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Be as prepared as possible for your MBA interviews this season with the Clear Admit Interview Guides! School-specific sample questions and in-depth strategy, campus visit details and places to stay.

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CATEGORY - SCHOOL: VIRGINIA / DARDEN

Friday, November 07, 2008

Chicago GSB Renamed Chicago Booth School of Business in Recognition of $300 Million Alumni Gift

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business announced yesterday that alumnus David G. Booth (MBA ’71) recently donated $300 million to the school, the largest donation in the university’s history and the largest gift ever to a business school. In recognition of his generosity, the school will be renamed the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Booth, the founder and chief executive of investment firm Dimensional Fund Advisors, built his firm and his fortune on the finance principles he learned at Chicago. His first course there, taught by Professor Eugene Fama, was life-changing, he said. Fama is the founder of the efficient market hypothesis, which states that investors do best by buying and holding widely diversified portfolios, the basic thinking behind index funds.

“I remember Professor Fama standing up the first day of class and saying ‘This is the most practical course you will ever take,’ and it turned out to be true,” Booth said in a statement announcing the historic gift. “We built Dimensional Fund Advisors around his set of ideas. I am hoping that others will join me in giving back to this amazing business school,” he continued.

The gift, which includes an upfront payment, an income stream from shares in Dimensional Fund Advisors’ parent company and equity interest, will help fund several new initiatives, including an aggressive push to attract and retain star faculty.

The school also will consider adding new faculty groups in academic areas not normally associated with business schools, expanding existing research centers and exploring ways to more ambitiously leverage the school’s intellectual capital. The school’s international presence, too, could grow beyond its existing campuses in London and Singapore.

School officials expressed tremendous gratitude to Booth and lauded the decision to rename the school in his honor. “Given the profile of our school and its role in the world, it is imperative that the person who names the school embodies its values and, moreover, is a person who is of great integrity and who commands respect,” Edward Snyder, dean of the business school, said in a statement. “In David Booth, we have a person who exceeds all the relevant criteria.”

Booth’s gift is almost triple the amount given to Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2006. That $105 million gift, made by Nike founder and chairman Philip H. Knight, had been the largest ever to a business school. Other notable gifts to business schools include $100 million to the University of Michigan in 2004 from Stephen M. Ross, $85 million to the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2007 from a combined partnership of 13 alumni and $60 million to the Darden School at the University of Virginia from Frank Batten Sr., retired chairman and chief executive of Landmark Communications.

To read more about Booth’s $300 million donation to the University Chicago, click here.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Admissions Tip: Navigating MBA Admissions Interviews

Now that the first of many schools’ deadlines have come and gone, we’ve reached the point in the admissions season at which many applicants’ thoughts turn to interviews.  As a number of our readers enter into the often agonizing invitation wait period, we thought we’d comment on some simple steps to make sure you’re as prepared as possible when the good news comes.

1. Familiarize yourself with the interview process at your target programs. Will you want to get started making contacts at the school to fill a day on campus (and generate some great interview fodder), or do your programs of choice rely on local alumni to conduct their interviews?  Should you be practicing a walk-through of your background for an interviewer with no knowledge of your candidacy, or brainstorming new examples to share with an adcom member who’s already read your essays?  Building your knowledge of each school’s interview type and style will ensure that the time you spend reflecting and preparing is well spent.  The Clear Admit Interview Guides are a great way to answer the above questions and many others, offering an overview of each school’s interview process, a list of questions commonly asked by that program, a sample account, campus visit information (if applicable) and detailed school-specific strategic guidance.   We’ve just added the Darden School of Business at UVA and the Anderson School of Management at UCLA to our catalog of Clear Admit Interview Guides today, for a total of eighteen titles.

2. Polish your resume. No matter where you’ve applied, there’s one thing that you’ll need for your interview at virtually any school: a one-page resume.  The post-submission weeks are the perfect time to revisit your resume and make sure that it presents a representative overview of your candidacy that a ready of any background could easily understand.  Even if you have uploaded your resume as a part of the application, most schools allow applicants to present a revised version at the interview itself (this is particularly true for blind or alumni-based interviews).  For guidance in tailoring your resume to address the unique interests and backgrounds of MBA admissions committees, check out the Clear Admit Resume Guide.  With illustrative examples and detailed explanations, the Resume Guide will teach you how to present your qualifications and experiences to your best advantage, in terms of both content and presentation.

