Ask Darden Admissions

Sara Neher's video blogs are among our very favorite resources for MBA applicants. Anyone interested in Darden should go find them on YouTube - provided that you have an hour or so to spare - you'll get sucked into watching them all in a binge! (but a good binge! more productive than a cat video binge!)

Great to see Darden here!!!

EssaySnark

Hi bagdmba,

Thank you for kicking off the discussion! Darden's MBA core curriculum is based in general management, so students don't typically pick an area of focus until after March of their First Year (and even then, they're not required to pick a specific focus and are instead encouraged to pursue a range of tracks that interest them). The skills you learn in the core curriculum are incredibly valuable as you pursue a career in Real Estate.

Our flexible elective format allows you to take RE courses at the University of Virginia architecture and law schools. At Darden, we offer a Introduction to Real Estate Finance and Development course and several other courses that complement RE such as Valuation and Acquisitions of Closely Held Enterprises.

In regards to RE companies that recruit at Darden, I suggest you look at this list: darden.virginia.edu/web/MBA/Student-Life/Organizations/Real-Estate/Professional/

I also encourage you to reach out to the students in the RE club for more specific information on pursuing a RE career at Darden. They may be able to connect you to international students who can speak to their experiences in recruiting for RE. You can also reach a couple of alumni working in RE through this page (just click on the "Real Estate" tab): darden.virginia.edu/web/MBA/Academics/Curriculum-Electives/Areas/Specialty-Areas/

I hope this helps.

Best,
Darden Admissions

PS: Since I'm "new" to the forum, I can't post URLs yet. To access the links above, please include "www" preceding the web address for it to work.

@essaysnark

I wholeheartedly agree! Sara will start updating her video blog on a monthly basis beginning in August, so be sure to check back in on Youtube, as well as the Darden Admissions & MBA Blog (blogs.darden.virginia.edu/admissions) for the latest application information and useful advice.

Thank you for the warm welcome, @bb! I'm glad to be here. I'll be checking in on this forum at least once a day or so to answer any questions about the Darden School.

Hi Darden Admissions,
Thank you so much for your detailed reply. Much appreciate it.
I did reach out to students already and awaiting their follow-up replies...!

Greetings to the Darden Admissions team!

Two questions I have been wanting to ask you guys,

1. Darden is top-notch in areas of general management and finance. Could you share the school's current strengths in marketing and also if there are any recent developments/near-future plans to enhance this strength.

2. Darden's Sustainability Vision inspired the creation of a comprehensive sustainability curriculum. Are you seeing an increased interest from students and therefore of relevant recruiters as an outcome of this vision? Could you share updates on what's in store in the next two years at Darden in this area?

My thanks to the Darden Admissions team for reaching out to us through GC.

Look forward to your insights.

Hello vibhav,

Thank you for your thoughtful questions.

Last year, 15% of our graduating class obtained a position in marketing, and we offer a variety of opportunities to specialize in that area. In addition to integrating it into our core curriculum, we offer numerous electives in Brand/Product Management, B2B Marketing, Market Research, and Customer Relationship management. We also offer 2 marketing concentrations — Consumer Marketing and Business to Business Marketing. In addition, our student-run Marketing Club offers an annual marketing forum in which you can attend several presentations and network with marketing alumni in several industries, a brand challenge where teams of 4-6 students work closely with a corporate brand team to develop surveys and perform market research on new products, and a variety of other marketing-related activities throughout the year.

I encourage you to learn more about our marketing curriculum here: https://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/MBA/ ... Marketing/

Sustainability is also a very important part of Darden’s curriculum and culture. We have seen an increase in student interest in sustainability and the career opportunities can really vary. While we generally find that many companies that solely focus on sustainability don’t recruit through traditional MBA channels, Darden’s career development center has appointed a career advisor to help students identify mission-driven career opportunities and fine-tune your job search strategy. We also have several student organizations who network with various sustainability organizations throughout the year and provide consulting services to non-profit organizations and other small businesses around the community. https://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/MBA/ ... n-Careers/

Darden’s Batten Venture Internship Program and the Nonprofit Internship Fund also aids students interested in pursuing internships in non-profit organizations focused on sustainability.

With that said, there are still plenty of opportunities in corporate sustainability with large multinational companies that recruit at Darden. Kate Heiny, a Darden alumna and senior group manager of Sustainability at Target, was recently featured on TriplePundit: https://www.triplepundit.com/2013/07/wom ... ny-target/

Regarding specific sustainability initiatives for the next two years, I recommend you check out our sustainability vision webpage: https://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/Abou ... lity/Home/ If you have further questions about our sustainability goals, feel free to contact our sustainability staff directly, or reach out to one of our student or alumni ambassadors on this page: https://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/MBA/ ... tact/Home/

I hope this information helps you as you continue researching marketing and sustainability opportunities in MBA programs.

Best of luck,

Darden Admissions

Dear Admissions,

What is your take on people switching careers? What do you look for when an engineering student applies to Darden with a stated objective to move into Management Consulting?

Thanks and Regards,
Krrish

Hello Krrish,

Switching careers is one of the many reasons students choose to pursue an MBA, particularly at Darden. With over 70% of Darden students intending to switch careers, our Career Development Center is structured so that students who want to pursue a different career are able to explore their options at the beginning of their First Year through industry panels and company briefs. In addition, Darden's general management core curriculum gives students the skills they need to pursue a career in any industry — including management consulting.

As you work on your application, you should think specifically about how an MBA degree from Darden can help you make that switch from engineering to management consulting. Since Darden relies heavily on the case study method, we also want to know how your previous experiences will contribute to the classroom environment and your learning team.

Feel free to learn more about Career Switchers at Darden on our website: https://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/MBA/ ... Switchers/

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Darden Admissions.

