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…
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UVA Darden MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [2024-2025], Class Profile
The University of Virginia’s Darden MBA program boasts the case-based method of learning, which puts students in the role of business leaders faced with challenging situations. Through this discussion-based approach, students are active participants as they learn to make decisions in real-world scenarios. Darden is one of the largest case publishers in North America, and…
Deferred MBA Programs and Other Options for MBA Hopefuls With No Work Experience
For many business degree hopefuls, the MBA remains the gold standard of graduate management education, and not without reason – an MBA can be the start of a new chapter in your life. Professionally, it can help you accelerate your career or make a career pivot. Academically, it can help fill gaps in hard and…
Applying for Your MBA Through The Consortium: Best Deal in Town
Our consultants receive a lot of questions from clients about applying to MBA programs through The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. I’ve heard myths that suggest that applying to one (or more) of the 22 Consortium schools through The Consortium’s application is disadvantageous. But as the former director at two Consortium schools, I can assure…
Top STEM MBA Programs: A Comprehensive List and Overview of STEM-OPT Eligible B-Schools
U.S. STEM MBA Programs: An Overview STEM certification programs have proven application bonanzas for top business schools. STEM certification may have begun pre-pandemic as a way to alleviate uncertainty in the visa process, but the programs have proven to be a robust inducement for MBA applicants, particularly from foreign countries. According to Poets & Quants,…
Class of 2022 MBAs Earn Bullish Starting Salaries
Distance learning and unstable market conditions due to the Covid pandemic have not hurt the fortunes of MBA grads from top programs. The 2022 employment reports released in recent weeks from top schools, including NYU Stern School of Business, University of Michigan Ross School of Business, UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business, MIT Sloan, Harvard, and…
UVA Darden Executive MBA Application Tips & Deadlines [2022 – 2023]
These short questions featured in Darden’s EMBA application generate a conversation of sorts. The Q&A becomes a dialogue between you and the adcom, almost like an interview. The conversation these questions produce encompasses Darden’s perspective and values and reveals how you view and align with them. This dialogue approach exemplifies and facilitates the website’s point…
Financial Times Ranks Wharton as #1 in 2022 Rankings
The Financial Times has released its global rankings of the best MBA programs and has considerably shuffled the deck. Several top-ranked programs fell several notches, while others rose considerably. For the first time since 2011, Wharton has returned to its status as #1 in FT’s list. Other programs that made giant strides in the rankings…
How to Get Into UVA Darden [Episode 439]
Get to know UVA Darden’s thoughtful application process [Show summary] Dawna Clarke, Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions at Darden School of Business explores the program’s unique case method and recounts how the school proactively adapted during COVID-19. What makes UVA Darden unique? A choice-rich MBA experience and a close-knit student community [Show notes] Welcome to…
The MBA Common Letter of Recommendation (LOR): An Overview
One of the key pieces of an MBA application is the letter of recommendation. This letter, usually written by managers, gives the admissions committee an insightful perspective on the MBA candidate. However, since each program has their own unique form, and candidates are often hesitant to ask managers to fill out multiple recommendations, applicants often limit the number…
UVA Darden Announces Radical Flexibility for the Class of 2022 Applicants
Given the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business is offering more flexibility – a lot more flexibility – for students applying for their full-time MBA program class of 2022. Darden is immediately changing to rolling admissions through July 15, 2020 for the last round of full-time MBA admissions….
Financial Times Ranks Harvard as #1 in 2020 Global MBA Ranking
Harvard Business School has taken the top spot away from Stanford Graduate School of Business in the Financial Times 2020 global MBA ranking. Although the Financial Times ranking is designed to favor non-U.S. programs, 15 of the top 25 MBA programs are based in the U.S. This result comes despite the decline in applications to…
Poets & Quants Announces 2019-2020 MBA Rankings
Poets & Quants just released its 2019-2020 rankings of the top 100 U.S. MBA programs. There were some minor changes in the top 10 – most prominently is Stanford GSB climbing two spots, passing Harvard Business School and UPenn Wharton, to claim the #1 position. It’s the second time in 10 years that Stanford has claimed the…
Top MBA Programs for Entrepreneurs
Poets & Quants has just released their inaugural rankings for the top MBA programs for entrepreneurs, and Washington University’s Olin Business School tops the list. 20.7% of its graduates from 2016-2018 launched companies within three months of graduation, and has a whopping $1 million in annual funding available for student entrepreneurs. By comparison, the second…
Highlights of Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2019 MBA Rankings
Bloomberg Businessweek released its 2019 MBA rankings this week, and the administration at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business is celebrating! Tuck rose an astonishing 17 places in this year’s ranking to take the #2 spot just under Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. This is Stanford’s second year in a row in 1st place. Who…
Big Changes in Economist 2019 MBA Rankings
Chicago’s Booth School of Business remaining at the top of The Economist’s ranking of the world’s top MBA programs for the second year in a row is only one of a few stable things in this year’s ranking, according to the Poets & Quants website. This is the seventh time Booth has taken the…
UVA Darden Receives Historic $68 Million Gift
Last week, UVA Darden announced Sands Capital Management Founder Frank M. Sands Sr.’s new gift of $68 million – the largest gift in the business school’s 64-year history. Sands, a Darden MBA-holder (class of 1963), says: “The Darden School was a transformational experience for me, and I am an ardent supporter of its mission and…
AIGAC 2019 MBA Applicant Survey Results Released
AIGAC (the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants) recently released their 2019 MBA Applicant Survey, which substantiates the idea that today’s applicants continue to consider human interaction to be a competitive advantage. More and more, applicants see the importance of talking to current MBA students when selecting schools and making decisions. Current applicants continue to…
Times Higher Education (THE) Unveils Its Long-Awaited Best Global MBA Programs
Times Higher Education (THE) in partnership with the Wall Street Journal recently released its analyzed reams of data about graduate management education and produced a ranking of “high-achieving global MBA programs.” The study ranked the programs in 20 separate performance indicators, leading to an aggregate score indicating the strength of each program and school. These…
The Economist 2017 Full-Time MBA Rankings
The Economist has released its annual international ranking of full-time MBA programs based on data collected during spring 2017. Two surveys were used: 1) The first was completed by schools with eligible programs which covered quantitative subjects and accounted for 80% of the ranking. 2) Current MBA students and a school’s most recent graduating MBA…