D vs D
It's time for the inevitable 2nd guessing and questioning game. Darden or Duke? Duke or Darden? I've been leaning heavily towards Duke since the day I got admitted. I had a great time during the campus visit. Loved the people. Loved the vibe. Loved the class. The facilities are state of the art. Loved the touch of hanging international flags in the hallway.
Darden was a great experience too. The campus is absolutely gorgeous. The students, teachers and staff couldn't have been nicer and more helpful. The class I sat in on was probably the most enjoyable one that I have attended at any B school.
I am sure I would be comfortable in both environments. So in terms of fit, I see myself being happy at both schools. The next thing to consider would be future career goals. I plan on going into management/strategy consulting. Both these schools have the reputation of being excellent management schools and are listed in the top 10 for general management on both Businessweek and US News. The list of companies that recruit at both schools is comparable. All the major players seem to visit both schools.
So why was I leaning towards Duke? (some of these things are extremely minor but they are still things that come to mind)
1. Overall brand name. Duke University is a much better overall school than the University of Virginia and has more name recognition.
2. Teaching methodology. While I absolutely loved the case method class at Darden, I have to bear in mind that I was a silent participant which is very different from being in that class. Having never had any form of education based solely on the case method, I can't be sure how I would react to it (Darden is 100% case based). Will I be able to put my inhibitions (such as thinking something is too silly to bring up or thinking something is too obvious or becoming self conscious) behind me and be able to be an active participant in class every single day? Class participation is a major part of the grades at Darden. One of the things I hope to gain from B school is to be able to go out of my comfort zone. To be able to challenge myself. I do not think questioning whether this teaching method is best from me, qualifies under shirking a challenge.
These are of course things I should have thought of before applying, and I did and thought I'd do just fine. But now I'm reevaluating the whole thing from a different perspective where I have the option of an alternative.
Duke by contrast has what seems to me to be the perfect blend of teaching methodologies. There seems to be a good mix of lectures, simulations, cases which might suit my learning style better. Some theory/lectures might be a good thing for someone with no prior knowledge in this field.
3. Course rigor. Darden has the reputation of being one of the most intensive programs in the country. This is not necessarilly a bad thing. The average Darden student might come out better prepared to crack cases and such than a Duke student (not necessarilly but lets assume that for the sake of argument). But again, an MBA is so much more than just the education. It's about the experience. It's about networking. Meeting new people. Experiencing new situations. Developing as a person. I believe the more balanced life at a school such as Duke might be the way to go.
4. Uncertainty. As a career switcher, it is possible that once I go to B school I might realize that I am not cut out for consulting or might find that I am more interested in finance or marketing. Duke might be a better school overall in case I decided to do something other than MC. Moreover the Health Care Management program at Duke is one of the best in the country. With a background in health care, it would be nice to have that option open to me.
5. Interaction with students at Duke. I realize that part of the reason current students and alumni reach out to and contact admitted students is to increase the yeild and figure out who seems to be inclined to attend. However, they also seem genuinely enthusiastic about the school and seem to want to go out of their way to help. Although a student from Darden called me too. I did not get the same feel from her.
6. Blue Devil basketball!
Duke gets a very minor edge over Darden in each of these points (except the last!), the cummulative effect of which makes me think Duke is the better option.
So if I seem so convinced that Duke is better for me why the debate? Employment statistics (Full time for class of 2005 and internships for class of 2006) and rankings. Looking at figures such as the % of international students employed at graduation and after 3 months of graduation, Darden seems to have an edge over Duke (100% vs 84%). Darden is also slightly ahead of Duke in terms of average starting salaries for international students. In fact all the numbers seem to be higher for Darden across the board. Darden is also ranked higher in a couple of rankings (although Duke is ranked higher overall in Bweek and US news). Moreover, there seems to be a lot of buzz about Darden amongst people in the field that I have talked to. The rankings obviously will never be a good enough reason to choose one school over another but as they say in MBA speak, they are one more data point in the entire package.
