Experience Darden

Darden’s Full-Time MBA application is now live, and in honor of the occasion, we recently caught up with Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions Dawna Clarke to talk about this year’s application. During this conversation, we discuss this year’s short answer questions, choosing a recommender, Darden’s Full-Time MBA test waiver request process and more.

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Alison Neveu. Alison is a student in Darden’s Full-Time MBA Class of 2024, and she is also VP of Admissions for the Graduate Women in Business (GWIB) club. We talk with Alison about her background, how she decided to pursue an MBA, her experience serving as a General Equity representative for her First Year section, what attracted her to the VP of Admissions role and much more.

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Kate Gomeliuk. Kate is a student in UVA Darden’s Full-Time MBA Class of 2024, and she is also the VP International for Darden’s Graduate Women in Business (GWIB) student organization. We talk with Kate about her decision to pursue an MBA, what led her to Darden, navigating the first year of business school as a parent, how she decided to serve on the GWIB leadership board and more.

In this episode of the podcast, we continue our ongoing series on the learning experience at Darden with a conversation with seven students in the Full-Time MBA Class of 2024 who comprised Learning Team 6 – Alyssa Tulabut, Lindsey Moran, Maryeliz Point, Peter Hamilton, Max Redpath, Rauf Aziz and Gerardo Molina Rodriguez. The team discusses how they established their team culture, how they worked together, how their Learning Team shaped their first year experience and more. Did you know? All Darden students are assigned a 5-6 person Learning Team, and this team is an important academic resource, particularly during the core curriculum.

In this special edition of the Darden Admissions podcast, we share a recent installment in our ongoing ‘Office Hours’ faculty spotlight series, a conversation with Professor Yiorgos Allayannis. Allayannis is member of the Finance faculty and an expert in corporate finance, risk management, financial institutions and international finance. His work has examined the impact of derivatives on risk and firm value, corporate governance and its influence in a firm's use of derivatives for hedging, as well as firms' financial and operational hedging strategies. Other work has examined volatility and its implications for firm value distinguishing between earnings and cash flow volatility. In this conversation, we talk with Allayannis about what led him to Darden, teaching Finance through the case method as well as his popular elective, Financial Institutions and Markets. We also discuss a number of the cases he has written across a wide range of topics, including crypto, decentralized finance, green bonds, fintech and more.

During this episode, we continue our spotlight on learning through the case method with a conversation with three students in our Full-Time MBA Class of 2024 – Alex Esposito, Ryan Smith and Vince Wang. In this conversation, Alex, Ryan and Vince reflect upon their decision to pursue an MBA, what led them to Darden, what they enjoy about learning through the case method, how Darden has prepared them to lead in ambiguous situations, their advice for prospective students and more. Alex, Ryan and Vince also share their favorite case from the First Year core curriculum.

In this special edition of the Darden Admissions podcasts, we catch up with Professor Raj Venkatesan. Raj is a member of the Darden Marketing faculty, and he is also a co-Academic Director for UVA’s MS in Business Analytics, a partner program between the Darden School of Business and the McIntire School of Commerce. In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk with Raj about his background, what he loves about the MSBA program, how the program’s curriculum keeps pace with technological advancement, what skills will define the analytics professional of the future and more.

In this episode, we continue our ongoing spotlight on entrepreneurship at Darden with a conversation with Rooney Lee, a recent graduate in our Full-Time MBA Class of 2023. We talk with Rooney about Newsublease, a network providing affordable, short-term housing for MBA, Law and Medical students he launched with two of his classmates, Xinyi Jiang and Shreyas Adiyodi. He reflects upon the inspiration for Newsublease, how the UVA E-Cup helped him refine his business concept, what’s next for Newsublease, his plans for the summer and more.   

During this conversation, we catch up with Martin Vargas. Martin is a recent graduate in our Full-Time MBA Class of 2023, and he is heading to New York City to work in investment banking. We recently caught up with Martin to discuss his decision to pursue an MBA, what led him to Darden, what attracted him to finance as well as his advice for prospective students. Martin also recently served as the President of the Latin American Student Association (LASA), and he reflects upon how this student organization added to his Darden experience.

In this episode of the podcast, we continue our ongoing spotlight on the learning experience at the Darden School of Business with a conversation with three Darden faculty members – Robert Carraway, Lynn Isabella and Marc Lipson. We talk with Robert, Lynn and Marc about how they prepare for class, what it’s like to lead a case discussion, the developmental impact of Darden’s pedagogical approach, their advice for incoming students and more. This episode is essential listening.