How To Get Into UVA Darden’s MBA Program [Episode 587]

Show Summary

Dawna Clarke, Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions at UVA Darden, returns to Admissions Straight Talk to discuss various aspects of the Darden MBA program, including experiential learning opportunities, global study opportunities, the use of AI in the program, the application process, and common mistakes made by applicants. Dawna emphasizes the importance of authenticity in the application and provides examples of successful essays. She also discusses the interview process and suggests that applicants ask thoughtful and probing questions to demonstrate their research and interest in the program.

Show Notes

Welcome to the 587th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. Are you ready to apply to your dream business schools? Are you competitive at them? Accepted’s MBA admissions calculator can give you a quick reality check. Just go to accepted.com/mbaquiz, complete the quiz, and you’ll not only get an assessment of your chances, but tips on how to improve them. Plus it’s all free.

It gives me great pleasure to have back on Admissions Straight Talk Dawna Clarke, Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions at UVA Darden. Dawna is one of the most experienced and respected admissions directors I’ve been privileged to know. She started her career in MBA admissions at UNC Kenan-Flagler, then moved to Darden, served for 15 years as director of admissions there, then served in the same role at Dartmouth Tuck, and even spent a short period as an MBA admissions consultant before returning to Darden in 2017. In all her positions and roles in MBA admissions, she’s known for running a very applicant-friendly admissions process while attracting great candidates to the schools lucky enough to have her on their staff.

Dawna, welcome back to Admissions Straight Talk. It’s a pleasure to have you again on the show. [2:58]

Thank you so much for the opportunity, Linda, and thank you for such a kind, generous introduction.

Linda Abraham:

Every word’s true.

I’d like to start with some general questions about Darden and then get more admissions-focused. Can you start by providing a basic overview of the Darden MBA program for listeners who may not be that familiar with it, focusing on its more distinctive elements? [3:08]

Sure. I would emphasize that Darden is extremely well known for the quality of its educational experience and the quality of its teaching faculty. So for a third party reference point, the Economist, for example, has rated Darden as having the best educational experience for 11 consecutive years. I think we were tied for number one or number two in one of those 11 years. But that is Darden’s stake in the ground.We want to offer an unparalleled educational experience. They really put a stake in the ground with regard to faculty members who are excellent in the classroom, and Darden is very committed to the case method. That has been the case since the school’s inception in the early 1950s. The committee that formed Darden was largely comprised of Harvard Business School graduates. And so that is the origin of why Darden initially was so committed to the case method.

But as you can imagine, over the years, there have been many curricular reviews in which the question has been asked, is this still the most relevant teaching method? And to date, the faculty remains very committed to it. And the reasons are in large part because of the incredibly positive feedback that we get from both recruiters and alumni who talk about the skills that are developed through the case method and how relevant they are not just to their first job, but to their long-term career.

And some of those skills are decision-making skills. In the two years at Darden, an average student will do 500 cases where you’re putting yourself in the place of a protagonist and asking, what would I do in this situation? You work really closely with a learning team and go and express your opinion, have a really engaging conversation in the classroom. So it’s a great exercise for people who want to reach a higher level of communication skills.

There’s also a strong experiential element to the Darden program, right? [5:36]

Yes, there is. I think one of the things that people don’t realize about the case method is that every case is set within an industry or topical area. So in the first-year core curriculum, it’s a general management curriculum. Students are going to take functional classes to gain an enterprise wide perspective. But because it’s a case method, in addition to functional skills like accounting and marketing and finance and operations and ethics and communications, students, our students are going to get exposed to roughly 70 different industries, because every case is set within an industry or a topical area.

So it could be sustainability for example, or renewable energy, transportation, education, healthcare. And I love the phrase, as humans, we don’t know what we don’t know. In 21 months, students are going to get these really relevant functional skills, but because it’s a case method school, you’re also going to get exposed to so many different industries.

And there’s so many examples of situations I can think of. There was a woman who came to Darden decades ago who thought she was interested in consulting. She had, I think, three or four cases in her first year about the airline industry. Other than being a passenger on an airline, she had really no exposure to the airline industry and discovered a passion for the logistics of the airline industry. She went to work for American, got a job offer after graduation and rose to a C-suite position. And I heard her speak once about how she would likely not have discovered her passion for the airline industry had she not attended a case method school that exposed her to so many different industries, and there was one that just really resonated with her.

