Calling all UVA Darden wait listed applicants (2019 intake)

will do, I have my call on Monday. I will post a summary of what I was told!

Here to help...both my clients who applied got in, one nominated for Jefferson fellowship and the other Indian.

https://mbaprepcoach.com

Guys, would really like to know: what did you think went wrong?

Posted from my mobile device

Not exactly sure. For me I would guess its a combination of my "lack of work experience" I will only have 36 months of post undergrad work experience and my gmat could be a bit higher.

Hey gmat750please,
I wish that you get through the waitlist.

I see that you would have 36 months of WE at matriculation and the average WE is much more than that but I am curious to know about rest part of your profile? What about some extra-curricular, GPA, some social work , some state level recognition under your belt or some business background?
Does these things not help? Experiences including entrepreneurial activities and start-ups.

I do have a pretty strong rest of the profile. I will send you a PM.

Not trying to make it optimistic, but I believe that they didn't have enough applicant pool to compare profiles in EA which is why they want to do it in round 1.
Because with my profile I see either an accept or a reject, I don't see any scope for wait list, because my interview also went great.
Although we'll know it once we have the feedback call with adcom, this is my opinion.

I think I didn't show enough interest. I live in D.C. (a short 2 hour drive) and did not go to any "official" events. Given that I think I am fairly qualified, my guess is that they didn't think I would accept given my lack of interest (or at least that is what I hope was the case). I wouldn't have been able to accept because I didn't realize the deadline was December 7th to decide, so that makes me feel a little better.

I'm a little worried that my recommendations aren't great or that my profile isn't as good as I thought it was

)


I think we can do one thing. Since all of us doubt their profiles, lets post our profile summaries here. Lets see what our peers think of it. May be others can find something that we are not able to. And rest all lets give honest feedback, cos this is the time we reflect on our weaknesses. . Sound good !

Let me start with mine. Let me know if you guys think there might be some concern in this.

Indian Male Engineer , 24 years
UG : B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering (with specialisation in Automotive Engineering) from a top 10 institute in India.
GMAT : 740 (Q51, V39)
GPA : 4.0 (according to mba.com conversion table)

Additional Coursework:
- Business Foundations Specialisation (4 courses + 1 capstone project ) , Wharton Online
- Business Analytics Specialisation (4courses + 1 capstone project), Wharton Online
- X- series certificate in Supply chain management (3 courses), MIT CTLx

Work Experience : 4 years (upon matriculation)
Industry : Farm Mechanisation Sector (1.5 years) + Automotive Sector (2.5 years)
Compaines worked for : Escorts ltd. Agri Machinery group, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (Automotive and Farm Equipment Sector)
Function : Research & Development

Part-Time WE: Principal Advisor (Strategy & Operations), Istriwala.com (Startup)

Extra-curricular Activities:
- Zumba instructor (member of the ZIN community)
- Dancer
- Short film maker (Director, Screenwriter, Editor for 3 films)
- Freelance Graphic designer (KRISH designs)
- Badminton player

Community Service:
- Head of Marketing & PR , Head of Social issues - Vijayawada needs You (Non-Profit)
- Let a team of 22 in a project against child labor in my home town.

Long Term vision : Lead innovations in Farm Mechanisation towards sustainable Agriculture

Short term goal :
Primary - Strategy role in Farm Equipment/Automotive sector (John Deere, Ford, etc.)
Secondary - Strategy consulting for firms specialised in Auto and Farm sectors (Bain, EY, etc.)

For those of you who feel as though your profile was strong, evaluate your application against these standards

Resume: Every single word has a purpose. It uses universal language instead of
industry jargon. It contains resume bullets that are one line, focusing on actions and
quantifiable achievements. If not a quantifiable achievement, something that
speaks to human motivations, such as saving time and improving a process.
Anyone from any industry would be able to step into your resume, and
comprehend the value of what you have done. There is space to breathe on the
page. It has white space, and the reader feels good when they look at it. It looks
inviting. It has simple elegance.

Essays: The essays use anecdotes and examples that are written in chronological
order. The reader can mentally see the story unfold. The story is told in brief
sentences in a way that is accessible to a broad audience. Each essay shows a
different side of you, yet all of them feel authentic, sincere, and accessible. They
demonstrate self-awareness, personal growth, leadership and results-orientation.
You reach the reader on both an analytical and emotional level.

Letters of recommendation: The recommender can “see” you – see the
uniqueness of you – and articulate that eloquently. The letter is comprised chiefly of
clear, specific anecdotes that point to your talents in the area of problem-solving,
teamwork, leadership, communication and innovation. The reader is emotionally
moved by the content and, ideally, wants to champion you to the adcom in quite
the same way as the writer.

Online application: Twitter on steroids. Elevator pitch. Distills valuable information
about you clearly and succinctly. Everything illustrates qualities that business
schools value – strategic thinking, results orientation, etc. Employment section gives
the reader a clear, succinct understanding of the experience you’ve gained,
employing simple, universal language. The activities and awards point to the
overall brand that you set forth in other aspects of the application.

https://mbaprepcoach.com

krish7 very interesting profile, you're young, but if you have demonstrated impact and leadership at work that shouldn't be a deal-breaker. Not so sure about your goals, do you really need an MBA to achieve that particular short-term goal? I like to see long-term goals have some type of social benefit to it. They are using foundation dollars to educate you and it's good to show the investment will go beyond just you individually. I'm willing to bet that there's a problem with your application in terms of it was executed. Most people greatly overestimate the importance of their profiles and greatly underestimate the execution of their application. Take a look at my last post.

https://mbaprepcoach.com

HI. Thanks alot for the evaluation. I don't think I've deviated from any of your points in the previous post, upto my knowledge.However it's just my perspective, we usually donot know our mistakes. And I don't know how my recommendations were written, although I know that both my recommenders are extremely close and supportive of me, in fact they helped me build my essays.
I only doubt if I made it clear on my application why darden, since darden doesn't identify with automotive and Farm sectors.

Posted from my mobile device

Appreciate the initiative krish7. Roll call added in the first post.

I just had my feedback session.

Advice was to maybe get another rec from somebody that is a career mentor rather than a boss. Also said re-taking the GMAT wouldnt hurt as I have a 710 and the average was a 720.

Thanks for posting the feedback. I think you've got a good objective feedback u can work on and have a really good chance to crack through the wait list. All the best.

I feel this wait list thing to be beneficial in a way. We are getting direct feedback from the adcom before the end of admission season, so we can work on the negatives for this and other applications too.

Posted from my mobile device

Concluded my waitlist call yesterday. Basically told me that there was pretty much nothing to improve on my profile and that it will be a waiting game for me. Told me that they know I already have (not true!) or will have offers in hand with my profile. Gave me a writing assignment on "Why Darden".

All in all I somehow believe I am a victim of the MBA admissions "yield" games as they were not convinced that I will end up matriculating if offered an admission.