In the following video, Darden’s Admissions Dean Sara Neher talks about the three things that make Darden different from other business schools and how they will impact your career:
With only a couple of weeks before Darden MBA First Year students disperse for summer internships and Second Year students prepare for graduation, several of the Darden Student Bloggers have written posts about end-of-year events and lessons learned. Here are a few of the recent posts:
UVA Today recently profiled Darden student Bryan West, a former marine, fly-fishing guide and current member of the MBA Class of 2012. During his time at Darden, Bryan served on the Honor Committee and interned at McKinsey & Company, where he will be returning full time after graduation.
In reflecting upon his Darden experience, he notes:
The school has certainly helped me with some of the fundamentals of business, but more importantly, it has helped me understand just how vital it is to be able to clearly communicate lessons learned or even my own vision to people of all backgrounds and biases. Similarly, the program has allowed me to experiment to really hone in on my strengths and weaknesses and how I can apply and further those throughout my life.”
Questions from yesterday’s Weekly Wednesday Admissions Chat are included below:
Question: I am hoping to apply next year for the Darden MBA program, and was wondering what activities and different things I can do in this next year to make myself a better candidate for admission.
Answer: Getting involved in the community is important. Volunteering, mentoring and coaching for instance. It’s really up to you.
Question: Can you elaborate on the timeline of the admissions process?
Answer: We offer 3 deadlines in October, January and March all for entrance in the fall of 2013. We hold receptions around the country and abroad each fall, and you can arrange to attend a class to get to know the teaching environment at Darden.
Question: Do you know when the summer open house dates, both on campus and off campus, will be finalized?
Answer: We’re not sure yet, but the dates will be posted on our Events & Receptions website as soon as we finalize them. Stay tuned!
To participate in the next Weekly Wednesday Admissions Chat, log into the chat any Wednesday from 12:30-1:00 p.m. (Eastern Time).
Darden’s Global Business Experiences (GBEs) are one- to two-week courses held outside of the United States. Based on a unifying theme, each course includes structured classes and practitioner presentations as well as visits to companies, governmental agencies and important cultural sites. The courses are typically offered in March during spring break, as well as in May.
Two of the Darden Student Bloggers recently wrote about their experiences on GBEs in India and Brazil:
- “Namaste, India!” – Sara Sajadi, Class of 2012
- “Brazil: Global Business Experience” – Brian Gavron, Class of 2013
Are you interested in learning about how the Darden MBA can help advance your career?
Join us for one or more of the following live online chats with current Darden students to learn about companies that recruit Darden students and the variety of academic and career resources available.
General Management Career Path
Tuesday, April 10
10:30 - 11:30 a.m. (EST)
Consulting Career Path
Thursday, April 12
4:00 – 5:00 p.m. (EST)
Marketing Career Path
Monday, April 16
1:30 – 2:30 p.m. (EST)
Finance Career Path
Tuesday, April 17
1:30 – 2:30 p.m. (EST)
Non-Traditional Career Paths
Thursday, April 19
10:30 – 11:30 a.m. (EST)
To access the chat, log into the chat a few minutes before the event start time, and use the “Enter as a Guest” option.
We hope you will join us!
Guest post by Pedro Miguel Simoes, Darden Class of 2013:
When I received an email inviting Darden to submit a team to compete in the Global Management Challenge, I rapidly contacted a few friends to form a team — Volodymyr Lob, Marek Benko, Borja Pastor and Manuel de Soto. The Global Management Challenge is the world’s largest simulation competition, with 35 participating countries, and we agreed this would be a great way to put our general management and team working skills to the test! In this competition, each team runs a virtual company and, based on the company’s history and management reports, has to make decisions on marketing, sales, production, human resource and finance policies. The decisions of each team influence the virtual market’s reaction, thus directly affecting the performance of the other teams.
During the group round, it was not easy to achieve the right balance between new product development, advertising and production level. We had to discuss and explore several alternatives before reaching a consensus. Our final strategy proved to be the best one, since we were able not only to finish the group round with the highest stock price, but also to pay the highest wages in the industry!
Volodymyr Lob, Marek Benko and I then made a road trip from Charlottesville to New York to represent Darden in the US National Finals. The event was held in the New York Stock Exchange, where we had the unique opportunity to visit the NYSE trading floor (but not to ring the bell), and to speak with a trader who explained to us how his job had changed in the last 20 years. Then we moved to the NYSE board room, were the final would take place. We presented ourselves and met the other seven teams, which came from all over the US, from both corporate and student teams.
The final was about to get started. Our plan for the final was simple — we agreed that in the beginning of the game, we should focus on our long-term competitive advantages, and in the end of the game, we should focus on optimizing short-term results and on making the organization as lean as possible. With such a clear direction right from the beginning of the game, we were able to focus solely on execution during the limited time we had to make each decision. Once the last decision was entered, we felt quite confident about our performance.
We would have to wait for a couple of hours, though, to know the results, which would be announced after a cocktail reception in a different floor where we were able to speak with the other teams and learn more about them.
Finally, the results — we were honored with the third place, second among student teams (the winner was a corporate team). Success! This was a great and fun experience that I would recommend to everyone next year.
Pedro Miguel Simoes
Class of 2013
Incoming President, European Society at Darden
In the following video blog, Assistant Dean of MBA Admissions Sara Neher talks about advice for applicants on the waitlist and Round 2 decisions which will be released next week:
There are a number of reasons to get an MBA degree, but we know most b-school students pursue an MBA — at least in part— to advance their careers and expand their career opportunities. While Darden is known for having a strong general management focus, the MBA program prepares students to be ready for the career of their choosing.
Several Class of 2012 students were recently interviewed about the job search process and how the academic environment, co-curricular experiences and career development resources available at Darden helped them in their job search process. The videos are included below:
Consulting
MBA Career Search at Darden: Consulting
Technology
MBA Career Search at Darden: Technology & West Coast Recruiting
Marketing
MBA Career Search at Darden: Marketing
Entrepreneurship
Careers in Entrepreneurship and the Darden MBA
Finance
MBA Career Search at Darden: Finance
To see more student videos, visit Darden’s YouTube channel.
If you’ve done your research on Darden, you’re probably familiar with the case method of instruction, but cases aren’t just for the classroom! Every year hundreds of MBA case competitions take place across the country.
Jonathan Harris, a Class of 2012 Darden Student Blogger who has participated in several case competitions throughout his time at Darden, wrote a blog post describing his experiences.
Read the full post: “What is a case competition?”
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