3. Build upon your understanding of each of the schools you’ve targeted. Of course, as is the case with one’s application essays, it’s not enough to wow the adcom with your professional and personal credentials and accomplishments; it’s also necessary to demonstrate deep knowledge of each school’s offerings and strengths to convince the interviewer that your interest in the school is well informed and that  you are poised to make a valuable contribution to the campus community.  Brushing up on the details of your target programs’ curricula, following breaking news from the schools, and thinking through how you would get involved and make a difference inside and outside of the classroom will certainly be fruitful interview preparation.  The Clear Admit School Guides, available for eighteen leading MBA programs, gather all the information you’ll need to understand the ins and outs of each school’s academic program and determine what sets your target program apart from its peers.

All Clear Admit Guides are available for purchase and immediate download from the Clear Admit shop.  Discounts are available for School Guide/Resume Guide combos, and for three or more of one kind of Guide.

We wish the best of luck to everyone waiting for word from their R1 schools … happy interviewing!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Chicago GSB Admissions Dean Launches Her Own Blog

In late September, Rose Martinelli, dean of student recruitment and admissions at the Chicago Graduate School of Business (GSB), joined the blogosphere with the launch of her own blog, entitled “The Rose Report.”

A self-proclaimed advocate of transparency in admissions, Martinelli aims not just to talk the talk but also to walk the walk with her new blog. “Over the next several months I plan to update you on admissions, respond to questions and concerns and try to add some texture to this process,” she declared in her initial post on September 26th.

So far, her posts have touched on topics ranging from Chicago’s speedy response to recent GSB grads impacted by the Lehman bankruptcy, general application strategy (including a reference to Martinelli’s own Q&A with Clear Admit) and whether there are advantages to submitting in Round 1 versus Round 2.

Martinelli joins other admissions deans in the blogosphere. Harvard Business School’s Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Dee Leopold has been blogging since June 2007. And Sara Neher, director of admissions at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, boasts her own video blog on YouTube.

Of course, admissions deans’ blogs should serve as just one of many resources for prosective applicants seeking to guage which business school will best meet management education needs and goals. But when an admissions dean takes the time to speak directly to prospective applicants…prospective applicants probably want to listen up!

(To subscribe to receive regular updates to “The Rose Report” via RSS feed, click here.)

Friday, September 26, 2008

Admissions Director Q&A: Sara Neher of the University of Virginia’s Darden School

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.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

UVA / Darden Essay Topic Analysis 2008-2009

Darden’s application essay topics this year mark a rather large departure from those of the prior years.  Last year, Darden posed rather narrow questions that seemed designed to force applicants to self-select and cultivate a certain type of community.  Meanwhile, this year’s essays have swung back toward a more mainstream focus, making them somewhat easier to answer.  Let’s take a closer look at each of these questions:

Essay 1: What pivotal choices have you made in your life that have influenced your decision to pursue an MBA? (500 words)
Whereas last year’s ‘why MBA’ question was framed in terms of what mattered most to them both professionally and personally, Darden has reworked this question to focus instead on specific, significant choices rather than enduring priorities.  The fact that the prompt sets the applicant’s life as the scope indicates that the school still invites personal reflection, though the main focus should likely be on professional turning points, given the end result of seeking an MBA in pursuit of specific career goals.  In approaching this question, you should thus think about the motivation behind your career goals and what has encouraged you to develop these objectives.  The choices that you discuss should be ones that had, and continue to have, ramifications for your career development and growth.

Essay 2: From the following categories, describe the one that has taught you the most: a creative challenge, an ethical dilemma or an experience of failure.  Why? (250 words)
Here, applicants have the opportunity to discuss leadership capacity within the context of confronting a creative challenge, professional and personal integrity in working through an ethical dilemma, or maturity and growth in overcoming a failure or a setback.  The three options presented by this prompt allow applicants to draw on a wide range of situations and contexts in selecting a topic for this essay, though the rather narrow word limit will require that they pare whichever story they choose down to its core.  In addition to simply sharing the relevant details of the story, candidates will need to discuss what they learned as a result and, ideally, also touch on how they have continued to draw upon these lessons since.

