Sara Neher assumed the role of director of admissions at the University of Virginia’s Darden School two years ago. She came to Darden from just across campus, at UVA’s Jefferson Scholars Foundation. There, as director, she’d already been working with Darden in the course of launching the Darden Jefferson Fellowship. Now in its fourth year, the prestigious prize, awarded solely on the basis of merit, covers full tuition, fees and living expenses for the two-year MBA program for a few chosen students in each class.
Neher is no stranger to Charlottesville. She was an undergraduate there as well. But she left for long enough to get a solid grounding in the business world, including obtaining an MBA at Emory’s Goziueta Business School and working for five years at Proctor and Gamble.
Traveling extensively through the middle of October like so many other admissions officers, Sara still found time to shed a little light on what she and her team are looking for as they read prospective applicant’s essays. She also shared about some new developments at Darden, including the naming of a new director for the school’s entrepreneurship and innovation think tank, the Batten Institute, and impressive advances in campus diversity.
Clear Admit: What’s the single most exciting development, change, or event happening at Darden this coming year?
Sara Neher: The most exciting thing to happen at Darden this year is the hiring of Mike Lenox as Executive Director of Darden’s Batten Institute think tank on entrepreneurship and innovation. Mike will be on the strategy faculty and specializes in corporate environmental sustainability. In addition, he attended the University of Virginia for his undergraduate degree and during his time here was chair of our honor committee. He will be traveling to several cities this fall, so applicants may be able to meet him at our events.
We’re also very proud of our diversity accomplishments this year. The first year class has a record number and percentage of Hispanic-American students for Darden. In addition, this year we are co-hosting the LGBT Reaching Out Conference in Washington, DC.
CA: How does your team approach the essay portion of the application specifically? What are you looking for as you read the essays? Are there common mistakes that applicants should try to avoid? One key thing they should keep in mind as they sit down to write them?
SN: Our essays are meant to force applicants to be very introspective, and to use examples from work or life to illustrate their strengths or key learnings. We are hoping to identify leadership potential, intelligence, and an ability to see that there is a world beyond oneself. The questions are also meant to represent Darden to the applicant. We do believe in creativity, ethics, and the power of failure for learning as well as the case method. Our mission is to seek to improve society by developing leaders in the world of practical affairs. The essays will show us how applicants align with that mission.
In terms of things to avoid, please avoid being vague. Do enough research to know what it means to say “I want to go into private equity” or consulting, banking, etc.
