Darden (Virginia) 2013 - Calling All Applicants!

This sounds kind of like a bait-and-switch like this:

https://essaysnark.com/2012/01/if-youre-in-nyc-and-you-applied-to-columbia-read-this/

Personally, I don't think you have anything to lose by telling them why you want a 2Y MBA and that you won't be considering the EMBA. Worst case they say no, but they already said they weren't going to interview you anyway. Best of luck!

Got the same email. 29 yrs. India. 5 Yrs exp while entering I dont understand this.

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It seems like schools do this to:
- fill their EMBA class. Perhaps they don't get as many good EMBA applicants as they'd like to due to various reasons, e.g. their EMBA program is only recently established, etc.
- minimise potential negative implication to their regular MBA program's career placement statistics two years from now. They probably think older students wanting to switch careers may not be successful doing so and consequently drag down their future stats.

I think it's more the former. There are plenty of full-time B-school students in the 29-31 range who are switching careers. I think they want to fill their EMBA class with strong candidates to maintain the school's reputation. If there aren't enough qualified applicants, the school is in a bind because they need to meet their registration numbers, but don't want to have to lower their standards to do so. VERY odd though that they would offer this to international career switchers since it's a weekend program where the students are fully employed. That's a LONG commute for an executive program, and it's not worth relocating to the US if you're not going to be immersed in student life as a full-time MBA student.

Thank you very much for sharing your interview experiences!!! I am having my interview this upcoming week and you have definitely help me a lot on what to practice.
I will let you about my interview after having it to help the persons that havent had the interview yet.

Very odd indeed.

Did anyone do a skype based interview yet ?

And shall I be worried of the internet speed ? I understand that they have pretty tight time slots. Now, if video dies down, and other such things, the whole experience is going to be ruined. Any thoughts on this ?

I did a skype interview from India. The connection was a major problem with the video quality not up to the mark. Twice we had to switch the video off so that the audio could be better. The interviewer was very cooperative though.

I had a test call before the interview with a friend which went pretty well. I also have had a number of skype calls with current students in the US and never encountered any major problem, so my luck ws just bad that day I guess.

I agree with the article.
https://essaysnark.com/2012/01/if-youre- ... read-this/

If I were in NYC, I wouldn't think twice about doing a part time MBA in Columbia. A lot of my friends are doing that.

There are too many advantages with doing an MBA Part time:
1) I don't need to give up my job for two years
2) I known people get an internship with a VC or another company while doing my part time MBA
3) My ROI $$$ is enormous if you don't let go your job especially in a bearish economy like now! If it were the year 1999 or 2005/6 its a whole new story.
4) I find learning while working a good stretch in certain jobs (but I am not sure whether NYC has those kind of jobs). Learning in the evenings can be loads of fun for some folks, especially me.
5) While doing part time MBA, I feel you can definitely relate concepts learnt at class to your work and perhaps your new learnings can lead to projects which previously thought impossible. Career advancement/Career Switch are possible!
6) The amount of $$ saved on reapplication, consultant company (if you used them) and regiving GMAT.
7) Other than consulting companies I don't know very many companies dwelling on your GMAT after your MBA.
8) Lastly, MBA Schools don't get you jobs!!! You DO! They only attempt to facililtate by getting companies down to give a talk even then when the companies come down they don't really take in your resumes for a job that they have in mind, its just out of courtesy. Atleast thats what I heard from Wharton alumni from year 2010.
9) There is no evidence anywhere that MBA is good in a bear economy

The only drawback of E-MBA is that its a waste of time for career switchers. For career advancers its great!

My suggestion to the B-schools: replace the term E-MBA with J-MBA (Junior MBA) and replace the term E-MBA with MBA. Problem solved!

Hi, may I know when did you receive your invite ?

Hi, may I know when did you receive your invite ?

I'm a reapplicant and have had the dubious honor of interviewing twice with Darden, so I thought I would throw out my two cents.

1. The interview is totally blind. Your interviewer will not have your resume, you will provide all of this information in your response to the one "tell-me-about-yourself" question.

2. The one question interview thing is a misnomer. What it means is that your interviewer will only one preset question. There will be many questions, but they will generally be in response to things you have said. These may be particular to your background, e.g. "What was it like to relocate to Sri Lanka?" or "Why did you choose college X?" or they more basic generalized interview questions, "How do you work in groups?" or "How will you contribute to our community?" or even the dreaded "Tell me about a time where you had to..." However, I think that you will find the questions to be more tailored to you, your background, and why you want to go to Darden than questions you may have faced during other interviews. I definitely never felt during either of my interviews that the purpose of any particular question was to stump me.

3. That said, there are two basic ways your interview can go, I had one of each. During my interview this year, I was basically given about 15-20 minutes to talk about myself, largely uninterrupted, then my interviewer asked another 10-15 minutes of follow up questions, and then my interviewer (and an admissions officer who was sitting in on the interview) answered my questions for about 10-15 minutes. (Your Darden interview will last 30-45 minutes) The upside to this route is that you are able to organize your thoughts the way you want and present them that way. The drawback is that it can be kind of unnerving to talk for that long without a response.

The other route is that your interviewer may interrupt your spiel early and often. This is definitely a possibility, it happened to me last year. If you are not prepared for this it can throw you off your game (I had maybe over-rehearsed my pitch and got lost when it changed directions). During this option you may be going back and forth between your presentation of your candidacy and answering specific questions about your background.

It is a good idea to consider both ways that this can go as you prepare.

4. Make sure you have some good questions. Darden interviewers really like to talk about Darden and their experiences there. They will appreciate your questions and you will gain perspective that will hopefully be valuable when we all get in everywhere we applied and have to choose which school to go to

I wanted to share with you my interview experience, which I had it today. She asked me to tell my story and she asked me questions while I was talking. She was really friendly and the interview felt a lot like a conversation. I said why an MBA right now, why Darden, and my goals.

Good luck to everyone who is still waiting for an interview invitation!!

Got pretty early. 14th Nov.

What I wonder though, is that the invites that were sent later, recd. off campus alum interviews. I got skype w/ adcom.

Nov 14th. Adcom skype interview.

For the short answer question "What is your short term career goal and why?", are people using this as their "Why Darden" in addition to career goal question, or just focusing on your short term goal based on your previous professional experience? I assume the former, but since it doesn't specifically ask "....and why will Darden help you achieve this" or something of that nature, I'm curious for other opinions.