Essay 3: Describe how you are a fit with the case study method. (250 words)
Darden’s focus on the case method of instruction has long been one of the program’s major selling points, and in turn, the school is now asking applicants to sell the adcom on their preparedness for this unique classroom environment.  In thinking about how to address this question, it might be fruitful to reflect on your leadership, teamwork, and general interactive approach.  You will want to highlight examples from your past experiences that demonstrate your ability to think creatively, assert your opinion, reconcile differing points of view, and define and work towards goals.  Of course, any firsthand knowledge of the case method gained through class visits or discussions with current or former Darden students would strengthen your case.  Candidates may also wish to investigate the Clear Admit School Guide to Darden for further insight into the learning environment.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Wall Street Crisis Impacts Business School Campuses: The View From Darden

~ A CLEAR ADMIT EXCLUSIVE ~

As part of our continuing coverage of the Wall Street shakeup and its impact on students at top business schools, we recently spoke with Jack Oakes, director of the Career Development Center at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Here’s a little of what he had to share.

“Both Lehman and Merrill have been strong recruiters at Darden over the long term, so we have some students who are directly affected” by Lehman’s declaration of bankruptcy and Merrill’s forced sale of itself to Bank of America, Oakes reports.

Together with his staff, Oakes has been in close communication with the affected students since just after the announcements were made, reaching out to the group as a whole and meeting with students individually to see what they have heard and how Darden can help them proceed with their search.

According to Oakes, the fate of several students who interned with Lehman this past summer and received full-time offers is still unclear. “Some things are still in flux,” Oakes said, indicating that students have not yet learned whether their positions will survive the proposed acquisition of core parts of Lehman by British bank Barclays.

Students with offers at Merrill seem more secure. “We have received assurances directly from Merrill that they are honoring those offers,” Oakes said.

The reaction of students on campus to the events of the past week has been perhaps what you might imagine, explained Oakes. “Talking with them about their feelings last week I found amazement, a lot of anxiety and surprise that the financial world has changed so dramatically in so many ways,” he said. “A number of them were quite upset about these vast changes, but each of them I know is moving forward positively from it,” he continued. “It is not a time to wallow in despair.”

Beyond the immediate triage work Oakes and his team have done with students directly impacted by the Lehman and Merrill situations lies the larger charge of coping with a significantly altered recruitment landscape.

“Obviously for the second-year students, full-time opportunities in financial services will be down significantly,” Oakes says. Add to that the fact that many graduates from 2006, 2007 and 2008 are conducting searches. “Competition for those remaining slots will be fierce,” Oakes warns.

Still, Oakes found some encouragement in the first-year recruitment process, which began at Darden last week. “I was pleased to see that there were financial services firms with at least 14 or 15 people down here at Darden to help students get to know their firms,” Oakes says.

“It was great to see that despite everything else that is going on, their focus is on bringing in a good class,” he said. “At least from an engagement perspective, recruitment seems to be going on strong.”

In terms of career counseling, Darden plans to re-emphasize its foundational focus on fit, says Oakes. “We are focused on making sure there is a great fit between what a student can do and wants to do,” he said. The current economic situation provides students with an opportunity to reassess that fit and rebuild a job search plan, choosing a path based on realistic expectations and shored up with reasonable back-up plans.

As students previously laser-focused on financial services begin to redirect their searches, won’t other hiring areas become even more competitive? Yes, conceded Oakes, but he hopes that those areas will hold up from an opportunity standpoint. Based on early indicators such as the scheduling of recruiting visits and interviews, “things look to be holding up rather well despite the slowdown in the economy,” Oakes reports. Manufacturing, consulting and marketing firms have each reported that they are looking to increase full-time opportunities, Oakes says. 

Oakes does not anticipate sweeping changes to business school programs or curriculum as a result of the recent financial turmoil, though there are certainly teaching opportunies, he says. In fact, one of Darden’s corporate finance professors has already finished a case on the fall of Bear Stearns, said Oakes. “There will be any number of lessons to be learned from this,” he says.

For now, Oakes says, the main lesson students seem to be taking is this: “When it seems too good to be true, it likely is.”

Friday, September 05, 2008

UVA’s Darden School of Business Hosts Industry Immersion Day

The Career Development Center (CDC) at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business hosted its Industry Immersion Day on Friday, offering the school’s MBA students an opportunity to explore potential careers in a range of industries.

