Decoding MBA admissions during COVID19 – A Webinar With The Darden School of Business
The Darden School of Business is one of the global top business schools that is associated with the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. The school offers MBA, PhD and Executive Education programs and is a hub of immense talent.
We hosted a webinar with Archana Rao, Senior Counselor at ReachIvy and Whitney Kestner, Adcom member of UVA Darden School of Business to gain a little insight into what has changed for the upcoming academic year in terms of the admission process and everything that comes with it.
Here are some of the key takeaways from this live interactive session:
1) Can you elaborate on what is going to be different in the Round 3 admissions in terms of tests like GMAT/GRE? How does this affect other applicants?
We have moved the dates from the initial date of April 6th to July 15th and are still accepting applications. In the meantime, we are going through them in a rolling manner. We haven’t thought of offering any test waiver yet, but have expanded the standardized tests that we will be accepting. We have always accepted GMAT/GRE and even MCAT and LSAT for years. We have expanded this to accepting your college entrance examinations. For instance, in the USA, it’s the SAT and ACT and in India, it would be your engineering entrances and general entrances that can be considered as the equivalent.
As for Round 1, we have teams within the admissions group who are preparing for the next year’s application cycle. We haven’t finalized our applications yet. We anticipate early action in Round 1, 2, and 3 and so, we will announce the influence of standardized tests on the admission process by the beginning of June. We have always holistically looked at candidate profiles so, we wish to continue the same as it ensures the quality of the candidates.
2) Given the VISA situation, what happens to applicants who have been admitted and cannot procure the VISA? Are there any changes in the fee structure in case the year proceeds online?
We plan to begin our academic year in August. We hope that we begin in person, but we understand that it is a little far beyond our control. The decision will be made by the University of Virginia by mid-June. We are also considering opening up some limited seats in January for students who need more time. We anticipate that these may be international students who are delayed because of the VISA procedure. We are open to deferral requests too, on a case by case basis. As for the fee structure, we do not see any fee reduction in case the academic year decides to move online.
3) What does the job market look like for the current 1st-year and 2nd-year students? Does the situation open doors for entrepreneurship?
We have seen some full-time internships among the students that have surprisingly sprouted in the industrial sector and not in the hospitality and transport sectors. But, we do agree that the numbers are scanty. On a different note, we feel quite happy about where the current students are, in their search for a bright future. Our career centre takes a very dedicated and personalized approach. There is a team of senior directors who have ample industry experience and are working with the students for their specific plans on a 1-1 basis. If the plan isn’t working out for a student due to the present conditions, we are taking care that we guide them to figure out an alternative. The global network of alumni is also acting as a spectacular source of support. As for entrepreneurship, it’s a good time as the services are available for cheap. Dabbling with entrepreneurship during a down market is a great idea. You can hire interns at a cheaper rate, and have a comparatively lesser investment in a monetary sense too.
For the entire webinar, kindly check out our YouTube channel, ReachIvy
Reach out to us for any more queries!
