Darden MBA(Virginia)申请校友答疑精华汇总

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目录

第一楼 导航

第二楼 关于Darden

第三楼 Darden 课程介绍

第四楼 申请问题（一）

第五楼 申请问题（二）

第六楼 申请问题（三）

第七楼 关于essay

第八楼 面试情况

第九楼  录取情况

第十楼 奖学金与贷款

第十一楼 在Darden的生活

第十二楼 就业（一）

第十三楼 就业（二）

其他MBA申请相关链接：

1. 商学院申请免费评估服务：http://www.topway.org/Default.aspx?tabid=466

2. MBA Essay免费评估服务：http://www.topway.org/default.aspx?TabID=480

3. MBA Essay写作服务：http://www.topway.org/Default.aspx?tabid=475

4. MBA申请Workshop：http://www.topway.org/Default.aspx?tabid=517

5. Top10 MBA保录取 Top50 MBA保奖学金服务：http://www.topway.org/Default.aspx?tabid=482

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关于Darden

Many people may ask what great about Darden, I would say: high teaching quality, a realy community, very good career opportunity.

Teaching: Darden ranks among the highest of it's teaching quality in most major rankings. Similar with other top B-schools, It has top notch professors, but what differs Darden is that these professors are always there for you. Their doors are open, they remember your name and even what is your wife doing. They are engaged in your development. The case study mode might frighten some Chinese students, because natually we are more quiet comparing with western people.  But in my point of view it's a good OPPORTUNITY for us to change. You spend 100K US$ not to do vacation, you spend that big money to change yourself, and Darden is the place to change you to a real leader. Case study is very like the real business environment, where you review problems, discuss with your colleagues, and make decisions. Learning through practicing, I believe, is the best way to learn business.

Community: that's something I always feel during my application and after that. Staffs and especially alumnis are very kind and helpful. You will feel like you already have many friends even before you go to the school. That's also something important. Spending 2 years, getting to know some life long friends, isn't that interesting?

Career opportunity: Darden is known as a school to educate future CEOs, and has very good reputation in industry. Though not everyone of your colleagues know Darden, but if you talk to executives, they will know, and they will tell you it's a very prestige school. UVA is also ranked among the highest in US, and is known as one of the best public schools in US. You can always find the career statistics in school web, but I believe you would be more interested in Chinese students' job. As far as I know, in 2006 there are 8 studens from China mainland, and 5 of them find jobs in US. I will come back China so I cares more about the rest 3 who comes back China, and they all find GREAT jobs, say consultanting, marketing, with salary comparable to US salary.

 Darden school:

 

 

Some tips to everyone for applications:

1 - School selection: try to get into a school ranks as high as you can, BUT, do not be fooled by those rankings since a No.8 school will not be much greater than a No.10 school, though definately you should more consider a school ranked No.2 than No.10. If the ranking are in the same level, you should consider more about all the other factors, like location, career, concentration, etc.

2 - Attend a workshop, working in a team is much better than working alone, at least this works for me since I am not a person with strong displine to do all the tough job alone

3 - soul searching yourself, know who you are, what do you want, what is great about you, why do you want a MBA - to spend 100K$ just to add a "MBA" title to yourself is maybe the worst thing you can do.

4 - work hard, and try to be familiar with US way of thinking, and the "game rule" as much as possible. You can get a better school than where you should be by working harder, and knowing more about these than people who don't know.

5 - apply as early as you can. First round would be perfect. In last year I believe some schools recurited too many in first round so they almost stop recuriting in the second in China.

 

 

 

 

[此贴子已经被作者于2007-10-15 9:14:51编辑过]

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问：case method是darden引以为豪的，但同时对中国学生是一大挑战。想请问各位校友初期是否觉得这种方式很难，需要多久来适应？性格是否很外向？

答：It is a challenge for Chinese but in my point of view it is more a OPPORTUNITY. Aren't you tired of the lecture in university, where professors reading text book for you. You can read those books by yourself without paying the huge tuition

Not sure how hard would it be but I never heard any Chinese student droped because of this.

You do need to talk much in the learning team and in the class, but in B-school you are learning to do business, and business is more about influencing/leading than knowledge. I believe case mode can prepare you more to be a success business leader when you walk out of the school.

问：Can I understand that one should better choose the 2years full time MBA but not the Part time and the 1 year's if he want to get more skills in business and personal improvement of career?

What is the American peoples feelings to the one year MBA there?

答：It's a good question. I'd say that 2 year, 1 year and part-time all have their pros and cons. You need to be clear "what can I get out of MBA" and your own sitiuation to make the judgemental call.

