生活 问：darden的case method是否导致学习非常辛苦，通常要学习到几点呢？我听说duke的学习相对轻松些。不知各位校友的亲身体验如何？ 答：Heard that normal sleeping time is 12:00 AM, so it is hard. But no pain, no gain. The first year is rather challenge but the second year is very relex from what I heard. It's true, Darden is hard. So if you just want to enjoy 2 year's US life, do not apply for Darden. But if you want to learn some down-to-earth business and be ready to be a CEO, come to Darden! Let me share with you my opinion on the case method here at Darden.
I dont want to waste your time reading this threas with the informaton you can get with GOOGLE and "official" Darden pamphlet..
So , here is the truth. Darden is not for everybody. Before you apply for B-School, you need to ask yourself a big question "What do I want out of it?"
If you want to get solid cross-principle general management professional training, move your English communication skills to a whole new level, and have close-knit friends and alumni you can count on, then Darden is the answer. Note that I said "English" communication skills. if you want to land a job in North America, Darden will be one of your top choices. Today at the international orientation session, our career development director Mr. errerate just emphasised that the No.1 criteria Top recruiter ( Banking and Consulting firms such as Mckeinsy and Goldman Sach) are looking for when they came on campus is : communcation skills.
On the other hand, if you plan to go back China after your 2 years, Darden may not be your best choice, in my opinion - you dont really need the English communication skills, and Let's face it, Darden dont have particularly large alumni network in China, so it might not help your Business in China. After all, We are still a "small" school. Yes, it is tough. Darden is still the most rigorous MBA program in TOP B schools in US.
Take it as a challenge, a challenge to improve yourself on time management, multiple-tasking and teamwork. Let me explain why it is a challenge for teamwork. Darden deliberately design the program so that the workload has to shared with the team. It is mission impossible to do it on your own. During today's panel dscussion with several SY ( second year ) students, one of the guys said that it took him too long to realize that he is not the smartest guy in the room. If he were given another chance to re-live the first year, he would involve more on the learn team and reply more on the learning team to get things done. You need to be confident with your english, comfortable with elaborating your thoughts on a given topic in a structural and logical way in front of a group of elites from various part of the world. So, are you "Darden material" ? 问：I got some rumor that there is already a new Darden student from China choose to quit for the unbearable workload and pressure, is that true?
答：In a way, yes Darden is a hard working school, requires high communication skill and hard working to succeed. So if you are expecting some parties everyday, please consider it again, there're many schools BUT darden to choose. But, in Darden, you learn real staff, and those are something you can count on in your whole life. The case methord, once you get used it, you will just LOVE it. Do you still remember the days in university that you either do not go to class or sleep in the class? In Darden that will never happen because you are so EXCITED to learn, discuss and lead! All Darden materials/cases are putting you in a general manager point of view to learn different perspectives of business. For example in accounting you are not learn to be a good accountant, that's the responsiblity of accounting department. Darden teach you to learn to use accounting as a management tool, and a business lauangue, thus you can make well-rounded decision with all the accounting information and analysis you get. And in the end, you are able to synegize all these stuff and thus build your own framework of managing business. This methord helps you to be a general manager and also benefit your career as a consultant, i-banker, cooperate finance...because all these jobs need a overall understanding of the business world.
问：不这种状况是否和我们非英语母语以及本身中国学生对未来就业的期望比较大有关？还是说这种状况在校园内就是很普遍的，不管你是中国学生、韩国学生、印度学生还是什么英国、美国学生？
答：mainly because the pressure on study. Actually US students in Darden are also very diligent. The thing is, Darden requires a lot of work, so everyone need to work hard to meet the basic requirement. And if you want to do more, you need to spend more time. The difference between Asian student (excluding Indian students) and US students is, we read much slower. So when you are facing a 10 page case (2-3 cases/day), you need to spend a lot of time to at least digest it first. Then you need to spend time to crack the case. reading+cracking case will take you somewhere around 3-6 hours/day. Then you need to go to your learning team everyday, spending 2-3 hour discussing, debating the best solution to the cases. After learning team, some classmate choose (especially Japanese ones) to work more on the cases, to make sure digest it fully. The next day, you will go to your class (the ones in your learning team are not in your class ), and discuss again with your classmates, and professor will lead the whole discussion. The advantage of Chinese students is: most of us are pretty good at math and conceptual thinking, both of which are required HEAVILY in Darden. So, probably you can crack the case faster The greatness of this "case" methord is: you learn things 3 times by different angle: yourself, a small team, and a large team+professor, ensuraing you almost never forget what you learnd. Also you are in a team enviornment everyday which force you to be familar with this kind of orgnization - which is very popular in current industry. The learning team also force you and american student to mingle together everyday, helps you to be adapt to us culture sooner. The downside is that it's very time consuming. That's the major reason many people spend so much time on studying. On the other hand, in Darden you need to be able to "Prioritize" things， otherwise you just cannot do everything. But you need to be very clear on what you want before you can prioritizing things, that's why BOSCO emphasizing that. If you don't know clearly what you want the most, and want to do everything, you are going to suffer. But if you do have a list with different prioritization, you can choose go give up something and make your life easier. "Prioritization" is very important skill for any senior position, you are going to be busy in the future anyway  , so , learn the skill in your early stage will only enhance you. Also, some people said, if you can survive Darden, you can survive anywhere. You do have the confidence to deal with any difficult sitiuation! All that being said, Darden's workload is much much easier than 2-5 years ago. I believe in some old days Darden people need to work 6 days/week, 3 cases/day. Now it's 5 days/week, 2-3 cases/day, there're "reading day" duing which you basically do nothing almost everyweek in first quarter and some reading days in second Q. I think that caused the difference between some elder Alumni's opinion and us current sutdents.
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