Darden MBA Essays

Darden MBA Essays               2010 - 2011

Essay 1:   The Darden MBA program expects students to actively participate in learning teams, the classroom, and the broader community.  Please share one or two examples from your past experience that best illustrate(s) how you will contribute to this highly engaging and hands-on learning environment. (500 words)

Essay 2:  Please discuss how a global event that has taken place in the past two years has impacted the way you think about leadership broadly and personally. (500 words)

Note to applicants:  The Darden School has distinguished itself this year by the quality of its application questions (the worst), the incompatibility of it's Web site (doesn't work with IE9), and the crappiness of its online application contractor (Symplicity).  

This is one of my favorite MBA programs, but the user experience for applicants is total crap!  Hate to say it, but Darden wins the award as this year's worst MBA application.

Darden Links

Current Essay Questions!
The essay questions that appear on this page are for candidates who plan to apply during the fall of 2010 or the winter of 2011 and start classes in the fall of 2011.

To return to a list of the essay questions from all schools, click the link below.

MBA Essays Homepage >

Application Deadlines

The Darden School has three application deadlines:   
The deadlines below are for the full-time MBA program.  The other programs have their own deadlines.

  •   Round
  •         1
  •         2
  •         3
  • Deadline
  • October 18, 2010
  • January 5, 2011
  • March 30, 2011

School Data

Ave. GMAT                           699
Middle 80%             650 - 740
Median Age                             27
Median Work (Mos.)         48
Acceptance Rate                 25%
Yield                                           45%
BW Ranking                            16
U.S. News Ranking              13