Basically, 1 year is very intensive, and you only have chance to learn those "basic" course. You don't have the chance to dig deeper into one or even more subject that you are really interested in. Also, becuase 1 year is really quick, it's probably hard to really get to know your classmates. On the other hand, you don't have the advantage of summer intern, when you can really try something different without taking too much risk.

That being said, 1 year is very cost-effective. I think many Eurpo program are 1 year while most US programs are 2 years. Also you probably can see that the average age in 1 year is much higher, I guess 30-35. That make sense because if you are elder (or senior), the opportunity cost is higher. Though we do have some folks 35 or even almost 40 in Darden, the mainstream is 27, 28.

For part-time, I think the advantage is that your opportunity cost is much lower but you need to consider: 1). what you get out of part-time MBA. In most jobs when you are so busy I am not sure how much time you can spend on it, and without spending a huge amount of time, I don't think you can learn what you need. 2). Assuming you are in China, there are not too many good part-time MBA to select. I know CEIBS have one exec-MBA but not sure the quality of it. Just having a so-so part time MBA, might not add value to you if you are already kind of success vs. your peers.

Darden Dean has an article talking about this, (haha I didn't point this out earlier because I do have some of my own opinions). You can take a look.

http://www.darden.edu/html/deansblog.aspx?id=7166

问：比如DARDEN对于CANDIDATE的学习、工作经历的倾向，DARDEN校友中中国学生的比例、近况、职业发展状况，在DARDEN或者美国的文化注意事项，DARDEN领先的专业、教授等等。

答：比如DARDEN对于CANDIDATE的学习、工作经历的倾向:

应该是倾向经验较长一点的，而且要记住darden是一个general management 的学校，你的why MBA应该需要在某一个点和general management 挂钩(个人见解）

今年几个从大陆去的多是sales marketing 背景的，男女比例相当；去年多是fianncial背景的。

DARDEN校友中中国学生的比例: 今年中国人6（大陆）+4（香港台湾)+~2-3（北美）vs. 330 total. 近况怎么说呢？还都活着吧 基本上大家的生活都是围绕着: 学习、找工作、社交这三大主线。每个人focus不同，有人学习上花的时间多一点，有人社交多一些，有人找工作花时间多一些。现在可能是最忙的时候因为学习和找工作重到了一起，但我想其他学校也是这样吧。可能有的学校学习压力小一点会轻松一些。 

DARDEN领先的专业: 我觉得darden 的hard skill 都教的不错， 虽然没有去别的学校做过比较，但是我们已经学的课程里accounting, finance,operation, 数据分析, 都不错，真得学到了很多东西。marketing教的还行，可能因为我自己原来就做marketing, 觉得相对学到地少一点。 软技巧的教学我觉得有待提高。 但总体来说darden 的教学是非常靠前的，很多教授作的Research不多但是教学水平非常高，Darden 喜欢叫自己"teaching school"。 最近两年为了提高排名， 校长招聘了一批年轻的会做research 的教授，希望这些新教授能够带来新的活力。

Darden 教学是教你从general manager的角度看问题，所以如果你的career goal和general management一点关系也没有可能会有点不适应。 比如说accounting, darden 不会太注重特别细节的东西，但是会把教学的角度拔高， 让你从CEO 和CFO或者投资者的角度看问题。 这样也就要求新来的同学对accounting做一些预习，否则可能跟不上。还有decision analysis （数据分析），看似很boring 的一门课，但是其实非常有用。它教你怎么样用一些基本的模型分析数据，做出最有效的决定, 在很多领域都可以应用。

 

问：如果个性比较温和，不是很aggressive（但愿意与人交流）的那种类型，而且没有accounting/finance背景（不过business sense 较强，可能是工作经历比较丰富的原因）的在下，是不是不适合案例教学；真切的希望听到中肯的，现实的意见和建议。

答：No problem at all. You might need to spend some time to review the fundation of accounting and finance before you go, the "MBA Survival kits" has something great about Fiannce. On the other hand Darden provide pre-course to review accounting, excel and math(I don't think any Chinese need Math). The pre-Accounting course is very good.

I think case study requires 3 things: 1). your ability to self-study. The first round of the case need to be done by yourself after reading technical note or sometime without reading anything. So you must be able to resolve problem by yourself 2). your ability to teamwork - you will discuss the case in your learning team every night, different people have different opinion, you will need to adapt to this small group the soonest, build your credibility, and contribute your part. 3). be engaged in your class - the second day you will discuss with your classmates about the case. This is a bigger class (~60 people) with professor's leadership. For some course, you might know 60% from your learning team, you need to ask good questions to understand more and be engaged in the class discussion. For some courses, you might already know 90% from your learning team, you also need to engaged to answer questions from your classmates.

问：1、Darden的MBA课程是否有major/concerntration?

