Welcome to F1GMAT's #askAtulJose series. Today I analyze the Darden MBA Curriculum. For questions and tips on choosing the right MBA program or post-MBA career, Subscribe to F1GMAT’s Career Planning service. Although schools have been limited due to the pandemic to organize their Global trips and exchange programs, the customizability of the curriculum has become a huge selling point. In that regard, Darden is the #1 MBA program that I have analyzed.
The 21-month Darden Full-time MBA program relies heavily on the case study method and experiential learning to impart skills in leadership and General Management.
Darden MBA is among the very few top programs that offer a General Management focus in the core. Like most top Business Schools, customizability has been introduced in the first year itself.
Darden took a step further and added Leadership Development, experiential learning, and electives in the final term of year one.
The core at Darden covers Marketing, Accounting, Operations Management, Leadership, Financial Management, and Management Communication.
Year Two
Management Science Specialization: Like other top MBA programs hacking the visa system for international students, Darden has started Management Science specialization - a STEM-certified specialization to help international students gain an additional 36 months of work permit with F-1 Visa.
Concentrations: Do note that apart from the Management Science specialization, the concentrations wouldn’t be mentioned in the final transcript.
Darden is a General Management program. However, with the concentrations, the 100+ electives would be structured around career track concentrations (post-MBA job function), theme track concentration (niches within post-MBA job function), industry-focus electives, and Area-focus electives (niches within industry-focus). There are no limits on the concentrations as long as you complete the requirement for each concentration.
Career Track Concentration
To train candidates based on functional expertise, Darden School of Business has designed career track concentrations covering Supply Chain Management, Asset Management/Sales & Trading, Entrepreneurship, Corporate Finance/Investment Banking, Marketing, and Strategy Consulting.
Theme Track Concentration
For niche specializations within the career track concentration, Darden offers concentrations on theme tracks. Corporate Innovation, Business Development and Growth, Business Analytics, Global Business, and Innovation for Sustainability are among the popular themes for the latest class.
Industry Specialties
Another interesting aspect of the Darden MBA curriculum is the categorization of courses based on industry specialties. Each industry has courses, clubs, events, and faculty specialized in the field, training MBA students in their chosen post-MBA industry.
Leadership Development
The case study method puts students in the mindset of a CEO, who must make decisions without complete information. A large part of the learning experience involves candidates communicating their idea to the learning team, fully knowing that the class is capable of challenging them. The process fine-tunes the candidate’s persuasion skills.
Year two offers a theme through Leadership & Organizational Behavior.
Leadership determined the fate of the South in the Civil War. Leadership Ride: Lessons in Leadership is the course that uses the Battle of Gettysburg as the reference for discussing command structures and decision-making in a dynamic environment as a battlefield.
Markets in Human Hope test leadership skills based on the transformative capacity of the idea through products, services, financial instruments, or business processes.
A unique course that builds leadership skills is through Leadership & Theatre: Ethics, Innovation & Creativity, originating from the idea that stage managers are like CEOs. All the MBA students must take part in a full-length play as a crowdsourced project.
Darden Business Projects (DBPs)
Consulting is a special interest for Darden MBA students.
The experiential learning aspect of the functional skill is fulfilled through three projects: Darden Business Projects (DBPs), Community Consultants of Darden, and Global Consulting projects.
DBPs give real-world consulting experience when a team of three to six students works on market research, business plan creation and evaluation, and financial forecast for the client. The community impact of the consulting engagement is met with Community Consultants of Darden - a student-run initiative that works on marketing, planning, operations, and strategic aspects of managing small Businesses and non-profit. At an international level, the Global Consulting Project offers experience in manufacturing, marketing, sales, and R&D. The Global project traditionally has some social impact associated with it.
Candidates interested in the Manufacturing sector have traditionally chosen the Kaizen Project - a niche consulting project in partnership with the $68.6B Danaher Corporation, where participants work on improving the processes and help the company turn around great volumes of products.
International Exchange Program
UVA Darden School of Business expands the networking opportunity for students through the International Exchange Program that familiarizes them to work in a multi-cultural environment both in an educational setting and in one on one consulting for Businesses.
Previous host countries include India, China, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Argentina, Mexico, and Australia.
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