Meet Virginia Darden’s MBA Class Of 2025

LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!

While Darden carries an academic reputation, that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of room for fun. ’23 alum Ryan Spencer Cox cites events like the 100 Case Party and the Drag Show. His classmate, Pooja Vittal, points out that there is, at minimum, an event each weekend designed to draw the Darden community together. While ’23 grad Tyler Kelley subscribes to Darden’s “Academic School” reputation, he adds that there is plenty happening to maintain a social life.

“And we’re very close to DC for folks who want to tap into city life,” he adds. “There’s never a dull moment at Darden, and nearly everything opportunity is created with the student (and their family) in mind, allowing partners and children to fully participate in the Darden experience.”

Ask alumni and they’ll add that Charlottesville isn’t a bad place to spend two years, either. “C-Ville is so much fun,” Kelley explains.  “I love that I can get a taste of city vibes mixed with the beautiful natural landscape that surrounds it. There’s no shortage of amazing restaurants and stores – local and chain – and the music and entertainment scenes are vibrant too. Charlottesville is a strong and connected community, and I’ve felt that every time I’ve stepped outside of UVa. I get the best of many worlds living in Charlottesville!”

Kelley’s classmate, Ryan Spencer Cox, is bullish about the outdoor activities near the city. “Charlottesville is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains so there are tremendous opportunities to hike, bike, run and/or visit vineyards.”

A CLASS PROFILE

The MBA Class of 2025 includes 352 students who hail from 33 countries. International students make up 41% of the class, while the percentage of U.S. minorities lost six points to come in at 14%. The percentage of women, however, held steady at 37%. First generation students compose an impressive 21% of the class. This was a 7% increase over the previous year. The percentage of military veterans also climbed five points to 14%. LGBTQ students represent another 7% of the class.

In terms of testing, the class averaged a collective 716 GMAT, while GREs came in at 312. Undergraduate GPA averages held steady at 3.51. 17% of the class also owns graduate degrees. As a whole, the Class of 2025 has worked at 285 different employers across 33 industries. The largest segment – 22% – last worked in Financial Services. Considering Darden’s two-hour proximity to DC, a 13% share of Government employees seems par for the course. Consulting (13%) and Technology (12%) also hold a double-digit share of class seats.

A PLACE TO START A BUSINESS

The Class of 2025 is walking into an ideal situation at Darden. In October, the school again announced that its graduating class had set starting pay class. A month earlier, Darden had tied for 3rd with Dartmouth Tuck in the latest Bloomberg Businessweek Ranking. It was the school’s best result since finishing 5th in 1996. Notably, Darden finished 4th in both the Compensation and Learning categories with Bloomberg Businessweek. At the same time, Darden fared well in satisfaction surveys from students and recent alumni. In the February Princeton Review ranking, Darden notched the 2nd-highest survey scores for Classroom Experience and Campus Environment – and 4th for Faculty Quality. The school also racked up Top 10 scores for its programming in Management, Consulting, Finance, and Marketing (Led by the 3rd-highest survey score for Management). On top of that, Darden ranked 1st in The Financial Times ranking for its Carbon Footprint based on its emissions audits over the past three years.

One underappreciated aspect of the Darden MBA program? Entrepreneurship. Nearly a third of Darden electives center around entrepreneurship and innovation. In fact, 95% of Darden MBAs took a entrepreneurship course during the 2022-2023 school year – and over half were directly involved in a startup according to P&Q research. On top of that, Darden MBAs are increasingly launching ventures after graduation. In research released by The Princeton Review in November, Darden ranked among the test-best MBA programs for launching student startup, posting 174 new ventures over the past five years.

True to form, many Darden alumni credit faculty members for their success. That includes Rooney Lee, a ’23 grad who launched NewSublease. “The entrepreneurship classes I took, especially those under Professor Sarasvathy and Professor Damon DeVito, equipped me with a foundational understanding and a distinct approach toward building a startup. Learning about effectual entrepreneurship from Professor Sarasvathy opened up a new perspective on building a new business, while Professor DeVito’s infectious passion reinforced my commitment to the entrepreneurial journey. Their teachings, combined with the supportive ecosystem at Darden and Charlottesville, VA, instilled in me the essential skills and mindset to navigate the tumultuous waters of startup life.”

OPENING THE FORUM

While the Darden School is nestled in Charlottesville, prospective students sometimes forget that the school maintains an Executive MBA program in Rosslyn, Virginia – in a high-rise that overlooks the Potomac River and sits one metro stop from Washington, DC. Dean Scott Beardsley notes that the center enables students to access the area’s robust tech and startup ecosystem. And those aren’t the only industries that Darden MBAs can tap into here, adds Gregory Fairchild, who serves as the Associate Dean for the Washington, DC Area Initiatives and Academic Director of Public Policy and Entrepreneurship.