Now Darden also offers a lot of global study opportunities and gives every student the opportunity to participate in them. I know there’s a Darden Worldwide Course among others. Can you outline some of those opportunities? [7:36]

Yes. And I’d love to talk a little bit about why we offer them. So our dean, Scott Beardsley, has been at Darden for roughly eight years. He’s in a second term [as dean]. He was a strategy consultant initially with McKinsey who went on to be a partner at McKinsey and in charge of leadership development. And he is very passionate about our students increasing their global awareness, increasing their global skills. And about 40% of the students who come to Darden are international students, which is just such a great opportunity for all students to make friends and learn about doing business around the world. But he found a donor so that every Darden student… This is a real differentiator for us with regard to international opportunities. Every Darden student receives a $4,000 scholarship to be used only for their Darden Worldwide class.

And the reason is those classes are a little bit more expensive because of the international nature of them. And when he arrived at Darden, there were some students who could afford to do one and some students who couldn’t afford that incremental cost. And so the $4,000, it doesn’t cover the full cost, but it helps to contribute because he really wants Darden students to take advantage of this opportunity, and so much so that he found a donor who gave such a large endowed gift that in perpetuity, every Darden student will have the opportunity to do a Darden Worldwide class. So I highly recommend them.

Just to give you some examples, this past year, and some of the locations change from year to year, but there was one offered in Costa Rica and the topic was sustainability. And the person who led, that faculty member who led that was a former CEO of Save the Children who has a lot of expertise in sustainability. And Costa Rica is really well known for its sustainable practices.

So another faculty member, Ron Wilcox, led one in Iceland. Apparently Iceland is very well known for its renewable energy industry. There was one in Finland and Estonia where students went and visited ship building manufacturers and sauna manufacturers. There’s a faculty member, Jeanne Liedtka, who has led one in Barcelona. She is an expert. She’s kind of the founder of design thinking, and she taught design thinking, kind of getting inspired by an architecture of Barcelona. And some of them do change from year to year. So for example, we typically offer one in Israel, which unfortunately we’re not able to offer it this past year, but there’s typically one in South Africa. You go with a smaller group of students, a faculty member, a staff member. It’s just such a bonding experience. And they highly integrate cultural learning too. You’re in Finland trying reindeer, trying saunas, which are so popular over there. I highly recommend taking advantage of the Darden Worldwide class.

Of course, we also have Darden global consultancies. We have many study abroad programs as well. I think one of the challenges with study abroad programs is that there’s so many electives at Darden, sometimes students don’t want to be gone for an entire semester. So I would say of all the international opportunities, while there are a multitude of them, the Darden Worldwide classes are the most popular.

Those are a lot of opportunities. When you talked about trying a sauna, I was thinking I was in DC yesterday and I just walked outside and felt like I was in a sauna. Charlottesville is gorgeous. I remember visiting you several years ago and it was absolutely beautiful. But how would you respond to potential applicants who are concerned about spending their MBA in Charlottesville, which no matter how beautiful it is, may not be considered a major business center? [11:57]

That’s a really good question. And interestingly, sometimes I have the opportunity to have lunch with recruiters. So I think one concern is because we’re not in a major metropolitan area, does that impede recruiting? And I would say it’s actually a bit of an advantage because I think so many people who are involved in recruiting go to major metropolitan areas.

Charlottesville has become a bit of a destination. And so I think it’s kind of considered, oh, a perk. I get to go and recruit at Darden, a town that has kind of become a destination in that, for example, Rand McNally rated it the number one foodie town in the country. It’s what I love most about Charlottesville. The food scene is amazing. 338 restaurants for a town our size and the affordability of a lot of great restaurants. There’s 41 vineyards in the area. There’s the Downtown Pedestrian Mall, which is sort of an outdoor walking mall with local businesses and coffee shops and music venues and restaurants that I love. That’s my favorite area of Charlottesville.

But in conversations with recruiters, I would say also since COVID occurred, there obviously was a more dramatic switch to virtual recruiting. I mean, as you may know and maybe some of the participants may or may not know this, but Darden has been doing extremely well in rankings in the last year. And that has largely been driven in part to the success of the career center in that the placement rates and average starting salary and bonuses and things have just been exceptional within the industry, which I think is maybe sort of tangible evidence that our location is not working against us.