Industry Immersion Day was designed as a companion event to the Career Discovery Forums the CDC held three weeks ago for first-year students, which provided an overview of both popular and nontraditional MBA career paths.   

“The purpose of Industry Immersion Day is to do this from a specific industry perspective,” explained Jack Oakes, associate director of career development, in a statement. “A number of these industries typically hire MBAs, but many don’t actually go to MBA schools to recruit, so this is also a networking opportunity,” he continued.

The industries represented as part of Industry Immersion Day at Darden include energy; healthcare; media, entertainment and sports; real estate; retail and luxury goods; technology; and socially responsible business/nonprofits.

Panel discussions throughout the day featured representatives from each industry, including many Darden alumni with several years of post-MBA experience. Event programming is designed to provide participants with a better understanding of the particular dynamics affecting key industries as well as the need for MBA talent in each.

To learn more, click here.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Trivia Tuesday: The Academic Commitment at UVA’s Darden School

It’s time again for another edition of Trivia Tuesday, our weekly consideration of the policies and practices that differentiate the student experience at the leading business schools. This week we turn our attention to the unusual class meeting structure in place at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Darden has a reputation for being a demanding academic program, though the school has chosen to schedule its courses creatively to help students get – and give – as much as possible in the academic arena.

Darden’s class schedule during the week is markedly different from those of its peer institutions. To begin, classes in the first-year program do not follow a rigid meeting schedule. Instead, the number of class sessions each week fluctuates depending on how the material being covered ties into the information presented that week in other core courses. For instance, a class might meet up to four or five times in one week so that students can master a major concept that will be applied in other courses. Once this concept is addressed, the class may meet just one to three times the following week, allowing the focus to shift to other courses.

The second-year schedule also sees some fluctuation. Second-year electives meet on an “early week” or “late week” schedule throughout the semester. Early week classes meet on the first two to three days of the week while late week classes meet on the final two or three days of the week. This schedule is broken up every two weeks with an R-Day for recruiting, reading and rest, which provides students with a short but necessary break from the school’s intense academic schedule.

Darden prides itself on the rigor of the curriculum, especially in the first year, and expects students to make a serious commitment to the academic program. The administration estimates that first-year students should plan to spend 60-80 hours per week on school work and current Darden students report that this estimate is accurate. The typical schedule in the first year is class from 8:00 a.m. to 1:10 p.m., one and a half to three hours of independent prep work in the afternoon, followed by two to four hours of meeting and discussion with a learning team in the evening. In the end, most Darden students spend 10-14 hours on campus each weekday.

For more information on Darden’s first-year curriculum, second-year electives, or campus academic and social cultures, be sure to check out the school’s website or the Clear Admit School Guide to Darden!

Monday, August 18, 2008

UVA / Darden Essay Topics 2008-2009

UVA/Darden’s essay topics for the 2008-2009 application season have recently been released. This year’s questions are as follows:

1.    What pivotal choices have you made in your life that have influenced your decision to pursue an MBA?  (500 words)

2.    From the following categories, describe the one that has taught you the most: a creative challenge, an ethical dilemma or an experience of failure.  Why?  (250 words)

3.    Describe how you are a fit with the case study method.  (250 words)

Interested applicants should refer to the school’s admissions site in order to view the complete application.

Friday, July 11, 2008

UVA / Darden Deadlines 2008-2009

Darden’s deadlines for the coming 2008-2009 admissions season have been posted:

Round 1
Application Deadline: October 28, 2008
Interviews Conducted: December 5-19, 2008 and January 5-9, 2009
Decisions Release Date: January 30, 2009

Round 2
Application Deadline: January 7, 2009
Interviews Conducted: February 16-March 2, 2009
Decisions Release Date: March 25, 2009

Round 3
Application Deadline: March 4, 2009
Interviews Conducted: April 9-17, 2009
Decision Release Date: May 8, 2009

All materials must be received by 11:59 PM, Eastern Standard Time.

As always, we’ll post more information about Darden’s updated 2008-2009 essay questions as soon as they are released!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

GMAT Corner Cutters Could Pay Dearly, According to Recent Court Ruling

The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) announced Friday that is has been awarded $2.3 million in damages in a copyright-infringement lawsuit against the operator of a website that posted real questions and unauthorized study materials to help prospective business school applicants pass the GMAT business school entrance exam.

