诚心求教-Darden

keeprunning

我对Darden有一些疑问，想请教大家，有对学校不正确认知的地方还请多包涵和指点：

1)职业发展：众所周知，Darden在GM领域非常强大，2009年在GM方面排名第一，如果要去industry工作，应该是很好的选择吧？但是，这是否仅仅限于在美国，因为我听说Darden在美国企业界的reputation很好，但是，客观来看，Darden在中国的声誉远没有在美国那么出名，如果未来长期还是想在中国industry工作，是否Darden的牌子足够了呢？

2)排名趋势：从目前趋势来看，Darden的排名有逐步下降的趋势，令人不禁担忧是否再过几年就会跌出15甚至20？请大家说说Darden在未来的排名走势？

3)国内声誉：刚刚也提到，Darden在中国的声誉远没有其在美国那么出色，但，同时，也有很多人表明，Darden的value在亚洲严重被低估。所以，从这个角度来看，Darden长远在中国、亚洲的声誉发展如何？是否在8-10年之后还是不温不火？

4)地理位置：Darden的地理位置究竟怎样？当地文化比较保守？请知情者详细说说。

5)就业机会：我想location是跟就业机会紧密相关的。Darden是否能有令人满意的工作机会呢？我这里指的是学校是否有足够的吸引力吸引公司前来。从BW的一个统计数据得出，从MBA毕业后long term payment来看，Darden还是不错的，毕业生20年后的收入能排到11名左右。我想请了解Darden、以及了解Darden毕业生的同学们说说Darden的就业情况，包括industry, consulting etc.（当然，找工作很大程度上取决于个人和机会）

6)Case method：我个人很喜欢Darden的case教学，但是，我想请教的是繁重的课业是否会对找工作的时间上有影响？Case教学还有什么负面的影响需要引起注意的呢？

7)其他：很多人说Darden是一所严重被低估的学校，那么，真心求教，除了以上提到的GM, consulting, case method等，Darden还有什么方面是令人不容忽视的？还有什么方面是被严重低估的？

最后，我个人的情况是毕业后希望在美国工作3-4年，主要在industry，或者consulting(如果可能的话，先在consulting1-2年还贷款)，然后回国继续在industry。

以上如有不妥言辞，还请大家海涵。我非常想充分了解这所学校，毕竟花那么多钱和时间在上面，还是需要三思的。

谢谢！

falconcn

driftysnail 真是热心啊！收藏了，以备今秋申请只用：）

jeffmou

driftysnail, thanks for your sharing. This really helps me a lot.

Also, could you give us a sample day schedule, as I heard Darden students get up at 7am and have discussion till 10/11pm.

Do you think the academic load is too heavy for job searching and fun?

-- by 会员 Hundred0728 (2010/3/31 11:24:00)

前三个quarter是最忙的，第四个quarter和二年级时间方面会好很多， typical schedule:
before 8:00: arriving at school.  you need to get up earlier if you prefer to have breakfast at home..
8:00- 9:25 first class
9:25 - 10:00 First Coffee - where you can drink free coffee as much as you like. i have my breakfast normally during this time
10:00 - 11:25 second class
11:45 - 1:10pm third class

Typically,  in the first three quarters:
1:30 pm - 2:15 pm, company briefing. companies will provide lunch.  a lot of times there are more than one companies hold company briefings on grounds at the same time - you need to make sure which one to attend based on your career direction
2:15 - 3:30pm,  sometimes a second company briefing
In the third quarter there are less company briefings but it's interview season.  You need to spend a lot of time on interview preparations.

3:30 - 7:00 DO YOUR MAGIC to read the three cases for the second day.  Normally I can't finish all the cases. for your benchmark, i dont have accounting background and it can take me 3+ hours on one accounting case only....  You can either choose to read one case in advance or, just skim all the cases. However, you need to pay attention that some quantitative courses like decision analysis, accounting and finance really take some time to finish the spreadsheet especially for people who dont have relative background.  And that's why learning from your learning team members is extremely important.  

before 7:00, grab some food.

7:00 - 9:00 or 10:00pm,  Learning team discussion.  Normally one of the team members chair one case and lead the discussion.  you need to be efficient if you want to finish three case discussion within three hours.  We dont recommend endless discussion and you can bring your questions to class if you have anything unclear.

10:00 - depends: write emails to alumni (this is time consuming and tedious but must), review cases or read tomorrow's cases, company research, drafing networking calls, prepare resume, cover letters, check and reply (many) emails etc...

Moreover, there will be a lot of other meetings, school events etc to attend during the day..

Saturday: SLEEEEP + Grocery shopping + having dinner with friends or hung out
Sunday: SLEEEP + reading Monday's case

----------
1. You need to prioritize your life and be good at time management. Everyone survives and I believe you can make it as well.. The tight schedule really makes every of us be efficient in whatever we are doing.  The academic load is heavy as compared of most peer schools but you also learn more - though this will not tell big differences during job hunting.. but trust me you will horn more solid skills..

2. Every Thursday Darden organize "Cold Call" events which provide free drinks and food in school. It's perfect time to meet your classmates.  There is antoer famous event called TNDC - Thursday Night Drinking Club.  Majority Darden students will go to a bar in town, having fun and maybe else... You will never be boring if you are a person prefer social life - parties EVERYWHERE and Amercian are good at finding reasons for drinking... they organize crazy school-wise parties even right before the final exams...

