About Darden

citigroupztc

I went to UVa Undergrad and I can tell you that a Darden MBA is nowhere as glamorous as any current MBA has claimed. In fact, It's kinda crappy. And here are the reasons:

1) Case method. As far as I know, HBS and Darden are the only two schools that employ case method as their sole means of teaching. The strength of case method lies primarily in the area of peer learning. However, with a 50% admission rate and less than 50% yield rate, from whom do you expect to have a meaningful conversations or learn a great deal of knowledge? Let's be realistic, Darden is no Harvard.

2) One of the main purpose of doing a MBA is to join a powerful network that you can rely on. However, Darden doesn't have that. It produces fewer than 400 MBAs every year and the majority of students are not very well placed. Only very few exceptional MBAs make their way to buldge bracket Investment banks or big 3 management consulting firms. Don't be fooled by the number of big name companies that recuit at Darden. Most of them hire no more than 5 MBAs and some of them just came with intention of hiring at all - it's cheap advertisement for them. 

3) Darden's ranking is not going up at all. In fact, Darden used to be ranked in top 10 by usnews just a few years. However, the people here don't care anything about the ranking. They have this so called "pride" comimg from nowhere. One of the deans even said that he was surprised that the ranking wasn't drop as fast as he had expected. Without this kind of attitude, Darden is nowhere and is not going anywhere.

4) If you have previous correspondence with the current Chinese MBAs on this board, you could notice that some of them don't really communicate in English very effective and made tons of spelling mistakes. That certainly says something about the quality of admitted students. Check out the Wharton or Stanford board. They are in totally different class.

5) People, you spend over 150K and 2 years of your professional life pursuing a MBA in the states. Please go for the best ones. Be confident and you will be successful!!!!!

sendme

kind opinions, what about the opinions from the bright side.,

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-11-27 7:47:28编辑过]

leapon

citigroupztc: Thanks for your candid comment.

snowheat

"50% admission rate and less than 50% yield rate" ?

I find Duke has similar figures.

Also, the location sucks.

gonghao

总有些负面的消息平复一下我们激动的心情这未必不是一件好事

weilong111

不知情，不过畅所欲言是件好事

leapon

Between Duke and UVA, Duke is trying to improve its ranking, while UVA is mostly idle. I interviewed at both campuses and prefer Duke's more dynamic environment.

sisu1996

以下是引用citigroupztc在2006-11-27 7:37:00的发言：

I went to UVa Undergrad and I can tell you that a Darden MBA is nowhere as glamorous as any current MBA has claimed. In fact, It's kinda crappy. And here are the reasons:

1) Case method. As far as I know, HBS and Darden are the only two schools that employ case method as their sole means of teaching. The strength of case method lies primarily in the area of peer learning. However, with a 50% admission rate and less than 50% yield rate, from whom do you expect to have a meaningful conversations ("a meaningful conversation", or "meaningful conversations", but definitely not "a meaningful conversations) or learn a great deal of knowledge? Let's be realistic, Darden is no Harvard.

2) One of the main purpose (purposes) of doing a (an) MBA is to join a powerful network that you can rely on. However, Darden doesn't have that. It produces fewer than 400 MBAs every year and the majority of students are not very well placed. Only very few exceptional MBAs make their way to buldge bracket Investment banks or big 3 management consulting firms. Don't be fooled by the number of big name companies that recuit at Darden. Most of them hire no more than 5 MBAs and some of them just came ("come" is better, remember parallel structure?) with intention of hiring at all - it's cheap advertisement for them. 

3) Darden's ranking is not going up at all. In fact, Darden used to be ranked in top 10 by usnews just a few years. However, the people here don't care anything about the ranking. They have this so called "pride" comimg from nowhere. One of the deans even said that he was surprised that the ranking wasn't drop ("wasn't dropping, or "hadn't dropped") as fast as he had expected. Without (did you mean "With"?) this kind of attitude, Darden is nowhere and is not going anywhere.