Lei Shi operated www.scoretop.com, which for a $30 subscription provided users with actual GMAT questions. Shi, who was living in the United States when the suit was filed by GMAC, has returned as a fugitive to his native China, where he is the focus of a criminal investigation by the F.B.I.

In a seizure of his assets as part of the court ruling, GMAC has obtained the hard drive to Shi’s computer, which contained “substantial information about the individuals who participated in Scoretop’s unlawful activities either as employees or agents of Shi or as ‘members’ of the Scoretop site,” according to a release issued by GMAC.

GMAC has begun the process of reviewing materials on Shi’s hard drive to assess whether individuals have violated its testing policies through participation in Scoretop. The test scores of any that are deemed to be in violation will be canceled, and business schools will be notified of those cancelations.

In his own blog this week, Dean Robert Bruner of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business praised the court ruling and warned GMAT corner-cutters of the consequences they could face at his and other institutions.

“Darden and its peer schools will brook absolutely no cheating,” Bruner wrote. “The integrity of the GMAT is vital to the discovery and admission of real talent,” he continued.

Ironically, accessing the content available from sites such as Scoretop does not guarantee a higher score on the GMAT, according to Larry Rudner, GMAC vice president for research and development.

“Even if a site is illegally able to obtain some ‘real’ questions, it is extremely unlikely that a test taker will see the same questions on the live exam,” Ruder explains. A computer-adaptive test, the GMAT sifts through a bank of thousands of questions in the course of administering each individual exam.

Be that as it may, GMAC is “committed to reporting to schools any unethical behavior that we uncover regarding our testing policy and lack of compliance with that policy by candidates for admission who are sending their scores to schools,” GMAC President Dave Wilson said in a statement. “This case is just one example of our continued pursuit of those who fail to respect our intellectual property rights and our testing policies,” Wilson continued.

Darden’s Dean Bruner echoed this sentiment on his blog. “It is not unreasonable to assume that if you cheat, GMAC will discover it and come after you,” he wrote. “Applicants are well-advised to write an honest test. Cutting corners doesn’t pay.”

Monday, June 23, 2008

Forte Foundation New, Returning Board Members Include Administrators from NYU Stern, MIT Sloan, CMU Tepper, UT-Austin McCombs, Kellogg and UVA Darden

The Forté Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping women assume leadership roles in business and enabling corporations to more effectively reach and retain top female talent, announced the election of new and returning board members this month.

This year’s roster includes administrators from several of the nation’s top business schools, as well as representatives from some of the world’s leading multinational corporations.

Forté, a consortium of 27 leading multinational corporations, 37 top business schools in the U.S. and abroad and the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), provides a national infrastructure for women at all stages of their careers to access the  information, scholarship support and networking connections they need to succeed in business.

Joining Forte’s board this year from the academic side is Anika Davis-Pratt, assistant dean of MBA admissions and financial aid for New York University’ Stern School of Business. Davis-Pratt joins several representatives from other top-tier business schools who are returning this year as board officers. They include

• Cindy Benton, director of student services at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business;
• Colleen McMullen Smith, director of diversity strategies and programs atCarnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business;
• Julie Strong, senior associate director of MBA admissions at MIT’s Sloan School of Management;
• Roxanne Hori, assistant dean and director of career management, Kellogg School of Management;
• Stacy Poindexter Owen, director of admissions, Wake Forest University, and
• Wendy Huber, assistant director, admissions, University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

From the corporate side, representatives from Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers and Avon joined the board as newly elected officers this year. Returning corporate officers this year include representatives from Deloitte and Touche, Citi, the Ernst & Young Foundation and Eli Lilly and Company.

To learn more about the Forté Foundation, visit www.fortefoundation.org. 

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Trivia Tuesday: Earning a JD/MBA or MD/MBA

Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday! Earlier in the year we looked at the options for students to earn Master’s degrees alongside their MBA studies through dual and joint degree arrangements. This week we’ll examine the opportunities for students interested in combining their business education with study in law or medicine. The growing demand for talented, knowledgeable managers in the health care industry makes the combination MD/MBA degree particularly valuable, and graduates who can analyze both the strategic and legal implications of a decision fill an important niche in the business world.