The other potential impact would be in experiential learning opportunities. But again, there’s so much that you can do virtually. [13:55]

Also it’s just so easy to get to different places too. So I mean, we have the Amtrak. Usually when I go to New York, I take the Amtrak rather than a plane because you don’t have to get there an hour early. We can easily get to Washington, DC where we have a campus in Rosslyn that houses all of our professional degree programs, the EMBA degree, the part-time MBA, the MSMBA.

So you can easily get to DC, you can easily get to New York. There’s a direct flight to New York. There’s a direct flight to Chicago. I mean, I’m biased because I’ve lived in Charlottesville twice for a total of 22 years. And there’s so much to do in part because I always tell students to remember, if you come to Darden, you’re not just a Darden student, you’re a University of Virginia student as well. And if you want me to, at some point, I can talk a little bit more about the opportunities that Darden students have at UVA. But you’re a citizen of Charlottesville, and I love it. I find it to be a progressive town. So many speakers, restaurants, the winery. It has a lot of charm and personality, which I maybe, I’m personally a little more drawn to college towns than big cities just because that’s what I know. My career has been working for colleges and universities, so I live in college town, so I seem to gravitate towards them, so I may have a bias.

On a totally different topic, is Darden incorporating AI into its program at all? [15:37]

So a couple things I’d love to share is that our dean, Scott Beardsley, took a sabbatical last year at this time for six months. He got into a certification program at Oxford where he went to study the ethics of artificial intelligence. So left Darden, got permission from the provost to take a sabbatical. One of the best programs apparently in the ethics of artificial intelligence is at Oxford. He is there now working on his dissertation.

So he had a lot of expertise that he gained at McKinsey in artificial intelligence, but obviously it is here, and he felt so compelled to learn more about the ethics of artificial intelligence that he took a sabbatical to study this topic. So I think that’s a huge advantage to us.

The other thing related to this is that we are the first school that has announced a Center for Artificial Intelligence. And so I was just in a dean staff meeting in my role in admissions, I also sit on the dean staff meeting, and the exact elements of the Center for Artificial Intelligence are still being fleshed out. So I might have more to share with you in a couple of months, but we got a multi-multimillion dollar gift to fund the Center for Artificial Intelligence.

Just yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit a donor with a member of the development team who happens to be in Maine where I am for the summer. And he gave a very generous gift to Chair Ed Freeman, who is a world-renowned ethicist and sort of the founder of Stakeholder Theory. So Darden has been very well known for ethics since its inception, since the first day of school. I think we were the first school that offered ethics. So we’re really interested, particularly in the ethics of artificial intelligence.

And then the last thing I would say, Linda, is that I have been so grateful and happy that there’s so much training available at Darden for people like me too. It’s training for students, training for staff, training for faculty members. We just had a training last week on artificial intelligence visualizations, how to use things like DALL-E. So I’m really grateful that they are on it. Like, “Hey, community, students, faculty, staff, these are new resources that we need to be familiar with.” And there was a training, and if you can’t come, there’s another training. So I think we are all over it and more details to come on the Center for Artificial Intelligence, but first school to announce such a center.

Is that a Darden center or is it a UVA center? [18:36]

It’s a Darden center. Yeah, we’re really excited. And part of the certification program that our dean, Scott Beardsley, was on requires a dissertation. So after graduation, he went back to Oxford, and to work on the dissertation, that is a requirement for this program and will be wrapping that up. So great that he cares about it so much to say I need to do a deep dive into this as a dean of a school, this is a major informational, seismic change.

Let’s turn to the application. Darden has made test waiver requests available to applicants. Who should seek them and who shouldn’t? Does receiving a test waiver affect one’s chances for obtaining merit-based aid? [19:16]

Great series of questions. Okay. I’m going to start with why I’m so passionate about offering a test waiver. And I am going into my 40th year in the field of admissions.

I don’t believe that. [19:47]

Yeah, I know. I was like, “How did that happen?” In 2025 it’s going to be 40 years at four different schools. But over the years, one of the things that I have become increasingly passionate about is that not all applicants, not all stellar applicants are equally stellar standardized test takers. And we’re ultimately looking for leaders, high impact leaders. And I have been concerned for years that there’s an overemphasis on standardized tests and that maybe we’re going to be missing out on some really exceptional students and future leaders because of the emphasis on standardized tests and average standardized tests.