答：In first year, most courses are core course that everyone need to take, through you can choose three electives in the 4th quarter. In the second year, all courses are electives, basically you can choose any course you are interested in, and thus to have a "major".

Darden did list sevreal "concerntration" including management consulting, general management, marketing etc. My take on this is, just select whatever courses you need or are interested in.

问：Darden的consulting方向有什么特色课程或活动？如conference或forum.

答：We have a OCI(Opportunity Consulting Inc.) can provide chances for first year student to form teams as consultant, to help local small entreprise.

For courses, since Darden emphasie couses from general management perspect, so I think it can help when you do consulting interview.

问：consulting club是否有case competition?如有，是哪些公司赞助的？

答：We do have one case competition sponspered by Deliotte. There're several other case competitions, but those are not consulting related.

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关于申请人

 

问：Why does the number of applicants from China decrease year by year? And it seems the same to the applicants from other regions.

 

答：It has been like this in every top B-school: the economy boom in U.S. during 1999-2001 made more applicants from all over the world applying to U.S. schools during 2001-2003, however, with the recession in 2001-2003, job markets were bad for every school, no matter if it is a Magic 7 or a top10, thus making applicant pool shrinking between 2003 and 2005. But MBA application is back to be a tough year this year with the recovering U.S. economy and more applicants. I believe that the competition will be tougher for the next two years.

问：My TOEFL score is 607. I think I'd better improve it. However, as you know, there are so many things to do in the application process that I could hardly spend time on TOEFL.

Do you think 607 severely hurt my competitiveness?

答：I donot think a TOEFL of 607 will kick you out of the application pool. In my eyes, the TOEFL score is the least important academic record compared to GMAT and your college GPA. But I strongly recommend you to improve your oral English and communication skills so that you will be able to stand out in the interview. Good luck.

问：关于darden的online-application, 我仍旧有些问题.

比如说, employment history, activities, education history 这些不都应该已经包括的resume里了么?  不是有些重复么？

答：Yes it is a bit repeat but if you do another school you will find that all schools require you to input these again. The reason (I guess) is that the school cannot fill your information in resume into database directly so that asking you to input into web.

问：而且online application有很多optional 的essay, 甚至与family backgroud也都有essay. 难道都要写么?

答：There's only one optional essay, if I am not mistaken. Below is all essay questions I copied from the admissional site and only the last one is optional.

问：If admitted, how much depost required for early decision

答：1000$ for last year not sure about this year

问：If I cannot attend on-campus interview, can I just wait for admission committee-initiated interview (which could be conducted after early decision dateline)?

答：Yes that's right

问：Can advice the impact of location of Darden on the job placement? where did most graduates relocate?

答：Charlottesville is not a big city that's right, but it didn't stop those major recuritor coming to campus. Also　 since it's near the east coast so you can do off-campus job hunting anyway.

You probably wan to check the placement data which is publiced on Darden web site.

问：Can self report transcript, GMAT, TOEFL etc?

答：You need to self report but also need to send the offical ones to admission officer, but I am not sure if that's done before or after the admission decision is made - check the web you can find the answer.

问：Darden要求unofficial transcripts,是否一定要填?那个表格我根本填不下.我们的课程太多了。

因为我想申请ED,所以我想尽快把official transcripts寄过去.但是查了半天，也没找到是该寄一份还是两份成绩单? 学位,学历证明也用寄么?

如果recommendation letter都是网上提交的，是否只要寄成绩单和学位,学历证明就可以了。 我想来想去,好象没什么需要邮寄的了。

答：You can just submit the unoffical transcript (EXCEL File) online, because Darden will request you to submit official transcripts next year if they decide to accept you. So you can do everything online, forget about post office for a while.

Your background is quite impressive, full scholarship is very possible given your entrepreneur experience and an impressive GMAT.

问：你所在的 IT Management 也是属于Darden吗？我在网站上查 怎么看到是属于Commerce的呢？

答：Darden does not have IT management concentration.  I meant, I had IT management experience BEFORE darden.

问：Darden的专业设置除了MBA, 我发现在on line 申请时有一项：“please indicate the program tpe you are interested in" 里面有列明" MBA, MBA in Asian Studies, MBA/MSN" 等等，但是在Darden home page里面却没能找到相关详细信息。是我没有找到正确位置吗？

答：Never heard, maybe you can ask Lynn (mail address on one of my above post。

问：我一年前毕业于国内211重点大学国际经济贸易专业，全球第二的咨询公司一年经验（实习生身份）。T657+5.0, GMAT 690.自知背景不强，但对Darden很向往，是否应该尝试申请？

答：GMAT and TOEFL is high enough but your working exprience is too short. Sure you can try but I would suggest you focus on 1-2 years later. Darden do care the the quality of your exprience and leadership

问：如果已经有了国内的MBA学位，再申请美国的MBA，是不是会构成一大劣势啊？录取委员会是否会觉得此人是DEGREE COLLECTOR？ 如果确实构成劣势，该如何弥补呢？

答： I personaly don't suggest you do another MBA when you already have one. But it doesn't hurt if you consult the admission officer. I guess the key is - you need to think clearly why you want a second MBA degree when you have one, and convince others that it make sense.

