诚心求教-Darden

Cortega

离大城市2个半小时还是太远了，这样去其他大城市面试什么的光坐飞机算上过安检等飞机的时间大半天估计就过去了。另外，美国人选择适宜居住的标准跟中国人大相径庭，美国人喜欢安静，中国人喜欢热闹，这个差异很大。在纽约,国际学生可以玩的东西实在太多了，哪里是小城市可以比的，纽约的各大博物馆，不同乐队的演出，百老汇的歌舞剧，中国城品种丰富的中餐馆，K歌厅，还有第五大道，尼克斯和篮网队的NBA篮球赛，扬基队的职业棒球赛，时装秀，艺术展等等，如果你的生活在纽约还没什么变化只能说你太OUT了

amanda_mu

driftysnail的回复真的很细致。

其实LZ提的问题也是我一直以来都有的疑问，只是后来我突然觉得很多有关“未来”的问题现在关注太多想太多没什么特别实际的意义，很多路是我们去走的，或许去了大蛋或者任何一所其他的学校，我们才会发现原来路不是我们以前以为的一条罢了。

所以，LZ加油，一起去大蛋吧，呵呵。我相信我自己的判断力，也相信大家的判断力。

driftysnail

念MBA的没几个不会玩儿吧，纽约我去过很多趟了， 我很喜欢纽约。
DC我也去过很多次，比纽约大气，也很好。可惜我没有拿到M7的OFFER。
我是个喜欢在大城市居住的人，我就不把我的兴趣爱好一一汇报一遍了。在大城市生活了很多年，偶尔清净我觉得也没什么不好的。当然，萝卜青菜各有所爱。

我之前要表达的意思是DARDEN的功课是很辛苦，找工作压力也大，平时的生活重心都是在这两方面，也许你会觉得我们boring， 我不反对。

另外，如果都和DC比，美国也没几个不农村的。大城市当然好，一到放假我们也是往大城市奔。我想说的是DARDEN地理位置不至于“那么”差。看所有TOP 15的学校，和DARDEN的地理位置一个级别的也不少。

每个人选商学院的理由不一样，如果你把location当成非常重要的选择因素之一，在念MBA的两年一定要有都市生活，darden不应该在考虑申请的范围之内。不会有DARDEN的人跟你说我们LOCATION毕DC, BOSTON, NYC好。我只是给大家一个概念这里的地理位置大概是个什么水平，这个理由的权重在不同人的决定中都不一样。

Cortega

您这个回复很实在啊，说得非常在理。DARDEN功课重从星期五还要上课这一点就可以看出来了。好像MBA学校也分两派，一派是像kellogg和stanford这样的寻欢作乐，另一派就是像darden这样的闭关苦练。我是因为在美国的大农村呆了四年多，实在难以为继，所以才对大城市如此向往的。我上次回国第二天出去吃广东早茶，牛百叶入口的那一刻眼泪都快掉出来了，憋了多久才吃到这么正宗的早茶啊

念MBA的没几个不会玩儿吧，纽约我去过很多趟了， 我很喜欢纽约。
DC我也去过很多次，比纽约大气，也很好。可惜我没有拿到M7的OFFER。
我是个喜欢在大城市居住的人，我就不把我的兴趣爱好一一汇报一遍了。在大城市生活了很多年，偶尔清净我觉得也没什么不好的。当然，萝卜青菜各有所爱。

我之前要表达的意思是DARDEN的功课是很辛苦，找工作压力也大，平时的生活重心都是在这两方面，也许你会觉得我们boring， 我不反对。

另外，如果都和DC比，美国也没几个不农村的。大城市当然好，一到放假我们也是往大城市奔。我想说的是DARDEN地理位置不至于“那么”差。看所有TOP 15的学校，和DARDEN的地理位置一个级别的也不少。

每个人选商学院的理由不一样，如果你把location当成非常重要的选择因素之一，在念MBA的两年一定要有都市生活，darden不应该在考虑申请的范围之内。不会有DARDEN的人跟你说我们LOCATION毕DC, BOSTON, NYC好。我只是给大家一个概念这里的地理位置大概是个什么水平，这个理由的权重在不同人的决定中都不一样。

-- by 会员 driftysnail (2010/3/30 8:40:18)

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

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?

taktha

这个是一个学生拍的 Day at Darden

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

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.

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

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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.

driftysnail

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