The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business has long stood out for the resources it devotes to helping unsuccessful applicants understand how they can strengthen their candidacy and reapply. This year is no exception.
In a blog post late last week, Darden announced that its admissions committee is currently offering 15-minute phone sessions with candidates who are seeking to reapply to the school in the fall and would like feedback on their applications.
“This is an opportunity to find out how you can improve your candidacy for your Darden application for the coming year,” read the blog post. There are a couple of caveats: Feedback appointments are not available to applicants who are currently on the waitlist, and reconsideration for this year’s admission cycle is not an option.
Darden is not the only school that encourages reapplicants. In fact, that vast majority of MBA programs do. Harvard Business School (HBS), for its part, shared publicly this year that 94 students of the most incoming class—which is to say 10 percent—were reapplicants. Darden, though, is unique in that it devotes specific resources to helping reapplicants improve.
Sara Neher, who heads MBA admissions at Darden, took to her video blog earlier this spring to remind applicants of this fact. “At Darden, we give everybody personalized feedback over Skype or the phone,” she said. “So if the worst happens and you don’t get in you actually will still get feedback from an admissions committee member about how to improve your application for the following year.”
So, if you weren’t successful in your initial attempt to get into Darden, now’s your chance to regroup and retool. Signing up for an appointment couldn’t be easier: Just visit the Application Feedback page and select a time slot in June, and within 48 hours you can expect an email with the name and phone number for an Admissions Committee member to call at the designated time.
If you are considering reapplying to Darden or any other MBA program, don’t miss Clear Admit’s Reapplicant Guide, which features valuable tips on the best approaches to take. Best of luck!