“When you’re sitting in the room and you have [the] former Fed Chairman, when you’re sitting in the room and you have the former director of the CIA, when you’re sitting in the room and you have CEOs of major defense contractors there, and frankly, we’re proximal and engaged with them, they create new opportunities for students to do projects with those organizations.”

In April, Darden made headlines when it opened The Forum – a five-story, $130 million dollar project that combines a 198-room hotel combined with classrooms, and an amphitheater. That doesn’t even count a ballroom, a steakhouse, a craft beer pub, and a botanical garden (let alone a wine cellar with over 1,900 bottles). All told, The Forum (and the renovated Ray Alumni Hall) adds 243,000 square feet to the Darden campus.

In many ways, The Forum is a sales tool One benefit of the project is that it provides comfortable, best-in-class accommodations to employers, alumni, guests, and prospective faculty members – individuals who can enhance the on-campus and post-graduation experiences of Darden students. Even more, it is expected to draw local Charlottesville residents to Darden. Best of all, The Forum is designed to bring the Darden community together beyond its First Coffee tradition between classes.

“It extends our community,” says Yael Grushka-Cockayne, senior associate dean for professional degree programs. “Once our hours are done, we tend to scatter around town. There wasn’t a natural place to get together. Now there is a new way to extend the day outside the classroom.”

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE SENIOR ASSISTANT DEAN

In November, Darden also announced it was receiving an additional $56 million dollar gift from David and Kathleen LaCross. This brings their donations to Darden to more than $100 million dollars. What can you expect next at Darden? In October, P&Q reached out to Dawna Clarke, the school’s senior assistant dean. Here are her thoughts on what’s coming up and what makes Darden so unique.

P&Q: What have been the two most important developments in your MBA program over the past year? What type of impact will they have on current and future MBAs?

Clarke: “We opened The Forum Hotel on Darden Grounds this spring. Some may ask what that has to do with an MBA education, but in addition to providing truly excellent new dining and lodging options, The Forum opens up a variety of new learning spaces on Grounds. There are multiple new classrooms and a five-acre arboretum and botanical garden that uncovers new outdoor learning space and provides additional avenues for walking and various exercise and wellness activities. It really has added a major enhancement to an already world-class education experience.

We’re also excited to welcome Melissa Thomas-Hunt as senior associate dean of the Full-Time MBA program. Melissa knows Darden well, having been a professor and leader at the school for years, with a stint serving as vice provost at Vanderbilt Owen and head of global diversity and belonging at Airbnb between Darden engagements. She knows the environment as well as anyone, and that knowledge coupled with her expertise on belonging and inclusion promises great things for the Full-Time MBA.”

P&Q: Give us your one-minute pitch for your business school. What makes you unique?

Clarke: “Dean Scott Beardsley often says students who come to Darden can expect a great education, a great career, a great network, and a great lifestyle while at school. That’s all true, but in terms of what sets us apart, it is that total education experience. Students come to the Darden School because they want to learn and they want to love the way they learn. Students and faculty are serious about the depth of learning that takes at Darden, but the classroom experience is also frequently a lot of fun, and students quickly learn to thrive in an environment of mutual support. Students leave Darden with the tools to grow and lead over the course of a career.

We are also the only graduate business school in the world in Charlottesville, Virginia, which is one of the world’s great college towns.”

P&Q: Sustainability has emerged as a major attraction to prospective MBA students. How does your full-time MBA program integrate sustainability across its curriculum?

Clarke: “We were recently named the No. 1 school in the world for carbon footprint by Financial Times, and while we are proud of that, there is much more to the story. We have a sustainability committee focused on weaving true sustainability into all facets of Darden, or as we say, both “how we live” and “how we learn,” with specific benchmarks by 2030. Some items are modest— we are now composting all items at First Coffee, for instance. Others are more holistic. The new arboretum adds abundant beautiful green space and thousands of new trees to our Grounds and a new student-led independent study project has resulted in the introduction of more sustainability courses and cases into the curriculum. We are also rolling out a new Sustainability Initiative this Fall.”

P&Q: What are some key elements in your teaching of leadership? What types of options does your school offer that deepens student experience with leadership and makes them more competitive in the marketplace?

Clarke: “We have countless courses on leadership and critical decision-making, and our Leadership and Organizational Behavior faculty members are some of the best in the world, but one of the Darden differences is case method instruction, where every day in the classroom students engage with thorny business decisions, make tough choices, and explain their actions. This simulates reality in many ways — a future supervisor is unlikely to give you the answer, after all. Employees will probably need to be able to come up with solutions on their own or with their team. At Darden, you don’t learn leadership by being lectured to about the concept of leadership. You learn it by doing — every day.

If you talk to Darden alumni, they remember their cases and can usually tell you countless instances when they draw on their lessons in the real world.

And then, outside of the classroom, there are endless opportunities for student leadership, from affinity clubs to student government. UVA has strong tradition of student leadership, and Darden students are able to take on as large a role in the shaping the school as they would like.”

Next Page:  Profiles of Class of 2025 Members