Moderate at best.

I'm currently a 2nd year student at Darden (graduating 2010). Before any of my classmates get all excited, let me preface this by saying there are many pros to the darden experience. Unfortunately, I have found them to be massively overweighed by the cons. Also, I'd like to mention at the beginning that of course most of my classmates and students at other schools will give positive reviews for the lone reason that brand value is SO important at MBA school (probably more important than what you learn), so most students feel they MUST give a positive review in order to increase (albeit ever so insignificantly) the brand value of their school on the internet, etc.

Below, I'll give a quick, and very honest*, overview of the major pros and cons:

PROS: 1) Professors: professors are good, they're smart, funny, and interactive. They may not be world reknown, but I'm here to learn, not get autographs.

2) UVA: the campus is beautiful, the weather is great, the student body is picturesque and ever so quaint.

CONS:

1) Job Placement: this is the killer. although I feel our curriculum is the same as most top tier schools and our professors are as good if not better, year after year we get housed when it comes to job placement. Just to throw out a few names, Duke, UNC, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and even Georgetown often dominate top financial and consulting recruiting stats. Don't get too excited by the stats you see on school websites, they're all artificially manipulated in one way or another. Go to the schools, and randomly ask where students are going to work (and when they got their job), you will find many Darden students who simply answer with a tear. Why? maybe because of #2...

2) Students: DON'T GET ME WRONG I LOVE MY CLASSMATES, they are funny, for the most part kind, and very supportive. The problem I see is Darden gets a lot of students who were simply average in their field or great in average fields. The worst problem is the abundance of overseas students who can barely spell the word "derivative", let alone calculate the present value of one. I'm not saying I'm the next Donald Trump, but at least I can hold my own when it comes to basic algebra. Professors have to stop class numerous times to explain simple mathematical concepts, and let's just say you will be beating your head against the wall if one or two members of your learning team have a hard time with accounting (the EASIEST subject in the history of business).

3) ADMINISTRATION: no darden student will disagree with me here. the administration is in shambles. Admissions is a nightmare...have you tried to use their new IT system? Career services if full of a bunch of people who really couldn't make it in the business world, hence they are working for around 40 G's a year, and are trying to help students find jobs paying over 100. It just doesn't make sense.

4) The program: In general, the darden program is more busy work (reading far too many case studies for the time given, where a case study is never given it's due time in analysis and debate) and GAMES than any real learning. After two years, I don't really feel like I have a specialty in any useful subject, a I think most analytical ability is just natural, not forced upon you by reading 4 case studies per day for 2 years. The A-E sections, mascots, sports competitions, and other events are all good fun, but sometimes I feel like I'm in MBA kindergarten. If you put 90% of the students in a situation where they'd have to use real knowledge and skills to help build a country's infrastructure and economy, they'd fail miserably. They only know how to "gamble" on the economy a bit better, and sound smart in meetings.

There you have it. That's the real story. Take it for what it is. You'll never read a more honest assessment of a student's own school.

BankonBanking:

Absolutely not. While NYU is known for its Finance focus, Darden is a wonderful school and both are top 15. Both will give you strong opportunities, and, at the end of the day, it is about fit for B school. If you fit better at Darden, you will be more comfortable, network more, do more things, and enjoy your experience much more (and get more out of it), and at the end of the day, rankings pretty much the same, that's what really matters. If you like Darden, and you like their method of instruction, and you the think it is a good overall fit, then do it, and don't look back.

Same can be said for Darden vs Anderson and Haas (even though Haas is top 10). It really depends on what you are interested in pursuing post MBA, where you want to live, and where you think you will fit, bluntly, best. All are very good schools - without knowing what you are interested in, and where you think you will enjoy your 2 years the most, it is tough to say which is probably best for you.

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Very good advice. It is truly all about fit and where you're going to be most comfortable. For me, I love the case method, rigorous curriculum, and strong alumni/classmate relationships. However, I'm not sure if I could handle going to school in the "South" and having a decent portion of my class being from there/wanting to stay there.