问：前辈觉得Darden比其中的哪所学校好，所以称still a top 10 school？ 再者，Cornell, UCLA, Berkeley, NYU呢？ 还是因为曾经进过一次某个排名的前十？

答：Good question. Actually there are two groups in so called "Top 10 "B-schools in the U.S.: Magic 7 group includes HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Chicago, Kellogg, Sloan; Other top 10 schools include Tuck, Michigan, Duke, NYU, Berkeley, UCLA, Cornell, and Darden. So there are actually 15 schools in Top 10 school groups.

Or you can say that Darden is in the same group with Tuck, Michigan, Duke, NYU, Berkeley, UCLA and Cornell. No major difference overall. Tuck, NYU and Cornell are stronger in Wall street. If you are looking for IB back in Hong Kong , frankly speaking, Darden is not a great school to go even though Darden has a lot of placements in Wall street. Darden is a strong General Management school (7th), if you are looking for leadership rotation programs, corporate finance, marketing rotation programs, and consulting, Darden is a great choice.

The other thing you need to consider is the location: If you are a city boy/girl and hate small-town life, do not come to Darden; if you want to take a two year break from city life, Darden is highly recommended, why? You got small mountains around, golf courses, typical campus town life style, great football games, mile weather but not too far away from cities (2 hour to Washing DC and 1 hour to Richmond).

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关于申请人（二）

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：That's partially true. As Steven suggested she is not quitting but deffering because of personal reasons.

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.

One word to describe my Darden experience so far: EXCITING!

问： what does Darden feature most?

答：Case methord, teaching quality, community, general management education, entrepreneurship are things I think Darden are really good at.

问：what kind of prospective students will Darden prefer? i have three years experience in traditional manufacturing industry, major working function covers strategy and marketing.

答：My personal opinion (not necessary the adcom's), strong leadership, communication skill, strong acemedic ability. Your working experience looks perfectly fits Darden!

问：what do you mean by "strong communication skills" in Darden? I am afraid American culture and communication will be most challenging if i want to do marketing in usa. i don't think two years b-school experience will change this situation tremendously.

答：Your communication will be largely improved after two year's class discussion EVERY DAY and party every week with US people. But, to survive the first several month, your English should be good Enough to keep up with the class discussion otherwise it will be a very hard experience. Also, you need to be not shy to speak up in the class - that's the whole point of case method.

The culture staff is a challeng for every Chinese but I am not going to say that you never get chance. 1) there are some marketing job like product marketing  that requires more analitical than culture understanding 2) there's always people who can adapt very fast into new enviornment.

问：you've mentioned a chinese person went to marketing function in us. would you introduce more about his/her background?

答：Not sure, but it should be rather easy to get into marketing functions other than consumer brand marketing.

问： i am also concerned about tuition fee and fellowship. will darden suggest other scholarships if they canot provide more scholarships to chinese students.

答：You can always try but do not count on it.

问：what is the brand image of Darden in consulting and industries? sometimes students are labeled with school features.

答：Great in both. I think (not sure, if someone can find the ranking it would be great) there's a Wall Street ranking, that Darden are on the top 5 about employer's satisfication rate. Also, Darden graduate's salary (especially if we count 5 year after graduation) are among top 5.

问：是不是G差700点就没有可能申请DARDEN？但是我MATHS 51

我在一家跨国的快速消费品公司做市场研究，所以想知道是不是有可能申请

还有我以前的老板是DARDEN MBA，如果让他帮我做个推荐是不是会更好呢？

答：No problem at all. The GMAT is not Darden's focus. Darden is looking at candidate who has strong acmadic ability but more importantly, leadership and communication skill. 680/690 is high enough!

Marketing research in a consumer goods company is definately great experience to talk about when you apply... we have one Chinese from P&G this year.

Yes Darden MBA will carries a lot of weight... if he know you much that would be great.

问：想请教一个问题，如果我申请的是early action， 那是不是意味着如果我拿到offer就要交deposit呢？

答：School will give you a deadline to submit the depost.