So fortunately, our dean was really on board, and he and I worked together with enterprise analytics to look at what in an application correlates with academic success at Darden, if we were going to de-emphasize a standardized test or look at alternative evidence, what else correlates with academic success?

And so some of the things that we found were that the interview correlates highly with academic success. And that kind of makes sense because Darden, there’s a heavy emphasis on class participation. So your interview skills, ability to communicate interpersonal skills, that would make a lot of sense in terms of how that translates into the classroom. We found that the verbal GMAT correlated higher than the quantitative GMAT, which was also a surprise. The biggest source of the correlation was the undergraduate GPA. And so every year we work with enterprise analytics to ask other questions like, does the CFA or CPA correlate with success? How is executive assessment correlating with success? So I feel that this is a policy that is kind of innovated each year based on more data. Just because we found that there was a correlation with the interview three years ago, is that still the case?

So we’re actually in a meeting next week where we’re looking at some of this year’s data, but the basic reason we offer a test waiver is that it is 2024, it is not 1950. In this day and age, there are plenty of what we call alternative compelling forms of evidence that somebody can do well academically.

So to answer your question about who should apply, I would say if there’s a student who has alternative compelling evidence that they can do well, but maybe they struggle with a standardized test, that’s not where they shine, but they have other forms of evidence. Maybe they have a CFA or a CPA, or they did exceptionally well at the undergraduate level, or they’ve taken post-bacc classes that are relevant, or there are so many certifications program out there like MBA math, HBS CORe. Those are the types of things.

So in our instructions on the test waiver, what happens is you apply for a test waiver first, and you find out first if you’re granted the waiver or not, so that then you have time to apply and take a test. So it’s not like a rubber stamp, everybody who applies is approved. And I wouldn’t be discouraged. If you’re an applicant and you’re not approved for a test waiver, that is not an indication that you’re not going to get admitted. We want to set an applicant up for success. So if we deny a test waiver, it’s because we’re not really seeing enough alternative evidence. That test score would be really helpful to us and set you up for more success.

It’s really thoughtful. We’re really proud of it. And we do a lot of studies to see how did people perform who had a test waiver versus didn’t have a test waiver, and always looking at the different tests and the different components of the test. So was there another element of that question?

The other question was, does giving a test waiver affect one’s chances for obtaining merit-based aid? [23:47]

It can with some scholarships. So I would say if scholarships are really important, there are some scholarships for which it would be helpful to have a test waiver. Not all of them, but I would say to optimize your chance of getting a scholarship in general, I would say it would be helpful to have a test score. There are some merit-based scholarships that do ask for a standardized test. But that being said, every year there are numerous examples of people who got a test waiver and did get a scholarship. But to optimize, if scholarships are really important, I think it would be best to take a standardized test.

Let’s move on to the essay questions. Darden has three challenging essay questions. I’m going to read or summarize them:

Community of belonging: What would you want your classmates to know about you that is not on your resume? 100 words.
Inclusive impact: Please describe a tangible example that illuminates your experience promoting an inclusive environment and what you would bring to creating welcoming global community at Darden. 300 words.
Careers with purpose: At this time, how would you describe your short-term post-MBA goal in terms of industry function, geography, company size and/or mission? How does it align with the long-term vision you have for your career? 200 words.

What advice can you give applicants for answering each of these questions? We can go through them one by one. [25:27]

Okay, great. I’ll start with the first one, which is one of my two favorite ones. And the reason it’s my favorite one is basically it gives people an opportunity to talk about what’s your signature. I mean, in many cases, I would say a lot of the answers fall into the category of what’s your signature strength or where is your passion? I’ve seen some really great responses to that that really give you a sense of the person. And I’m going to give you a couple of examples because I think sometimes people feel this pressure, I have to write that I cured cancer or something like incredibly riveting, right?

I read an essay a couple of years ago from a woman, it was during COVID, and she takes a great deal of pride in helping others. That is where she’s in her element is helping other people. And she wrote some examples, and one of the examples was the extent that she went to help her elderly grandparents learn technology during COVID, elderly grandparents and relatives because she was so worried they were isolated, that they were going to become more isolated. And it was a very poignant example of her identifying something and going like, I’m going to take the bull by the horn and they’re going to learn how to do this. And that’s where she gets passion is helping others. And what a great example of someone to be in a community who is a giver.

