Meet Virginia’s Darden School of Business Class Of 2018

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Shota Loria

University of Virginia, Darden School of Business

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Passionate about what I do, empowering others and making an impact.

Hometown: Tbilisi, Georgia

Fun Fact About Yourself: I once lost a friend in Paris (who is really bad at orientating even with the smartphone) and who never travels with me alone again.

Undergraduate School and Major: Caucasus School of Business (Caucasus University) – major in finance

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

Deloitte (2010-2014) – Audit Intern, Audit assistant, senior auditor

TBC bank (2014-2016) – Deputy Head of IFRS reporting department

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Playing a key role in reporting function, transforming the processes to ensure smooth premium listing of the bank on LSE after its IPO.

Becoming a member of association of certified charted accountants (ACCA).

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants?

There are many brilliant MBA programs out there. The key is to identify your best fit. Try to capture what you really want from an MBA.

To start, it is best to identify what you want to do post MBA. This can be uneasy as there are tons of new opportunities that open up once you physically join the program, but some general divisions are easy to trace (Investment banking, consulting, being an entrepreneur, etc.). Pay attention also to the potential industries you want to end up in (medicine, technology, etc.).  Schools will have vastly different statistics and this can be the very first good tool to shortlist the target programs.

Secondly, think of the class size and location. Do you want to live in a big city or a small college town or be part of a large or a small class size? Those two aspects determine how close you will get to your classmates. Normally smaller towns provide the environment where people get to know each other better as they are not distracted away by larger city environments and out of school friends. Also, smaller class sizes call for tighter communities. Personally I think that getting close to your classmates and forming long lasting relations is one of the most valuable take away points from MBA program.

Last, but not least, the education part is very important. While you may already have formed your target list through points mentioned above, it is worth revisiting them and identifying which program will give you the best knowledge. This depends on school facilities, faculty and curriculum as well as yourself. Yes you are the one who is supposed to extract the most knowledge from the program and the way things are taught has a large impact on you. Not all people learn in the same way and schools differ in their learning methods. You have to find what suits you best. Take Darden for example, The case study method is vastly different from the ordinary classroom experience you may find on many programs. Keep in mind, the MBA is not a direct master’s degree in finance or some specific subject. It is a master’s degree in Business Administration and therefore the way of teaching is very important for you to grasp the utmost from it.

Now that you may have found the program that fits you best and can’t wait to cross the doorstep, you have to input all your strengths to demonstrate yourself to the university and be selected out of the large pool of applicants in the same shoes as you.

Having found the university that fits you really well, you already are a step ahead of many others. You need, however, to demonstrate this fit to the admissions office. Therefore, you need to pay a lot of attention to your application quality. The earlier you start, the better it will get. The best case would be for you to start preparing for a target business school two years ahead. You would have enough time to fill in gaps in your application and also better prepare for the standardized tests.

Regarding the GMAT, start early. That is the number one rule. Normally, 1-2 month preparation would not let you fully realize your potential and this is one aspect of your application that you want to push as high as possible. While certainly the GMAT is only a part of your application process, it has a value and you’d rather keep your score high than not.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? Referring to the points mentioned above I can firmly say that I identified Darden as my best fit. I believe MBA program should provide you with minimum the following: a top notch education, atmosphere to form solid network and ability for you to land at your dream job. I will break down each point a little further:

  • Education at Darden is truly on top of agenda and the case study method of teaching will just not allow you to not learn. The brilliance about this way of teaching is that everybody is empowered and involved all the time. You will get the education not simply learning and getting acquainted to the new information, but also digesting this information into your skills. This will just happen, by itself, as you learn. That is just the way it is taught at Darden.
  • Small class size, small town and blend of cheering atmosphere both at the university site and the amazing friendly city like Charlottesville do surely contribute a lot to a friendly community at Darden.
  • When I decided to do MBA, I luckily knew where I wanted to end up after I would graduate. Therefore, I started looking for the programs with finance concentration and good relations with the investment banks. Darden has truly outstanding program from this point of view. Vast majority of banks (including all top tier banks) recruit at Darden and placement rates in IB industry are one of the highest among all US MBA programs. The finance faculty is outstanding and as all staff oriented towards delivering the most to a student (Student devotion over doing research is another aspect that clearly demonstrates to me the program orientation on the main output – a student).

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? At this point I want to land a job as an investment bank associate at a top firm. I have been in finance field since I started my career at the age of 19. I believe that working in the role where I see myself fully realized and working in the best organization in the industry is something that will enable me to stretch beyond my ordinary abilities and achieve the new scales and limits in life.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program? Wherever I go I like to leave my own mark. I hope that I will be able to do so at Darden, at least in the hearts of my schoolmates. I will strive to be and believe that I will be remembered as a cheering, friendly, smart “Shot” (as my US friends refer to me due to my name Shota) that played an important role in their development both through what I share with them during the classroom setting based on my previous experience and outside the class as we personally evolve together through the general experience at Darden.

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