问：general management我们可以理解为就是通用管理人才么？

答：(说大了就是CEO， 说小了就是管一个P/L (Profit and loss)  比如企业中的HR管理、企划或者战略管理之类的(这些都是更专门的划分，general management 会包括这些。比如你去管一个business的时候你需要了解所以以上的东西。

在职业发展里一直有generalist和professionest之分，要看自己的喜好和专长。generalist的最高阶段就是CEO， 真的是需要了解很多东东。MBA 本身是一个generalist 的教育，与法律、医学不同。

关于找工作：你可以浏览一下你想去的目标公司，看他们在不在darden 的recuriting list里，还有就是他们来不来darden on ground. consulting/I-banking还有industry里的一些顶尖公司都会来darden recuriting，而且最近一两年公司数增加得很快。但因为darden 是一个小学校，来的公司总数可能会比一些大的学校少一些，但另一方面每个人的机会就更多一些。darden 的校友非常乐于提供帮助，这是darden 比较独特的一点。career center的作用我还不知道真得会怎样。

至于darden在雇主里的名声，你可以看一下business week 里最新的B-scholl ranking.虽然darden 总排名降到了15， 雇主的排名里关于 communication, teamwork, analytical skill 分别排到了 A+, A+ 和A, 这个排名比总排名靠前的很多学校都要好。

问：1000 USD的deposit如何是支付的？好像不能用信用卡？

 

答：可以在中国银行买汇票然后寄过来

问：刚换了工作,告知招生办会不会有负面影响.但是，我是由销售转为market research (u.s. consulting firm)，虽不是那种管理/战略的大牛公司，但对录取来说是不是更有利一些。因为我的短期目标是咨询行业。

答：I believe the change you mentioned would bring extra credits to your applications.

问：本科专业EE  

GMAT 740（V40,M50）, GPA<2.5(50% in class, 3.0以上我们班只有15％，惨。 Advanced programer cetification 5+ W/E in automotive industry, title: service engineer/team leader.

项目经验丰富：沈阳华晨，一汽海马，广西玉柴，南昌江铃，上汽大众，二汽东风。

concentration: GM

GPA是个硬伤，也无法补救。请教各位校友Darden有多care low GPA。

我应该怎样convince admissions 我得quantitative skill is enough？ 毕竟机电专业的数学要求和文科不一样

答：Your GPA is really a concern when you present your application package (I am sure you are in the lower 10-20 percent range), but as you said, there is nothing you can do at this stage to work on those numbers; you got a decent GMAT, which shows your intelligence, and your experience looks pretty good (but not sure if you were in a pure engineer role or a cross-functional role, the latter role would be more attractive).

You do not have to worry too much about quan skills, because Americans never challenge your quan skills when you have engineering background. As an engineer, you need to focus more on how you develop leaderships in teams, how much business sense you have, and how you communicate with different people. As an international as well, you need to convince adcom that you are pretty good in the English-speaking environment, and you enjoy presenting your points and listening to others in the same time.

Given your background in the auto industry, I would also suggest you adding the Ross School at U of Michigan to your list; they have more connections to that industry in the state of Michigan.

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关于申请人（三）

问：请问一个short-term career goal问题：

我的背景是5.5年美国半导体业工程师，EE Master's，有两个短期目标选项：

1。毕业后直接回国做咨询，因为有语言优势，但是需要自己找工作。

2，毕业后在美国做咨询，没有语言优势，但是on-campus recruiting可以帮助。

那一个更让adcom信服？

答：I assume you are talking about Management Consulting; the recruiting process is a little bit different depending on where you want to work: If you want to get back to China, every one from top B-schools send resumes from website, and those MC firms will select some candidates and send a recruiting team to US (Philly, NYC or Boston) to conduct case interviews, so you are in the pool of Chinese MBAs from top 15 schools; If you want to get a MC job in the USA, you definitely need put more energy on networking with those firms visiting campus, and you also need to perform well in the case interviews. Either way sounds reasonable, and it is your personal call where  you want to go. I do not think adcom will challenge this topic.

问：我的GPA在申请者的pool中处于lower 10％。有人说不要解释，解释的话反而让Adcom注意到你的弱点。不过我认为还是需要解释的，毕竟adcom一定会对这个数字进行关注的。但我一直发愁怎么在optional essay里向adcom解释这个事情，应该怎么说才能比较让人能接受呢？说我们系打分很严－我们这届是很罕见的低分？说我参加课外活动－我是校棒球队的成员？会不会adcom觉得我是在找借口呢？

答：If I were in your shoes, I would not say anything regarding this low GPA issue unless I could provide some real stories; for example, I was running an on-line business when I was in college, and the business was so successful that it took too much of my study time. I was so ambitious at that time to expand my business, as a result my GPA turned out to be very low. At the end, my business was not in good shape due to my lack of business education and capital; but I gained a lot more than my classmates in terms of entrepreneur spirit and communication skills. Though my GPA was very low, I still made it to one of the top auto companies in China by my excellent communication skills and problem solving capabilities. Those chief engineers saw my potential through my experience, not just by those numbers shown on my GPA.

