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 held up to 5 days per week and 3 classes per day, but usually there are only around 12 classes per week. Classes also require case preparation, which isn’t captured on my schedule above.
Learning Team (blue) – Generally meets every evening when there is class the next day. For our Monday classes we try to hold our learning team meeting on Friday. With my schedule above, there are 5 learning team meetings shown compared with 4 days of class because we did not hold a team meeting on the previous Friday.
Career Development (yellow)– How much time you spend on career development is a personal choice, although most first year students spend a handful of hours each week between briefings, networking events, and eventually interviews.
Social / Other (green) – Purely optional activities including social events, leadership speaker series, case competitions, and section sports competitions. The level of involvement in this area varies significantly between students.
Breakdown of my time for the week of October 1st:
| Activitiy | Hours |
|---|---|
| Classes | 18 |
| Case Preperation | 12 |
| Learning Team | 10 |
| Career Development | 6 |
| Subtotal | 46 |
| Social / Other | 20 |
| Grand Total | 66 |
In summary, the formal Darden curriculum and career development accounted for 46 hours of my week – a similar time commitment to a standard 40 hour work week. For me, the additional social and development activities consumed a significant amount of time, although I’m counting playing soccer on a Saturday and having dinner my wife and another couple in this category.
i think my schedule looks busier than that…
[…] 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 factors contributing to the ‘we work harder’ perception are part of the schools heritage and date back over 50 years. Some of the most influential factors include: Class schedule – the general belief is that Darden students prepare 3 cases per day, 5 days per week. This perception falls somewhere between the actual workload and the workload from when Darden was founded. In 1954, classes were taught 6 days per week and there were 3 cases every day. I’ve even heard rumors that exams were administered on Sundays so they wouldn’t interfere with the class schedule. The first year program for the class of 2009 averaged about 12 cases per week. Our schedule alternated between 4 and 5 teaching days per week and 2 and 3 cases per day. I’ve provided a snapshot of a typical Darden week in my weekly schedule post. […]