http://dardenblogs.com by Bill Gray, MBA Class of 2009 Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:55:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en There is a clear perception that Darden Students work harder then students at other business schools.  Although this image can make prospective students nervous, it has several positive implications for the Darden community including the high level of credibility it affords us with recruiters and alumni.  Many of the ... http://dardenblogs.com/working-hard/ My wife and I attended the Mexico City GBE during Spring Break 2008. This GBE was one of several "Global Business Experiences" offered by the Darden faculty. Our trip was led by Professor Peter Rodriguez and the participants included 12 Darden students and 2 partners. [gallery] GBEs at Darden generally have a ... http://dardenblogs.com/mexico-city-gbe/ Last year around this time I was looking for opinions on Darden vs. Duke and Darden vs. Ross.  I applied to these schools in the first round and now had to decide between multiple offers of admission.  Although I had already ranked the schools (my rankings), now that I was ... http://dardenblogs.com/darden-vs-xyz/ Several perspective students have asked me why Darden switched to an invitation-only interview policy.  Since I was also curious, I began asking faculty members and admissions staff what drove the decision. Given the complexity of the admissions process it was no surprise that a wide range of factors came into ... http://dardenblogs.com/invitation-only-interviews/ My first step in selecting an MBA program was retrieving each of the published business school rankings. I then supplemented these rankings with additional criteria which were important to my decision. Finally, using the MBA program data published by US News, I was able to apply my criteria and weightings ... http://dardenblogs.com/choosing-an-mba-program-why-darden/ Take home exams are standard at Darden, thanks to the University of Virginia Honor System. To limit fraud, the Honor System provides a harsh single sanction penalty for violations and requires students to sign an honor pledge on every exam. Before discussing the Darden/UVA system in more detail, let's first ... http://dardenblogs.com/the-darden-honor-code/ These are some tips for prospective students preparing to visit Darden. Given the unique teaching method at Darden, the class visit will probably be the most important part of your trip to Charlottesville. If you still need to register for a class visit, there are instructions on the Darden admissions ... http://dardenblogs.com/tips-for-visiting-darden/ Last week the first year Darden class visited local factories. We were divided into 8 groups and each group traveled to a different facility. I visited the Hershey's factory in Stuart's Draft, VA, which is about 40 minutes away from Charlottesville. Although I have been in several industrial plants, this ... http://dardenblogs.com/operations-field-trip/ Most Darden Students have a busy schedule, although frequently as a personal choice. To provide some perspective on the typical week of a first year student, I have included my schedule from the week of October 1st. There are four main components to a Darden student schedule: Classes (red) - Can be ... http://dardenblogs.com/weekly-schedule/ The virtually 100% case based learning is a clear differentiator for Darden. However, if you ask former business school students what they think about a 100% case based approach you will get two responses. From my experience, people that attended the 100% case based schools think it's the best way ... http://dardenblogs.com/case-method/