There was an essay I read this past year that was really well done, and it was in both cases they gave some examples, but she described herself as a connector, somebody who gets a lot of joy from, oh, you have this interest and you have… I’ve got to make this connection between the two of you, whether it’s professional or personal. And that’s part of building community is connecting with people.

There was another person who talked about having dinner parties, and one of the things he does is every person who’s invited to his dinner party is required to bring somebody else so that his community would grow, and nice way to share, he loves to cook, bring people together.

Whatever it is for each person, I mean, I would say just spend some time, like what gives me joy? What is my signature strength? I love reading this essay. I feel like of all the things you could possibly talk about, it’s so fascinating to see what people do right. And I think it’s one of the ways I feel like we kind of get to know this person a little bit. So I really, really like that essay.

I’m going to talk about one of the optional essays too, which is also one of my favorites, and it is optional, but it basically asks if the candidate faced any challenges or hardships or roadblocks that would give the admissions committee additional context. So life is complicated, for most people. And there are times where we’re on the top of the mountain and things you don’t feel like could get any better. And then there are times where, whoa, there’s some curveballs. And that applies to our applicants too. And I think it’s super helpful for us to know if somebody, for example, maybe their undergraduate, they had a semester or a year that was off. We see a lot of people who may have experienced a loss or a medical issue or a mental health issue or a family issue, an addictive issue within the family that impacted them. It’s just life happened, and sometimes people have to take a leave of absence to take care of a loved one. I find that essay, we started asking that about three years ago. It is my all time favorite essay.

And in many cases, people don’t complete it. That’s fine. They feel like what they submitted is enough, but it does help sometimes explain things like, okay, there’s a gap in employment. And rather than us wondering “why was there a gap of employment?” or,” wow, this year was really rough,” or sometimes people have incredible passions to help other people who have experienced something. I’ve seen so many great examples of somebody who experienced X, Y, Z, who then goes on and volunteers for organizations or does fundraisers or wants to use their position post-MBA to shine a light on a particular issue.

So I would say for people who are comfortable, if there was something that you want us to know that isn’t covered in the application elsewhere, it’s a safe space. I think we’re very well-educated. This generation is experiencing record amounts of mental health issues and things. I think we try to be very educated on these issues. And from a lot of the challenges that people face can come an incredible amount of resilience that will serve them well as leaders. Empathy, I see this oftentimes in that essay.

So if there is something legitimate that you feel comfortable writing about, I think that’s a wonderful vehicle. Now some people prefer to be very private about what those things are, and we totally respect that too. People shouldn’t feel pressured to complete it if there isn’t really something that fits into that category. But I find that essay to be very helpful.

I’m going to jump to the career essay. I mean, I think a part of the beauty of the MBA is the exploration. There’s so many things that people can gain through it. So I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself as an admissions director who is very focused on what do you want to do with your MBA before you even set foot on the campus and what industry and what company and what city and things, because I think people are going to discover a lot.

I think people could talk a little bit about what their thoughts are at this time. It tells a little bit about their thought process. Here’s what I’m thinking at this time and why I think Darden is a good fit for me, but I am probably more open than some to not knowing or maybe having some ideas and wanting the MBA experience to narrow it down. We have an excellent career center. Everybody’s assigned to a career coach that before students even start their MBA, they’re going to work with their career coach on a program called CDY, Career Development Y and work on some surveys and work on your resume and start that exploration process before you even start the MBA.

Would it be fair to say that you just would like applicants to have some direction coming in, but they’re not signing a contract? [33:04]

Yes. At no point is somebody going to go, wait, you’re going to do this instead?I think there is value in knowing you have done enough research about an MBA and why an MBA would be valuable for you to pursue. And I think sometimes it can be very impressive, like I’ve talked to these alumni or I’ve talked to people in the industries that I’m considering to show, wow, they’re really thoughtful decision makers, but yet they don’t have to commit to something before they come.

We have a high percentage of veterans, for example, who are transitioning to business roles and they have incredibly relevant leadership and team skills and discipline, but it’s very common for them to be undecided because they haven’t been exposed to business paths yet. And so I think some direction is helpful just to kind of illuminate that you’re taking the process seriously and it kind of translates into why you think Darden is a good fit for you.

