Visiting Darden

As part of my bschool visits, I visited the Darden school of business at the University of Virginia on sep 6th. My first reaction on entering the school was "Classy" . Everything starting from the building to the fireplaces reminded me of the victorian era. The students were very helpful and so was the admissions office and the professors. One of the students offered to host me at his town house and I had the opportunity to meet his two roommates (Darden students). It was really great spending some quality time with them and see how they go about their preperation for the next day. Darden deals entirely in cases and I had a chance to understand the next day's case before hand. As I am not aware of the tools they use , the first question I asked was how do you know about all these concepts ?. Did you learn them before hand ?. I actually put the same question to a few others and all of them had a single response. "When you spend 4 hours a day with your learning team, you end up learning the stuff" . Team plays a very vital role at Darden. So if some one is not comfortable working in a team or doesn't enjoy sharing knowledge and expanding horizons, Darden is not for them.

The day of the class visit started with the first coffee. I had a chance to meet some current students at the bschool and interacted with them to understand what motivated them to attend Darden. I felt first coffee is a great tradition, giving an opportunity to meet the faculty and co students. After a brief coffee Shivram N, my student rep accompanied me to the class on Decision Analysis by Professor Lichtendal. I was in the class along with another visitor , who happend to be working for the FBI :) ... The class started with the customary section tradition of clapping on the walls /benches etc... which was fun and I guess relaxes the students and gets them into the proper mood. Darden classes are highly interactive. The session continued with a discussion of the previous case on NPVs that they discussed and the lessons learnt from it. At Darden , the professor acts just a facilitator. It started with "cold calling" a student who spoke about her understanding and learnings from the case , to which another student added a point and it continued. All this while the professor was silently making points on the black board and was occassionally providing cues so as to direct the process. I now understand it is a great way to learn. After 15mins , three teams were asked to do a mock consulting presentation to the client from the case to be discussed. Three students were selected as the judges and were required to evaluate the teams. The presentations were very skillfully done with various assumptions , which the teams substantiated. The really fun and interesting part of this mechanism was the opportunity that was given for cross questioning. I remember the ire I used to face when I happend to ask a question in Principles Of management (POM) class at BITS. At my undergrad questioning a prof or a student giving the presenatation was a strict no-no . I could feel the cultural difference at Darden. It was through cross questioning and interaction that students learned concepts like CAPRatio. I wish we at BITS change our attitudes. The class was highly interactive, engaging and fun. For three quarters of the class I forgot that the professor was present except for his occassionaly announcements about the time.

The class ended with a student taking a voluntary punishment for letting his mobile ring in the previous class :) ... he was asked to place his mobile on his forehead and walk backwards. I found Darden students to be fun loving and professional in equal measure. Post class , I went around Charlottesville . It turned about to be a nice quaint town and Virginia students are present everywhere. Later I met Prof. Lichtendal and discussed my career aspirations and how Darden can help me meet them. He was extremely responsive and friendly. Darden faculty has an open door policy and you can walk into a professor's room if the door is open.

On the whole , I am highly highly impressed with Darden. When they write on their website that they are collaborative , the really mean it and it is pervasive all through the campus and community. My resolve to attend Darden has now increased leaps and bounds. I shall put in as good an application as I can :) ... wish me good luck.