Soooo...where does that leave me? I guess I'm still leaning towards Duke. I shall be attending Blue Devil Weekend at the end of the month. Hopefully that will make things clearer.
Darden was a great experience too. The campus is absolutely gorgeous. The students, teachers and staff couldn't have been nicer and more helpful. The class I sat in on was probably the most enjoyable one that I have attended at any B school.
I am sure I would be comfortable in both environments. So in terms of fit, I see myself being happy at both schools. The next thing to consider would be future career goals. I plan on going into management/strategy consulting. Both these schools have the reputation of being excellent management schools and are listed in the top 10 for general management on both Businessweek and US News. The list of companies that recruit at both schools is comparable. All the major players seem to visit both schools.
So why was I leaning towards Duke? (some of these things are extremely minor but they are still things that come to mind)
1. Overall brand name. Duke University is a much better overall school than the University of Virginia and has more name recognition.
2. Teaching methodology. While I absolutely loved the case method class at Darden, I have to bear in mind that I was a silent participant which is very different from being in that class. Having never had any form of education based solely on the case method, I can't be sure how I would react to it (Darden is 100% case based). Will I be able to put my inhibitions (such as thinking something is too silly to bring up or thinking something is too obvious or becoming self conscious) behind me and be able to be an active participant in class every single day? Class participation is a major part of the grades at Darden. One of the things I hope to gain from B school is to be able to go out of my comfort zone. To be able to challenge myself. I do not think questioning whether this teaching method is best from me, qualifies under shirking a challenge.
These are of course things I should have thought of before applying, and I did and thought I'd do just fine. But now I'm reevaluating the whole thing from a different perspective where I have the option of an alternative.
Duke by contrast has what seems to me to be the perfect blend of teaching methodologies. There seems to be a good mix of lectures, simulations, cases which might suit my learning style better. Some theory/lectures might be a good thing for someone with no prior knowledge in this field.
3. Course rigor. Darden has the reputation of being one of the most intensive programs in the country. This is not necessarilly a bad thing. The average Darden student might come out better prepared to crack cases and such than a Duke student (not necessarilly but lets assume that for the sake of argument). But again, an MBA is so much more than just the education. It's about the experience. It's about networking. Meeting new people. Experiencing new situations. Developing as a person. I believe the more balanced life at a school such as Duke might be the way to go.
4. Uncertainty. As a career switcher, it is possible that once I go to B school I might realize that I am not cut out for consulting or might find that I am more interested in finance or marketing. Duke might be a better school overall in case I decided to do something other than MC. Moreover the Health Care Management program at Duke is one of the best in the country. With a background in health care, it would be nice to have that option open to me.
5. Interaction with students at Duke. I realize that part of the reason current students and alumni reach out to and contact admitted students is to increase the yeild and figure out who seems to be inclined to attend. However, they also seem genuinely enthusiastic about the school and seem to want to go out of their way to help. Although a student from Darden called me too. I did not get the same feel from her.
6. Blue Devil basketball!
Duke gets a very minor edge over Darden in each of these points (except the last!), the cummulative effect of which makes me think Duke is the better option.
So if I seem so convinced that Duke is better for me why the debate? Employment statistics (Full time for class of 2005 and internships for class of 2006) and rankings. Looking at figures such as the % of international students employed at graduation and after 3 months of graduation, Darden seems to have an edge over Duke (100% vs 84%). Darden is also slightly ahead of Duke in terms of average starting salaries for international students. In fact all the numbers seem to be higher for Darden across the board. Darden is also ranked higher in a couple of rankings (although Duke is ranked higher overall in Bweek and US news). Moreover, there seems to be a lot of buzz about Darden amongst people in the field that I have talked to. The rankings obviously will never be a good enough reason to choose one school over another but as they say in MBA speak, they are one more data point in the entire package.
Soooo...where does that leave me? I guess I'm still leaning towards Duke. I shall be attending Blue Devil Weekend at the end of the month. Hopefully that will make things clearer.
posted by MJ at Saturday, March 18, 2006
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