ctgmat123 wrote:
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.
I personally did not mention "why Darden" in any of my essays, since it wasn't explicitly asked. My thought process was that it's a really limited word count for that question (and their word limits are exact since you have to copy and paste your answer into a text box that cuts you off after the word limit has been reached), so I just tried to give them a thorough answer about my career goals. I included specific positions and names of companies I wanted to work for.
FWIW, I saw an admissions chat transcript somewhere where the one of the adcom members said that Darden purposely doesn't ask "Why Darden" in the application because the answers tend to be rather generic (lots of talk about the case method), and they prefer to save that question for the interview. Anyone else remember that chat or have a link to it?
Good luck with your essays!