Meet Virginia Darden’s MBA Class Of 2026

In some corners, business school is described as a two-year vacation. Some call it one long networking event. For others, it is a time – free of consequences – to do whatever you want. To top it off, they’ll add that grades don’t matter and no one ever flunks out.

Well, that wouldn’t fly in Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia’s Darden School. Here, academia takes center stage and teaching excellence is revered. Just picture students reading over 500 cases – and then meeting in teams to prep for class. And if they don’t show up ready to go? Being put on the spot during a cold call is embarrassing enough…but disappointing your Darden classmates is even worse.

“YOU’RE NOT IN IT ALONE”

Ask any Darden alum and they’ll tell you: the program lives up to its “academic rigorous” reputation, particularly during the first-year core. That’s by design – and it’s also why so many Darden students – past and present – chose the program. That includes Malcolm Stewart, a 2024 grad and P&Q Best & Brightest MBA.

“Coming from law school, I walked in thinking “How tough could it be?” I have to say that Darden’s reputation is well-earned, and I’m glad for it. Darden knows how to push you just the right amount. It is a challenging but formative experience that forces you to raise your game to the next level and really engage with the concepts and material in a way that only rigor allows.”

Darden MBAs don’t just excel by taking a deep breath and barreling through. There is also a community component. Stewart’s classmate, Saamia Noorali, explains that taking the same core courses over three quarters with 70 section-mates helps students develop a “deep kinship.” That enables Learning Team members, who often boast a collective 420 years of work experience, to help each other fill their gaps and speed up their career transitions, adds Anika Kempe, another 2024 grad.

“Given the tremendous diversity of industry backgrounds, classroom learning is supplemented by students who are CPAs, former investment bankers, teachers, and small business owners. While Darden lives up to its rigorous reputation, you’re not in it alone!”

‘WHATEVER YOU’VE HEARD…THEY’RE BETTER’

And students enjoy a serious safety net at Darden too. In its 2024 Business School Ranking, The Princeton Review surveyed business school students and alumni on a variety of measures. The program posted the 8th-best scores for both Administration and Family-Friendliness, which cover how well the program is run and how supportive it is towards spouses and children. Darden also ranked 1st for Campus Environment, which evaluates school respondents’ satisfaction with the university and the local community. However, it is the classroom where Darden truly shined among survey-takers. In terms of Classroom Experience – which focuses on the quality of their curriculum and classmates – Darden finished 4th. At the same time, the school earned the highest marks of any business school for the quality of its professors. That doesn’t count ranking among the best programs for Consulting, Finance, and Management according to the same survey.

That’s hardly surprising. After all, teaching is why the Darden faculty came to Charlottesville. They value instruction over research – and that’s why they devote their greatest energy towards getting better in the classroom. Like their students, faculty teams engage in intense preparation to sharpen their classroom strategies and deepen their impact on students. At Darden, the most respected professors are the best teachers – and they often reap the biggest rewards in terms of tenure and pay.

This emphasis on teaching may be Darden’s marquee attraction, says Gabrielle Antonelli, a member of the MBA Class of 2026. “Whatever you’ve heard about the faculty here – they’re better. They push you to think and grow in such a fun way…[I] feel miles more knowledgeable and capable than when I started.”

Antonelli’s classmate, Katie Williams – a ballet dancer – is equally bullish on the Darden faculty. “Coming from a VERY nontraditional business background, I knew I would benefit from the world-class faculty, who choose Darden because they truly love to teach and want to see their students succeed. They strike a wonderful balance of being supportive and caring while challenging us to think critically (and always be on our toes in case we get cold called).”

LUANN LYNCH AND MARTIN DAVIDSON IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Indeed, you’ll find some of the world’s top teachers dotting the Darden roster: Greg Fairchild, Yael Grushka-Cockeyne, Alex Cowan, Michael Lenox, and Laura Morgan-Roberts. And alumni would add a few other names to the list. Alum Anike Kempe, for one, cites Luann Lynch.

“[She] has been an incredible mentor, friend, and professor since the moment I met her during First Year Core Accounting. She is a master of the case method and promotes an inclusive and dynamic discussion during every class. To this day, a group of women and I have a monthly potluck dinner with Luann – I can’t imagine the past two years without her support.”

In contrast, Malcolm Stewart lists Dr. Martin Davidson as his favorite professor. “[He] teaches a really powerful class titled Leadership, Diversity, and Leveraging Difference. He has done a remarkable job at taking his years of experience working with Fortune 500 executives on how to navigate differences in experiences, backgrounds, and perspective and turning those into teachable moments and conversations for aspiring leaders…I appreciated getting to learn from such an accomplished and incredible man like Davidson, and I look up to him a lot.”

