Darden - Wahoowah!

yorkzhong

I am going to Darden B-school next week and would like to take questions about Darden and MBA application together with other classmates and alumnies.

Many people may ask what great about Darden, I would say: high teaching quality, a realy community, very good career opportunity.

Teaching: Darden ranks among the highest of it's teaching quality in most major rankings. Similar with other top B-schools, It has top notch professors, but what differs Darden is that these professors are always there for you. Their doors are open, they remember your name and even what is your wife doing. They are engaged in your development. The case study mode might frighten some Chinese students, because natually we are more quiet comparing with western people.  But in my point of view it's a good OPPORTUNITY for us to change. You spend 100K US$ not to do vacation, you spend that big money to change yourself, and Darden is the place to change you to a real leader. Case study is very like the real business environment, where you review problems, discuss with your colleagues, and make decisions. Learning through practicing, I believe, is the best way to learn business.

Community: that's something I always feel during my application and after that. Staffs and especially alumnis are very kind and helpful. You will feel like you already have many friends even before you go to the school. That's also something important. Spending 2 years, getting to know some life long friends, isn't that interesting?

Career opportunity: Darden is known as a school to educate future CEOs, and has very good reputation in industry. Though not everyone of your colleagues know Darden, but if you talk to executives, they will know, and they will tell you it's a very prestige school. UVA is also ranked among the highest in US, and is known as one of the best public schools in US. You can always find the career statistics in school web, but I believe you would be more interested in Chinese students' job. As far as I know, in 2006 there are 8 studens from China mainland, and 5 of them find jobs in US. I will come back China so I cares more about the rest 3 who comes back China, and they all find GREAT jobs, say consultanting, marketing, with salary comparable to US salary.

Theses are just my point of veiw, open to any questions and discussions. My classmates will also be glad to answer.

 Some pics, it might take you several minutes to show but please be patient, you will not regret it

 Darden school:

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zxsteven

Great job, York!

I am in Darden this year as well, willing to take any question you may have about Darden. I have spent past six years in the U.S., and I am quite aware that the Darden
    School is a decent business school in American's eyes. I have visited Darden several times before I finally chose Darden over other schools; I am amazed by Darden's unique pure case teaching, friendly and lay-back student community, and beautiful campus as well.

Frankly speaking, Darden is not a big school for IB in Asia (Darden has a quite strong presence in Wall Street though), but it provides you a diversified job options including consulting, general management, marketing and finance. If you are aiming to become a future CEO, come to Darden!

 

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[此贴子已经被作者于2006-8-14 4:16:11编辑过]

yorkzhong

Hi Steven - thanks for echo my request. Will see you next week

Some tips to everyone for applications:

1 - School selection: try to get into a school ranks as high as you can, BUT, do not be fooled by those rankings since a No.8 school will not be much greater than a No.10 school, though definately you should more consider a school ranked No.2 than No.10. If the ranking are in the same level, you should consider more about all the other factors, like location, career, concentration, etc.

2 - Attend a workshop, working in a team is much better than working alone, at least this works for me since I am not a person with strong displine to do all the tough job alone

3 - soul searching yourself, know who you are, what do you want, what is great about you, why do you want a MBA - to spend 100K$ just to add a "MBA" title to yourself is maybe the worst thing you can do.

4 - work hard, and try to be familiar with US way of thinking, and the "game rule" as much as possible. You can get a better school than where you should be by working harder, and knowing more about these than people who don't know.

5 - apply as early as you can. First round would be perfect. In last year I believe some schools recurited too many in first round so they almost stop recuriting in the second in China.

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-7-26 8:39:17编辑过]

tobebraveleo

Hi York. I am Raymond, the guy with entertainment background, who had a very nice talk with you at the Darden reception. Thank you for your tips. Dean Bruner, his colleagues and you alumni guys really demonstrate strengthes of Darden. Looking forward to reading your stories in your blog. Have a safe trip.

TanZi

多谢分享，darden亦是我的所爱！

LeLe123

Hi, York and Steven, many thanks for your insightful view and ardent introduction, demonstrating again the over 50 yrs spiritual heritage of Darden. Sincerely wish you great success!

rain_羽

Thanks for sharing! Does Darden provide two-years no guarantied loan to foreign students or only provide this kind of loan in its second year?

zxsteven

以下是引用rain_羽在2006-7-26 16:01:00的发言：

Thanks for sharing! Does Darden provide two-years no guarantied loan to foreign students or only provide this kind of loan in its second year?

Darden provides a two-year loan (Gate Loan)  to all international students, http://www.gateloan.com/dardenintl0607.

The loan covers tuition and living expenses (up to $56500/year this year),  No cosigner is needed, no origination fees, and the process is pretty easy and straightforward. So if you get admitted, no need to worry about money.

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-7-26 20:26:58编辑过]

LeLe123

以下是引用zxsteven在2006-7-26 20:24:00的发言：

Darden provides a two-year loan (Gate Loan)  to all international students, http://www.gateloan.com/dardenintl0607.

The loan covers tuition and living expenses (up to $56500/year this year),  No cosigner is needed, no origination fees, and the process is pretty easy and straightforward. So if you get admitted, no need to worry about money.

So can this be interpreted that once you are in, you don't have to prove to Visa Officer that you personally have enough money for the tuition because the loan itself, as you said, good enough to cover all the cost??

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-7-26 23:44:09编辑过]

迅捷

Yes, you can use the loan as a source of funding in your I-20 form. However, showing some type of personal funding will boost your chance of getting the visa issued smoothly.