Above story is just for your reference, please do not use it if you do not have similar experience

问：经在一些文章上看到Darden侧重于招一些有consulting 或banking 背景的学生。我是general management背景，MBA毕业后仍然想在GM或HR方面发展。请问，我是不是不适合申请Darden？

答：Darden is a General Management school, so your background is perfect.

问：怎么选校— Sciece and engineering 背景

Engineering and science 背景, 半导体物理， 国内一流大学本科，美国二流大学博士，美国一个国家实验室guest researcher,
现在是第三年，学术上还可以，文章发得也还不错，有几个IEEE的awards，
也可以回国找到个不错大学的教职，但是始终感觉一辈子只做这么一件事有点觉得可惜，自己感觉性格上开朗，自信，communication and
organizing skills 不错。觉得在回国之前应该尝试一个MBA, 得到一些general management的训练，将来除了在
academia 的环境中还能有除了学术上的成就，或者在大的半导体公司担当R&D management类似的职位。上个月考了GMAT,
770。 托福99年考的653。在美国生活了8年，希望大部分的学校能够waive掉toefl. phd的老板和现在的老板同意写推荐信。
现在准备申请资料。

关于选校希望nn们能有些建议，或者有类似背景的人能够互相交流一下。

这是我发的一个general post, 想特别问一下Darden的同学，我这个背景似乎不适合Darden的侧重点, after reading the entire 52 pages post？想问问在那里的同学有什么insight.

因为现在工作的地方就在离Darden ~2 小时的车程，所以Darden是one of my preferences.......所以想问一下我适合申请Darden么？

答：With a PhD in EE, you are very unique: if you come to  Darden, you are propably the only one PhD in the 300+ class. There was a Chinese student at Darde with PhD degree several years ago, and he is very successful. R&D experience in high-tech field definitely places you in a spot that most others can not compare to; in recruiters'eyes, you got to be very smart to make through your prior career. Anyway, just do more research and find out what you want to do postMBA, I believe with your profile, you can make it to any top school as long as you prepare your application package well.

You do not need to retake the TOEFL, among top 15 schools, only Duke and Kellogg require a TOEFL for everyone (but you still can apply for a waiver given your experience in the USA). Good luck.

问：想申请Darden 08 fall，请帮忙指点一下。

教育背景：国内顶尖大学化工本科 GPA 3.40 & 3.72 （前两年）& (后两年）

GMAT: 720+ AWA6  TOFEL: 103 (29+28+19+27) 口语这么低，真是要死了。

工作经历： 到目前四年 国际顶级制药企业

                  （前三年半：质量保证工程师 现半年：全球采购分析师）

目标：往物流管理/或生产运行方面发展

答：What you want to know specifically? Darden is not an Operations-focused school (if you only want to concentrate on this direction, you may want to apply to MIT, or some 2-tier schools such as Penn State or Purdue), but given your supply-chain related experience and Pharm industry background, you should be able to try General Management or Management consulting (either Strategy or operations).

 

 

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Essay

问：对essay方面有什么建议吗？

答：Focus on your career goal essay (Essay 1), this is probably THE most important part of your application. Make it logical.

remember: career development director at Darden read your career goal essay before admission officer make the decision.

问：darden申请短文字数有限制，写多了有影响吗?

答：Do not over-write too much, you know, essays show part of your writing skills.

问：如果大学的gpa不到3.0,工作时间超过7年，是否需要解释一下？如是，在第四篇essay中解释可以吗？

答：If not too far away from 3.0 I don't think you need to explain. At the most use one to two sentence to explain a little bit. Anyway it's 7 years ago, which really doesn't matter too much. Also if you have a good GMAT score it can help.

问：What are you passionate about and why? (100 words or less)网上的题，请教考察点是什么？工作中还是生活中的？

答：I think you can talk both about professional or personal life. Generally I think you can think of the whole essay as a package about different aspects of yourself. So, if you have some aspects which is not mentioned in the major essays, you can talk about in here.

Probably if you have talked all abour professional experience in other essays, you can use this essay to talk about personal and/or social activities.

 

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面试

 

问：I am thinking of going to Darden in Fall 2007. Can you shed some light on the interview process.  Of course, I read what was posted on the official Darden website, but I think it is more accurate to hear the experiences of those who have actually gone through it.

答：In my case, I did my interview with Ms. Cheryl Jones in her admission office on grounds last year. it was very casual and relaxing conversation with normal questions:

* Tell me about yourself starting from college, why you chose your major and continue doing that?

* Any activities back in college? Any leadership role in college?

* What you have been doing after college? Why came to the U.S. for engineering education?

