just for the app in general so I understood what was being asked by my recommenders.

Some apps will let you have more then the required number of recommeders, so you can leave yourself there or just remove it once you are done.
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Are you sure that's ok? What if they don't like it?

Anybody else has input??
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