Darden, University of Virginia - School Research

Darden - University of Virginia - was the last school in my targeted school list for round 1. Before I started researching about Darden, I was not sure whether to apply into this school. I want to target only among top 25 ranked schools from FT ranking and Darden ranks 27 in the Financial Time ratings; however, as I progressed in my research I started to develop a strong connection with the schools. Darden is the only public school in my round 1 schools list. I was also amazed by the fact that many of my fellow Indians applicants did apply to Darden in round 1 – A total of 26 applicants declared their application submission on BTG Darden’s wall for round 1. Here is my take on Darden.

Things that I liked about Darden –

1. Case Method – If you are looking for case-method based learning and Harvard Business School is a stretch school for you, then Darden should be your best bet. Darden graduates discuss more than 600 cases in their 2 year program, with an average of 3 cases per day. My pick is case-method because I think case-method learning makes business graduate ready for the real world problems. I also dropped the idea of applying to UCLA because of its preference of lecture-based teaching.
2. Innovative Faculty – Darden faculties are really creative in their way of teaching. I really loved how Prof. Ed Freeman uses drama and theatre to teach the leadership skills. Darden puts a strong emphasis on ethics, and the business week ranking clearly corroborates this fact. Darden graduates are famous for their impressive articulating abilities; obviously the credit goes to the great faculty team.
3. Public School – Darden is a public school, hence the tuition fee is comparatively lesser than other B-schools (approx. $47K for Virginia residents and $52K for non-residents, in comparison to $57K - $60K at other elite b-schools). Darden also provides lots of scholarship options.

Things that are not so attractive about Darden –

1. Lower Rank – Darden made 5 rank jump in FT rating (from 32 to 27) in a year. I don’t understand completely the parameters behind the ranking of the Financial Times ratings; however, a lower rank does indicate a lesser attractiveness among the recruiters and lesser salary for Darden Graduates than other elite b-school graduates.
2. Brand Name – Darden is a great school, although Darden as a brand name is a lesser known name in global b-school world when compared to the likes of UCLA, NYU Stern, etc..

If you want to know anything specific about my application progress, or want to learn about my research, do drop me a message

My Strategy to write an effective application

 

Writing a strong application always requires lot of hard work, dedication and concentration. As we are getting close to round 1 deadline pressure to stand out of the crowd, to convince ad-com of your story and, at the same time, to write a compelling application is enormous. With my rigorous work load I'm not able to give much time to application so I decided to follow a strategy. With this strategy whatever the little time I'm having I'm able to make most efficient use of it. I call it RAD (Research, Analyse and Draft).

1. Research - I collect all the material available about a school to better understand the application process. This involves breakdown of essay, videos from admission counsellors and ad-com and conversation with current students and alumni.

2. Analyse - The problem with doing extensive research is that we get lots of advice and expert opinions, which actually are good, however, not every advice or strategy works for everyone. Such as, I was not much involved in extra-curricular activities during my under-grad and have only one story to showcase my involvement in my under-graduate study. If I were to formulate story to show that I had great achievements in extra-curricular activities during under-grad that will come superficial from me. The story will not have the same soul as I portrayed in my other stories.

3. Draft - Yes I said draft, not writing actual essay. Drafting the structure of whatever you are writing is very much necessary. By drafting you can formulate the link between your one story to another, decide on importance of your story and structure your thoughts to convey the holistic picture of yourself. Draft is very necessary as one can't write everything one has accomplished or achieved. Every prospect of your application comes with restrictions and you have to respect them while delivering the best of you in those limitations. Draft is also a great point to brainstorm about your application and revise the structure of your idea that you're formulating to write.

This strategy helped me to structure my thought and see a holistic picture of my accomplishments. I hope it may be of some help to all of you out there.

If you want to know anything specific of my application progress or want to learn about my research, do drop me a message.

My Round 1 Application Schools list

 

With almost every schools application going online for round 1, every prospective candidate is rushing to prepare a competitive application. I'm also planning to apply to most of my shortlisted schools in round 1. Applying into earlier round will not give one edge over an equally eligible candidate, who is applying in round 2; however, there are few advantages of applying earlier. One benefit of applying in round 1 is that in case if your application gets dinged you have time to recover and can apply into other less competitive schools . The other benefit of applying in round 1 is that if you get accepted into your dream school, you can plan many things such as visa, any travel plan, organized monetary fund, etc.

I too have shortlisted list of my B-schools and now working towards making a competitive application, but first I need to be organized for my journey so that I don't blemish my application in any sense. Here is the list of my B-schools in which I'm applying in round 1.

1. The Fuqua School of Business - Early Action Round
2. Yale SOM
3. Columbia Business School
4. Tuck School of Business
5. Darden School of Business
6. UCLA Anderson School of Management

To few of you my 6th choice might seems bit edgy because it is the only B-school in my list on west coast. Reason to choose UCLA is that it has great program for M&E and being the situated in the capital of Entertainment Business, it  has edge over other similar programs.

I'll be tracking my progress of each application and will be updating my research on regular basis, so if you would like to know anything particular of my research do let me know.