Many applicants are concerned that they lack community service because of
heavy work schedules.
What's amazing is that the most successful students, the ones that you can
rely on to be strongly involved at Darden, are the ones
who are already
doing an awful lot. They have a capacity for vast amounts of work, which is
so important. We don't find that in every applicant, but we are certainly
looking for it.
But don't just do a token service activity for a year to build your
application. That's a waste of your time. We are looking for people
who are well-rounded and who are interested in things outside of themselves. If
you have no community experience, then think
broadly about what the school is
looking for, and address that issue
in other ways. Maybe the applicant mentored other people on the job
even though it was not a formal program or a job requirement.
There are many ways to demonstrate
your social awareness and balance.
Don't just put something down if it‘s a
passing hobby, because it will stick out.
Put it down because it's a passion. If an interviewer wants to discuss
it, then you must have enough knowledge to talk about it.
In closing, is there anything else that you want to highlight about Darden?
If you ask Dean Bruner, he would say what makes Darden different is "high
touch, high tone, and high octane."
First, Darden is very much a "high
touch" kind of place. We
promote active engagement between faculty and students, among students, and
between students and the broader Darden community. Our faculty are
consistently rated among the best in the world in teaching. In career development, you have an assigned consultant
and an assigned second year coach. It is all about developing relationships.
The second is "high tone." A lot of business schools teach functional
excellence, but Darden is also focused on leadership, communication, and
inspiration, and we are going to augment that functional mastery with
leadership. We also set a high tone
in the area of ethics, which we have already discussed.
Then the third, which everybody talks about with Darden, is
"high octane." We are a rigorous program. We call it a "constructive
stretch" because we believe that when you stretch people, they grow. Our
program is packed with learning. When you invest in our program, you want to
be stretched and get your money's worth.
So I love the way this summarizes
Darden, "High touch. High tone. High octane."
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