FROM NASA TO PRO TENNIS

The first-year class is equally impressive. Take Evan Wieczore. He cracks that he has flown both an airplane and spaceship – with his last job being a flight controller for NASA.

“I led my group’s software step-up to a new Operating System in Mission Control,” he tells P&Q. “Since the Operating System that we used on the ground to fly the International Space Station was approaching end of service, we had to step up to a newer Operating System. During this process, I led the application upgrades, test plan authoring, and testing for my group’s ground software, and assisted the coordination efforts across the wider organization. Seeing the operating system transition complete without a hitch filled me with pride. The ground software enables us to continue to safely fly the Space Station from the ground and keep the astronauts safe.”

The Class of 2026 also features Ian Berry, a West Point grad and U.S. Special Forces commander who started a non-profit that supports Medal of Honor winners. Katie Williams, who lived on a Hawai’ian yoga commune during COVID, was previously a soloist dancer with the American Ballet Company. Her biggest achievement, however, came when she spearheaded negotiations on behalf of her fellow dancers to avert a strike and achieve fair pay. The class also boasts a former professional tennis player, Gianni Ross.

“In my tennis career I had a few moments that still stick with me,” he writes. “One is beating Casper Ruud in the Junior French Open. Another is being the clinching point to win a NCAA championship. Also, I beat Kyle Edmund during the first month of my Pro career.”

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

Oladimeji Ojo, a mechanical engineer by training, veered to social entrepreneurship after graduation. His education venture has supported over a million students with developing life skills and entering postsecondary institutions. His classmate, Psalms Morales, followed a similar path.

“[I] develop(ed) a breakthrough program that trained, nurtured, and certified returning citizens so that they could transition into gainful blue-collar jobs. Nothing is more rewarding than helping people reclaim their future. At First Choice, we focused intensely on our fellows’ capacity to picture themselves in the future: five years from now as homeowners, role models, and most importantly in our communities where they belong.”

Career-wise, Morales jokes that he has held every imaginable job, “from dishwasher and road side assistant to consultant and yoga instructor.” Gabrielle Antonelli is a classically-trained pianist, while Brittany Terrell – a UVA Philosophy major and executive producer – once worked as a page at Saturday Night Live. Zaira Khan also earned her undergraduate degree at UVA and maintains an intriguing habit.

“I like to collect magnets from every country I visit! So far, the coolest one I have is a Kangaroo from Australia.”

A CLASS PROFILE

The Darden Full-Time MBA Class of 2026 includes 355 students. 30% of the class come from outside the United States. They speak 44 countries and hail from 30 languages, with 31% of the class completing a study abroad program. Another 38% of the class are women. Nearly a fourth of the class consists of U.S. racial minorities, with another 14% and 11% being LGBTG+ and first-generation students respectively. Another 14% of the class has completed military service.

Before arriving on campus, first-years averaged a 718 GMAT and 321 GRE. They attended 207 undergraduate institutions and achieved a collective 3.56 GPA. After graduation, they worked for 279 different employers. The largest segment of the class – 23% – last worked in Financial Services. Another 15% held positions in Government, while Consulting and Technology each represent 12% shares of the class.

BEHIND THE CASE METHOD

Maybe the defining feature of the Darden MBA is the case method. Here, business concepts are often taught in narrative form. In the process, students hone their critical thinking and communication skills. It starts with a real-life story – or case – often involving an industry shift or organizational emergency. As readers, students take on the role of a leader. They must understand the situation – the implications of what could happen to various stakeholders ranging from employees to customers to society at large. During the process, they formulate solutions while identifying what’s uncertain and unreliable. Even more, they are often weighing short-term band-aids and long-term transformations as they make trade-offs to accommodate time pressures and resource limits.

It helps to think of cases as muscle memory, a repetitive process; it trains MBAs to formulate questions that reach the heart of the matter and decipher which information is valuable, tertiary, or even misleading. From there, Darden MBAs meet in teams before classes to share their assessments. That way, they can drill down into the scenarios and gain a wider understanding of the issues at play. From there, classes meet. Faculty members pepper students with Socratic questions as students debate each other’s viewpoints, leveraging their past experiences in various roles, industries, and geographies.

Maybe the toughest part of the case method? In the end, there are no clear or simple answers. There is just better or worse, which can shift as new ideas and information is introduced – no different than a board room debate. Even more, the case method is a daily dose of humility, as the process reminds students every day that they don’t know everything.

Page 2: An Interview with Dawna Clarke, Senior Associate Dean of Admissions

Page 3: Profiles of 10 Members of the Class of 2026