Our admissions policies target individuals with an extraordinary range of experiences. While this approach has served Darden well, an argument can be made that with globalization and innovation, a natural consequence of a constant sized MBA program is fragmentation of student interests and reduced depth. A critical question is whether the school can continue to recruit a student body whose interests and experiences exhibit a spanning character and maintain a useful depth of interests. Over the last two decades, MBA education at the top programs has been more clearly positioned as an early-career educational and professional development experience. In this light and given the extent of student learning from one's cohorts, a vibrant MBA program benefits from a student body with a depth and diversity of experience.
Students learn about industries and career paths from each other.
If the school adds depth in newer sectors like health care and information technology, depth in others such as financial services and manufacturing is compromised. Only by relaxing size constraint can the depth and spanning quality of the entering class be maintained. Corporate Partnerships and Recruiting The most common complaint of corporate recruiters concerns the high cost of recruiting Darden MBA graduates. This derives from the fact that over 200 recruiters make significant efforts to hire at Darden and are often disappointed with their yield. Again, fragmentation and expansion of business opportunities reduce the likelihood that individual firms succeed in hiring more than one or two graduates.