4) If you have previous correspondence with the current Chinese MBAs on this board, you could notice that some of them don't (didn't) really communicate in English very effective (effectively) and made tons of spelling mistakes. That certainly says something about the quality of admitted students. Check out the Wharton or Stanford board. They are in totally different class.

5) People, you spend over 150K and 2 years of your professional life pursuing a (please, "an", not "a") MBA in the states. Please go for the best ones. Be confident and you will be successful!!!!!

It is interesting that for each of the points listed above, we can raise at least two to refute. Does Darden have lots of room for improvement? Yes. Do we (alumni/students/faculty) have pride? Yes, but definitely not from nowhere. If you talk to alumni/students from schools with a higher ranking, and BEG them to be forthright and without reservation, they will tell you what they would like to see improved. I am in no mood for argument and would hence propose - let's shelve the polemic for now and move on for whatever you deem more important.

PS. Please see corrections in blue. If you are applying for HBS/Wharton/Chicago, make sure you don't make the same mistake. Such a mistake may well be an "excuse" to ding you at a school ranked even lower than Darden. Good luck and keep us posted on your accomplishments.

Quote and unquote: Be confident and you will be successful!!!!!

- Darden alumnus who checks the website occasionally if he has time...

Sachem

Duke and Darden both are fine b-schools affiliated with some fine universities in the mid of nowhere.  It would be a long shot for them to turn from "good" or "fine" to "great".

bluesyy

1.      citigroupztc, you are definitely not UVA undergrad.  I never met any UVA students who would not feel proud of UVA and its culture and people but even more so said something so negatively behind.  Nobody normal and with a little bit moral standards would even do so to its mother school while the most amazing part about UVA is its honor code: students can buy anything from the school by just showing his student card and paying later; students can take exams home with a self commitment to complete by himself within limited hours.   

So, citigroupztc, how much do you know about the honor code? 

2.      Have you ever sat at Darden?  How can you judge something by everything you guess and hear?  How much have you seen and known by yourself?  How can you say something so sure while so negatively and publicly?   

3.      Case method.  The strength of case method lies primarily in the area of yourself and your own insights and solving ability.  Yes, Darden is not Harvard.  But do you judge people solely based on their school?  How many friends you have are from Harvard?  So never in your life did you learn anything from people beyond Harvard?  That's really ambitious.  But your judgment on people's value are really too shallow. 

4.      Darden does have a small network.  Every year, we have 300 graduates but among them in 2006, 50 goes to investment banks and 46 to consulting.  Even the rest also goes to very decent corporate finance, general management, marketing, operations, private equity, etc programs.  So what percentage do we have here?  Why?  Because we have a small program, and even if we might not have so many alumni out there in investment banks, the several you could find must be more dedicated to help you than other schools.  Think about Harvard.  They might have over 50 alumni in Goldman Sachs and then who would care about you, another Harvard student?  Why would they need to help you?   

Also, what is Harvard's culture?  Very competitive.  But in this sense, Darden stands out with its collaborative culture and all the alumni care about Darden students as much as the school does. 

5.      Yes, Ranking does not go so well mainly because in this sense, Darden is very low key.  It doesn't mean that it doesn't care.  But even Chinese culture taught us to focus on your inner development rather than outer glory.  So I suppose you might grow up abroad and forget about the Chinese culture.  But what I can assure you is that very soon Darden can prove itself if what you care about your MBA is only ranks. 

6.      There are actually not too many Darden students on this board.  I haven't come for over a year.  Because at Darden everybody is really busy and not as free and gossipy as you are.  And Darden Chinese students are fewer with a smaller class size compared with Wharton and Stanford.  With a 100% case method and class participation 50% counted in your score and everyday learning team discussion, how much English communication skills could you imagine a Darden student can improve?  It must be beyond your imagination scope, I guess.   

7.      Everybody has a different expectation for MBA.  If the short term money is all that you want, I don't believe that one day you can compete with people who have a vision for their long term career success.  Darden is not the best but in all Darden students' and alumni's eyes, it is the best.  We take away a life long friendship (not just shallow network), a significant improvement on business communication skills and solving ability, and a greater understanding and insights of life.   

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-12-4 5:33:22编辑过]