Darden was my top choice school and I am happy to be here.
There are some very important things I wish I had known before accepting:
- It is important to live at Ivy Gardens. This is where most of the Darden population lives and a lot of the community at the school is based off of this. While it is not imperative that you live at Ivy, it will definitely help you socially.
- The Darden Partners group was a large reason I was attracted to the school because I am here with my girlfriend (another thing that will change your experience at any business school drastically). My impression from visiting was that this club was very supportive and would help your partner find a job, have a social network etc. My girlfriend found that the partners in the group primarily stuck to the "Ivy" clique where many of the partners who lived in Ivy gravitated towards each other and seemed to exclude others.
Outside of those things I think Darden is what you make of it. It would definitely be possible to break into a clique and befriend these people, I just find it hard to do because a lot of the friendships have solidified and they seem exclusive of other people. Reality is, if you stopped to talk to almost anyone at Darden they would have a candid and open conversation with you and this place overall is friendly and collaborative. Most of the people I have met here are awesome and I enjoy going to class everyday and interacting with them.
I believe you will find this at almost any school, I just think it is hard to find these things out when you are visiting/doing research. Again I have very good things to say about the school and I would recommend it to anyone - I just think you should have the full picture and not simply the most flattering.
Overall BSchool experience (4.0)
Schools contribution (4.0)
Classmates rating (3.0)
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