Wharton’s programs are typical of the JD/MBA and MD/MBA programs offered by leading business schools. As with most of the MBA/MA programs, candidates must apply to the two programs separately and admissions decisions are made independently. However, the longer length of JD and MD dual degree programs - typically four years for a JD/MBA and five years for an MD/MBA - mean that students have somewhat more leeway in deciding when to apply to the programs. For instance, students may apply to and begin both degree programs in the same year, or may choose to start the JD or MD first, applying to the MBA program in either their first or second year of study in the other program.

Kellogg’s MBA/JD program is differs slightly, in that the schools have managed to compact the three year law degree and two year MBA into just three years of on-campus study. The program also differs in that students apply through Kellogg only, though they spend their first year in full-time residency at the Law School.

Below is a summary of the JD and MD dual degree options offered by several of the leading MBA programs, along with links to sites offering more information about the dual degree or the law or medical school.

Chicago GSB:

JD with University of Chicago Law School
MD with Pritzker School of Medicine

Columbia Business School:

JD with Columbia Law School
MD with Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
DDS with Columbia University College of Dental Medicine

Cornell/Johnson:

JD with Cornell University Law School
MD with Weill Cornell Medical College

Duke/Fuqua:

JD with the Duke University School of Law
MD with the Duke University School of Medicine

Harvard Business School:

JD with Harvard Law School
MD with Harvard Medical School

Kellogg:

JD with Northwestern’s School of Law
MD with the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern

Michigan/Ross:

JD at the University of Michigan’s Law School
MD at the University of Michigan’s Medical School

MIT Sloan:

No JD or MD dual degree programs

NYU/Stern:

JD at NYU School of Law

Stanford:

JD with the Stanford School of Law
No formal MD dual degree, though students may pursue a medical degree separately from the MBA

Tuck:

No JD program; offers a Master’s of Science in Environmental Law through Vermont Law School
MD with Dartmouth Medical School

UC-Berkeley/Haas:

JD with either UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law or UC Hastings College of the Law

UCLA/Anderson:

JD with UCLA School of Law
MD with David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

UVA/Darden:

JD with the University of Virginia School of Law

Wharton:

JD with Penn Law School
MD with Penn Medicine, DMD with Penn Dental Medicine, VMD with Penn Veterinary Medicine

Yale SOM:

JD at Yale Law School
MD at the Yale School of Medicine

For more information on dual and joint degree options and on graduates’ career paths, be sure to check out the individual schools’ websites, as well as the Dual Degrees and Career Statistics sections of the Clear Admit School Guides!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

UVA’s Darden School of Business Names New Diversity Chief

Robert Bruner, dean of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, this week named Professor Martin Davidson to serve as the school’s next associate dean for diversity and chief diversity officer (CDO). Davidson, who will assume the new role on July 1, replaces Professor Erika James, who has held the position since it was created three years ago and has reached the regular end of her appointment.

An internationally recognized though leader in the area of diversity in organizations, Davidson has long been focused in his research, teaching and consulting on looking at how leaders can use diversity strategies to create competitive advantages. In addition to teaching in each the Darden MBA and Executive Education programs, Davidson also consults with Fortune 100 companies, government and nonprofits.

“As associate dean and CDO, Martin will work to position the Darden School to be preeminent among business schools in its capability to leverage differences in all its facets,” Bruner said in a statement. In his role, Davidson will serve as chief strategist and advisor to Davidson on all the school’s diversity strategies and programs.

Davidson came to Darden in 1998 from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he had previously been a professor.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Trivia Tuesday: The First Year Experience at UVA/Darden

Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday, our weekly look at the policies and practices that differentiate the leading business schools. This week’s focus is the structure of Darden’s first-year class and the way it impacts the first-year experience at the school.

Darden’s entering class is divided into five sections of approximately 60 students each. As at other business schools that break their classes into smaller groups, Darden’s sections are designed to represent the professional and demographic diversity of the full first-year class. Each section takes all of its core curriculum courses together and therefore shares a common set of faculty. Given the relatively small size of the sections and the intensely participatory nature of Darden’s case-based learning style, the school has taken the unusual step of reassigning sections at the conclusion of the first semester. This allows students to benefit from the ideas and perspectives of a new group of classmates during second semester case discussions. Section loyalty runs deep at Darden, despite the mid-year reshuffling of the class. Inter-section athletic events and other competitions take place each year, with students’ first semester sections holding their allegiance. In addition, alumni returning to campus often identify themselves by their section affiliation.

