Calling all Darden Fall 2010 Applicants!

I'm officially in for R1. Super excited about Darden.

Anyone else having an extremely difficult time getting their extracurricular information to save in the online form? I enter the information in, then save it and move on. If I move back to page I just saved, my information is wiped out. Curious if you guys are having the same problem.

Same problem here...I'm trying to put in my basic personal information and whenever I try to save it it tells me I haven't filled out the areas that are filled out.

Yeah, I don't know if this is a new system or what it is, but I'm starting to hope there's a paper application out there I can fill out instead...

Check out this video blog post by Darden's Admissions Director, Sarah Neher: https://blogs.darden.virginia.edu/admiss ... available/

She explains that it *is* a new computer system and that they are still trying to work out the kinks. FWIW, I plan on waiting about a week before trying to begin to submit mine.

Nice, well I submitted an issue to Tech Support so hopefully my misery can help some of you out. Just an FYI to everyone, when you're filling out your extracurriculars and any other text boxes, once you press save go back and look through it with a fine tooth comb. I've noticed its truncating some bullet points that aren't even at the end, but right in the middle, for no apparent reason. Really review it and ensure your stuff didn't get cut out.

thanks 1) for the heads up. 2) for being the guinea pigs for us Round 2 folks.

The issue with the activities free text box truncating has now been resolved. They are very quick in their responses and very helpful, just an FYI.

are you guys able send the recommendation from to your recommender? there isn't a button and I'm not sure that my recommender got the recommendation.

Mine went through fine after I saved my recommenders contact info in the application system, have you checked w/ your recommenders to see if they got it?

I'm having all sorts of technical issues with my application. I tried to save and it deleted my info, I tried to save a second time to move on to education and it says I have to mark what my preferred address is, which I have done. Argh! What address did you all send your technical issues to? Thanks all!

Here you go:

admissionstechsupport@darden.virginia.edu

Updated the roll call

Does anyone have the recommender questions?

Thank you in advance.

Pulled this off of a random site called essaylabb, not sure how reputable it is but it looks pretty standard:

We require two recommendations which address the questions asked on our Recommendation Form. Additional recommendations may be submitted, but they should offer additional and valuable insight. Generally, work-related recommendations are more valuable than academic-related recommendations.

It is important both to applicants and to us that we know as much as possible about their aptitude and capacity for graduate business study.

1. How long have you known the applicant and in what capacity?

2. What unique qualities does the applicant possess that lead you to endorse his/her application to the Darden School? Cite specific examples in support of this evaluation.

3. Please comment on this applicant's experience and/or potential to mentor or manage others.

4. In what areas does the applicant need the most improvement?

I received a PM about my experience at the Open House on the 14th, so I figured I'd just add it to the discussion here.

The Open House is scheduled like this:

Welcome / Admissions Presentation
-There's a continental breakfast before the presentation begins with the opportunity to talk with several members of the admissions staff. Then Sara Neher (Admissions Director) gives a brief overview of the admissions process and lays out the schedule for the day

First Coffee
-After the Admissions presentation is over everybody's student hosts come down to meet them (each participant is assigned a First Year host to take them to First Coffee and their Class Visit)
-It was the first day of recruiting season so there were several Bank of America reps attending the event, it was definitely a pack house and it was a good opportunity to talk with several students

Class Visit
-The class I sat in on was Accounting for Managers (you don't get to choose, it's pre-assigned). Obviously an accounting class doesn't sounds like it would be very exciting, but it was a great opportunity to see the case method in action and the participation from the students was phenomenal.

Financial Aid / Career Devlopement Presentation
-The financial aid presentation was pretty standard (what's it gonna cost, types of aid, scholarships, etc)
-An interesting fact from the Career Dev presentation: 77% of 2009 Darden Grads had offers at graudation, 82% 3 months after

Tour / Lunch w/ 2nd Years
-We were then given a tour of the "Grounds" in small groups (3 -4) by a 2nd year student and then moved to lunch w/ another group of 2nd years and some of the admissions staff

Q&A w/ Students
-The last event of the day was a Q&A panel w/ both 1st and 2nd year students without any admissions staff present

To make a long story short, it was a great day and all of the students and staff I met with were extremely friendly and helpful. The experience defenitely cemented Darden as one of my top picks.

PMK157, thanks for the info!

Is anyone else a bit concerned by the 77%? Kind of scary to think that almost a quarter of the class didn't have a job at graduation.

Do we need to convert our undergrad GPA to the US 4.0 scale? If yes, what convertion method do we use?

In the online application form, there is a data field for 'GPA' but there is no mention of what grade scale to use in the reporting. Also, nothing is said in the Darden website (or maybe I just missed it?).

I'm in for Round 2. Applying via the Consortium. Good luck all.