Buyside <span class=keyword_link><a href=https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=1145861&amp;c=cart&amp;aff=44880&amp;ejc=2&amp;cl=175031 rel=nofollow>CFA</a></span>:

Forget the overall student profiles and focus on the finance kids. As of last year, the Darden Finance club resume book was available online. Pretty impressive. "run of the mill" was not the norm among the finance resumes I saw. Darden has the lowest GMAT (around 670 average) of the top schools. My conclusion (and by no means fact) is that Darden is a place for someone with a strong profile but relatively weak GMAT.

http://www.darden.virginia.edu/html/standard.aspx?menu_id=633&styleid=2…

avg GMAT is actually 701 for anyone who is just now reading the thread.

dipset1011:

I would agree with the above posters but in terms of alumni network i would also have to say it is relatively weaker than those aformentioned schools.

Really??? I've heard the complete opposite. I've heard that Darden's network is one of the strongest there is outside of the top 10 schools. I consistently hear Darden compared to Tuck both in terms of focus (general management, rigorous curriculum, middle of nowhere setting, close knit community) as well as strength of the alumni network as a result of the above. From what most people tell me, the 2nd tier city schools like UCLA, Berkeley, NYU have awful alumni networks.

tbdmonkey:

Does anyone know how Darden IBD placement was this year for both full-time and summer positions (particularly at the large firms)? Thanks in advance.

None of the employment reports are out yet -- but if I were to guess, it'll probably be comparable to its peer schools (Duke, Michigan, Cornell)

dipset1011:

i agree with affirmative action but not all MBA's are practical Uchicago is very theory oriented.

it sure is, which i think is great.

but that's relative to other MBA programs, even a UChicago MBA won't give you the nuts and bolts theoretical background that a PhD would, nor should it, b/c MBAs are for practitioners, not theoreticians.

bcbunker1:

Why do companies value an MBA if you dont learn anything? Is it really just a signal?

You do learn something, but I reckon the companies view it much more as a signal.

Killer_Queen:

Damn I am happy I didn't choose Darden after reading this.

I personally don't believe what he is saying. Darden is ranked 15th, and from all I've heard, very reputable. I think he had a bad experience there.

jojoarmani:

Bollywood:

Great post. I am actually going to one of the peer schools you listed earlier... and I must say, as a first-year, I'm experiencing many of the same pitfalls and seeing many of the same problems... lol

I'm starting to think our experiences are pretty representative of the MBA experience in general. I'm not sure about H/S/W.... or even the rest of the M7.... but at least for the rest of the top 20, I'm venturing that Bollywood's experience is pretty representative and spot on.

Seriously, I don't feel like I'm learning at all.... I'm just getting exposed to a bunch of material that I never get a chance to fully absorb. But I gotta say, i probably do sound smarter now at group meetings and when making presentations, and I'm much better at b.s.ing than I ever was before.

I also like my classmates... but I wouldn't trust any of them to park my car, let alone run my company or build a country's infrastructure or economy. Nobody knows what they're doing. The MBA... as a degree.... is a joke.

well duh

it isn't an academic degree, it's a networking degree with a little theory sprinkled on top. what are you expecting? even more importantly, are you upset that it's an academic joke? the way I see it, you get two years to enjoy yourself, meet new people, and recruit for top jobs. what were you expecting? to derive the formula for minimum variance portfolios? to determine the correlation between option spreads and option maturities on the CBOE? do you really want to go through the complex and mind-numbing shit theory that finance PhD students have to endure for 5 years?

also, MBAs don't build the country's infrastructure or economy, PhD's do.

bcbunker1:

This is exactly why i don't understand why companies value the MBA for trading. If you aren't learning anything, why give someone a job who has spent their last 2 years drinking and playing sports with their cohort? I could see its value for "relationship oriented" careers but certainly not for trading.

well in terms of prop trading companies,they certainly don't care about MBAs.

as for S&T divisions of IBs, I wonder which MBA programs they recruit from- probably Chicago, Wharton, Columbia Carnegie Mellon, NYU, and Stanford, since they are more "quant", and probably from Harvard, since well, you have to, right? also, I wonder how many MBAs that go into S&T actually get into trading, and how many get placed in sales.

for a good reference...

$5 for the person who can pronounce the dude on pg. 4's full name.

You owe me $5

englandco:

$5 for the person who can pronounce the dude on pg. 4's full name.

It's really not that hard to pronounce.

So many Ivy grads in that resume book who ended up in the same place as a NC Agricultural State whatever University grad...