What we mean by authenticity is kind of tapping into what is it that you’re most proud of that is relevant to an MBA program? What is it about you? It could be something about your upbringing, and it could be about something about your strengths, your personality characteristics, your experience. It could be just something about you that you’re willing to share that enables us to get to know the person a little bit.

And no, a common question I get is, what do you look for in a Darden student? And I think sometimes people think we’re looking for literally a cookie cutter. And honestly, it’s super helpful to have people who bring different signature strengths. So I talked about the person who talked about being a connector. Oh, I could see where that would be really valuable to community building at Darden. The person who really wants to be helpful. I could see that person being very relevant to leadership and caring deeply about your people and wanting to be helpful and wanting to be a mentor and contributing to the Darden community. So people can shine for different reasons, right?

And I think when I mean authenticity, it’s just self-reflection, soul-searching. I find those stories, vignettes, and anecdotes to be really helpful. I mean, there have been some examples in my career where maybe somebody shared something and we’re like, “Ooh, that’s a little too much information about a very personal thing.” I would say for the most part, I don’t think it’s a problem to be authentic. I think it’s more a problem when somebody isn’t. And sometimes you read an essay and something says, according to Thomas Jefferson, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And then you’re like, okay, that tells me something about Thomas Jefferson, but doesn’t really tell me something about you. So I think it’s more the issue is more somebody not being authentic and giving a rote example that’s kind textbooky as opposed to people who are authentic, and this is who I am and this is what I have to contribute and have a little pizazz about it. I think this is going to contribute a lot, and here’s an example. I think I don’t see too many examples of somebody was too authentic or sharing inappropriate stories for the most part.

What can applicants expect if lucky enough to be invited to interview? [37:37]

Well, we believe strongly in somebody is going to have an opportunity to be more themselves if they were relaxed. So our interviewers are encouraged and trained to build rapport and make somebody feel comfortable. And then I think it’s important for the interviewee to actually contribute to building rapport too. That can be really helpful in terms of the dynamic in an interview.

While I mentioned earlier that we really are not looking for a cookie cutter, I would say some common characteristics that we do try to screen for because Darden is well known for its community and works very diligently to have some structures in place to facilitate a sense of community and inclusion of people who are coming from all over the world, from different backgrounds and orientations. We do like to screen for interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, communication skills. We think those are so important to be successful at Darden, to be successful in life, to be successful as a leader.

So I would say mostly most of the interview form is focused on interpersonal skills, communication skills, any examples of team skills, leadership skills. Those aren’t the only ways. You can also show some of those skills through your recommendations and through your essays and things. But I would say the interview is largely focused on those aspects of the application that are harder to convey in writing, and verbal communication skills and strong interpersonal skills are two of the ones that are a little bit easier to assess on the basis of an interview, but we try really hard to make it pleasant. We have students involved who are selected and trained, and their voice matters as much as anybody on the admissions committee. And I would also emphasize that I think people on our team go into admissions because there are people people and they love interviewing and meeting people and learning about different people.

And there’s a lot of scurrying in the office about, “Oh, my gosh, I just interviewed the most interesting person.” And so know that it’s not a bunch of scrooges. It’s pretty friendly. I appreciate you calling out that it is we try really hard to be empathetic to the applicant experience. It can be stressful. People are working full-time and studying for standardized tests and visiting schools and interviewing and writing applications. It’s a lot. So we try to be very empathetic to the applicant experience. And I think that’s why it was very helpful to me to work as a consultant for a short period of time and really see the blood, sweat, and tears that you see all the time that these applicants are going through.

What are some common mistakes that you’ve seen? [40:44]

A very common mistake is inserting another school’s name in the essay. So you see somebody who’s applying Darden and they say, and these are the reasons that Booth is my number one choice. So maybe there’s a little cut and paste that hasn’t been fully edited. So we see that sometime.

I’d say an even more common mistake is… Well, I don’t think there’s any one part of the application that’s in and of itself going to make or break an applicant. But one thing that I see that is a missed opportunity is formatting on the resume. There are some resumes that are kind of sloppy. We might not not admit somebody because of… but maybe would make a note among other things like resume needs some work. You’re applying for business school and you’re trying your best to put your best foot forward, super easy to google templates, professional looking templates for business school.