4. Darden also has some traditional events like "100 case party" and Darden Ball etc.  They are fabulous.  Here we also have a lot of charity events... endless...

5. For job searching - you need to take care of your schedules - when to attend the events, when to contact almuni, when to prepare your resume, cover letter, interview etc.  Just follow the process and you will be fine.

-- by 会员 driftysnail (2010/3/31 12:46:08)

I am very curious about one thing -- writing emails(ir making phone calls) to alums.
Eager to know what are the topics(,or even more specifically, purpose) of those emails(calls), normally speaking?
Other than enlarging personal network for long-term career development, how would networking-with-alumni help you in terms of internship or job hunting?
And any tips in DOs/DON'Ts for this kind of networking?
Really appreciate you spending so much time in sharing experience with us!
The more we know about Darden, the deeper we fall in love with it!!

driftysnail

这个是一个学生拍的 Day at Darden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FABkraZmJDo

-- by 会员 taktha (2010/3/31 12:07:48)

这是二年级的 day at darden.. 不是一年级的。。。

driftysnail

By the way, the above day schedule is based on my own experience. American spend less time on studying i think...

driftysnail

driftysnail, thanks for your sharing. This really helps me a lot.

Also, could you give us a sample day schedule, as I heard Darden students get up at 7am and have discussion till 10/11pm.

Do you think the academic load is too heavy for job searching and fun?

-- by 会员 Hundred0728 (2010/3/31 11:24:00)

前三个quarter是最忙的，第四个quarter和二年级时间方面会好很多， typical schedule:
before 8:00: arriving at school.  you need to get up earlier if you prefer to have breakfast at home..
8:00- 9:25 first class
9:25 - 10:00 First Coffee - where you can drink free coffee as much as you like. i have my breakfast normally during this time
10:00 - 11:25 second class
11:45 - 1:10pm third class

Typically,  in the first three quarters:
1:30 pm - 2:15 pm, company briefing. companies will provide lunch.  a lot of times there are more than one companies hold company briefings on grounds at the same time - you need to make sure which one to attend based on your career direction
2:15 - 3:30pm,  sometimes a second company briefing
In the third quarter there are less company briefings but it's interview season.  You need to spend a lot of time on interview preparations.

3:30 - 7:00 DO YOUR MAGIC to read the three cases for the second day.  Normally I can't finish all the cases. for your benchmark, i dont have accounting background and it can take me 3+ hours on one accounting case only....  You can either choose to read one case in advance or, just skim all the cases. However, you need to pay attention that some quantitative courses like decision analysis, accounting and finance really take some time to finish the spreadsheet especially for people who dont have relative background.  And that's why learning from your learning team members is extremely important.  

before 7:00, grab some food.

7:00 - 9:00 or 10:00pm,  Learning team discussion.  Normally one of the team members chair one case and lead the discussion.  you need to be efficient if you want to finish three case discussion within three hours.  We dont recommend endless discussion and you can bring your questions to class if you have anything unclear.

10:00 - depends: write emails to alumni (this is time consuming and tedious but must), review cases or read tomorrow's cases, company research, drafing networking calls, prepare resume, cover letters, check and reply (many) emails etc...

Moreover, there will be a lot of other meetings, school events etc to attend during the day..

Saturday: SLEEEEP + Grocery shopping + having dinner with friends or hung out
Sunday: SLEEEP + reading Monday's case

----------
1. You need to prioritize your life and be good at time management. Everyone survives and I believe you can make it as well.. The tight schedule really makes every of us be efficient in whatever we are doing.  The academic load is heavy as compared of most peer schools but you also learn more - though this will not tell big differences during job hunting.. but trust me you will horn more solid skills..

2. Every Thursday Darden organize "Cold Call" events which provide free drinks and food in school. It's perfect time to meet your classmates.  There is antoer famous event called TNDC - Thursday Night Drinking Club.  Majority Darden students will go to a bar in town, having fun and maybe else... You will never be boring if you are a person prefer social life - parties EVERYWHERE and Amercian are good at finding reasons for drinking... they organize crazy school-wise parties even right before the final exams...

4. Darden also has some traditional events like "100 case party" and Darden Ball etc.  They are fabulous.  Here we also have a lot of charity events... endless...

5. For job searching - you need to take care of your schedules - when to attend the events, when to contact almuni, when to prepare your resume, cover letter, interview etc.  Just follow the process and you will be fine.

nirvana118

去吧，你就去Darden吧，商学院和UVA的名声和实力都很强的，you can't go wrong.

taktha

这个是一个学生拍的 Day at Darden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FABkraZmJDo

Hundred0728

driftysnail, thanks for your sharing. This really helps me a lot.

Also, could you give us a sample day schedule, as I heard Darden students get up at 7am and have discussion till 10/11pm.

Do you think the academic load is too heavy for job searching and fun?

keeprunning

感谢driftysnail的详细回复。

我在最近这段时间跟Darden alumni沟通的过程中感觉非常愉快，Darden的校友极其nice和down to earth，给我留下很好的印象。赞