* Anything you feel great during your professional career? What would  your co-workers say about you? 

* Why MBA and why now? How do you see yourself in next five years after MBA? Long-term goal?

* Why Darden?

* What do you do for fun? any hobbies?

* Any questions about Darden?

As you can feel, it was just a conversational interview which took about 40 minutes. Be aware that the interviewer prefers not seeing your resume until the interview is done, which is a blind interview. So please be prepared to be a smooth story teller and then you will knock the interview down.

问：我是Early Round提交申请的，但是没有预约面试，所有的面试都是on campus的。现在材料提交以后，是等学校的面试邀请，还是自己要求面试呢？

Darden的录取官员会到中国来面试申请人吗？

答：Just wait. The interviewer can be admission officer or alumni. You probably want to write a mail to admission officer to confirm.

问：刚刚收到Interview invitation，可是Search的结果是看不到Interviewer的名字和Email，请问怎么办呢？直接按那个Request Interview的按钮吗？这样能 Schedule成功吗？

答：pleasse call admission officer directly for this.

问：准备坐火车去，不知火车站离Darden校园远不远。

答：There is an Amtrek station in downtown Charlottesville, not too far away but definitely not one that you can reach Darden by foot.  I guess taxi fare should be within $15.

问：准备在Charolettesville住一晚，Darden网站上列了下面这些旅馆，不知哪几家价廉物美而且离校园近（最好步行就可以到达），一般价位是多少。Sponsors Hall,Boar's Head Inn,Cavalier Inn,Clifton Inn,Comfort Inn,Courtyard by Marriott,Days Inn,Doubletree Hotel,English Inn,The Foxfield Inn,Hampton Inn and Suites,Hampton Inn,Holiday Inn University Area,Keswick Hall,Omni Hotel,Red Roof Inn,Residence Inn,Silver Thatch Inn,South Street Inn.

答：I believe the closest is Sponsor's Hall, it's right next to Darden.  Another choice is Cavalier Inn.  You can definitely reach Darden by foot and I recently host a prospective student from Taiwan and he stayed in Cavalier Inn and loved it.

问：除上午面试外，与二年级学生午餐和旁听课等活动是否需提前预约。

答：You've got to check that with the Admission Office.  But I believe as next week is the exam week and therefore there is no class for you to visit (that's too bad because Darden's class experience is definitely an eye opening one).

问：我可不可以提前电话问面试人的姓名?Darden面试有什么特别需要注意的地方？

答：You've got to check that with the Admission Office as well. Just be yourself and relax.  Darden interview is very casual and informal.

问：面试的往返交通与住宿费用是否全部自己解决，Darden能不能负担一部分？

答：I don't think Darden sponsors interview expenses.

问：要求和不要求interview，会不会对录取产生影响呢？我说人在美国那些申请者。谢谢。

答：I'd suggest you interview if you can, It will only increase your possiblity of being admitted.

Please check with admission officer to confirm if it's NECESSARY.

问：收到面试邀请的兄弟姐妹，几个问题：

1.是以e-mail的方式通知的么？，你们的on-line status是否有变化

2.是ad com hub interview 还是alumni interview?

答：我的情况是：以e-mail方式通知，然后看到online status变成了pending alumni interview，然后你就可以点schedule interview的button了。

Darden是rolling的，而且发interview非常慷慨。

 

 

 

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录取

问：darden在中国招的人不多，相应的中国学生之间的networking不如其它有庞大校友网络的学生强，这个劣势如何弥补？今年毕业的中国学生找工作情况如何？07的学生找internship情况具体如何？

答：When you look at the network you need to look at both the size and the connection. It is true that Darden's network is smaller but it is VERY CONNECTed. They are helping each other even if they didn't know each other before. On the other hand, since more and more Chinese students are willing to come back China even they could find good job in US, the network is expanding fast.

The placement for Chinese students this year is GREAT! 3 coming back China, holding MC, marketing position, I know 2 of them definately taking golabal pay though I am not sure how the 3rd one is paied. 5 stays in US, with MC job, leadership program in big cooperate etc.

问：听说darden倾向于招工作经验丰富一些的学生，我三年工作经验，是否相对薄弱些？是不是darden对中国女生不感冒呢？

答：3 girls vs. 4 boys this year, I cannot say that Darden do not like girls. Also we do have a girl who have 3 year experience, though most of us have 4-7 years' experience.

My suggestion is: focus on "If I like this school" than "if I can get into the school", everything is possible.

问：今年darden录取了多少中国人，有多少人获得了奖学金？

答：this year we have about 7 people taking Chinese passport studying in Darden, there are also 4 from Taiwan and Hongkong, and 2-3 people taking American passport.

