The Princeton Review ranked Darden among the top MBA programs across a variety of categories in their recent Best Business Schools for 2022 ranking. The organization’s annual ranking assessed 241 MBA programs using a combination of data provided by both schools and student surveys.
The Darden Report cited, “Among all MBA programs, Darden earned more Top 10 rankings than any other School, placing in 11 categories.”
Darden is ranked in the Top 10 in the following categories:
- 1 — Best Professors (No. 1 for the fifth year in a row)
- 1 — Best MBA in Consulting (Top 5 for the fifth year in a row)
- 2 — Best MBA in Management (Top 3 for the fifth year in a row)
- 3 — Best Classroom Experience
- 5 — Best Career Prospects
- 5 — Most-Family Friendly
- 8 — Best MBA in Finance
- 8 — Best MBA in Marketing
- 9 — Best Campus Environment
- 9 — Best MBA in Nonprofit
- 10 — Best Resources for Women
MBA-focused publication Poets & Quants commented on Darden’s performance, “Faculty may be Darden’s differentiator, but it is also a force multiplier that feeds into the program’s versatility and student engagement.”
In a 2021 interview with P&Q, Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions Dawna Clarke described the Darden community:
“Darden is also known for the atmosphere of mutual support, between students, and students and faculty members. Students are serious about being high-performers, but they want to see the person next to them succeed, too. They coach each other ahead of recruiting events, they tutor each other and they generally really like each other. The case method really does help to flex that empathy muscle — Darden students are a joy to spend time with.”
As noted, data from the rankings comes from a combination of sources — and it also depends on which ranking is being evaluated as to which data is utilized.
- Best Professors: Student surveys that evaluate “How good their professors are as teachers and how accessible they are outside the classroom.”
- Best Classroom Experience: Student surveys that evaluate “Professors’ teaching abilities, the integration of new business trends and practices in the curricula, the intellectual level of their classmates’ contributions in course discussions, and whether the business school is meeting their academic expectations.”
- Most-Family Friendly: Student surveys that evaluate “How happy married students are, how many students have children, how helpful the school is to students with children, and how much the school does for spouses of students.”
- Best Campus Environment: Student surveys that evaluate “How happy students are and how they rate the town the school is located in and the campus community, the availability of school activities and level of participation from fellow students.”
- “Best MBA For Consulting, Management, Finance, Nonprofit etc.” rankings are measured using school-reported data combined with student responses.
