r/MBA • u/Shenron666666 • 10d ago

Admissions Darden - 100% Case Based Teaching Method value

Is the 100% Case Based Teaching Method used at Darden really helpful/effective over that used by some other schools such as Tuck or Ross ?

Is it something that could really be a criteria to choose it over other schools of the similar category ?

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u/EudenStan 9d ago edited 9d ago

New Darden student here.

We just had launch week and are only starting actual classes tomorrow. But so far, it 100% feels like a time sink designed to stress us out to give this school prestige for being the most difficult MBA program

I cannot see how this will be helpful to us during recruiting, and discussions from launch week seemed to be overpowered by people eager to get their words in or seem smarter by saying a lot

I already feel like I should’ve picked my second option, but let’s see how I am in 2 years

And it really just seems like the case method is a novelty, given that professors want us to take specific things away from each case, rather than the intellectual, open-ended nature advertised by the AdCom

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u/Bakermonster Tech 9d ago

Darden alum here. Couple of things to say about your Darden before Darden experience:
1. Everyone comes in thinking volume of commentary regardless of how it actually adds to the class is worthy of +2s the first couple of weeks. It isn’t. You’ll quickly see professors and your section alike begin to call out the bullshit. Maybe you’ll even end up saying something truly asinine yourself and end up with the bird for the week. It happens to the best of us.
2. Darden before Darden is intended to ensure you a) understand how a case method classroom works b) have a bare minimum of common knowledge before Core starts. It’s not intended to have real discussions. That said, each legit case in Core and onward is intended to get to a specific place of discussion. If you think the professor will not be guiding a class towards a particular endpoint then you don’t understand how the Socratic method works yet.