I also think it can also be a feel good exercise to work on your resume and update it. It can be not only in its presentation to feel good about the professionalism of your resume, but also, hey, it’s a good reminder. I did this at work and I want there to be a bullet point about something that had an impact on other people or a department or a budget or whatever it may be. It can be a very good feel good exercise to review your resume and prioritize what you want to emphasize. But I would say a common missed opportunity is submitting a rather sloppy resume when doesn’t take terrible amount of effort and can be really valuable to the applicant too to go through the process of professionalizing their resume.

And then a third mistake I would say is by the time a candidate gets to an interview, I think it’s safe to say that we really want students to come to Darden who want to be there. And one of the ways to show enthusiasm for Darden is to do research. I’ve researched school, I’m very clear on what it offers and why I think it’s a really good fit for me. And so I would encourage people in the interview to have one or two questions that show you’ve done research that maybe ask a more probing, penetrating question.

So for example, we just announced this Center for Artificial Intelligence, and within a couple of months the details of that will be announced. So a good question would be like, “Hey, I see that Darden has announced a Center for Artificial Intelligence. How will that impact me as a student?” It shows that an applicant has done their research and they want to go a little bit deeper as opposed to how big is your class? It’s a really good opportunity to show I’m thoughtful and really taking this process seriously. I want to use this opportunity to get to know more about the school, but ask thoughtful, penetrating questions.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [44:28]

I will get back to what I was saying earlier about UVA.

One of the things that I think it’s kind of a trifecta. If you come to Darden, you are first and foremost a Darden student. That’s ultimately why you’re choosing the school is for the business school that is the best fit for you. But there is this great opportunity as a Darden student, you are also a student of the University of Virginia, and you are a citizen of Charlottesville. And we’ve already talked a little bit about Charlottesville, but I would amplify, oh, my gosh, I love being a part of the broader UVA community in addition to the Darden community. And here are a couple of reasons. I’m going to give you a couple of reasons from an applicant’s perspective or student’s perspective, and then just maybe as more personally.

There are nine professional schools at Darden. There are 11 joint degree programs. Students can take up to two electives outside of Darden as long as they’re graduate level classes. So for example, we had a student who was very interested in launching healthy food and beverages, and he did not have a real grounding in nutrition. So he took a graduate level class in nutrition so that as an entrepreneur focused on healthy food and beverages, he would have some grounding in nutrition.

So there’s tons of examples of taking advantage of UVA academically. However, I would say just for pure joy, I would encourage applicants just to spend some time on the UVA website. You can register for a daily newsletter from UVA to get a sense of the things that go on. But I love living in the area. The speakers that come through. The Virginia Film Festival in the fall is my favorite thing that UVA offers. It’s like a huge film festival on the circuit where last year, 150 films were shown. You see a film, and then after the film you hear from the director or the screenwriter or the makeup artist or the lead actor, and you have a Q&A with somebody affiliated with the film. So we get to see these films that are before they’re released to the public. A ton of them went on and won Academy Awards or awards for documentaries.

There’s a festival of the book where, again, you can do a book club with the author or hear a panel of authors. I went to one about historical fiction last year. There’s a Miller Center that studies US presidencies, and this is a big presidential election. So you can hear political figures and political correspondence from CNN and all the political pundits come through. There’s a lot of guest speakers, like we got an email in the spring, Tina Fey, who’s a graduate of UVA, is coming through doing a talk with President Ryan at the John Paul Jones Arena. It was packed. I don’t know who was more funny, Tina Fey or President Ryan.

But the opportunities just… There’s something for everybody. You can go watch polo races. I mean, there is so much to do, and part of life, it’s important. I’ve been reading a lot lately about how important it is to rest and play. Darden students, you’re going to work hard, you need your sleep, and yes, you’re going to work hard, you want to work hard, and you want to get a great education, but it’s important to play and have stimulation and go hear speakers or whatever. But I would encourage people to really also research what would it be like to be a UVA student? It’s huge. And carve out a little time. Just say, I’m going to carve out a little time in my week to take advantage of things that are available at UVA because it’s tremendous.

Thank you so much for that. I’m glad you asked the question, and I’m even more glad that you answered it. Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about UVA Darden’s MBA program? [48:22]

I would say absolutely go to our website. We have an ambassador’s program. We have lots of upcoming open houses. We’re going to be on the road domestically and internationally.

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