To be honest, it's a bad year for Chinese year with Scharlorship. There's not too much in the enrolled students, I myself is taking a China scharlorsip which worth ~ 10K$. There was one students taking half schorlarship went to Harvard (not MBA). Traditionally, there would be a full tuitoin schorlarship to a students having entrepreneurship experience, so if you are, give it a good try but do not depend on it.

Overall, when you are talking about top 20 school, do NOT count on the scharlorship since it's very rare, but if you can get it, it would be a plus. Though there is school having rich schorlarship like Emory.

问：Darden一共才收了7个Mainland students? 好少...我还以为Darden也是Chinese-friendly的..

答：Well Darden did recruit more than 7 but some students choose to defer or go to other schools, that's why there's a "Yield Rate". That said, I don't have the total number of offers that Darden sent, but I know that the yielf rate has been increased comparing to last year, which means more students choose Darden after being admitted.

On the other hand, Darden is a small school, the total students # this year ~330, so if you are comparing with some much bigger school, 7 is not a bad number right?

问：how about the admission rate for Chinese students in Darden?

what's the focus area of Darden, I work as sales for last five years, is this proper to meet the focus of Darden?

答：I can give you a ball-park number for your first question: in the past three years, there were over 100 Chinese applying to Darden every year, about 20% of them got accpeted and yield rate is about 40-50%.

Darden is a General Management school, sales experience is a plus for you to land a general management job. ( one of my classmates has over five years of sales experience in a Fortune 100 firm in China, and he landed a general manager summer intern in the U.S.)

 

 

 

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奖学金与贷款

问：darden每年有多少学生能拿到全额奖学金?

答：Very hard to get a full scholarship unless you have previous entrepreneur experience or great leadership. But  for Chinese students (http://www.darden.virginia.edu/financialaid/intMeritSchol.htm), there are zero to one Dean's Scholarship (50% tuition), one China Scholarship ($5000/year), one to two Franklin Family Scholarships ($10000/year) and a new scholarship provided by a Darden Alum  (full tuition waiver for one student from Chinese background, http://www.darden.virginia.edu/news/2006/072606ChengScholarship.htm).  

 

问：Does darden offer full scholarship? Any Chinese student from Mainland received?

答：Yes, there's a entrepreneurship scholarship covered all tuition. Last year (08) no one from China received it, I am not sure about this year.

Besides that, there're some other scholarship Darden is offering, although some of them are not full scholarship. One of them is "Darden China Scholarship" which is for Chinese student ONLY, as far as I know, this might be the first scholarship in top school that targeting CHinese student.

问：请问：GPA不高对申请这些奖学金影响大吗？

答：I believe top b-schools value all your other merits besides GPA. Your experience, your leadership quality, carries more weight. That said, please do not be confused, you still have a better chance to get in and get scholarship if you have higher GPA/GMAT.

问：请问Darden在大陆的录取者中有没有entrepreneur背景的呢？我大四开始和几个合伙人一起创业，6年，现在公司发展较好，行业领头羊。另外，G较高(770)，ＧＰＡ很低，有没有拿奖的可能？

答：Yes there's a entrepreneurship scholarship, full tuition for admitted students with entrepreneurship experience, and many times this one goes to China.

Last year I was the only applicant in China with entrepreneurship experience but because of some other reasons I didn't get this one. That said, you have great opportunity to get it, if you are admitted.

 

James Su-Ting and Jeanette Wang CHENG Scholarship - half or full tuition - This scholarship shall be used to attract the best and brightest students from East Asia to Darden by providing a two-year scholarship to first year MBA students who have accepted admission to Darden.  The scholarship will be renewed in one’s second year as long as the student is in good academic standing (min. 3.0000 GPA).  First preference shall be for students from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Macau, or Singapore.  If these preferences cannot be met, then the scholarship may be awarded to a student from other East Asian countries.

http://www.darden.virginia.edu/html/standard.aspx?menu_id=28&styleid=4&id=798

问：虽然我可以自己负担一部分费用，但我想贷到最高金额，比如Cover 全部Tuition and living exp.，我在I20上写明我要贷全部，那么会不会影响到我通过签证的可能性呢？据说在准备Visa 时 ，要尽可能多的证明自己能Cover 较多的费用成功性才较大？

答：let me put it this way, there're two years, if you want to take loan in each the year, you need mention it on the I-20, but I THINK you might change the number of the second year afterwards. But for the loan in the first year, since you will need to get loan approval before the school issue the I-20, it's set.

But for the second year, you can change the number if you want. But you do need to mention that you will have loan in the I-20, though the number might be smaller than what you really want.

Basically don't worry about loan and Visa. It is true that you get more chance to get passed if you have more fund from yourself, but it is also true that many people passed with little (or 0) personal fund.