Darden first-years are further divided into 50-60 Learning Teams of 5-6 students apiece. As with the sections, learning team assignments are made with an eye to the diversity of students’ professional, academic and geographic backgrounds. However, Darden’s Learning Teams differ from those at most schools in that they are made up of students drawn from different sections of the class. Because class participation counts for such a large percentage of the grade in each course, case-based schools such as Darden and Harvard ensure that Learning Team members are not in the same class sections. This arrangement allows students to share their insights freely without having to compete against teammates in the classroom.

Unlike the first-year sections, Darden’s Learning Teams work together throughout the first year. Students are expected to use the teams as a resource for sharing and testing ideas, but above all, the teams are seen as an exercise in learning to lead a diverse group toward a shared goal. The school expects students to be committed to their Learning Teams and these teams play a central role in the lives of first-years.

To support the work of the Learning Teams, Darden reserves a study room for each team from 7-10 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday evenings. This practice is unique to Darden among its peer programs; few business schools have enough study rooms to provide their learning teams with dedicated meeting space throughout the week.

To learn more about the first-year academic experience at Darden or other leading MBA programs, be sure to check out the schools’ websites or the Academics section of the Clear Admit School Guides!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Campus Chronicles: Virginia/Darden and Northwestern/Kellogg

Winning ideas have value, especially at business schools. As graduation and summer internships loom ever nearer, we wanted to share a look at the successful ideas and the pots of money being won by student projects at several top schools.

Two students of University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business have been winning accolades and business plan contests this spring using rice husks. So far they have been awarded almost $100,000 in prize money, including $50,000 for winning the Social Innovation Competition at the University of Texas on May 2, $35,000 for taking second place at MIT’s Ignite Clean Energy competition on May 12, and a $10,000 top prize from the University of Virginia on April 7. The two students started a project with an India-based partner to supply electricity to villages in Bihar using rice husks as the source of fuel. So far two pilot rice husk generators are providing power to about 10,000 rural Indians, which will save 200 tonnes of emissions annually compared to diesel or coal power. The business plan of Husk Power Systems calls for a rapid expansion that will put the miniature power plants in hundreds more villages within a few years. Apart from electricity,the ash of the burnt husks can be sold as a high quality ingredient for cement, making even the waste from this project valuable.

The Kellogg School of Business celebrated five Kellogg students who brought home top honors from the 2008 Walter V. Shipley Business Leadership Case Competition. Along with their triumph, these Kellogg students received a prize of $20,000. The case study in this year’s competition focused on the Environmental Defense Fund’s proposed negotiation strategy with two private equity firms who had plans to buy out a large energy company. One winning student credits the team’s success over peers from other schools to Kellogg’s emphasis on collaboration.

Another illustration of successful collaboration in the Northwestern region resulted in a team of Kellogg School and Feinberg School of Medicine students winning first place in the CHEST Foundation Case Competition held on May 8. The event was co-sponsored by the Social Entrepreneurship Lab at Kellogg, the Kellogg Social Impact Club, the Health Industry Management Program, and Healthcare and Biotechnology Club. The winning business plan was a hybrid for-profit and nonprofit business model designed to attack key asthma triggers in the home through an effort to educate patients and help them reduce exposures in their homes.

The for-profit arm of the enterprise would raise revenue through a residential cleaning service that specializes in eliminating indoor asthma triggers, while the not-for-profit organization would use these funds to drive a community-based “train the trainers” asthma education program. The students’ polished presentation and attention to financial details earned them top marks and a $2,000 prize. Hopefully this idea will also help thousands of Chicagoan’s breath easier!

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

UVA’s Darden School of Business Makes Sustainability Push

In a blog post yesterday we described a new business incubator at UNC Kenan-Flagler committed to promoting environmental and socially sustainable entrepreneurship. Of course, Kenan-Flagler is not alone in addressing issues of sustainability. In his own blog post yesterday evening, Dean Robert Bruner of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia mapped out the ways in which he hopes to lead his school toward greater environmental responsibility.

“Our initiative has two goals: By 2020, the Darden Enterprise will achieve carbon and waste neutrality; and by 2013,
Darden w