Krrish's question also reminded us of the awesome weekly chats that Darden admissions has - they post the highlights on their blog. Here's one with this question and other very useful ones discussed:

https://blogs.darden.virginia.edu/admiss ... ions-qa-3/

The weekly chats are on Wednesdays - scroll to bottom of this page for info:

https://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/MBA/Admissions/Home/

Dear Admissions,
Thank you for helping us here in-spite of your busy schedule with hundreds of submitted applications.

During post MBA job search, is there any specific help or guidance for students with significantly higher work-experience?

I wanted to suggest one enhancement to the application preview feature :
The current application preview for submitted application does not show the resume. It would be great to have the resume as part of the preview.
In case it is an issue specific to my application form, then is there any way I can send my updated resume?

Thanks & Regards.

Skp0402,

We are happy to help, and thank you for your suggestion regarding the application preview feature. Right now the application system does not have the capability to preview your resume, but we will certainly keep it in mind as we continue to update features and content in future application cycles.

In the meantime, please email your resume to darden@virginia.edu and explain that it is an update to your submitted application. Be sure to provide us with your name and e-mail address as listed in the application system, and we will add it to your file for the Admissions Committee to read.

Kind regards,
Darden Admissions

Thank you DardenAdmissions team.

Hi Admissions, I am not sure this thread is still monitored so I have sent a mail as well.
My name is Suman and I am applying to the full time mba class of 2016
To give a bit of a background about me, I have 11 years experience in the Information Technology in New product design, development, product management and market launch. From the past 2 years I have been running my own property development and real estate company in India with 150,000 square feet of built-up area underway.
My 2 main goals for going for an MBA are
1. I want to take my company into the affordable housing space and as such learn to build a company in sustainable way while also making profit.
2. In the long term expand into infrastructure development

Here are most of my questions. I realise you must be busy and I greatly appreciate if you can throw some light on the below points.
So here we go:

1. How are students selected for the different Experiential activities? How easy/hard is it to get into an activity of our choice? Including the iLab and the Venturing Darden Business Projects.
2. Does Darden encourage business ideas for Indian market or are only US based ideas encouraged in the iLab and Venturing Darden Business Projects
3. What are the campus facilities like in terms of crowding in places like study rooms, Gym rooms or the library?
4. How strong is the alumni network in India.
5. Is there a hostel available to live on campus. Is it crowded or easy to get a place since I am applying later in the application cycle?

Suman -

Thank you for your questions. Answers are as follows:

1. Selection for experiential activities depends on the opportunity and capacity for the project. Elective courses are assigned based on a bidding system, and most students receive their first choice. The only exception is if a class is in high demand and has a small number of seats available. The i.Lab has an application process, and typically 50% of the applicants are admitted into the incubator (which has 20-25 seats). Students interested in a Venturing Business Project usually pursue independent study, so they're typically paired up with a faculty advisor who works closely with them to form the parameters of the project.

2. Most DBPs and incubator companies are locally-based because students will typically use Charlottesville as a test market for their business before expanding to larger markets. There are a few exceptions to this though, especially if the company does most of its work online. We have also had students partner with individuals in different geographic regions, which makes other markets more accessible to them while they are in business school. However, most students who continue their ventures post-graduation will expand beyond Charlottesville, so starting a business for the Indian market is certainly possible.

3. The facilities are great. All students are assigned a learning team room for their use throughout the year. There has never been issues finding a place to study in the library, common areas or other parts of campus, even during exam weeks.

4. We have a pretty large alumni network in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. I encourage you to reach out to some of our Indian students for more perspective (just type "India" into the search bar to find them: https://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/mba/ ... tact/home/

5. We don't have housing directly on the Darden Grounds, but there are options to live in UVA housing. However, most students tend to live in 3 different off-campus apartments: Ivy Gardens, Pavilion at North Grounds, and Huntington Village. These places are within a 5 minute walk of Darden. There are plenty of other housing options around Charlottesville as well. Since we are a college town and have thousands of students at UVA each year, finding convenient housing is never a problem.

I hope these answers help! Good luck in the application process.

Regards,
Darden Admissions

Dear Admissions,

First of all, I would like to say thank you in the name of all MBA applicants in here for giving such an amazing opportunity to ask questions about Darden.

I am planing to apply an MBA program in fall 2014. May be it will be better to build a little background about myself. I have 3,5 years work experience in Deloitte as auditor , Coca-Cola and P&G as an Financial Analyst. I have been working in IKEA as business controller for 3 years and in the beginning march I am going to be appointed as Finance&Operations manager. I have graduated from Economics Department of one of the top 3 universities in Turkey with GPA 3,16. I know it is low as compared to school median but I have a valid story behind it I have not taken a GMAT score yet and I am planing to get a score around 680-710 in June latest. In addition to that, I am contributing to volunteer activities in UN and Losev (Foundation for Children with Leukemia). I am also board member of a non-governmental political organization, Young Politicians Association.

My post MBA target is to shift my career into consulting. Thats why I am looking for a program who helps me to build a strong background by offering real time case studies. I know that Darden is one the top b-schools which have reached its majority in this area. Here is my questions.

1) What kind of specialities should a prospective student have in order to get an acceptance from Darden? Yes the admission criteria is more or less the same for all top b-schools, but what kind of values are appreciated specifically by Darden?

2) As admission commitee, do you try to create a cultural diversity in class? I mean, as we all know the whoppering sum of applications are composed by Indian, Chinese and US students. And less seats are empty for the rest of the world Do you have such an intent to create heterogeneous class by means of nationality?

3) In these days, I am trying to prepare a short list for myself. Thats why I am trying to contact with current Turkish students or alumni to get more information about my targeted schools. If possible can you please help me to contact with a current Turkish student?

Thanks for your kind answer.

Best Regards.